Cuyahoga Falls Conference: 2013
Table of Contents
Philippians 3:1-3
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Alright, Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that we can come apart from the world and all the distractions around us and into this place of quietness.
With Thy word before us, to hear what Thou will say to us by Thy Spirit, we pray that Thou would give us each one, ears and hearts and minds, to listen to Thy Word, and that we would be built up and fed and encouraged in our lives to go on necessarily while it is day. We just pray that that would now lead us to a portion of Thy word that.
Would be suitable for the time ahead of us today and, uh, perhaps in the coming days too. And we would just commit this time to the asking for thy help, Lord Jesus, and thy alone precious and worthy name. Amen. Amen.
I suggest I take up five words of scripture.
That are found on the schedule.
Those 5 words are that I may know him.
The Apostle Paul.
When the Lord first spoke to him in his life.
Ask him a question, he said. Saul saw. Why persecutest thou me?
And the Apostle Paul answered that first statement.
With the question, Who art thou, Lord?
Who are thou, Lord? What's recorded in Philippians 3 is many years later in his Christian life.
You might have thought Paul would say, Well, I know him.
I know I'm And in one way he did.
But I suggest we take out Philippians 3 that we might have that desire, each one of us, to learn how to know him better in our lives.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me. Indeed it's not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of those, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he has thereof half, half whereof he might trust in the flesh, I'm more.
Circumcised than the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.
In Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ, gay doubtless, And I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And you count them but dumb, that I may win Christ.
And be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after that I may apprehend.
That for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press through the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect. Be thus minded, and if anything, you be otherwise minded.
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God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us find the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk. So is ye have for us.
Have us for an example.
For many walks, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose Lord, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven. From once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall change your vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue?
All things unto himself.
Chapter plus three gives us practical things that hinder us and help us.
To know Him, to know him better than we know Him today. None of us know the Lord Jesus completely as we shall know him in glory. But hopefully every one of us, when this weekend is over, we'll know Him better than we knew Him. When we arrived, the Apostle Paul, I don't know how many years later, he said these words that he first asked the question, Who art thou, Lord?
But he certainly knew the Lord Jesus better.
From the day of his salvation. And yet as he brings out here, he still wanted to know him beyond what he already did know of him. So it's very practical if we look at it in a practical way for each one of us, whatever our age is. I think particularly of you that are younger starting out and you're perhaps Christian life, but it's true of all of us.
Just before getting into the content of the chapter, I'd like to refer over to John's Gospel Chapter 7.
Teen for a verse that connects itself with knowing him.
John chapter 17 and verse 3.
And this is life eternal.
That they might know these.
The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
God created us to have a creature that could know Him and with whom he could enjoy.
Common thoughts, common feelings, with whom, as we would use the word, could have fellowship.
God himself finds his greatest joy and pleasure.
In his Son Jesus Christ, and so the apostle Paul in this chapter when he wanted to know him.
He wanted to know the one that God found his pleasure in and that he himself could find his own pleasure in him. And so that's really the essence of what eternal life is all about and why God has given us that life, because through that life we are enabled to know our God and have fellowship with Him. We are.
Enabled to know his son and have fellowship with him. Fellowship having to do with common and joy, common thoughts, common desires.
That we didn't used to have before we came to start knowing him as we can get from this chapter.
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He starts out, he says, brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
Practical question, isn't it?
We all sit in the our seats here in this room. Each one of us can say to ourselves, do I find joy in the Lord?
Is thinking about the Lord here this afternoon something that gives joy our pleasure?
If it doesn't and you went to heaven this afternoon, you'd be miserable.
You'd be miserable if you went to heaven this afternoon and you don't have any measure of joy in thinking about the Lord Jesus. The first thing you think in heaven is how soon can I get out of here? Because if the Lord Jesus isn't a joy in some way to your soul, there's nothing in heaven.
That would give you joy. Nothing.
A lot of people just kind of have the idea, well, someday I'm going to leave this world and.
If I have to leave it sometime.
I've heard about a heaven and I've heard about a hell, and hell sounds like a bad place and I don't really want to go there. So the alternative is heaven.
But it's not because heaven is important in some personal way, but rather it's the opposite of having to go to a bad sounding place to us.
And to the natural, until we accept the Lord Jesus, we don't find joy in Him really.
And in fact, the very opposite is true. This world, to the natural eye, is an exciting.
Place.
It's a place that their natural senses in us that rejoice in it, that want to have a part in it, that want to discover it.
There's an illusion. The illusion is that we can be happy.
By those that pursuit of it with the realist, without the realization that it's really an illusion that we'll never find peace and joy that lasts in us because the whole world lies in Satan's power so it can't satisfy it can't give us that lasting joy, but.
The Lord Jesus on the other hand, if we don't know Him.
It's like we have in Isaiah 53. There is no beauty that we should desire Him. We will not find Him naturally attractive to us until we start to know it. But if we begin to know Him, then we will find we are led on until He's everything.
He is fully satisfying to the.
Newman, as we call it, to the one who has eternal life, and that's what the Apostle Paul in this chapter, he had that life and he was finding the Lord Jesus more and more a joy that meant everything to his heart.
But to anyone in this room who doesn't, can't say. As Paul starts out here, rejoice in the Lord. If you can't find joy in Him now, then you're not going to be.
Satisfy.
We just had a couple days of activities with young people and I think just that everybody enjoyed the time together. There's some meetings, there's some other activities and there's enjoyment. But what part of it was enjoyment in the Lord? Because like, like it's been said in heaven, it's, it's gonna be about the Lord and rejoicing in him and.
What are we gonna do in Heaven and in Revelation? Chapter 19 gives us a start about what we're gonna do in heaven in Revelation 19.
10 verse 7.
Says, Let us be glad and rejoice, There's a rejoicing again. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. That's the Lord Jesus. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness, righteousness of Saints. And so it's gonna be rejoicing in heaven.
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We're going to be rejoicing when we see the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died for us and who's who's there in heaven waiting for the time when he can call you to be with him. He wants you to be with him. And that when we're called there, there's going to be the marriage supper of the land, and we're going to rejoice and be glad and give honor to those.
In the last chapter.
And Ted Russell said emojis.
To the Saints there.
He says that I trust in the Lord Jesus in verse 19.
To Santa Monica shortly answered you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state, but I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state.
Now this is an an encouragement for us because we know this young man.
It was introduced by the Apostle Paul.
And he liked him because he had the desire to really serve the Lord. And then he describes as somewhat there what this young man also suffered for the Lord, he said.
Just like today for all their all seek their own and not the things which are of Jesus Christ.
With this young man, he was one who saw the sings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then coming to the first word here, it says finally, my person, rejoice in the Lord.
Now.
I'm sure he meant that Timothy's was one who also rejoiced in in the Lord and he wrote to him to the Saints here about the things with the mortgage did have to suffer and but how he rejoiced in the world which he was doing for the Lord. And he says to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous.
It doesn't leave him to write these things about emojis because he knew.
He was a young man all out for the Lord and he didn't mind to suffer things.
While he was doing this.
And then what, uh, what's next thing is? He says.
To me it's not courageous, but for you it is safe.
It is for for us.
Safe to know these things?
That we can rejoice in the Lord also through suffering.
Or when we have to suffer. And those who are on the mission for youth, they will.
Be able to tell about it, how this work is going on and what it all involves.
Used to me, there's two big difficulties that the apostle Paul is addressing here and the first one we have is.
Uh, what he starts with in the middle of verse one, to write the same things onto you to me is indeed not grievous, but for you it is safe. And then he goes on to speak about the religion of the flesh that would appeal to the flesh law, legalism and the dangers of that. Then later on he goes on to the opposite down to verse 18, for instance, in 19, maybe summarized at the end of verse 19, those in mind earthly things and so.
Taken up with the things of the world, the complete opposite. And either way we can be attracted to fall down into those things as believers. Because he says finally, brethren.
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And the answer is what we started with, isn't it? Rejoice in the Lord, what He developed in this chapter, the answer to all those things that would attract their hearts and take us away as the Lord Himself, and to continue on rejoicing in Him and all that we have in Him. It's often struck me that with the Gentiles the course downward began with not being thankful in Romans 1.
And as believers, although we have the divine nature and we can.
Go on, we have the Holy Spirit.
Yes, the course downward begins similarly with us, by giving up that which is our life and our portion in Him, to rejoice in Him and take up with Christ every day.
I think it may be helpful in considering this chapter to look at a little background for those who might not know as much about the pistols to the Philippians and about the background of this epistle. In Acts chapter 16, the apostle Paul wanted to visit Asia, but he was stopped by the Holy Spirit, and then there was a vision that God gave him. A man of Macedonia said, come over and help us. And they went there in Acts chapter 16, and there was a woman praying by the river. There's supposed to be at least I believe maybe 10 men before they could have a synagogue.
So without the synagogue, he had to go where there was people who could hear the message of the gospel. And so that's when the message went out and they were taken and put into jail. And there was that earthquake and the Philippian jailer came to believe in Christ and he rejoiced with that Philippian jailer. So that was that was how the message got out there. The message came in. The city was on the edge of the Roman Empire. It was a city named after Alexander the Great's father, King Phillip.
And they were Roman citizens and they valued that citizenship. So we find at the end of this chapter that our citizenship is in heaven because they were proud of their Roman citizenship. But we we might be proud of our American or Canadian citizenship, but our citizenship is in heaven. And this letter came to them and that he had rejoiced with that Philippian jailer. And he writes, I believe, 16 times worth joy or rejoicing in this book we find in the previous chapter.
In the day of Christ, rejoicing with you all. In this chapter, rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, there was joy, there was a connection, there was a bond. It started there with a woman in prayer by a river and he was put in jail and bought divine deliverance and the salvation of a family. And we find in this book, in chapter one, we find that Christ is our life, Christ is our life. In chapter 2, Christ is our pattern.
In this chapter, Christ is our object.
In the last chapter of Christ is our strength. So Christ was everything the impossible this prosperous province. He was in a jail cell. He was writing a thank you note. Well, some of our thank you notes rather pale by comparison. There have been a few thank you letters I've heard over the years that have wanted to get copies of they were so good. But this four chapters was saying and we find in chapter one. I think it's helpful to to see how this start in chapter one and verse 3.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, free while making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. The apostle Paul knew they would stand with him, and that was precious to him. He had the message God had given him, and he was willing to go to jail for it. And these people were going to stand with him and do whatever it took. And you know, in life we've had people who stood with us in difficult circumstances maybe.
A parent or a brother or sister or a friend or some companion, and we know and we value that. And in Christ we have brothers and sisters in Christ and we're in fellowship for the gospel. This was precious. And there was rejoicing between them and the rejoicing was in Christ Jesus. They were rejoicing the Lord, but they were dangers. We live in a world where there are dangers from the very small children stopped, looked and listened. There's dangers. And when those dangers are neglected, tragedy happen.
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So sometimes we hear things and we say that's negative. Oh, that's just so negative. God and his love warns us in love because there are dangers in this world. If you swim out too far without a life jacket, if you go into a dangerous spot, there can be consequences. And God in his love and in his grace, wants to warn us that the apostle Paul warned them.
It's important in considering this chapter just to remember that connection.
There's a pattern given throughout this little letter, this thank you letter, where there was rejoicing, but it wasn't just in one another. It was in Christ's shoes, the one who loved us and gave himself for us.
Verse one to write the same things.
The same things.
It's a hindrance to knowing Christ.
If we constantly feel the need.
To measure everything by newness.
We live in a world of the present time.
When everything is constantly changing.
And we are unconsciously, particularly when we're young, conditioned to that character of the world where we constantly have to know something new.
The newest version of the cell phone, the newest this, the newest, that is, lives from one new to another. And if it's not new after a while, it's boring to the natural way in which we're being conditioned in the world in which we live. Here the apostle Paul is talking to write the same thing.
The same things.
To get to know the Lord Jesus, you're going to get to know one who is the same.
Yesterday, today, forever one who doesn't change.
In fact, when the Lord Jesus takes control of the world, there's clear indication from Scripture that the whole pattern of life on earth is going to go back to a more simple pattern of life than we're experiencing in the world right now, because that constant change does not in itself generate joy and happiness.
But the secret of it is to know himself as he is, and to want to know him.
What we talk about here this afternoon is two ways.
What I mean by that is.
The Lord Jesus now is a man.
Scripture says it's not good for a man to live alone.
She personally wants.
You to know him.
So that you and he can have fellowship and enjoy one another.
The Lord Jesus this afternoon would encourage each one of our hearts to get to know Him.
And it's a satisfaction to his own heart.
It brings the joy, even as weak as they were at the end of his life, The night before he dies, he says to his disciples, Ye are they which have continued with me. He appreciated that.
In any measure in which their souls entered, in which they didn't very well at that point, but in any measure in which they could enter in with him into what he was passing through.
It brought appreciation and joy to his heart. And so when we truly put aside those things that hinder us from getting to know him, and one of them is in a practical sense, that very pattern of thought that says I have to know something new. You don't have to know something new this weekend.
It isn't based on adding to your brain's knowledge.
The truth of the matter is to know the Lord Jesus.
Is to know is hard.
That's what you need to know. That's what I need to know is hard. If you say how well do you know that person?
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The re response is going to be or a way of measuring how well you know someone is to create a question and say how would that person react in that situation?
And if you really know how that person would react or think in that situation, you can say I know them or you we could say you know them.
Consequently, when the Lord Jesus when a matter comes up in life.
Our knowledge of himself is in the same way. What does he think about it? What is his thought about it?
And that's what the apostle Paul wanted to grow in, to know him better, because he found his joy in him.
In the second verse, he said of dogs.
A veil of evil workers, beware of the concession.
Of course he doesn't speak here with dogs. He speaks of men that behave like dogs.
My neighbor has a dog in his backyard.
He's constantly barking.
And always the same, same work.
I talked to him one time and said you know, your dog barks a lot.
He says, well, that's the only language he knows. He knows nothing else.
Have to understand that he does that.
Where people can be like that.
Whatever they say means nothing.
And you can have people as neighbors like that. They have to talk about a lot of things.
May may it be football or basketball, or lately it is the Hawks.
In the hockey players in in our area and and they talk about nothing but that and when you watch TV, it's the same thing I.
I wouldn't encourage anybody to do that, to watch TV. It's just like dogs barking really. They got nothing to say about the Lord Jesus.
Only about a single of this world, and in that sense they are evil workers.
Because they work against the things of God.
And they try to divide people.
It's very important to be aware when we see somebody.
It may cause a division that could be by anything, just something that we everyday do that we everyday eat.
Oh, and what we watch?
Just about anything, he says. Beware of these things. Don't even get involved.
When two people get together.
They have to find if they're going to spend much time together.
They have to find something, as we would use the expression of common ground, something of common interest.
In their conversation and their activity. And if you can't find some common interest with somebody.
Sometimes meet a total stranger and the to try to get the process started, something about the weather or something like that starts the conversation. But if after the weather's talked about or something that's in circumstances of your situation, what brings you together?
Is used up and there's nothing of common interest that develops in it. The conversation does. It doesn't have anything to feed on. It doesn't have anything to get started with.
If we're going to know Lord Jesus.
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Then we have to have common interest with those things that interest him, need to interest us.
Those things that are not of interest to the Lord, we wanna learn to say that's not important.
And so.
You find here these warnings about classes of people because those classes of people are such that don't have a common interest with the Lord Jesus.
And if we find our companionship, we're going to find it on grounds that are common with the Lord.
It's gonna be on something else that we wouldn't talk to the Lord about.
And wouldn't expect the Lord to talk to us about.
And so if we really want to rejoice in the Lord, we need to develop an interest in that which is common to us.
And not go down the road of finding our companionships and our friendships and our pattern of thought in those things that we can't share.
With the Lord we had a prayer meeting. We talked to the Lord an hour or so ago.
We may have been imperfect in it, but we certainly thought we were bringing before Him those things that are of interest to Him as well as to us, and that's what we shared. There are lots of other things that we could have said to the Lord that if somebody had said and someone else would have thought, or we might have all thought, whoa, what's he talking to the Lord about that?
Four, that's not the kind of thing you talk to the Lord about and so on. And so he warns them here and in also when he says in verse 3, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision.
The conclusion was mixing two things.
Trying to have something that was, we'll call it not to get technical, something was Christian.
With in a religious way, with things that had to do with Judaism or something else that was religious but mixing.
Circumcision, as it's brought out here, had to do with separating things.
And to have fellowship with God.
There is involved in it certain kinds of separation. There are certain things that God won't have fellowship with us in and they hinder us from knowing Him. So if I try to mix things that God doesn't mix, or if I'm not willing to separate from things that I know I can't have fellowship with God in, both of them are going to hinder me from joy in the Lord and knowing Him.
But in the separation, then I may enjoy God. Just one more comment about it is in the matter of fellowship, which is how we get to know someone. In John's first epistle in chapter one, he lays a very strong point to those to whom he writes about getting to know God and enjoying eternal life and so on. He says God.
Is light. Why does he say that there God is light? Because what he's saying is to have fellowship with God.
Everything has to be out in the light. You can't deal with God in darkness. You know, we can have a measure of fellowship with each other on the with certain amount of darkness, we can find something that's common to us and we can enjoy it together.
But there can be other things in us that we wouldn't tell, we wouldn't share, we wouldn't make known to the other person what we do when they're not around and how we occupy ourselves and our time.
And so on. No, we wouldn't talk about that. We just would kind of have a measure of fellowship on things that fit.
Umm, we have a weekend like this and we act a certain way.
The Lord Jesus acted the same way every day, everywhere.
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He didn't have weekends where he came with a certain class of people and he acted a certain way. But then on Monday morning life changed and he acted a different way, with a different set of people and a different set of circumstances. And on Monday night he engaged with something else. Lord Jesus.
Was the same every single day.
And if we are to enjoy him and have fellowship with him, we have to do it on the same terms in the life. We can't have fellowship. We might say, well, Lord, I'll have fellowship with you on Carrollton weekend. But then kind of like Monday, I'm going to have my fellowship with some other things, some other people.
You don't get to know him that way.
We may be imperfect, we are. There's no finished products in this room, but we want to get to know him better. And to do it involves the willingness in the soul to say, if that hinders me, Lord, please help me to put it aside.
Verse 3.
Very important, he says. For we are the circumcision.
Of course he was a Jew.
When the Jews had to be circumcised.
But then it says something.
With a completely different background which worship God in the Spirit. Now worshipping in the Spirit, you don't have to be circumcised. You have to know the Lord, you have to know God, you have to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
And rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice in Christ Jesus.
And then in confidence it's not going to be and do these things that thou shalt be saved.
Because we had no confidence in in the flesh, in doing things in the flesh.
We want to do, we want to be guided by the Spirit of God.
We can only do that if we have fellowship with him in the spirit. We talked to him first thing, we get up in the morning, we talk to him about the day, but how we could.
Tease him profitably and personally in the things we are doing.
We talked to him as a friend.
He knows that. He knows all things about us.
And but we can talk to him about things.
Which are spiritual things with concern.
Lloyds and the things of God we can talk about the rapture, the coming of the Lord Jesus and these things. They will make us rejoice.
Verse two and the dog would be one who makes the profession of Christianity but isn't real, ends up going back to its vomit as we have in second Peter chapter 2 or Revelation also says without our dogs. So it's a terrible characterization of one who comes in among the Lord's people but does not have that reality. But then it goes to the evil workers, the ones.
Who is not raised as to the question of their reality, but what they're doing. And so there would be those and any of us could do this to be among the Lord's people and.
Build there in a way that is not right. This is particularly bad as the evil workers, those who actually take upon themselves to destroy that which is in Christianity. And then we had the concision.
Which has been mentioned. Is that which is not the separation really a mutilation, Mutilation, mixing things. And so perhaps there are those who don't just try to bring in that which is wrong, but they try to take something and just mix it in with what is right. That might be the most dangerous of all. And that was happening very actively with the Judaizing teachers all through the New Testament. We still have that today.
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But he says we are the circumcision.
And I think it's helpful to talking about actual physical circumcision at all. And for myself, I really helped by what the apostle brings out in Romans chapter 2 with regard to what a true Jew is. He brings in the spiritual side of that, and verse 2080 says he is not a Jew, which is 1 outwardly. Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
Romans 229 But he is a Jew, which is 1. Inwardly in circumcision of.
That of the heart in this spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of man, but of God. And so this circumcision is having that.
Flesh cut off, Really. What is that talking about? Our position under Adam, all that we work and as believers now we understand that we are not in the flesh anymore. We've been talking about that in the last couple of days, but now?
We are in a whole new position as having died with Christ and risen with him, and so it's something that's not.
Any longer?
We're not part of that old thing, but we're now put in Christ. And so he says that's who we are. We're the circumcision, that which is real, the Spirit, and that is where the true worship to God is.
And that is where we have the rejoicing in Christ Jesus as believers. And so that's why it's very important to understand our position in Christ and understand that we are not any longer in that old position that we were born in under Adam when we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, our Jesus before God changed entirely. We can't take up with those things at all anymore. We have to take up with what is now our proper placing, positioning Christ.
S.
Colossians, chapter 2.
Colossians, chapter 2.
Maybe this will help some. We don't have time to really explain it. It's time. But what we're going to read about in the Old Testament?
Is likened to what took place after the children of Israel went from the wilderness through the Red Sea, got into the promised land and went to a place called Gilgal. And what's described here is that new position that they had been brought into and what Tim has just said. So it says in second in Colossians chapter 2.
And verse 11 and this is the same circumcision. It's not the physical Jewish circumcision that's in view in in our chapter, but he says in verse 11 here in whom ye also are circumcised.
With the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism, Wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
He quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses and so on. The thought just to try to summarize without explaining it in detail is.
To be identified with the Lord Jesus, to enjoy him, to know him, we have to separate from all that we once believed in as to our natural flesh, all the power of it, all the wisdom of it, all the strength of it, all the desires of it, they're all ruined. They're perverted.
The flesh doesn't have power to do the will of God, and it doesn't have the desire to either, but it satisfies its own lust.
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Another brother once said, the will and us, the will engaged in evil, feeds on sinful desires and wastes itself without fruit. So we have to be brought through the cross, through the death of Christ, into a new place and position with God, to be the true circumcision, and then we can worship God by the Spirit.
And we can rejoice in the Lord in that new place.
The circumcision is to make a complete separation. And so with the concision, there may have been, umm, suffering in connection with, uh, man's efforts to please God, but he didn't, doesn't recognize himself as being totally worthless in the flesh. Circumcision is to to take and to remove, as it were, the flesh, and to consider it useless.
Uh, one in the concision doesn't consider the flush useless.
#15.
Thy mercy found us in our sins and gave us to believe, and in believing peace we found in thy Christ who lives #15.
All that we were hearts and guardians.
Guardian was all.
Known.
In the heart wicked, How many different things?
Laughter on our brain is laughing out loud.
Lord Jesus sweet, just give thanks that you're a friend that sticks closer than a brother, a friend that wants to have a fellowship with us. We stand that our hearts would be such that we would not be filled with this world, but be filled with the Lord Jesus and filled with the Spirit. We just give thanks for these meetings today in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you for your time.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Chuy Garza
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Somebody can raise the tune please.
Crucified.
Glory.
And they are saying.
Nsnoise Shining.
Nsnoise.
Father, we wanna put this time in your hands. Uh, we pray for those who has not make a decision to put their faith on the finished work of the cross. We ask you for your mercies and then and, uh, we ask you for you to bless the world that can come inside your hearts. And, uh, especially those who are not safe And you can, uh, give them life. They, they can have a new life.
00:05:20
Today, so we put this time in your hands. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.
We want to make it a little bit different today. I wanna be starting with the Spanish Bible. But we have a brother who is gonna help me. He's gonna be written in English. I'm not gonna be reading in Spanish. Maybe some verses. We, I wanna tell you the difference. You know, sometimes explain. I like the way it explains a little bit better. But we wanna read a story in the Bible.
That I think that he can make a a change today for somebody who has not put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. And also I think has a message for everybody and we can go to John, the Gospel of John chapter, Chapter 9.
And we wanna be reading from verses one through 11.
Through 11.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither had this man sinned, nor his parents.
But that the works of God should be ma mana made manifest in Him. I must work the works of Him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
And he said unto him, Go and wash in the pool of salon, which is by interpretation, since he went his way therefore, and washed and came seen the neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him, that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is the others said, He is like him, that he said, I am he.
Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said unto me, Go to the pool of salon and wash. And I went and washed and I received that. We see the story about this man that this happened almost 2000 years ago.
If we go back in history, we know that nobody really can do an operation or something to bring back his side. He testified about that and verse 32. We read verse 32.
Since the world began, was it not for any man open the eyes of one that was born blind? So he has a big problem now. He was born blind and really he was no hope for him. It was no way that he can recover his sight.
But really, I think the Lord was teaching us truly through this, what happened in this situation, the situation of mankind is the same situation of these men. We know that now the science has, uh, advanced and maybe somebody who is born blind maybe has a chance to recover sight. It can be, you know, it's a chance, it can be, you know, but.
Old humanity, the hope when we were born on this earth, everybody was born with a problem that cannot be fixed, that we cannot fix ourselves.
No, doctor, Nobody.
Cannot take away the problem that we are born with and I would like to go to some verses to see that. I would like to go to Romans chapter 5, verse 12.
Romans 5, verse 12.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world.
And death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned so.
00:10:10
Death came into the world through one man, through Adam. We all know the the story about Adam. Adam when God made him, he made him perfect. He was he was not a Sinner. The power of sin was not in him. And God tells Adam by telling him to do one thing.
So not to do one thing, to not take from the fruit of good and evil. And we know the story. Everybody maybe know the story here in this room. They disobey, they believe the lie of the serpent, and they win against God and they eat. And now all the power of sin entered through Adam, the frost man, and passed through all of us. We all was born at the image of Adam, if we go to Genesis.
Chapter 5.
In this chapter, chapter 5, by this time, God already brings judgment to men, and God already take Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eve. We know the story. So now Adam is going to have a song, and this song is on the image of Adam with a cell phone nation outside the garden of Garden of Eve. Can you really grow?
What we're against is five verse three, Genesis 5 three. And Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth. So now Adam have a son and this son has a sinful nature and not only that.
Is dead spiritually. He has no spiritual life. His death towards God. If I would like to read a verse in First Corinthians chapter 2.
Stop.
Verse 14.
1St Corinthians 2 verse 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness into him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned so now.
These son of Adam who was born outside the garden of Ed, ** *** was born with a sinful nature, and now he's dead spiritually to God.
And he cannot understand the spiritual truth. So we see the what God tell Adam the the day they hit it from the fruit of the good and evil, the knowledge of good and evil, he will surely die. He died. He didn't die physically immediately, but he died spiritually with a life that is far away from God. And maybe somebody here has not give his life to Jesus yet.
Is how we are. It's how how we was born.
With a sinful nature, if you haven't give your life to Jesus, it's the position that you have now and that's why you do things. You have a sinful nature that controls you and is against God and God has to judge them. If we go to Romans chapter 3.
If we reverse the stand to throw.
Romans three 10312 As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together, become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. So the testimony that God give about men is that is not even one.
There is righteousness is not even one who came that God can be pleased and nobody really looked is seeking God is what the scripture says. So when men.
Fell to God, our sinful nature came inside of them, and now the normal life of this somebody without Christ is opposite for the holiness of God. So.
00:15:07
God is holy and he has to just send. If we go back to John Chapter 9.
Six, we see something that is kinda unusual. The Lord has the power to just talk to this blind man, and this blind man can receive his sight immediately because for for God, nothing is impossible. Jesus is God, but he's decided to do something different. He may clay, clay with a spill. When we think about that, we think that's something that doesn't.
It doesn't look too clean, you know, kind of nasty.
Why the Lord did that? Why did she did that and it comes to my mind how the Lord sees sin in the lives of humans. He sees it like that something that is that somebody says in another Bible study that we have the God hate sense God Hayson he cannot he he cannot approve sin and I think the Lord wanted to teach you something that really what keeps the humans.
Dead spiritually.
Is there a sense that had to deal with sense before he can give a human a new life and over here.
He he put this mud into his eyes and I wanna go to Romans 3 and see a little bit about of Romans one see a little bit how men how is his life without God? Romans one verse 19 to 3219 three 32 yes.
Stop that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because that when they.
New God. They glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful that they came vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
And change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.
Who is blessed forever? Amen. For this 'cause God gave them up unto vile affections for even their women, to change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another men, with men working that which is unseemingly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meet, and even as they did not.
Like to regain retain God in their knowledge.
God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malice, Ness full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.
Without understanding covenant Breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them OK, so God shows how the heart of man is without God they.
00:20:13
The life of somebody who the person in this world who has not repent of his sin and put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Cannot please God and every cent that everybody does, God has to judge it. God is just and the Scripture says that the wishes of sin is dead, so God has to judge sin. So we need to recognize how is God God. God cannot decide one day and say, oh all the sense that you had committed, I want to forgive you.
And it's not a problem. You can come to heaven. It's not that way because God is just, He cannot allow sending His presence and He has to just send. So that's the next point that we wanna see in John Chapter 9, verse 6.
The Lord provides to this blind man salvation.
After he put Moxley in his eyes, he provide a way for him to be safe. Now these blind men after the Lord give his command. He had two options to obey to believe and do it or not believe and even get mad because the Lord did a social team of praying clay in his eyes, but we read verse.
28 Thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
And said unto him, Go wash in the pool of salon, which is by interpretation of sin. He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seen. So we see that these blind men obey. He went and did it like the Lord said, and he recovered his sight. A miracle happened in his life.
The same thing we see the net you you guys notice the name of this uh, pound. The name of the pound is uh, is translated as scent.
You know the scriptures call us about one who was sent to this world. You see God.
He has to judge them. He's perfect and he he's justice. But also God is love and God doesn't want to punish sin on us. That's why he sent his only begotten Son to take her place in the cross. If we walk to John chapter 3.
Verse 16.
John 316 Fort God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So this verse tells how God loved us loved the world so much he didn't you know that God has to George in we wouldn't have read in a little bit more about the Lego fire. It's gonna be a a great white trunk where God is gonna just send and the scripture says that he prepared a place not for us.
Not for humans, he prepared for the angels and for Satan, but when men who live the life of Satan.
Send entering to the men and has to go to the same place, but God doesn't want us to go to that place because he didn't prepare for us and that's why overheating verse 16 says that he loves the world so much that he gives his only son. He's saying his son to this world he was born.
The scripture says that Jesus supposed to one of his name is Emmanuel. God with us. God came to this world. He became a man. He was the only who can give himself for our sense. He come to this world and he gives he live a life in obedience to God. He was obedient to the will of the Father. The will of the Father was for him to go to the cross.
And say the place of the center if we read verse 17.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
So God didn't send Jesus to condemn the world. You know, if somebody reject Jesus today, if it's somebody here who is not safe.
00:25:07
The coming of Jesus to this world didn't condemn you is the rejection that you did towards Him. God provides a way for you to be safe but if you reject it is what takes you to to the lake of fire. If you read verse 18 bro.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So the one who believes is not condemned is no more judgment in the cross in Rome and 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, the Scripture tells the one who knew no sin.
He was Mason for us, God putting him in the cross, the judgment that was on us. Everybody who is born on this world, it don't matter what age you are, you don't matter if you were born on a Christian family. You had to come up on a time in your life that you need to make a decision.
You need to repent of your sense and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior all you sense that you commit in your whole life.
Past, present, and future. And it's sad to say future because every time we send Jesus died for that sin. Jesus died for all our sins. God put the judgment that was on us in Jesus in the cross. Jesus was separated from God for three hours.
You said was separated from the father from the whole eternity. Jesus was one with the father, but in the cross he was made sense for us. That was very something very, very difficult for him. Uh, I believe that when he swept blood before he went to the cross was because in his mind was that that was in his mind that he was to be separate from God.
In the cross, that was something very difficult for him. But if we go to Revelations, everybody has to see Jesus one time.
You have to see Jesus one time either as a savior or as a judge. As a savior, He offer you every lasting life. He offers you to take all your sins in him. As a judge, you have to you have to suffer the consequences of every sin that you have committed.
Every cent, you know, now all the kids have phones or everybody has phones and a lot of these, uh, advanced phones has memory inside and they can put a lot, they can have the whole Bible inside.
And if we as humans, we can record a lot of information on a little piece like this. You know, imagine that the creator of the universe, he's gonna have everything that you have done, everything that was every cent that you have committed. The scripture says if you know how to do good and you don't do it, he said everything is gonna be recorded. We go to Revelation chapter.
20.
We read verses 11 C.
The 15th.
Revelations 20 verse 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead falling great stand before God.
And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things.
Which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of life.
Was cast into the lake of fire. If you refuse today to see Jesus as your savior, if you refuse today to see Jesus as the one who died in the cross for your sins, the scriptures say that you're gonna, you're gonna have a resurrection, you're gonna live. You're gonna live again. God is gonna give you a body.
00:30:09
See, with that body, you're gonna go and see the Lord. I was talking to a brother and I say how a Sinner, somebody who never repent of their sins after restor after having a a body to go to judgement, he's gonna stand and see the Lord and then being thrown to the lake of fire forever seeing the Lord for one time. That's gonna, I think that's gonna be something very impressive in their heart.
Now the scripture says that they gonna resurrect. So you think that that when you die everything is over?
It's now over. God is gonna resurrect you. You're gonna live again, and God is gonna bring up all the things and He's gonna judge you according to all that. But that's not necessary today. You can repent of your sins. In Acts chapter 17, verse 30, the Scripture says that God demands or commands everybody everywhere to repent. You can repent today of your sins.
You can pray to God today and say I'm a Sinner.
And I'm stepless. I cannot do nothing for myself to save myself.
The only way that I can be saved and put through the sacrifice of Jesus in the cross and you can put your faith today in Jesus. And you know something, the scripture says that if you believe in the Lord, in Jesus Christ, you have everlasting life. The Lord God is not a liar like a man. He can we can trust in his word if he say in the Scriptures.
That if you believe, if you repent of your sins and you put all your faith on Jesus Christ today, you have everlasting life. You know the Scripture says that when you believe in the gospel, in the message of the salvation, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. God give you the Holy Spirit. That's the approval of your salvation. If you put your faith in Jesus today, you can have a trust, you can believe you. You will have no doubt that God is going to resurrect you.
Go to heaven one day. You see the death of Christ in the cross is enough. We can have that faith that if God in the Old Testament accept the sacrifices of animals is much more the blood of Jesus Christ in the cross. Now if we go back to John Chapter 9.
Something special happened to this blind man. Something very, very special.
People did not recognize him after he will recover his side and I think this message.
Is for both is for the ones who have not received this as as your saver. He wants to make you a new creation in the moment that you put your faith in Jesus Christ. The scripture says that you are a new creation. God give you a new life. Now you have the power to say no to sin. I want to share it with you guys a little story and a little bit about a little girl.
They got changed now in verses 8:00 and 9:00. Brother, you wanna read?
The neighbors therefore and they wish before had seen him that was blind said it's not this he that sat and begged and some said this is the others said he is like him but he said I am he. You see the impact that happened to this man after he come back from being on this pound.
Coal vessels, uh, that is a is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he come back, people did not recognize him. They thought that he was not him.
That he looked like like him, but he wasn't he was not the one something happened in his life that they didn't recognize him. He was a new creation and like I said earlier, when you put your faith in the Lord, he gives you a a new life an efficient we're not going to go there by efficient 25. The scripture says that when we was dead incent Lord God give you give you life.
This life when we was dead on our sins.
When we believe on the Lord, He gives you the Holy Spirit and gives you a new life. This man was changed. So the question that I want to give made to every, especially the youth here, is your life different than when you accept the Lord?
00:35:09
It's a dangerous right now because we live in the end of time on the last days of the grace when the suddenly about the church has put Christ upside and uh is worthly minded.
We have homes, we have TV's, we got computers and it's the the.
Scripture says for us not to feed or flesh.
We can feed our flesh with a lot of things. It's a very dangerous time because it's hard for the young people. You go to different places, you go to the mall, you go to the store and things are are not the way they're supposed to be. For the work is unholy. Everywhere you go is sand and it's very hard.
And the parents need to recognize that there is we live in a very, very hard time. Everywhere you turn is send. So you guys need to keep your heart. You guys need to guard your heart because.
You see, our conscience is what the Lord uses when we are not walking according to His will.
Our conscience can get hotter and hotter and we can get used to sand and, uh, it's not the will of God for a new creation and a new saved one, not to reflect his Son in Jesus Christ. I would like to go to frost John.
I like yesterday I see all the.
Reading the Bible, it was beautiful to walk and see them everywhere. Uh, I didn't have the camera. I wanted to take you guys a picture, but it was beautiful. Uh, I think, uh, I don't know, I hope that everybody does that every day in your house, but it's very, it's, it's, it's very important for you guys to spend time in the scriptures because if you spend time in the scriptures, the Lord is, uh, feeding you, feeding that you, feeding yourself with the word of God and the Holy Spirit use the word of God.
To judge you.
When you are now working to keep you away from sand. So it's very important that you guys keep reading in your house after you guys live here. You guys need to keep reading but still God prepare a way for those who accept Christ today. If you repent of your sin and Joseph Christ now you can come to God not as a judge but as a father. If you send God still be your father. He always gonna be your father, but you have to come and confess your sins. If we go to first John chapter one.
Verse 9.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, you see.
If you come and confess your sins to God one by one, don't come to God and say God I'm a Sinner. No, you need to come to God and say God, I fell to you this way and be specific with that.
We have a war, uh, a warranty that is. It has, it's gonna 100% warranty that he's gonna clean you for no sense. He's gonna working you hard and he's gonna give you the power to depart from sand. But you need to do it daily. I tell you that I wanted to share a story about a little girl.
Uh, her name is Emma. She's 12 years old.
This this little girl.
Uh, was living on a very, very rough environment. She leaves two houses away from the meeting room.
Back then when, uh, when we meet her, her mom was pregnant. She have this Emma have a sister and a brother.
They, they are very, very poor. Very poor. The parents, the, the dad, they didn't have nothing to eat. And you know what he did? He left the house. He left the house.
He decided that was the best thing. It's in his heart. The mom, her name is Kelly. She come to be to talk to us. She needed help. We help her. We preach the gospel to her. That's the best thing that you can give. And she believes and uh, she started reading the Bible a lot. She went to sleep with her Bible in her chest every day. She read the whole Bible quick. You know, it's all she did. She was pregnant.
00:40:23
The husband came back.
Later.
And she said, look, if you wanna come back, it's fine. But let me tell you, I have put my faith on Jesus and I, I'm not gonna stop reading the Bible and I'm gonna go to meetings. And you know, it's what she told her. Tell him, you know, she, she wants to make sure if he wanted to come back, you know, she will not change. Emma had a very bad attitude, baby. Something was, I think something was wrong with her. We wanted to go and kinda help because we didn't know she was maybe being molested or something, you know, but she.
She had a very, very bad attitude. She wanted to the things from the world and the mom because she had a new heart. She decided the things from the world will not enter her house. And she was strong. And Emma, I think she stayed in the room for a couple of weeks. She was so mad with the new life in the house that she stayed crying and crying. And finally the whole family came to meet him.
And Emma was safe. So Emma, you know, she now you see her very happy, always smiling. But one thing that I wanted to tell you about the story about Emma is one that she have a new life. We all can see her new life. God give her a new life. And this new life, you know, when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, God give you gifts. Maybe you can have the gift of servant.
You may have different gifts, not only one you know Emma have a special gift that we all can see and her gift is the gift of servant.
Now on Saturday, she goes and cleans the middle room. Nobody asked her to do it. She'll do it because she loves the Lord.
She we, we have to put tables to it. She's putting tables when she likes to serve. She's the, I think she's the last one to sit down and eat. She's always serving and she's always serving with a smile. You know, she's always happy. She's not doing it because nobody else wants to do it. It's because really the Lord gives her that gift and she's a little girl. Well, I wanted to bring this message to, to the Jews today or for everybody. God has give U.S. special gifts.
And they are very important for the growth of the church. I kind of changing the subject a little bit, but I think it's very important if we go to efficiency.
Chapter 4.
Timber 16.
From whom? The whole body?
Fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplied according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself. In love. You know, in his Spanish is a little bit different and I want, I want to translate the Spanish to English kind of literally the way it is. And he says that according to the activity.
Of each member.
The church is identified according to the activity of fishermen. This is what really dispersed teaching in Spanish. They got decided to give growth to the church with the activity of each member.
Is how Goddess design the growth of the church now the Jude who is here?
God, if you already believe on our Lord Jesus Christ, you have a special gift. At least one. Maybe you have more than one. Now what are you guys gonna do with that gift that God give you? I know that some gifts takes time to develop.
My way right now is not the time for you to use it, but the Lord already give you that gift, some of you gifts. You can use it right now and I wanna since we, uh, we've been talking, we started message on, on uh, Philippians chapter 3. I wanna.
00:45:12
I wanna see two points on par that we can take today and take it personal in the use of our gifts in the church. And I wanna go to First Timothy.
Pro, Timothy. Chapter One.
Birds clothes.
And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
You know the word accounting, accounting faithful that means that God has thought as faithful before he even gives him the gift when in the heart of God was to give him that gift, he count him as faithful. And you know something I think is the same thing for every one of us. God has countless for faithful. That's why he gives us all the gifts that he give every gift that we have that give it to us for a reason he wanted for us to use us.
For the growing of the church. So every member is special it no matter what age you are, maybe you have the gift of preaching the gospel.
And you have another keys other kids in the school that you can preach the gospel that they're not safe. So you can be using your gift even though you are young. So first point is that that condos for faithful. So I think that should push our conscience.
The God thing that we're gonna be faithful. What about we're not faithful? That's kinda sad that we are not faithful because that counts for faithful. And I wanna see another birds in First Corinthians Chapter 9.
And this is a warning.
This a warning. Paul put himself a warning.
Or moved by the Holy Spirit, he puts himself a warning in First Corinthians Chapter 9, verse 16.
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.
Yeah, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.
Law is on. To me, that's a warning.
If you wanna keep your gift, you know the Lord Jesus Christ is coming pretty soon. I hope everybody in this room really believes we wanna the Lord can come anytime and I think we should serve him with that with those with our eyes on that on his camel. He's we're gonna be in front of him and he's gonna see everything that we did and it's gonna be sad if we supposed to do something for him and we didn't do it. You know we wanna I think we wanna repent because.
Whatever the the lower is gonna do on the rewards has to do with the whole eternity. It's gonna be too late over here. You can serve gas in heaven is a chance. Maybe we're gonna serve him. Maybe we don't know that the scriptures say that he's gonna serve us. The Lord is gonna serve us, but the time is gonna be over as soon as the Lord come, the time is over and we're not gonna be able to serve him no more. So I think we should the young people.
Really, I wanna talk to you guys. They those two teams. The Lord thinks that you are faithful. He give you that gift because he's counting you for faithful that you're gonna do it. And it's a warning. You know, you give that you have is a need for the body of Christ is is the is a need for growth for the church to grow. And we are one body. You know, every true believer is one body.
In the whole world and every true believer, we need him for the growth of the shares. So the message of the gospel today, we're gonna see Jesus as a savior, but we're gonna see him as a judge.
If we see him as a Josh, we wanna, we wanna really suffer the rest of our lives in the lake of fire forever and ever. You wanna see the Lord and then you wanna be cast on the Lego fire for the whole eternity. That's gonna be something that we don't want. Nobody here wants if every, say 1 doesn't want you to go there. So I wanna talk to you who has not made the decision yet.
00:50:20
Repent of your sense.
That's the wheels that repent of your sense and accept the gift that God has give you already. This the death of Jesus in the cross is enough that if the whole world wants to repent and accept in believing heave is enough to save everybody. So it's room for you. So I want to encourage you today to make the decision if it's anybody here who wants to accept Christ and needs some help, you can come and talk to me or one of the brothers.
And anybody is gonna be very glad to help you if we can see him. Verse 4.
Number 4.
If somebody wants to raise the.
Of.
Oklahoma.
City.
00:55:01
Father, we thank you for your, for your love torsos on sending your Son Jesus Christ to come to this world full of sin, to come and die in our place. Jesus, we thank you because you come in obedience to the Father.
And you come, and you give yourself as a sacrifice for our sins. We thank you because in your grace and your mercy, and you open our eyes to this true and your saviors, we ask you for those who are here.
That has not made a decision yet. We ask you for Your grace and Your mercies upon them, that they can understand the true and they can make a decision and accept you as their saver.
We thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
YP Talk 1
Philippians 3:4-10
Reading
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In thy presence we are happy. In thy presence we are secure. In Thy presence all afflictions we can easily endure. In Thy presence we can conquer, we can suffer, we can die wandering from Thee We are feeble as I love. Lord, keep us night #42 in the Appendix.
That's right.
Father, we thank you. The weekend start this morning.
Reading with this hymn and address it unto thy Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus and we, uh, we realize that in my presence there is full happiness and.
Was brought to realize that our experience is often quite different and we just pray that the effect of being here this morning. My draw hearts and to be more Lord Jesus and vigilantly and still the challenges that we each face. We thank you are sufficient and so we just pray that our hearts may be warmed and be attentive thy word and we ask you for thy health Lord Jesus asking it in my name Amen.
We've been reading in Philippians chapter 3.
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Begin the first three maybe?
Philippians 3, verse 3.
For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath, whereof he might trust in the flesh. I more circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law.
A Pharisee.
Concerning zeal persecuting the Church.
Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost. For Christ gave doubtless. And I count all things but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And you count them but dumb, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my known righteousness which is of the law.
But that which is through faith.
Of praise the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him in the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything ye be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless, for unto we have already attained, Let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example and sample.
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to.
Even to subdue all things unto himself.
Yesterday we were looking at this chapter with emphasis on the first few words of the 10th verse of the chapter that I might know him. And so with that emphasis, we see certain things that the apostle Paul brings before us that will help us or hinder us from knowing the Lord Jesus better than we do.
And particularly the beginning of the chapter, we see some things that are a hindrance to us in knowing him. And the apostle Paul brings out another one where we finished, uh, as far as we got in the end of verse three, he says, have no confidence in the flesh.
In any measure in which we find our confidence in our flesh is going to hinder us from knowing Him.
The flesh is the condition in which a man is born in his state before God. That is, man today is born as a child of Adam's race.
But sadly, Adams Rice now has in it, and each child of it has that thing in it called sin.
A willful desire to have one's own way, regardless of what God has to say. And so God has looked at man before him as being in that condition, called in flesh a man that lives before him with sin in him.
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And says of man in that condition in Romans 8, they that are in flesh.
Cannot please God.
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, God no longer was looking for anything from man in that condition.
In fact, the death of the Lord Jesus was to deliver him from that condition in which he was and bring him into a new condition before God, which is called in spirit.
And so the Apostle Paul, before he learned that for himself.
Was.
Perhaps a pattern?
Of what man can rise to in the flesh.
And he describes it in these verses, If any man thinks he can have confidence in the flesh, I more he excelled as a man in the flesh in religious things.
He isn't bringing out that I lied, I cheated, I stole, and things like that. That man condemns. But actually he was one of the most zealous examples in the Bible of a man that sought to please God, really sought to be something before God according to what the flesh can be. And what did it lead him to?
Persecution.
God's people. And so the best that flesh can do in spiritual things, it will end up an enemy of what God wants from us spiritually. And that's what Paul was, but he did it with a good conscience. He he was a person that other people might envy and look up to for his zeal and any measure in which we try to please God according to the power of.
The flash that's in US, it's going to have the same results as Paul. It's not going to help at all, but actually it'll work against the purposes of God.
In verse 5.
That those who hang on to the Law of Moses might be characterized.
And this.
These indeed are formidable.
And they might think very important.
And that they were before the Lord Jesus died.
So he describes and then from verse 5 on.
That we all know that since all these things were prophet and meant nothing.
Were circumcised, the Jews were the circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. So circumcision was one thing, even though they don't fully understand the meaning of circumcision. Circumcision really is cutting off the flesh and set themselves apart for God. So he was proud of the fact that he was accustomed. So we'll see that in verse 5, circumcised on the eighth day. Second thing it was proud of was the fact that he was the stock of Israel. Nothing to do with newer birds, but it was a stock in Israel.
Not just that. Then he said he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Oh, that's still not enough. He says he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and above that he said he was a Pharisee. So as if it were, things got better and better for him from the root of his health, his genealogy, and his background. And then he would even go on and talk about his zeal, concerning zeal, he says, persecuting the church.
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And not only that, touching the righteousness, he looked at himself as blameless. 7 things that he could have been proud of. Now let's turn to first Timothy chapter one, verse 12. We can see that apostle Paul put it in a different light in the book of Timothy there in regard to what he had and what he was. First Timothy chapter one, verse 12 and 13, he said, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me.
For that, he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
Who was before a blasphemer? Oh, he's not proud of that now, is he? In this, uh, in this passage, who was a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, perhaps, maybe the next verse too. And the grace of our Lord's, of our Lord was exceeding abundant.
With faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
Now the Lord Jesus says something to say about the Pharisees.
And and look.
11.
Stop inverse.
42.
But woe unto you Pharisees, for ye tight men, and rule, and all manner of herbs, and Passover judgment, and the love of God.
These are to have done and not to leave the other under.
Go unto you Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seeds in the synagogues and greetings in the markets.
Who want to use gripes and Pharisees hypocrites, for he has graves which appear not.
And men that walk over them are not aware of them.
And then you said something to the lawyers, too.
And he said, Go unto you also, ye lawyers, for ye late men with burdens grievous to be born, and ye yourself touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
Go unto you, for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your father's killed them.
Truly bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your father's, for they indeed killed them, and ye built their sepulchre.
Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.
As a person in the world, everyone born into this world and as he starts to grow up.
He set certain values for himself.
He forms certain ideas about what's important and what's valuable and what will make him happy.
He may not be aware of it, but every one of those things that he wants to gain for himself.
Have himself at the center of his own interest. Man lives back basically naturally for himself.
I must make myself happy. And so he decides on those things that he's going to go after as a means of giving himself a happy, satisfied, contented, successful, whatever it is. Like. For some it may be money, for someone else it may be some kind of excitement or thrill that he goes after. For someone else it it may be something else.
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But everyone forms it, everyone has it, and at the center it's really himself. And the apostle Paul here in says verse 7 concerning this list of things that he had followed after. They were things that he saw as game for himself. That's what he went after.
I thought it was rather striking. It's a little more modern example of the same thing is when Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, was nearing the end of his life with the cancer that he had, he decided to have a biography of his life written.
And he was asked something about facing death and so on and all that. He had gained the tremendous wealth. He was one of the four or five richest people in the United States at the time of his death.
And they asked him about that. That was his game, if you will, as to this life. And he said.
In the cemetery, it doesn't matter who had the most money.
In the cemetery, it doesn't matter who had gained the most money.
He was facing the end of everything that he had sought in his life and the apostle Paul in bringing before us knowing Christ.
What does he say in verse seven? He says those things which were gained to me, those I counted, loss for Christ.
He was saying when I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, it changed everything. It changed everything. The whole focus of my life changed. The whole motives that I lived for, changed the whole value system on which I treated gain and loss and decided on what was important and what wasn't. Everything changed.
For me.
And he summarizes one very important aspect of it, perhaps the central point of it in that is.
He lived for himself.
His whole life, the flesh always does. The confidence that he had in the flesh was what I can be, what I can do, what I can gain.
But when he said to the Lord, Who art thou, Lord? He owned a new master Lord.
And now instead of living for himself, his whole life was changed and he said now I live for someone else, not myself.
I live for my Lord.
And for Christ to have him is my whole game now.
And every one of us needs to come to that same point in our life, otherwise we'll waste our lives. And if we try to have a mixture of well, this is for the Lord and this is for me. It's the same principle, although a different application here. When it calls it concision, it's the try attempt to mix the old life and the new life and get the best of both. And it doesn't work. It does not work. It does not fulfill the purpose of God and it doesn't make the.
Human being happy that tries it. And so Paul is now going to bring before us and wanting to know Christ better. He says this is the change and this is the change that we have to start with in our lives as well. If we want to have Christ, if we want to know him, he has to be not only number one, He has to be everything ultimately, practically to our souls if we're to know him as he wants us to know him.
This is the transition from Saul to Paul.
Kind of wonder sometimes why his name got changed, but it helps to explain.
That which Paul was taking confidence in the flesh.
And he's contrasting that with rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Just want to go back to the third verse and ask a question because I see he speaks of three things there. He says we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And so I see where he's going through those last two. But where does the part about worshipping God and the Spirit come in, in terms of this chapter?
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Chapter 4. I think you have something of the answer to the first one of the three.
The woman at the well.
Lord had to say to her, You worship, you know not one what?
She had a religious desire. She had a certain thirst in her after God that God had put there, but she had no idea how to fulfill it. She had no sense of relationship with God.
And the flesh doesn't.
The Flash doesn't man in the flesh.
Can't approach God.
And so when they God established for himself to test man in the flesh, he established Judaism as a perfect religion to see if man could have a relationship with God and what he is in his natural condition before Christ died and.
He was afraid.
He couldn't approach God, and so the priesthood was established. If you had something to offer to God, you had to bring it to the priest. The priest then took it for you, and he was used to bring it to God on your behalf.
Because man naturally feared to come into the presence of God in in the condition in which he was, and as the consequence he couldn't really worship God as God wanted it to be. To worship God is to give God.
The overflow of a heart that appreciates him and knows him. And man after the flesh can't know God in that way, and so he can't worship.
But when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Then we have a new life given to us and we can worship God. That new life, the Spirit, works in that new life and enables us to worship God because we now have the Spirit. As the woman in the well learned, in the end she was one that the Lord brought out to her the coming of the Spirit for her.
So that she could worship God.
To rejoice in Christ Jesus, the second of the three.
And naturally, do not rejoice.
In the same things that God rejoices in, man finds his pleasure in that which is not according to what God finds his pleasure in when.
Cane flew his brother Abel.
He was afraid, as we always are. Whatever you do to somebody else, you'll be afraid they'll do it to you. If you lie, you'll be afraid people will lie to you. If you've stolen, you'll lock your doors because you'll be afraid people will steal from you. If you ever commit murder, you will be afraid that somebody will murder you. Whatever you have done that produces in us the tendency to fear someone will do it back to us when?
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He was afraid.
And the Lord in mercy, said Cain, I'll put a mark on you so that you will not be murdered. But then he spent the rest of his life outside the presence of God, turning his back on God to try to find happiness in a world without God for himself. He didn't rejoice in what God rejoices in. And so here in this chapter, we learned that when we previously had no capacity to find joy in the Lord Jesus.
When we accept Christ, when we receive a new life, when we start to live on the other side of the cross, from the side we were born on, then we can rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Uh, one more comment. The highest level you get in the whole of the book of Romans is chapter 5 and verse eight. We joy in our God. You can't go higher than that really. And it we couldn't joy in God until the matter of our sins was taken care of that separated us from God, but there is no higher fulfillment.
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For creature to find its joy in Christ and in God. And now we have the capacity to do that. We weren't born with it.
But we who have life in Christ now have the capacity to joy in God and to joy in Christ.
When I thought I umm would suggest with it at me to not apart from what you said, but just to add to it. The umm, I understand the J&D translation has that uh, we worship by the Spirit of God here and.
So it's all of what you have in, in John four, that now the, the worship of God is not just what they have in the Old Testament, which was according to the flesh. It's not that at all. It's completely different, but it's in the spirit and in truth. And uh, here we have that. It's not just in spirit as left up to our spirits as to how we're going to do. It seems to me it goes beyond to the fact that we worship by the Spirit of God.
Umm and sets aside our wills even in the matter and makes that a thing that's really up him from him to him. And, uh, reminds me of the verse in second Corinthians chapter three with the Spirit of the Lord is there's liberty. It's not our liberty, but his. And so that brings out worship and perfection and fullness if we allow him to do it in that way. But to me, it's been such a helpful verse because I remember when we got to Malawi and.
And we were there in the assembly at the beginning and didn't take long before we noticed that here were a couple of brothers before the meeting getting together and deciding, OK, you're going to give out this ham, you're going to give out this him, you're going to read these verses and you're going to pray at the table. And the whole meeting was decided. They were worshipping by the thought of one or two brothers and not just waiting on the Spirit of God. And so to me, this is a very helpful verse because you can go to 1St Corinthians chapter 12 and chapter 14, and we can see how the Spirit of God leads us to ministry.
And deciding who would administer what in the assembly. But here's a very key verse I believe is to the Spirit of God, uh, leading out in worship to God. We know the Lord Jesus is in the midst of Hebrews chapter 2, uh, leading out praise to God in the midst of the assembly. But here we see it by the Spirit of God that he doesn't working in one another to bring out that craze.
Parts two and three of that verse with.
Some other verses down the chapter I I missed that it seemed to imply that.
No, I was just talking about worshipping by the Spirit of God.
Umm, no. We were talking about how these verses go on and speak about how Paul was and glorying in the flesh, but that was being set aside. The brothers were bringing that out and he now goes on to speak about rejoicing in Christ Jesus. I was just looking at connection normally.
Sometimes it helps by looking at the theme of the subject of the chapter 1St instead of trying to interpret a single verse by itself. So we know the book of Philippians is is quite straightforward with the four chapters. In this particular chapter, I believe it speaks of Christ being our object and that's why we can look at the chapter and start dividing a little bit how it begins by.
Looking at the hindrances which I believe you, you had before you yesterday in verse two of verse two there, you have to be aware that in verse two, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concessions. Those are the three hindrances that keep us away from Christ dogs.
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In scripture it is a picture of the shameless evil. It's not dogs in a sense of a good pet. It's this. They, they're just shameless things. Even in the day of the pasta, in the apostles day, they were shameless evil going on.
And it applied today be more so and we see that going on. So we have to be aware of that. And, uh, and when it comes to evil workers, it speaks a false doctrines. Those are the things that could draw, draw us away. I suppose I should mention the conditions. It speaks of the spiritual pride. So we see shameless evil. We see false doctrine abound and we see the spiritual pride that's christened of itself too, isn't it? That can draw us away. Then he talked about his own pride as if it were.
Those seven things that he listed, that he as an Israelite.
Could pride himself off, uh, those things helping the stock of Israel, being Pharisees and so on. But then as our brother pointed out that in verse seven, he, he learned a very important lesson. He counted all of that to be done. It was just a loss. It was nothing because he found something better. And then he was able to go on in the late on verses there and he speaks of seven different things. Now he will speak of seven, uh, uh, perhaps new things that he discovered as a Christian.
As one who's redeemed. So we find that in, uh, verse, uh, the end of verse 8.
That is, that I may win Christ.
It's not quite exactly if the worship that you you were Speaking of him, but I think it's the beginning of it, isn't it when we put the evil away when we walk away from that, when we set aside our own pride and learn that I may win Christ. That's the first thing that he learned that I may win Christ and then he said and be found in him or how precious it is to be found in Christ. Now at least some of that for others to expand. Let me point out those few things there.
And and then is it having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is true faith of Christ? Oh, his own righteousness is now nothing. Isn't it that the righteousness which is of God by faith? And then he said that I may know him. He wants to be found in him. He wants to win Christ now. He wants to know Him. And then the power of his resurrection.
Oh, that's still not enough. The fellowship of his suffering.
Being made a conformable until his death and then in in verse seven he said that I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ us then he can truly say this as brethren in verse 13 I count up myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do. Oh now he narrow it down all this thing doesn't matter now down to the one thing.
One thing that he wants to do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
Those we had in verse seven, there were the things that previously had been important to Paul and by which he measured his life and his goals in life, as we would say.
But having come to know Christ, it changed everything. And he had to, if I could put it this way, reevaluate his life, reexamine that which his life was all about. And God gave him the heart to do so. And in verse eight, he expands a little on his thinking about it. He says well.
This used to be important, and that was important and that was important, but none of those things are going to achieve the objective of having Christ for my game.
In fact, they've been a hindrance to me.
So I don't value them anymore.
They're not important anymore to me. They once were very important. They once were the whole center of my life when I was the center of my life. But now that Christ is the center of my life and now that I want to have him for my game, I have to re examine and reevaluate everything that used to be important to me.
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To make it practical in a real sense of the word, we all have.
So many waking hours to our day and the responsibilities connected with it and hopefully we fulfill them as we should. But most every one of us, and just to try to make it practical, every one of us has a certain number of hours in each day, which is somewhat we would call discretionary. That is is left to us to decide how to spend it. Certain times we sleep, certain times we eat and so on.
But then there's and work and study and whatever our responsibilities are. But when you have one minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour.
Do you ever think about it in terms of how can I spend this time so that I may know the Lord Jesus better?
Is what I'm going to do in the next 15 minutes something that's going to achieve that objective in my life? Am I going to know him better in the next 15 minutes?
Or am I going to spend it some other way?
And so the apostle Paul put value on the activities of his life. And he said, well, if I do this.
It's gonna help me to know him, and that's what I want. That's the objective of my life. That's the desire of my life to know him.
Is this going to give me the true knowledge of God?
Or is it just gonna be spec?
Pleasure me a little bit, but then when it's over, it's gone and I don't know God any better. In fact, I may be farther away than when I started the 15 minutes or whatever it is. And so in verse eight, he said, I look at all those things that I described in verses 4567 and now I re I re examine them.
And uh.
There's the manure pile.
The dung pile might as well put that set of things on the pile because I never knew Christ that way. It didn't sound, it didn't bring any closer relationship with himself or knowledge of himself. And so now I look at it and I say, if we could put it this way, what a waste.
I just wasted that much of my life for nothing. It'll never count for eternity.
Another way of looking at it is to say, am I going to spend the time in such a way that it will still matter when eternity comes?
Or will that activity that I'm going to have now be an activity that when life is over?
It had no lasting value.
I I don't wanna go too far in what I'm saying because I wanna say, say something else to balance it. God has made us natural creatures, and physical activity and boating and so on are all part of the way God made us. And he doesn't mean by what he's saying here that there is not a place for the enjoyment of nature.
There is, and God provides that for us and for our good. But the question here is motive. What is my motive and what I choose to live? How I choose to live my life? Paul's motives were totally changed.
I'd like to try to illustrate some of what we have in this third chapter of Philippians with an illustration.
I sat in this room every year from the time I was a little baby until I was in my 20s and heard these messages. And I'll admit that sometimes they went flying over my head and I should have maybe connected on to some of the things that were said. Well, if I were to give everyone, young child, teenager, young adult, send them in the mail or give them in person a key. And it was to a safety positive box where you live near where your home is. And I were to give you a key and a number saying this is the number and this is the key. What would you do with that key? Would you take it and maybe put it on your key ring or put it in your top drawer or maybe?
Hanging in the wall or maybe displayed in the little case, What would you do with the key?
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Well, I trust each one. If they were given a key to a safety positive box and tool that in there there were riches, they would take it and they would open it. They would make it personal. They would act on what they were given with the expectation of that fulfillment. Well, I'd like to give a little key here and it's not everything, but a little key here in the book of Philippians, there's at least five times that I know the apostle Paul used the expression my and I'd like to read them and one of them is in this chapter.
In Philippians chapter one and verse three it says.
I think, my God, upon every remembrance of you. I thank my God, upon every remembrance of you.
Umm. And then further down verse 13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the powers. Then in chapter 3 and verse eight, yeah, doubtless. And I count all things, but lost for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them but dumb, that I may win Christ.
And in chapter 4 and verse one and therefore.
My brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy in crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved, and in verse 19, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. The apostle Paul had made this personal. It was real to him. And so when there was thankfulness.
To his God it was real. And when there were bonds, they were in Christ. They were in Christ. He didn't look at the bonds as something to shrink back from. He didn't look at the difficulties of something to run from. They were in Christ. And so in the middle of these five minds, we find in chapter 3 for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And I think that each one of us could.
Gain immeasurably great blessing in considering.
Is he your Lord? Is it personal? Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44 says The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in the field, to which with a man hath found he hideth, and for the joy thereof goeth and selleth all he has, and buyeth that field.
Well, to find Christ there is a cost. When Jesus calls his disciples, he called them publicly and he said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
But they followed the Person of the Lord of glory, the Person, that glorious Person in whom was all the fullness of the Father, who upheld all things by the word of His power. They kept his company. And that's what God wants for each one of us, young and old. He wants us to keep His company for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. But there's a cost. But the cost is ever only and always worth it.
Everything that we lose is worth losing for the cause of Christ. The treasure is the key, the riches that we will have to never be taken. They'll never burn up, will never fade, will never get old. The things that are real and true and precious. And if we want these things, we want the joy that He wants to give us. There's some gratification. There's some pleasures, sinful pleasures, destructive pleasures.
It'll be a cost, but the cost is worth it.
Verse 9 makes the contrast my own righteousness.
With the righteousness which is of God, God's righteousness. So there's a matter of my own righteousness and God's righteousness.
And the apostle Paul.
And most people.
In some measure, within themselves have this sense that yes, there is God and yes, I'm responsible to God and, uh, I hope that I can be acceptable.
00:50:08
With God when I have to leave this life.
It's just part of the way God made us that sense of responsibility and accountability to Himself.
The Apostle Paul did all that he could in the flesh.
To be righteous, to be right with God.
He labored far beyond perhaps anyone in this room has ever tried to be in that regard, to make himself have a righteousness that God would accept and can I say he could take credit for, he could be proud about. He could say I excelled my fellow man.
In zeal for God and man will be religious as long as he can have the credit for it.
And, uh, Paul was amazing, man. There's the 10 commandments. He basically could say nine of them I kept.
Not many people in this room would care to say they kept nine out of the 10 E even though we're not under them and even though we're not under keeping the Sabbath. The only thing that Paul actually could say as far as the zeal concerning the as he says in verse 6, the righteousness which is in the law blameless. What slew him. What he knew he became short in was what was something inside of himself he coveted but that wasn't seen by other people.
That was within him, but in the outward details, he didn't lie, he didn't cheat, he didn't steal, He kept the Sabbath day and so on. He did amazingly well for a man in the flesh. But in this verse 9, he's saying.
I found out it wasn't worth anything. I did come short.
I wasn't righteous before God. I couldn't deal with what I was in my covetousness in the Spirit. And so he says. But I found in Christ the answer to the desire of my own soul.
He, his work himself is my righteousness with God, and that was everything to Him.
It ought to be to us. Paul was looking at it in a deeper way, I think, than simply saying Jesus died for my sins and someday when I have to leave this earth, I'll get to go to heaven.
Since I don't wanna go to hell.
That's that's true, but it's shallow.
For Paul, the very desire to be righteous before the holy eye of God was a very serious matter, and he had found the answer to his need in Christ. And so he says that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, he had to turn aside from confidence in himself and in the flesh.
And say I couldn't do it.
But I look to another I trust in Christ to be that which I cannot be myself before God. And He was. And so did it make him a thankful man? Yes, it did.
He rejoiced in Christ Jesus. He found his joy in that one which was for him before God, what he could not be in himself, and it gave him a joy a little bit more to verse three and and brought before him something that he valued. May we value it, brethren. May it be important to us to want to be righteous with God and find in Christ.
That which satisfies that desire.
Taking up these truths.
Umm, and this instruction, umm, we're getting this help because we probably have need of it.
And umm, I think that we can say that there's a tendency in each one of our hearts to umm, as brother Don was saying, to desire to to be righteous before God. And there's a.
There's a, uh, a process of growth that we each go through where we have to learn the experience that the Apostle Paul had to learn as well, that this righteousness is not produced.
00:55:14
In the, uh, capacity of the first first man.
Umm, it is quite typical for us as natural men to take up the law to.
Umm, umm, offer to God, umm, this righteousness that we desire for him to find from us. And umm, the Apostle Paul here, he's completely, absolutely through with the law. He, he, he's come to the realization that, umm, naturally, naturally speaking, he doesn't need a law to achieve.
The righteousness that God desires in his life. But sometimes we're slow in learning that the law is useless and produce in bringing us to this point where we are enjoying the righteousness which is in Christ Jesus. And I, I would just like to give us a little indicator sometimes possibly when we really are unconsciously.
Umm, relying upon the law and its principles to create this righteousness.
Umm, sometimes we we find in our hearts a pride in spiritual things.
We actually think that we've risen to a level that we can be satisfied in our Christian life, that God is pleased with us. It's called spiritual pride. And I know that we all know what it is because.
That's kind of how our natural heart works, and we think that we have attained to something God is pleased with in ourselves.
And I just want us to to realize, well, that's an indicator that there is something at work in us which is producing our own righteousness because pride will be the result. It's called spiritual pride. Spiritual pride can do a lot of damage and it will never do what this chapter is seeking to do in our Christian lives to bring us more into the appreciation and the value.
Of Christ.
And so may we have grace to recognize this indicator that at work is an attempt to create our own righteousness in the flesh in the first man. And we really haven't gone through the process of spiritual circumcision. We had it. We've had it in previous verses, but it's a very, very important principle.
That we laid hold on to circumcision is having done with the flesh, it's having cut it off. It's it's seeing it at the cross and God dealt with it there and it's got absolutely no value. If there's spiritual pride in my life, if I am not motivated by the grace of God, I don't have a sense.
That God has come in and done everything.
With regard to bringing me into relationships and into acceptance with himself.
Then I probably don't completely understand what circumcision is. So I, I, I love to be able to sometimes have these keys to help me to understand sometimes maybe what's going on within my heart. Pride is something that it's, it's a, it's a product of the first man and we have the flesh and so.
I don't think any of us here can say, well, I'll, I'll never have pride again. But it is an indication when pride is at work and when we're, when we begin to get lifted up in a spiritual way, it's the result of the activity of the flesh in our hearts. And it often can come in a spiritual, in connection with spiritual things if the flesh is at work.
01:00:16
Take up a little of the theme, verse if you will, verse chapter 10, verse 10.
Those first five words that I may know him.
That I may know.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
The Son of God.
That he might participate with us.
In flesh and blood.
Different from us in that He had not sinned in himself, he was not in the condition of being in flesh.
But he participated in flesh and blood.
As a holy man.
He was known as a man amongst men.
His office, the carpenter's son.
Is not this the Carpenter?
His life was a participation with us.
Humanity.
In that place where we are.
As man had become before God.
But when he died.
He died to all of it.
Some people would say I wish I had lived when Jesus was here so I could have known him.
As he was when he was here.
You can't be known that way.
When the apostle Paul said that I might know him.
He recognized very well.
That he could not know him as a man after the flesh.
We cannot know him.
As a man after the flesh.
He is a man.
But he died.
On that cross.
And so, on the day of his resurrection, he could only be known in a new way.
And those who were to know him.
Had to know him differently than they had known him three days before.
Mary, the first one who had the privilege of seeing him on the day of his resurrection. She wanted to re establish contact with that man who had come into the world and that she had known in that way.
And to express that she wanted to touch it.
And he said to her, no.
No.
He knew what was in her heart, he knew the desire and love of her soul to himself. And she wanted, now that she saw him alive again, she wanted to pick up where they had left off, if you will, and come to know him again in that way. And what he was saying to her was Mary.
I'm not to be known that way anymore.
You get to know me now in a newer and better way.
You know me as man in resurrection.
You know me as a man that has done.
With that old creation, with all that Adam and his race were, I can't be known. I'm not associated with that race anymore.
I belong as the first fruit of a new creation.
And everyone that is going to have a know me now must know me in that way.
I can't be known the old way.
And that's what's before the apostle here. He says that I might know him. And what is the next words? The power.
His resurrection. To know Him now is to know Him.
On the other side of death, into that which introduces eternal life, into that sphere of things where sin is going to be perfectly removed.
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And where man is going to be to the pleasure of God, and God is going to find his pleasure in man without the hindrance of sin, and so on.
And that's what's before the apostle here. And brethren, only way we can know. You can't know him after the flesh. You can't seek to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the basis of the atom relationship, it was ended for man at the cross. There was nothing anymore that God was seeking to get from man after flesh.
It was worthless. It was useless. The apostle Paul recognized it and re examined his life and said all the past is past, that it didn't. It didn't do any good. I want to know it.
I want to know him as he is.
And if you and I are going to have a relationship today with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's with a man who is on the other side of death, the other side of the cross, in living power, in a new creation.
Because it says when he in Second Corinthians chapter 5, as in all have died otherwise he wouldn't have had to die for us if we weren't in that condition and now we know him and newness of life.
May the Lord help us to evaluate our lives and to live our lives as those that belong to a new creation, and that way we know Him.
In 2nd Corinthians 5, isn't it though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth knowing Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ is a new creation, old things are passed away and hold all things have become new.
So that one extra for that, that could be a 5, which is very important. The same chapter says the love of Christ constrains us.
The love of Christ does not constrain the flesh.
It constrains the new man. It constrains what we are in Christ, righteous before God, with a new life and a divine nature. And that life that we now have in Christ is constrained by His love. But if you try to be constrained by Christ in the flesh, it has no power to constrain us. We will have the will of the flesh.
And in fact, if he stands in the way.
The heart is at enmity against him in the flesh, and will say, I will not have him.
Let him be crucified.
If you were.
I if this thing was a magnet and you were magnetizable, you're not Joe, but if, if you were, uh, something that was attracted by magnetic power, then the post in front of you, if it was magnetized, would constrain you. It would have a pull on you. That was in the nature of what you are and what it is.
And so in Christ and what we are in Christ, and having a divine nature, and what he is.
Pulls us to himself.
I I like it.
In Peter, Peter's conversion, as we would call it, is found in Luke chapter 5 when he's on the boat. He'd known the Lord Jesus, I don't know, for weeks or months or longer and.
That day the Lord what uses his boat and sends him out to get his wages of the fish for the use of the boat. Peter doesn't properly do what he's told, but he half does it. The fish come into the boat. That's where Peter gets converted and he says the first words out of his mouth are here he is. He's in a boat. He's at the knees. He puts his knees before the Lord Jesus.
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And he says, the Lord depart from me.
Right. I'm like a sinful man. Oh Lords.
I don't know what he expected the dude Lord to do, to climb out of the boat and walk on the water away from him or something, but the point in it is, even though he felt his sinfulness at that moment, because there was light in Peter, he was constrained to get as close to the Lord as he possibly could.
And the love of Christ will draw us.
In the Newman draws us to himself and holds us there.
When it says here was 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
We would like to have it this way, the power of his protection.
Because we are constantly praying about being protected on the way to the conference and the way home, and when we are at home, working, doing all kinds of things, we would like to be protected.
But the power is in his resurrection.
The power of his sufferings.
If I'm underway and summaries like suppose you wanna go to Mexico, these things are happening. Somebody comes to you, to you there. Of course these are happening in this country too.
And says give me all your money or I'll shoot you.
What would you say?
The best thing to say would be my life is hit with God in Christ.
You can't shoot me.
Unless God has appointed you to do this right now, I'm not gonna give you my money. You can shoot me because I know where I'm going. My life is hit with God in Christ. But would you do that if you had the faith that God wants us to have? We could do it because He wouldn't shoot you.
If he didn't have the power from God to do it.
So that's the power of his resurrection, because we are looking for a life to go on for eternity with the Lord Jesus.
And if you're not looking for it.
What are we looking for?
The Lord Jesus, when he left here in this world, what kind of fun did he have? Did he have fun?
His greatest ambition was to please God, his Father.
That was what his greatest joy was to do, and that's why he was here and that's why he lived.
He didn't have any fun as the flesh wants to have.
The only, uh, place he went.
And there wasn't fun, but that was life. He went through a wedding celebration.
And there he made the water into wine. The joy in the Lord.
What else did he have that could make him joyful? Just to please God the Father and that the power of his resurrection that we can have to make him joyful in the way we walk, and that that includes everything.
We don't need all these.
Protection, those insurances, the world is full of it. You have car insurance, you have a life insurance, you have a furniture insurance and and you can have insurance for everything. We really don't need that. We gotta have to have it because the man has made a law that we have to have it. God has made that law.
01:15:19
Got it because hasn't made cheapest loss or things like that. We have to live by it because we are using cars. That's the only way we that's the only reason. The Lord Jesus didn't need any of those and yet he had the greatest joy that a man can have in this world and that was to please God.
That's the power of his resurrection.
It has to do with debt made conformity conformable to unto his death.
What does that mean?
Our time is up, brother.
01:20:20
We thank the.
Our God and Father, that we know something about the power of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Practically.
We don't know how to.
And look at it or to use it.
But we know that it is there because he is alive.
He had the same power in heaven now that he has while he was living in this world as a man. Perfect man. We thank thee that we could look at him.
As the one who he really is.
The Son of God.
We know that we cannot comprehend him in all things.
But we can have faith, and we thank the.
That thou hast given the face which we need to live on in this world of wickedness.
Because of his power.
Neither of the flesh.
Had a faith in the Lord Jesus our Savior. We thank you for this time together there.
And we could have more reading meetings if we had.
Provisions to make for it and learn more about him. We thank Thee that we could have what we had before us today, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Amen.
Grace
Freedom
Rejoice
Philippians 3:11-21
Gospel 2
Gospel—Richard Mackewich
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.
Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Gospel Meeting. Thank you for being here.
We're going to begin by singing #40.
Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so little one to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong and as we begin the gospel meeting tonight. This is more a song for children. But this afternoon we heard the truth that God is for us and tonight we're going to share with you.
A wonderful message.
That God loves you and that He wants to be your Savior tonight.
#40.
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so little one through him lay long.
They are we.
Is strong young Jesus, I love me.
East side long play.
If I drop it, should I die?
00:05:01
He will.
Take Me Home.
Yes, she's not lost me.
Yes, Jesus, I love me.
Yes, Jesus.
Love me.
Love, I love.
To close our mouths and close our eyes and pray and ask the Lord's help.
I bless the God and Father, we just ask for thy health. As we open up the scriptures tonight, we pray that that would prepare the hearts of young and old alike to see their need of a Savior. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would have liberty and that the verses that are preached tonight would be used and that there would be soul saved tonight. We ask this in the name and the power of the Lord Jesus.
Again, thank you very much for coming. If you have been here with the Bible conference that's been going on these past two days, thank you for sticking around. If you have been invited, saw the sign or received an invitation and are joining us tonight, we welcome you. Thank you very much for coming. If you're part of the Wyatt or if you're part of the camp staff here, thank you very much for coming. Hope you get a chance to listen to the recording.
Thank you very much for listening. It's just so good to be back here in Carrollton, to be here at this campground.
Have lots of happy memories for myself way back, I think it was 1991, this is the first young people that I came to was right here so.
It's good to be kind of back home to me. I would like to sing one more song and that's number seven.
It says God loves the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Salvation full at highest cost He offers free to all. Oh, it was love to was wondrous love.
The love of God to me that brought my Savior from above to die on Calvary. And tonight, this is a gospel meeting. We're going to be telling you about the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners. And tonight, as we bring before you verses from the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, we hope that your eyes will be opened and you will see that there is a Savior who loves you and a Savior tonight who is ready to save you from your sins.
And save you from judgment. Oh, it's marvelous. Would you join with us? I'm going to ask the ones who are here in this room if you would stand up. And as we sing #7.
God loves the world.
Of sinners lost and ruined by the fall.
Salvation.
Cold night.
Salvation.
From the power of it through.
Faith and Christ.
Alone.
Oh Christ, life must wine.
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8 Now my face I claim in mine.
The reason I'm gone?
Reconciling.
We're happy to share the gospel. The gospel is wow. It's such good news. And it's a message that the truth is the sun shall set you free. You shall be free indeed. And our country celebrated its independence just a couple days ago. And people were happy and excited to celebrate the freedom that our country enjoys. But the good news is tonight you can leave this room.
A new person.
Marvelous. If the sun therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. The message that we share with you tonight is life changing. It's not a message about try harder. It's not a message about, oh, you can do it. It's not a message about just believe in yourself. That's not what we're here about tonight. We're here tonight to share with you a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's marvelous. It's a wonderful message we have for you.
I ask that you listen very attentively if you're trying to do something else. Let's focus on the message. Wow. It can change your life as you meet the Savior tonight. Marvelous, marvelous tonight. I'd like to look at a portion in the book of John. John chapter 3. If you have a Bible, would you please open your Bible to John chapter 3?
Also like to acknowledge the ones who are not here, who are listening to this recording. Thank you for listening to it and we hope that as you're listening to it tonight too, or whenever you're listening to it, that the message will resonate with you and you will be touched.
Throughout the day here at the meetings, we've been learning a little bit about the flesh and the realization that.
In the eyes of God, it comes up short, man's ability to please God. And so tonight we're going to look at a man who from the outside we would look at and say he's like a pretty good guy.
The Lord Jesus, the one that he's going to have the conversation with, is going to share 5 words with him.
Five life changing words and the title of tonight's message is going to be those 5 words. Ye must be born again.
He must be born again. And if you leave this room and your dad, your mom, your grandfather, your grandmother asked you what was the meeting about tonight, I want you to be able to remember those 5 words. You must be born again. In fact, I'd like to ask that we say them together, all together, on the count of 3123, you must be born again. The story is going to take place in Jerusalem.
It's a story that's going to take place at night time. It's a true story. The sun has gone down, the stars perhaps are out. And the man who has some questions about what he's seen and what he's heard would like to have a conversation with Jesus. And we're going to get to read about this conversation. So we're going to get to read what Jesus says. So tonight as we listen to the message, I'm just, uh, instrument. And what that means is.
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My intent is to share what?
The scriptures say, so don't focus your eyes on me, focus your eyes on what the scriptures say. That is what is important. It's the scriptures which give life. It says the entrance of thy word giveth light. So just picture in your mind size. The sun has gone down, it's dark out and there is a man and his name is Nicodemus. I'm a school teacher.
And have thought for seven years that I've never had a student named Nicodemus. I have had students named Nick. But Nicodemus was a real man who lived and he had a chance to come and talk with Jesus. Could I ask you a question tonight if you could have a conversation with Jesus tonight?
What would you ask him?
What's on your mind tonight?
Is there anything troubling you?
Anything bothering you if you could just have a conversation with him without any of your friends around you without.
Your parents being there, just you and the Lord, what would you tell Him? What would you ask Him? I want you to be thinking about that as we look at this portion. I said chapter 3. I'm going to back up just three verses. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to John, chapter 2.
And pick it up at 1St 23. If you have a Bible please follow along as we read it. John chapter 2 and verse 23. The scriptures say Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man.
Three knew what was in man. Just kind of setting the stage here. This man named Nicodemus is going to come and have a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just any man, the one who created this world, the one who created heaven, the one who created hell.
The one who can work miracles and the one who has already done a miracle, he's going to have a conversation with them. And Jesus is someone who knows everything about you and everything about me, says here in verse 25. He knew what was in man. And the one that I'm telling you about tonight, he knows everything about you.
Knows everything that you said, everything that you've done. He knows what you had for supper tonight.
He knows what you did after supper. He knows whether you went swimming. He knows whether you went on the pontoon boat. He knows whether you went for a stroll. He knows what tomorrow holds. He knows everything about you. And he is the one that I'm going to introduce to you tonight. And nothing that you've said or done can be hid from him. He knows it all. OK, let's take a look, John. Chapter 3.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God.
So no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. So here's our man. His name is Nicodemus, and he's come to Jesus. It's night time for the children in this room. If you were living back at that time, chances are you're dead and mom would have already put you in bed. The sun has gone down, stars are shining, perhaps most people are asleep. And this man don't know what he saw, what he had heard, but he wanted to have a conversation.
With Jesus.
I asked you tonight.
Have you ever had a desire to have a conversation with your Maker? The very one who has given you life, The very One who holds your breath in your hand?
Have you ever pondered those questions? Who am I?
Why am I here? Where am I going? What is life all about? Is there really a heaven?
Is there really a hell? If there is a heaven, how do we get there? If there is a hell, how do we get there? Questions like that. The good news is, those questions that you have, those burdens that you have, this is the very one that you can bring them to. For Jesus is the one who can give you the answers, and Jesus is the one who can give you life.
00:20:29
Because Jesus is the one who loves and cares for you. So as we are beginning in this gospel meeting tonight, we're not trying to teach you about a religion because a religion doesn't save. Jesus saves.
I'll say that again, religion doesn't say Jesus saves. And oh by the way, he is the only one who can save. He is the only one who can save. So Nicodemus came to Jesus and he came at night time. Perhaps he didn't want his friends, his neighbors, the ones who were close.
To him, to know that he was thinking about what he'd seen and what he'd heard.
And perhaps the fear of what they would say if they knew that he that he came to Jesus, kept them from coming while the sun was still shining. The good news is, he came.
Is there someone here this evening 2.
Has got those questions in their mind but fear of what your friends at school would think or say if you were to let them know that you've got questions about God Is there someone here tonight who is afraid of letting it known that you really are not saved Maybe you have been pretending and you don't want.
Your parents, you don't want your grandparents, you don't want your Sunday school teacher to know that you are not real, that you are faking it. And if you fake it, you won't make it. If you fake it, you won't make it. So I think he had some fear of what others would say or what others would think if they knew that he was going to see Jesus. Let me tell you candidly.
Let me tell you openly, please don't let fear hinder you or prevents you.
I'm coming to Jesus tonight. Please don't let the fear of what your friends at school might say. Please don't let the fear of the people you work with hinder you from listening to this message. Please don't let the fear of what your friends on Facebook might say. OK, I think Nicodemus had some fears, but.
He went to Jesus and Jesus is going to be able to help him. And tonight Jesus is the one who can help you. Let's take a look. So in verse two, he comes and says, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
If you were to talk to Jesus tonight, how would you begin the conversation?
Here's the good news. Jesus knows all about you.
And he loves you. Your parents love you dearly.
Jesus loves you more than they do, and Jesus wants you to come to him. Just honestly.
Just honestly and to be able to explain to him what's on your mind and what's on your heart.
First three, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, which means truly, truly, I say unto thee, Except the man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
**** and Nicodemus.
Was what we might consider a good man. I need just to listen very carefully because I don't want anyone to UN misunderstand what I'm going to say here. Nicodemus was just like every single person in this room and that Nicodemus was born a Sinner and the Bible is very very clear. It says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. OK and that sounded Romans 3 verse 23.
So there can be no mistaking that that all have sinned. The Bible also says that there is none righteous. No, not one. OK so I don't want anyone to leave and say oh I misunderstood what you said when you said that he was a good person. What I'm trying to say by this is that Nicodemus was not someone who went out and killed someone. This was not someone who stole $1,000,000 from the government. This was not someone who sent malicious text messages to umm, people who weren't his wife or something like that. They didn't have text messaging back then. But what I want you to say is.
00:25:28
In the eyes of most people, he was what we might call a pretty good band.
He's going to hear something tonight that he's going to change his life. And maybe you're sitting here tonight. Maybe you're not here and you're listening to this and you're thinking I'm a pretty good person. I really am. But tonight, I have news for you and I share it in love. And it's the same words that Nicodemus heard is that you must be born again. That is the message that goes for every single person in this room.
And every single person that can hear this message right now is that you must be born again. Because when God looks at us, he doesn't see us the way we see ourselves. We tend to think of ourselves as being pretty good, pretty impressive. Maybe. Like maybe you were the student of the month in your class at school. Maybe you made the honor roll and congratulations, Keep working hard in school. It's important to do your best. OK? Maybe you were the employee of the month where you work. Maybe you've got other accolades for umm, community service or something that you've done. And those are impressive.
Well done, but in the eyes of God, he looks beyond all that.
And sees at the core of our heart and the core of our being that we are a Sinner and that we need a Savior. And the message to Nicodemus was ye must be born again. And a message to each one in this room who does not know Jesus is ye must be born again. Let's say that again on the count of 3123, you must be born again. How do you think Nicodemus would take something like that if somebody were to tell you?
Now I know a lot of the ones in this room have heard this message.
Before I've heard someone talk about You must be born again, but imagine hearing it for the first time.
Imagine someone saying you must be born again because there may be ones in this room who are listening to this who are hearing this for the first time, and I don't know what that means. He must be born again. What does that mean? Help. Let's turn to the Scriptures. That's that's where we get our help. And if you're saying you must be born again, what does that mean? I want to share with you that Nicodemus kind of had the same question. It says in verse four in Nicodemus saith unto him.
How can a man that How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
I'm 36 years old. Could I become really small again and go back inside my mother's tummy and come back out again?
No, I couldn't do that, and neither could you. And she wouldn't want me to try to do that either. So that's not what it means. It does not mean that you have to get small and come out and be born again and go through the process of wearing diapers and everything like that. That's not what it means.
It's the realization that the body that you have and in your sins, you cannot get to heaven as you are. You need to be born again. You need to have new life. And I'm going to use words like born again, new life saved. I'm just going to use those interchangeably for simplicity. But each and every single person in this room must be born again. That was Jesus word to Nicodemus and that's his word to each one in this room. You must be born again. And no, he's not talking about coming back inside your mother and coming back out again.
Let's see what it says. Verse 5, Jesus answered verily, verily. Which means truly, truly.
I say unto you, except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. And so tonight the Holy Spirit is going to take the Scriptures which I believe represent the water, and the Holy Spirit is going to take those and he's going to use those to speak to your heart and to your conscience tonight. Well, what does that look like?
If you're sitting here tonight and you.
Kind of hear that, something in your chest. What he's saying is true. He's talking to you.
It's time for you to be born again. That's the Holy Spirit working in your heart right now.
Don't ignore it. Don't say I'm not going to listen. Listen tonight to the message. Holy Spirit is working tonight. You know who you are. God knows who you are. Don't fake it, OK? We want you to get saved. We do not want you to leave tonight.
00:30:17
Unsaved we do not want you to go to bed. Unsaved, we don't want you to close your eyes in the dorm room where it's dark.
And have your head on the pillow and you know that if the Lord were to come tonight.
And he were to come that almost all in this room would be taken out and you could be the only one in the cabin or dorm tonight. If he were to come before this meeting is over, you might be one of the only ones in this room.
Do not say I'm not gonna listen. Do not close your ears. Do not close your mind to what you're hearing tonight. If you hear that pumping in your heart, he's talking about me, that that means you listen. Listen.
For six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not, or don't be surprised that I say unto thee, You must be born again, Nicodemus, you must be born again. You cannot get to heaven as you are, and no one in this room can get to heaven as they are. You must be born again. You must have a new life, a body that is fit for heaven.
Verse 8 The wind bloweth, where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but can't not tell when to come with it, whither it goeth, so is everyone of that is born in the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be tonight? Are you starting to wonder how can this be? I mean starting to see that yes, yes I need to be born again. Yes it's true, it's the Lord Jesus who's telling me, yes, I need to be born again.
I hope the Spirit is working tonight in your heart. I hope that tonight you will be one who will accept them as your Savior first hand. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou master of Israel and knowest not these things?
Tonight, you may be very intelligent and know more about computers than a lot of the people in the room. Or you may be an expert in your field of engineering, a business of teaching. You may be the star student in your class in math. Maybe you've gotten some awards for your excellence in social studies. Maybe you have the best handwriting in your class. Maybe you've read more books in your class than than any of your other classmates. Maybe you've accomplished great things. But.
Is it possible that you have done all those good things? But when it comes to the fact of how to get to heaven, you say, and no, it's not these things. You know, looking around, there should be most of the ones in this room should know the way of salvation. But I preach the gospel with with the realization that I don't know if everyone in this room is saved. I don't know. I can only see the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Are you real tonight? Are you saved? You must be born again.
1St 11 barely, barely, I say in today we speak what that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive, not our witness. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, tonight you can leave this room knowing for sure 100% where you're going.
UK no 100% salvation, going to heaven for rejecting God's plan of salvation and ending up in hell. It's not confusing. In fact, verse 36 you'll realize that you are either one who believes and has everlasting life or one who does not believe and you have the wrath of God abiding over you. OK, we speak that we do know. We speak with assurance. We know.
What we're talking about tonight, this is not speculation. This is not, well, we hope that what we're saying tonight is, umm, is going to be relevant. It says in another partial portion of the Scriptures these things that we've written unto you, that you may know that you have eternal life. Verse 12 If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.
Even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. So Nicodemus was not talking to what you might call a religious person. He was talking to the Lord Jesus Christ, the very one who created heaven and hell, the very one who came from there. And now he is going to lay before him some marvelous, some wonderful truth. Listen very carefully to this verse 14.
00:35:04
As Moses lifted up the serpent into the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Would you put your finger or put a bookmark, or just mark that place in John three and turn to the Old Testament, to the Book of Numbers?
Enter to the Numbers, Chapter 21.
Kind of took me a while to learn the books of the Bible. So if you're looking for it, the first book is Genesis, the 2nd is Exodus, the third is Leviticus, and then the 4th is number. So it's.
Just a little ways into your Bible in the Old Testament. And so we are going to look for a chapter called chapter 21.
And we are going to start with verse 4.
And they and they journeyed from Mount Court is everybody there number is 21 starting with verse 4.
And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way to hear. The people are very discouraged. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have he brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. For there is no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loathes this life. Kind of a tongue twister, our soul Lotus, this light bread.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people when they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. Pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, And it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it.
Shall live. And Moses was obedient. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
All the people were discouraged, the people were complaining, and the Lord didn't like it and so he sent these serpents or snakes. And if you were living back then and you got bit by one of these serpents or snakes, you would die.
And as people started to die, the realization came among the people. We have sinned. Have you gotten to the point in your life where you said.
I am the center.
Yes, it's true, I am a Sinner. If not, I hope tonight you'll get to that point, point where you recognize and admit before God is saying I am a Sinner. It says there the people said we have sinned.
For we have spoken against the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpent from us. And Moses prayed for the people. All the people wanted deliverance. They wanted to be free from these fiery serpents. Think of the ones there. Maybe there was a family, and maybe one of the boys in the family had gotten bit by the snake and had died. Or maybe one of the children had gotten bit a girl and had died. Or maybe there was a family whose father wasn't there because he had gotten bitten. For a picture of family without a mother, Now the mother had gotten bitten.
They wanted deliverance for tonight. There's deliverance in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What did the Lord say? Verse eight, Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole. So here's the pole. The serpent is on the pole. And what's the news? And it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when you look at the Pontius shall live. That's all that was required is just turn the head, turn the eye, look at the pool.
And you will live. God had made a way for them to be delivered. And tonight God has made a way for deliverance in its through the Lord Jesus Christ. OK.
And Moses, uh, sorry, I read that in verse 10. Should I read that? Sorry, verse nine. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that at a certain serpent had bitten any man. When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. That's the story that is being referenced. We can turn back now to John chapter 3 and verse 14.
Even today, for those of you that are observant, if you see, umm, an ambulance and sometimes our, uh, fire trucks too, on the back of those, umm, vehicles, those emergency vehicles, you'll see the pole and the, the snake wrapped around it.
00:40:07
Symbolic of the fact that when you're in dire straits, when you're in an emergency, turn to us and we'll save you, we'll rescue you. OK, so next time you see an ambulance go by or next time you see a fire, I don't know if they're on the fire truck so much, but usually on the ambulances just look, it's kind of a symbol amongst people that.
It's you. Put your faith in us. If there's a medical emergency, you need help right away. We'll be there. Look to us tonight if you have a medical condition.
You need to go to a doctor, but when it comes to a spiritual, spiritual thing, you need to look to the one who died on the cross. And that one is Jesus verse 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. I'm going to back up to 14 again. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that just like Moses.
Made that pole and put the serpent on it. The Son of Man is going to be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You mean, is it true that if we turn to the one who died on the cross, we can have life? Is it true that we can turn to the one who died for us, and have our sins forgiven? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it is true, be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. It is true that if you look to the one who died for you.
The Lord Jesus, you can have those sins forgiven. And now he goes on to tell Nicodemus in verse 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You know, a lot of us have heard it many times. A lot of us can quote it. But think of Nicodemus hearing this. The Bible wasn't written then for this portion wasn't written then. Hearing for the first time that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever.
Which is a big word, which means you, me, anybody else believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So just like those ones who could turn and all they had to do was look at the pole and they could be healed. Tonight you can turn to Jesus and He will save you. Isn't it marvelous? Isn't it exciting? It's a message of deliverance. It's a message of freedom. Tonight you can be free.
Burden of sin. Tonight you can go. Instead of being on the road to hell, you can be on the road to heaven. Tonight. That empty, that void that you have in your heart can be filled. Jesus saves. Say it with me.
I'm sorry, going back to the first ye must be born again in the country 123 He must be born again for 17 For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him.
Might be saved.
What do you think Nicodemus thought?
I don't know what happened that night.
It wasn't just an ordinary night, I believe it was a night that changed his life.
I'm so thankful that he came to Jesus, even though it was night time, even though he might have been afraid of what others would think of him. Nicodemus came to Jesus. How about you?
We are going to shift from Nicodemus. We are going to focus on ourselves now.
Do you believe tonight that you are a Sinner? Do you believe that tonight you are a helpless Sinner and can't get to heaven on your own? Do you believe tonight that you need a Savior?
Do you believe tonight that Jesus can be your savior?
Do you believe tonight that Jesus is ready and willing to save you?
Tonight I ask you this question. Will you let him save you?
I ask you another question, what's keeping you from coming to him tonight?
Is this your friends? Is it the fact that you've told your parents for the last few years that you're a believer but are really not and would be kind of embarrassed if you told them tonight that you got saved?
00:45:00
Is that you tonight? I want you to know that they would be extremely happy.
If you were to tell your parents that tonight, you got saved.
Jesus is the only one who can save verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned.
But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son. Are you a believer tonight? Is your faith and trust in Jesus? He's the only one connect and save you. He's the only way to heaven. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. There are not many ways. In fact, there are not even two ways.
There are not even two ways. There is only one way, and that is through Jesus. That is through Jesus.
Verse 36.
There's one way. Now where are you? Where do you stand? Verse 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So as we start getting ready to, umm, to wind down and to closeout the Gospel meeting in the next 10 minutes or so.
You either believe this message tonight or you don't.
If you do believe, thank the Lord and help spread the word. Help. Continue telling your friends about Jesus. Continue living for him. Share the message of hope. Share the message of deliverance. And tonight, if you're not tonight, if you're not, well, let's not leave this room. Let's not go to bed tonight. Being an unbeliever, you do not want God's wrath abiding on him. This world is guilty of killing the Lord Jesus.
God is not forgotten. What is happening? You do not want the wrath of God hovering over your head.
You do not want that judgment that is coming. It's just a simple illustration, but it doesn't even do justice. So think of a little Ant running across the floor right now and that foot hovering over, ready to come down and stomp it out. Or think of the family on the window in that spice water. That hand is about ready to swat it.
Oh, tonight, do not put it off. Do not say I'm going to wait till tomorrow. I'm going to wait until I get home from the conference. I'm going to wait until I'm just a little bit older.
And I'm gonna wait until I understand it's just a little bit better. Don't do that. Do not wait.
Umm, Chase Asheville was up at the Vacation Bible School and we're here on this and he was telling the story, a true story. He was in either 4th or 5th grade and uh, he was about 10 years old and he had a good friend named Kenneth and he and Kenneth would often play basketball together.
And they were really good friends.
And after school.
And they had played some basketball together. And Chase said to Kenneth, see you tomorrow.
Remember, he's only about 10 years old, he said to his friends. See you tomorrow. To his friend Kenneth. That evening, Kenneth was delivering newspapers.
And was hit by a car.
And was killed.
See you tomorrow.
He didn't get the chance to see his friend tomorrow.
His friend was killed.
I don't want to sound negative, don't want to sound.
What do you, what's even the right word? But the reason why I share this is if you're sitting here tonight and you're saying I know I need to get saved, I really want to get saved, but I'm just just going to put it off just a little bit. My message to you is don't do it tonight.
Tonight, do not put it off. Do not put it off. He must be born again. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Just kind of summarizing some of the points that we've gone over tonight. Jesus loves you and he cares about you.
Religion does not save. Jesus saves. Salvation is found in a person, your morality, the family that you come from, the connections that you have. Both cannot save you.
00:50:07
Tonight, many people know that fear keeps them from coming to Christ. Do not let fear keep you.
From coming to Christ, do not let fear.
Salvation is based on faith in a person. That's not based on a feeling. Tonight salvation is found only in Jesus. It's not a feeling.
A reminder that every single person must experience the new birth. He must be born again. That's for everyone. And there's only one way to get to heaven, and there's not. There's not two or more. It's only one way. Also a reminder that the death on the cross was necessary. Sin must be dealt with and it must be judged, and it was judged at the cross.
And lastly, two groups of people there in verse 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
Are you in that group? I'm in that group, I think your parents are in that group, maybe your brothers in that group, your sister, but are you in that group? Are you in the group that can say I believe or are you in the group that says he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. As we close tonight, if you would like to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Here's how you can do it.
You can do it right where you are, and you can do it quietly.
When you talk with God, just like you would talk with me, you're open. And you can say it without even verbalizing it. You can put it in your own words.
Lord Jesus.
In the center.
I deserve to go to hell.
But I believe you died for me.
And I accept your son as my savior.
That's how we get saved.
If you have any questions based on what you've heard tonight, if there was something said that doesn't make sense, or if you'd like further clarification.
You can come see me, I'll just be sitting over here by my wife. Or talk to someone, even if you don't know their name, they're here to help. We don't want anyone to leave this room unsaved. You must be born again. Let's say that altogether. Ye must be born again. In closing, could we sing the song #29?
A ruler once came to Jesus by night to ask him the way of salvation and light.
The Master made answer in words true and plain. Ye must be born again. Verse two of the song is the solemn one. It says, Ye children of men, attend to the word so solemnly uttered by Jesus the Lord, and let not this message to you be in vain. Ye must be born again. O ye who would enter this glorious rest, and sing with the ransom the song of the blessed.
The life everlasting, if he would obtain, he must be born again. And before we sing the song, I need to share how the story ended. I almost forgot, sorry about that. Later on in the book of John we read that after Jesus died, and very likely Nicodemus was there to see the death of Jesus on the cross, probably going through his mind. Those words, the Son of Man must be lifted up.
Those words God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. After Jesus died, Nicodemus and another man, Joseph, they helped take down the body of Jesus and use the spices on him and then put him in a sepulchre. I believe that we will see in Nicodemus in heaven, and when we get there, if we were to ask him, Nicodemus.
Are you glad that you came to Jesus? He would say yes. Are you glad that you came to him that night? He would say yes, I am. Yes. I'm very glad. Nicodemus, do you have any regrets about what you did? No. No, I don't.
And I'm just putting the words you might have said, You know, I wish I had it done it sooner. Boys and girls, do not put it off. Do not put it off. OK #28 I'm sorry #29 Let's stand and sing it.
Ruler One came to chase us by night, to ask him the way of salvation, and my.
00:55:11
Answers.
Yeah.
Close with this short poem before we pray, reminding us of our need of a Savior. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness.
Cigar.
Sent us the Savior. Hi Evan. I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior. Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, we just thank you for this wonderful message. We pray that these words would not be in vain, that they would not fall upon deaf ears, but that everyone would see their need of a Savior and the truth that you must be born again. We pray that tonight there would be rejoicing in this room and rejoicing in heaven as boys and girls and older ones too, except the their own personal Savior, and wherever the gospel is preached, that there would be souls who get saved tonight.
We give the thanks, Lord Jesus, and thy worthy and precious name, Amen.
Sin Offering
Children—Bob Woods
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.
There might be some Bible references that I'll get you to read for me.
OK, it's uh, does anybody have a song they'd like to sing?
Yes #11.
Let's sing the first and last just so that we can sing a couple more songs.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, when the clouds unfold their wings of strife, when the strong tides lift and the cable strain? Will your anchor drift?
Or firm remains.
Nsnoise.
Will your eyes be holed through the morning?
Light and your anchors say I am pleased to honor when I saw an art.
Forever.
So I got a prize for you. Thank you for giving him. Now. Anybody else have a hymn? Yeah.
Yeah.
#9.
We'll sing first and last again.
Come every so by thin a breath. There's mercy with the Lord.
And he will surely give you red by Christ singing it is one.
00:05:38
I think you had one too, didn't you? Do you have him? What number? Umm, 1616. What's your name? Ben. Thank you. What's your name? Tommy. Thank you very much. Tell me again, what's your What was the hymn 16? Thank you.
Whosoever hear us out about then the blasted tidings all the world around.
Spread the joyfulness.
Whosoever.
Come, but must not delay now the door is over.
Enter while you may. Jesus is the truth, they only living way.
Whosoever will make.
Come whosoever.
Where?
Then the proclamation of the failure.
How about a girl?
Yes.
#17.
Have you any run for?
Jesus.
Here for the Lord of sin.
As he knocks and I said admission.
Center where you let him in.
Room for days of Lord of glory.
Hasten now his word. Obey.
It's time for Jesus.
As in, Gracie calls again.
Oh, today is time.
Accepted.
Tomorrow you may call in vain.
Around four days, Florida.
00:10:02
Glory.
Days and now his word obeyed.
Sway the art story.
Of.
Him. Enter what you've made.
What's your name?
Let's stop a minute. And at home what we usually do is we say a Sunday school verse. You know, I'd, I'd give anybody an opportunity to say the, the verse that's on our, our Sunday School paper or a, a, a verse that they've learned. Is there somebody that would wanna do either?
You don't have to.
Yep, you have one that you want to say.
Pardon.
You don't have to say one. If you want to, you can.
The verse for today is First Corinthians 118. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of God.
You can stand up and say it.
Teaching of the Cross is unto them that perish foolishness, and.
But.
On to.
US that are saved.
It is the power of God.
1St Corinthians 118 Tremendous.
The preaching of the cross is undid in that parish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. First Corinthians 118 tremendous. I know that you've already got a, a prize, but that's, uh, you get another prize.
You get one too.
Thank you. Excellent. Anybody else wanna say today's verse?
Yes, go right ahead.
But unto us that are safe, that which are saved is is the color of God. First Corinthians 118 excellent.
Anybody else?
You sing another song. We might at the end.
Anybody else? I'm afraid today's verse. OK, let's uh, ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and Father, we thank you for the time to be here and, uh, talk, uh, talk to the, uh, in the Sunday school and we think of the, the cross of Christ and, uh, how much it means to us. And so as we, uh, look into that word, we, we ask for help as we, uh, talk about the, the gospel and the, uh.
Person and work of Christ. And we know Lord Jesus, how everything hinges on the cross of Christ and that death for us. So what a privilege it is to talk, to be able to present the way of salvation to whosoever will. And so we just ask for help with our time. In thy name we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
You know, let's that's really what I had on my heart to talk about was.
Cross of Christ and in that turn to Leviticus. This is the verse that I'd like to look at, the verse in the Old Testament.
But it this one verse brings out.
Four, four things that that that I had on my heart to talk about. And is there anybody that would want to help me in reading that verse if you find it and would like to read it?
Raise your hand. It's Leviticus.
00:15:01
429.
Yes, Leviticus 429.
And Isha laid his hand upon the head of the spin offering and play to sin Afrin in the place of the burnt offering. Excellent, thank you very much for your help.
So as we read this verse.
Really what this is, is this is, uh, an Israelite that is, uh, coming before the priest with, uh, a sin offering and that sin offering, I just wrote this up here. It would probably be, this is not everyone, but it would probably be one of these. It might be something else, but it would be, uh, probably a lamb, a goat, or a Bullock.
And you know I don't just to pretend.
We'd say that this is our our sin offering and it would be here before the priest.
And he would lay his hand on the head of the sin offering. You know, as we, as we think about it, it's it shows us how the themes in the Bible run from beginning to end. You know, this, this offering is really pointing to the Lord Jesus on the cross. And so as we, as we think about this, one of the things that it brings to mind.
Is.
Dennis and Israelite were here and he was before the priest and he would have his hand on that sin offering.
He would really, he would really be saying that he's a Sinner. You know, he wouldn't even be here had he not in his own heart agreed that he was guilty of sin and and that he needed a sin offering. And so as we look at this verse here, one of the things that we immediately see is.
By faith, he is laying his hand on a sin offering.
He is owning to God that he is a guilty Sinner and that he needs to sacrifice for his sins. And you know, it points us to the gospel. It's really the first step of the gospel. It's really the first step is to own that we're a Sinner, that we're guilty before God. And really that's repentance. And you know, there's a verse that says.
God commandeth all men everywhere to repent and so really the 1St place, a blessing with the gospel is to see that we're guilty and that we're lost. And so if he lays his hand on that sin offering, he is really admitting that he's a guilty Sinner before God. You know the other thing that he's really.
In this.
And by faith laying his hand on this offering is that he deserved to die. That's the other thing is that really not only is he a Sinner, but.
But that he deserved to die. And you know, as we read that verse, read that verse one more time, somebody wanna read that verse one more time?
Yep, you can read it again. Read it real loud one more time.
And slay his sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. OK, here's the thing. When I ask, it doesn't say it, but we know that this is true. What can you say about that lamb or that goat? What can you say about that lamb or that goat?
Is there one thing that you can say about it?
Yes.
00:20:03
No, it doesn't. That was the next thing I was gonna ask. But before we get to that, can you think of something else? You really. You said it and I'll. I'll say it for you. That's a live animal.
No, it's not. I know it's pretend.
But that is a that is a live animal and that animal is about to be sacrificed. It's about to to die. His life is going to be take he's going to be killed. And that's the that's really the other thing is that the Israelite, as he puts his hand on the live sacrifice, he's admitting to God that he deserved to die.
He deserves to die. He's guilty. He really deserves the death that this animal is about to.
This animal is innocent. This animal has not done anything. And so he's really deserving that he's really saying by faith as he lays his hand on the head of the the offering that God should punish me.
But this animal is going to die in my stead. And that's the third thing that I want to show you is. The second is, is that the punishment Really, I deserve that punishment. You and I deserve death. And you know, there's a verse that says the wages of sin is death, and you and I are sinners and you and I deserve to die.
We deserve this death, this penalty. That's the penalty. That's the wages for our sin. And so the next is.
The Israelite is standing here with the the sacrifice, the offering that's about to be killed.
He is agreeing with God.
That this is a substitute in his stead.
And that this animal is dying as a substitute for him. And you don't want to stop here just a minute because.
It's really a wonderful subject when we look at the cross of Christ and we see what the Lord has done and we see what God has done. God has made provision for guilty sinners such as us that our sins are not swept under the rugs, so to speak, The full penalty.
Of our sins were poured out on the substitute, that sacrifice, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus there on the cross. And so it's one of the most wonderful principles of Christianity. No other religion can boast that their God died for them. And you and I can. You and I can boast that our God died for us.
And So what a wonderful thing to think about. You know, there's a couple verses I would like to read.
Look at Luke 2241.
Whoever finds that can raise your hand if you'd like to read it.
Luke 22.
41.
Yes, you can read it.
From about a stone, cast and kneel down and pray.
If they'll be willing to move this cup from me nevertheless. Not my will, but thine be done.
On therapy appeared an Angel under him from heaven, strengthening him. And the last one is 44.
And being in in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Thank you very much.
00:25:06
Lord as he's here, he knows what's gonna happen. He knows that he is gonna be a sin offering. He knows that God is gonna place our sins on Him. And it's something that.
It says the being in agony as he approached the the death and where God would lay our sins on him.
It says he sweated his great drops of blood. And so as we think about it.
We marvel that God would provide a way that He could bless man.
That he could take care of the penalty for our sins and that you and I could be blessed and God could be righteous in blessing you and I. And so there's another one I'd like you to read to go to Psalm 69 one. Somebody else that hasn't read. Would you like to read Psalm 69 one?
Yes.
Go right ahead.
69 One.
Save me, O God, for the waters, or come in unto my soul. Henry first five.
O God, thou knowest my fear, Smith, and my sins are not hid from these. You know, this is looking forward. This is, uh, prophetically looking forward to the cross. And as we read this verse five, we know that the Lord was without sin. And so how how interesting here that this verse would be here. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness.
And my sins are not hid from the, you know, he claimed our sins as his own. And, you know, that's the next verse I'd like to read in first Peter.
First, Peter.
First Peter 2.
22 Who did no sin?
Verse 24 through his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree and so.
The other thing that that I would like to say about this is as the Israelite was putting his hand on the head of the the sacrifice.
There was a transfer of his sins to that sacrifice.
You know, this is a wonderful thing because if the sins are transferred, they're no longer on me. They're taken off of me and put on the Lord Jesus. It says that there He took our sins in his own body on the truth.
He paid the debt that you and I deserved, and so we marvel at the goodness of God that He would provide a way that you and I could be blessed and full payment would be made for our debt, you know.
Substitution is a wonderful subject and there's a story that I'd like to try to tell if I can remember it. There was a a school that I don't know the date, but.
It was in in Virginia I believe and the school was a one room school where it wasn't first, second, third. It was all of the grades were together and it was all boys and there was.
The boys were were were very umm.
Unruly and difficult to, to handle and the number of, uh, school teachers that were there that tried to, uh, to take up to, to teach and to, to keep, uh, uh, to be a, a teacher at school. It, it was so difficult a job because the boys were so difficult that no teacher could stay.
00:30:08
And many times the, the boys in the class would beat the teacher up. And so the, the person that was the schoolmaster that was in charge of the, uh, that school had the applications and a fellow came up, a young fella came up and applied for the job. And he, the schoolmaster told him, he said this is not a normal job.
This is and he said, I know the circumstances and he said I'm willing to do it. And so as the teacher came to school the very first day, one of the things that he did, he got the class together and he said, let's put some, let's make some rules. And so, you know, the kids were all laughing at him. He was not a big fella. And they knew if it got down to any.
You know, physical thought that they would easily take care of this little, uh, teacher. But anyway, he said, uh, let's make some rules for, for before we start. And so they, they started shouting out rules and they, they said something like no stealing.
And then they said everybody had to be at school on time.
No foul language.
And so they went all the way down until they got to 10. They made 1010 rules.
So after they got done, the the teacher said, if they're one of these rules are broken, there has to be a consequence for those, those rules. And So what would be the consequence? And you know, again, these fellows were, you know, trying to to show their their stuff and all and they said.
10 lashes.
Across the back.
Without.
The coat.
And, uh, the teacher said, you know, that's very severe. They said, Oh yes, that's, that's what we're gonna do. If any of these are broken, that's the penalty.
For breaking a a rule. And so it wasn't long after school had been in session that Big Tom came up to the teacher and said that somebody has stolen my lunch.
And so, uh, the teacher came to, uh, came to the class and, and, and said, you know, we, we've got a problem. Somebody has, uh, stolen big Tom's lunch. And so the, the teacher said, everybody will have to get to your desk. And so he started going one by one down the road and looking in, in the desks to see if he could find the lunch and he got to little gyms desk.
And when he opened it up.
There was Big Toms lunch.
And the, the teacher said, uh, little Jim, you know that, uh, you know, we made the rule about no stealing and, you know, the, the consequences for, uh, stealing is UH-10 lashes across the back. And uh, uh, he said, we're gonna have to, we're gonna have to have the penalty for that. And, uh.
Little Jim said listen, he said.
In a, in a trembling voice, he said, you can, you can do the, the 10 lashes, but not without the coat off. And, uh, the teacher said that, but that's the rule. That's, that's what we said that it had to be that way. And he said, you'll have to take your coat off. And so little Jim took his coat off and he didn't have a shirt.
00:35:01
And all they had was just strings that were holding his pants up that were wrapped around his, his, his, uh, his skin. And the teacher said, little Jim, where, where's your shirt? And he said, my father passed away. It's very difficult to make ends meet. My mom is very poor. And he said today was wash day and I only have one shirt.
And he said I wore my brothers heavy coat so that I could keep warm.
Teachers heart design.
What am I going to do?
And as he stood there, he said he thought the penalty has to be carried out. And so as he was about to to raise the whip and to start the lashes, Big Tom jumped up out of the back of the room and came up to the front of the of the room. And he said, listen, I will be willing to take those 10 lashes for Little Jim.
And the teacher said.
There is a provision.
That we all have to agree that a substitute could take these flashes. And so Big Jim took his coat off. Uh, Big Tom took his coat off and the teacher administered those lashes. And as they were getting right to the end, Little Jim came running up sobbing and he jumped on Big Tom and he hugged his neck and he said.
I'm sorry, Thank you for taking these flashes. I will love you forever. You know, it's a poor illustration of what the Lord has done, but isn't it wonderful to see the provision that God has made by substitution, that the penalty that we deserve as guilty sinners and so as we see our guiltiness.
And are earned unworthiness. And then we see the love of God and the mercy and the grace that's been shown to us. Indeed, our hearts go out and thankfulness and praise for what God has done and for what the Lord has done. Now I want to go to the the last one.
You know, this one is just as important as the last one. And this is so wonderful to think about, too. And this is satisfaction. And if you and I ever were to doubt God's acceptance of that sacrifice, this is the answer. It's resurrection. It's the empty tomb.
He's not dead anymore, He's alive at God's right hand. And so there's a verse that I'd like to read with that.
Locate 1St Corinthians 15.
And it's somebody that hasn't read it read a verse would like to you can you can raise your hand 1St Corinthians 15.
Verse three and four. First Corinthians 15 three and four.
At the 10th 1St Corinthians 15 three stop.
For I.
Never answered you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for hours since reporting to the.
Scriptures and verse four and.
That he was buried.
And that he rose again, and.
The third day, according according to the.
Ski shoes. Excellent. And then there's another verse that you get that someone can read. It's in Philippians 3.
00:40:05
Stop.
Philippians 3.
If I forget you.
At the end, come up and you can get a price.
Anybody else wanna read a verse here? Are you breadwinner? You've read one. Is there somebody that hasn't read one?
I'll read it just because of times look at Philippians.
Philippians 2, verse 9.
Square 4. God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So is there ever a doubt? We look at the empty tank? God accepts his sacrifice. It's an exclamation point that this offering for sin for you and I is acceptable. He is highly exalted at God's right hand.
Here's something else that's really wonderful. Our sins were transferred to the Lord as a substitute.
Where are they now?
They're gone. The Lord is in heaven. We read that verse where it says our sins were put on on Him, on his own, in his own body, on the tree. Where is the Lord now? He's in heaven. No sin can get to heaven. Our sins were transferred to the Lord and they're gone. It's so wonderful to see that not only does resurrection show God's acceptance.
Our sins are gone because the Lord is exalted at God's right hand. And so as we look at this, when we see that our debt has been paid in full, God's holiness was not compromised. And So what a wonderful thing that God can now bless you and I on a righteous basis. And So what a wonderful thing that a willing substitute was provided.
And now I wanna read one more verse. It's in Acts 1631. Our time is gone, but I wanna read this verse.
It's a well known verse, but we'll turn to it and read it.
X16 verse 31.
Verse 30 And the question is, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Verse 31 And they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, as we stand here and we look at Calvary, we're blessed by faith. We are looking back to a work that was done and a work that is completed. And you and I are blessed by faith in the work of another.
And so as we tell out the Gospel, there's two things that we see. We see the person of Christ and we see the work of Christ. And so we put our trust and belief in the person and work that was done on Calvary's cross. So when this verse that we hear believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, that is what we're doing. We're putting our trust and bull and.
Everything our hope is built on the work on Calvary's cross and you know, the apostle Paul could say.
Glory in that cross, you know it means it's everything to us. Everything hinges on the work that was done on Calvary's cross. You know, when I, when I'm in closing, I want to tell you that just a short time ago, little boy asked me.
00:45:09
He said is it true that if a soul were to die and not be saved that they would be lost forever?
And he stressed that, and you know what that really means is that your faith is not resting. You don't believe on that work. And so read. The last verse we want to read is the last verse of John 3.
John, 336.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life. And here's the answer. But the wrath of God abideth on him.
So the answer is, there's no second chance.
If a soul were to part this scene and was not saved, did not know the Lord Jesus, did not have their full trust on that finished work, there's no second chance.
Let's just write our God and Father, we thank thee for the cross of Christ. We thank thee for the the work that was done on Calvary's cross. We thank thee that could take centers such as us and bring us into a place of blessing and the righteousness and holiness not be compromised. Lord Jesus, we thank thee that doubt it's become a willing sacrifice.
For us, we thank, we are thankful for the atoning work and we know if there were any doubt, we see the.
Exalted at God's right hand, so we thank Thee for this time that we can be over Thy word, and we commit the the rest of the day to Thee, giving thanks and Thy worthy precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
String Theory
YP Talk—Dave Ladore
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.
Hello, everybody. Can you hear me? More so on that side than this side. So I got the one speaker here, all right.
Now you 2 gentlemen here, if we could slide this bench over to this side here, we're going to need the room. Turn it a bit so you can let people through.
Perfect.
I know, where is the sound guy when you need one?
OK, so to start with.
I need a willing victim. I mean volunteer Kyle.
Yes, excellent, Kyle.
All right. Do you know how to tell you not kind of kind of all right, kind of good. We better pray then, OK.
All right, we'll just ask the Lord for help. Our Lord and Savior, we thank you for the wonderful time we've had today and over the last few days. Lord, and your safety.
Learning and growing closer to you, Lord God, just to be in your presence, Lord God, to think of you in so many different ways and to be able to be with their brothers and sisters and like mine, Lord God, now I just pray for your Holy Spirit to guide me and give me wisdom and words for this message, Lord God, that it would be from you and your name we pray, Amen.
All right.
We can tie that up to here.
Look at the technique. Amazing.
And we'll put this one on this side here.
After the bird stuff is removed.
All right, well, give them a great big round of applause, but he's not off the hook yet.
Well, he's making sure those knots are tight. He must be nervous.
All right, I'm sure you've all heard of quantum physics, The Big Bang theory. This evening we're going to talk about string theory.
Yeah, I know. OK, so.
Strings or rope, If anybody's ever done some mountain climbing or rock climbing, there's kind of two different types of ropes or caps that they use on ropes. There's what they call a static rope, and there's also a dynamic rope. And usually these ropes are rated for a static. So a static would be say 100 LB weight.
Just dangling here, OK, Now a dynamic load would be something that's hanging from there and bouncing around or getting blown around or dropping from a high height and then stretching to its limit before it breaks. So usually a static load is probably about double with the dynamic load would be OK. So how much do you weigh roughly? Kyle? One 35175 OK, let's say the static.
Load on this rope is £300.
So Kyle to hang from this rope over this edge. Now this is not the £300 rope by the way, so do not do this at home, OK? This is the far left, but he could happily hang over this ledge.
Until he got tired, but the rope wouldn't break.
Now if Kyle was to jump off that rope, the dynamic load is a lot higher than a static load and chances are it would be half. So we said the rating was about 300 lbs of dynamic. So sorry for the static. So dynamic load would be about 150 lbs. So Kyle would be about 25 lbs.
Short so Kyle would be.
Examining the pavement.
But to hang on it, he could hang there for a long time. I just got to grab my notes here quickly.
Thank you.
So we all know that there's static and dynamic loads. OK, so this rope here can hold tile. I need a young lady that would be willing to.
Hi, Kyle up.
It doesn't have to be his sister because she would tie it way too tight.
Any volunteers?
00:05:00
It won't be embarrassing, except for Kyle. Alright, come on up.
Hello, are you nervous?
That's OK, Good. OK. So.
Don't let go of the rope. It's a long fall. It's been OK. Yeah. So he's got something to hang on to here. Now, don't take this personally, OK? Are you a Christian, Kyle? Yes. You know, the Lord is your as your Savior. Yes. OK. We will pretend, hypothetically that you are not a Christian, OK.
So you don't have a lifeline.
Now, if you two were friends and hanging out and things like that and something happened.
You might be hanging on to Kyle.
So now his static load of 300 lbs and he's 175, and you're far less than that.
Not quite OK, but they would hold you, they would hold the two of you, right? Static loads going to hold them. There's no wind and waves. There's no problems here. But.
There's some troubles happen in your life.
Troubles are dynamic. They can change. They move.
They can be up and down kind of good times and bad times, so all of a sudden you're a little bit of a safety margin is gone.
And that can drag a Christian down. Like I said, she's a Christian. She's in disguise right now. But.
It can drag you down when you're with friends that are not Christians. I'm not saying you shouldn't have friends that are of this world. A lot of you will. And you know what? There's a good chance that you can sow some seeds that they will come to know the Lord as their Savior.
But when they're not saved, they can put a load on you as well, and you have to be aware of that.
And that's the end of it. No, I'm kidding. So I'm going to turn to 2nd Christians 614.
B. Not unequally yoked.
Together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?
We have to be very careful about our walk because we are here to witness and pray for those.
And we hope that they become Christians as well. But they can be a load on us, so we have to be sure in our own faith.
Now.
We have an anchor rope here.
And in Matthew 714 it talks about our path being straight and narrow.
Basically, we've got a rope that is fastened to our Lord and Savior.
I know what the beam, but for all intents and purposes, this is our Lord and Savior here, and He's attached to Him. So if the wind and waves are blowing him around, he's still anchored.
OK, now.
I am going to embarrass one of my sons who is not here tonight.
My youngest son, Zachary, is three years old.
OK, he has No Fear.
And because he hasn't been to school yet, he hasn't studied gravity, so he doesn't think it affects him.
So, Zachary. Sorry, Benjamin.
Yeah, sorry, Zach.
I like to stay up five minutes later tonight.
Zachary has some wisdom and he has steady gravity. He has seen the effects of it. Not as much because he's a little bit shorter to the ground, but he's probably bigger than me anyways and beat me up in the future.
So Benjamin, we have this playground in our backyard and there's stuff going up and it's about this high on the deck of it. So it's about 5 foot high. So we have this rope that's tied up about here.
Benjamin climbs up to the top.
Grabs onto the rope.
Jumps and swings like a Tarzan and goes back narrowly missing wood structures with his head and other appendages.
And he does it again, and again and again.
00:10:00
With No Fear.
But the one thing I have noticed, my wife is quite careful of this.
After a while his hands can burn a little bit because as you're swinging you tend to slide when there's stresses.
On the bottom of the rope.
We have.
Kind of a loop with a stopper knot.
So as he's swinging and if he slides down, he wraps his little legs and his backside around this and keeps from falling off of it and crashing into things.
So he has No Fear.
He does have a stop or not.
That stop or not.
Is assurance of our salvation because even if in life we start to slide.
When we're assured of our salvation, we have that stopper knot.
And if we read in John 10 verse 29.
My father, which gave me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
Isn't that wonderful?
Sureness of our salvation. Not even though, even though when things get tough and we start to slide a little bit, we have a stopper knot and the Lord is our our salvation.
That little stop or not gives us something to kind of rest on and we can kind of start pulling back up with the Lord's help because as Christians, there are times when we slide back a little bit. I know I have.
I'm sure others have as well, but it's nice to know I'm not going to fall off that rope. Even if my hands get tired, I can kind of fit.
Hold on for a bit and then draw my strength in the Lord to kind of climb back up a bit.
So that's kind of one portion of my string theory for tonight.
You have to be sure of your salvation. You have to be careful about loads and how you're yoked or how you're balanced with those around you.
So let's go to a little bit different Ave. now with our string theory.
And I need two more volunteers.
Would you like to volunteer?
Sure. All right. Come on up.
You got your stop or not in there, Kyle. No, just put a stop or not in that one.
And her Christian, she has a stopper knot already.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Perfect. Let's put in there. Stop. Or not in there just to be, you know, just to be safe. All right, we have another gentleman.
Come on up. First one up. Perfect.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Yes, I do. All right, put a stopper knot in.
All right, we got two ropes left.
That's good, good, good. OK. So if we can get you all to kind of come out this way and kind of stretch the ropes a little bit.
OK, our Christian walk. We're all going in the same direction to our Lord and Savior. We might have slightly different paths, but the end result is the same.
Now, sometimes there's people we meet and we may think, hey, this might be the one for me.
But we never really know until God tells us. So sometimes our lives can be intertwined. So you can come this way and over wrap on this rope here.
OK.
Not bad. Now if you can come over top.
All right, so if we think of the camp we're at this weekend.
We're all Christians, we're all going the same place and for this weekend our lives are entwined for a short time and it is a wonderful time to be together with other Christians.
00:15:00
It doesn't mean that we're going to be on the same path, so that the road is going to be the exact same streets. Some of us are going through Canada, some through the US, some through Mexico. So we all know that we're going to reach heaven in the end.
But there are times when we will be together. We don't know if that's short term or long term. You know, we may meet someone and say, hey, that could be somebody that.
Saw me out for me.
But you really have to wait on the Lord, otherwise you might be getting off your path a little bit and getting entangled.
Because the Lord does have someone that's chosen for you, that one person. And it's best not to mess with the emotions of others because.
Santa Rita, Colossians 3/2.
Sorry, yeah, 32 Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.
It's great to have friends and fellowship, but set your affections on things above.
Not on things on the earth. Well, why is that?
Because you want God to be in control, not our emotions.
Not our hearts in a sense, because they can sometimes lead us astray, but God will never lead us astray.
So I am going to turn to Matthew 633.
But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Don't seek your spouse. Don't seek a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Yes, see friends, especially Christians.
Seek to be the Lord's bidding and to preach His word, and be a witness that seek ye first the things of God, the Kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you.
Be it God's will. We don't always know God's will in our life. We know we're going to end up, but our emotions can kind of get in the way of that sometimes.
So I need two more volunteers. They know who they are.
And I'm just going to pre and find them because we're all here on the weekend, right?
Yes, need to tie the knot here.
Not together yet.
I know that was a setup.
Very nice, very nice. Sorry I missed the wedding.
Thank you.
In in our conference, there's been one verse that was on the invitations and on the timetables that keeps coming up and it's been on my heart a bit too, and that's Philippians 310.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comfortable unto his death.
That I may know him.
It's a wonderful thing to know him.
And on this path in our life, we don't always know who we're going to be with or who we're going to meet, but it's wonderful when we wait upon the Lord.
And do his things because we don't know if we're going to be married or when or how long it's going to be until we are married until we meet that person.
It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be 10 years from now. You don't always know that that person the Lord has intended to you intended for you to last forever. And so the Lord is the one that ties the knot between those He has chosen.
00:20:17
We don't tie the knot.
The Lord kind of does.
So we're all intertwined, we're all friends, we're all family, brothers and sisters in Christ. But if that's the way down from the Lord and in His time, you can tie the knot.
Thank you. You may all release or not, but you're not going to lose your path.
I have a warm round of applause for our volunteers.
It's good to see the newlyweds, isn't it?
That was your model.
Very nice, you can keep the rope.
Oh, thank you.
So I do think everybody for listening to the guy who normally is not making sound, but he's behind the sound table. It's not my normal place, but umm, I do appreciate your patience and I suppose we should give thanks for the snacks.
Our Lord and Savior, we do thank you Lord God for this time of friendship and fellowship and being with family, Lord God and making new friends. Lord, we just thank you that you were the focus of our time together, Lord. And we just pray a blessing upon the food and the snacks, the beverages, Lord God, that it would nourish our our bodies, Lord God, that we would continue on thinking of you and talking of you and nursing our souls. In your name we pray, Amen.
Open Mtg. 5
Open—T. Roach, P. Jennings, R. Mackewich
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.
In 172.
And I'm going to play.
Right, our godfather, we so we sing this song. It's a it's a prayer of ours that indeed thou would teach us more for God bless ways. We thank thee again for the opportunity and the time before us. And so with the thought that we've had before us that we might know thee better. And so we asked for help as we go forward to guide and direct us.
In that night we pray Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen.
I'd like to speak on just a few things that have been before us over the last couple of days before most of you arrived, the young people together and we're talking a little bit about some of the things that we've continued to talk about.
The end of the first man in the flesh and hell, that's all come to an end before God at the cross, but then also what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, that new life that we have. And so I just want to talk about one part of that in connection with what we had later in the meetings and specifically with respect to grace.
If we could just turn to a verse in Romans.
Romans, chapter 6.
In verse 14 it says For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you, not under law, but under grace.
And.
Just wanted to speak for a few minutes about grace because that's where we are as Christians. God has taken up with us the new principle, grace and under grace he deals with us in a way completely different from how he had dealt with man before the cross. And it's really important that we understand that and.
00:05:26
How that relates to us right now in our life?
Now when it comes to the apostle Paul, you see he goes right on in verse 15. He says, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? And he says God forbid. And that's the question that naturally arises. If the principle that we're under isn't law or some means by which we can know restraint, then what keeps us from sinning?
And so the apostle Paul goes on here and explains a little bit about that, and I don't wish to take that up from the standpoint of Romans.
Right now, but only to make that point and you'll find out as you go through the book of Romans that he was accused of taking up this principle of grace and because of that, umm, being insensitive to scent. In fact, let's just look at that for a moment. If we go to Romans chapter 3, we see the accusation written there in verse eight, it says and not.
As and not rather as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, let us do evil, that good may come.
So some were slandering the apostle Paul and saying this is his doctrine. He just says we're under grace, and because we're under grace, the grace of God covers everything and therefore let us do evil that good may come. He says. Others agree and say, yes, that's what Paul teaches. And in fact, you can see something of maybe what they're even talking about if you go to the end of Romans chapter 5.
The middle of verse 20 is the apostle Paul writes here, but but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And so the grace of God is great and it does cover.
But in no way does the grace of God make light of sin. And that's the charge they were making against this teaching. And it's the charge that ones make today. And it's very natural and it's something that may come up in every one of our minds because.
Each one of us who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ has got the old life that we were born with the old nature and we've got a new life and the old nature thinks that way, the way these ones are speaking about, and our new life responds to grace and so.
I just wanted to try to explain it from 1 standpoint, perhaps could be taking up from many standpoints in the word of God, but.
What was on my heart was just to go over Titus Chapter 2 for a few moments.
Just a few verses there in Titus chapter 2.
And verse 11 Says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Now we find something about the grace of God.
It has now appeared, and what does it do? It brings salvation to all. That by itself teaches us something that they would none who could come any other way. God had to, by His grace, bring the salvation to all men, because none could marry any other way but by God's grace. And so now it's come to all, and then it does something. It doesn't just come to us all and save us so that we can be.
Uh, continue on where we were, let us do evil. That good may come, as they said. And some people think, well, let's just, you know, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. We hear it all the time. And once you've done that, then it doesn't matter what you do in your life. The grace of God covers all and you can live any kind of life you want. You're going to heaven, so you might as well have a good time. Live it up.
00:10:14
Also Paul went on there and and Romans chapter 3 to say whose damnation is just the ones who speak that way. It's not at all with the grace of God teaches us.
And here we find the grace of God doesn't just leave us to do whatever we want. It actually teaches us something. And it teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, OK, maybe those grosser things, all the ungodliness that would be in the world, but then the worldly lust too, not just those really bad things, but maybe, well, fame. How are these things that would attract us in the world? Grace teaches us to leave that.
Instead, deny that we should live soberly.
Righteously and godly in this present world and suggested that that soberly would be inside how we are right in our hearts, that we're sober and very careful as to how we think. The innermost part of our being, our thoughts, but then righteously is toward others that are around us. The grace of God teaches us about that too, that we're not gonna go on and deal unjustly with others.
But instead, we're gonna act in the right way and then godly towards God.
In this present world.
In all these spheres of our life, the grace of God would teach us to rise above and live a different way and.
We see that in no way does it allow us to just go and do what we want. Let us do evil. That good may come and it does something else. It continues on says, looking for that blessed hope.
And glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Two things here. The Lord Jesus is about to come at any moment. And so the grace of God teaches us about that, reminds us about that. And if we're waiting for him to come at any moment, that's going to have an effect in our lives. But then there's something else here too.
Looking not only for the blessed hope, but also the appearing glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And so the Lord is going to come again into this world, and we're going to come with Him when He does. And when He does come, everything that is here that would attract their hearts now is going to be completely judged. God will be judging that as soon as He takes us away, no doubt, from this world.
But what does that do for us?
You know in Second Timothy chapter 3, the apostle Paul says, henceforth there is laid out for me a crown of righteousness.
And then he says, And not for me only, but for all those that love is appearing.
Now why does he say that? We're talking about the same thing, the appearing of the Lord when he comes again and he's going to reign in power and glory.
Well, it could be because, and God appreciates so much that we would have the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ before us, that he will just give us that crown.
It could be, but I don't think that's the thought there really. I think it's more of one of those lessons that praise teaches us because.
When the Lord Jesus comes again, like we said, the world is going to be judged, all that is around us, it's going to come under the judgment of God, and all of his enemies are going to be put down and he is going to reign supreme above everything and he.
Even now it's rightfully the King of King and Lord of Lords. But then he will be universally acknowledged though.
And when we get our minds and our hearts on that, it takes our hearts away from this world that's under judgment, and it puts our hearts and our eyes and our minds on the one who's going to have his rightful place. And it does it right now, even though it hasn't happened yet. And because of that, it has an effect not only in our minds and our hearts, but it goes right down to our feet. You get that thought. And at first, John, chapter 3.
Where it speaks again about the appearing there, and it says he that has his hope in him purifies himself, even if he is pure.
00:15:07
And so grace gives us that hope to have an effect in our lives. But I want to just go back to the 12Th verse.
It says teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live.
Right soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, he might say, how does Greece really teach? I might see it a little bit in in what it brings before us to the coming of the Lord. But how can grace actually teach that? I can understand if you said it's the word of God that teaches that.
Or even it's pretty easy to understand if somebody said, well, the law teaches to do right, doesn't it? But how does grace do that? I mean, grace isn't a set of rules. How? How can it?
Actually teach these things.
And I used to wonder that.
And I still have much to learn about that. I'll be glad to hear anybody else's thoughts on it. But I believe we get the answer right here in Titus. One of them is given the next chapter very beautifully. Titus chapter 3.
Verse three says we ourselves also are sometimes foolish.
Disobedient, deceived, serving divers lost and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
But after that, the kindness and love of God are Savior towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. This is a lesson that grace teaches, and it's a powerful one. It's one that the law could never teach.
First of all, it shows me what I am.
Not that crease occupies me with myself, that wouldn't do any good, but it does show me what I am. It brings me into the presence of God, and it shows me in the presence of God what I truly am there.
There's nothing before him, in fact worse than nothing as these verses layout.
But it doesn't stop there. It shows me all that God is in the face of what I am. It shows me how the kindness, the Word really is philanthropy, How God without any merit in ourselves, he has come in now and he's showing out that kindness to us.
And it occupies me with that, with what God is, in spite of myself.
And what does that do to me?
Well, it produces in me, I said, a a sense of gratitude.
Noah could never do that the way I was when I was born into this world. All I had was an old nature. This could never work that way. The grace of God did something first, of course. We've been talking about that in these meetings.
The grace of God, when it brought salvation, the first thing he did was it gave me a new life, a life of Christ.
And that life now is able to understand all that I ever was under Adam and his, able to understand that all of that is judged and condemned worthless before God is able then to understand by these lessons of grace what God has done in spite of it.
And when I understand that grace now lifts me up and it wants me, wants to make me more.
Like him. And it does that not out of the sense of duty, although that certainly is there, but it does it out of the sense of love and gratitude to him. It's a much higher lesson, a lesson that could never be taught by the law, but a lesson that takes us on more and more in our hearts, being drawn out after him. And the more we see of him and the more we learn of him, the more.
Grace teaches us about that.
Tremendous what it is, it's so opposite to the principle of the law.
So why we insist on it? The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ, they're put there together. Grace and truth work together in the truth. That's there is not in any way to be confounded with the law, because the principle of the law could never begin to work on that new life that we have. All they could do is condemn our old life.
00:20:02
Let's just go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
Those verses that were mentioned this morning.
So really enjoyed what was brought out there.
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we 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. And so our brother was explaining to us what this word constrained me. And I thought that was so beautiful. That's how it works. And that's why grace couldn't even teach lessons, because we've got a life in us, a life from God, divine life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Paul says I'm dead, he says. But yeah, I live. And yet it's not me, but Christ lives in me. That's the life that we have, that life.
Responds to these lessons that Grace teaches.
And it's the love of Christ now that constrains it pulls that life, and that life now is drawn out more and more after Him. And so it is. I just wanted to say these few thoughts because we need to take up with the grace of God in our lives, we could take up this book and we could look up all those instructions that are here as to the things that we should not do, and we'll miss the point.
Yes, they're here in the New Testament. The warnings, the instructions are all here as well. But the grace of God is what really teaches us, and that's what answers to that life that we have. That's what constrains it, and that's what's going to draw us along in our Christian pathway to follow after Him.
Just like to share some thoughts that I'm sure will be consistent with thoughts that have been brought out. Umm, I enjoyed this, the last reading meeting that we had. And as a result of some conversations that we had after the meeting, I realized that there might be some scriptures that would be a help. So let's turn to, uh, Romans chapter, uh, John chapter 8.
The Lord Jesus was here on the earth.
To set us free.
In this chapter, we have two instances.
That that the Lord Jesus speaks of, of being set free.
The first one.
Is let's start at verse 29. I'm not exactly sure where to start.
Verse 29 of John chapter 8.
So see, that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. This is maybe a definition.
Of liberty, of being set free. You know we can always find our example of truth in the Lord Jesus.
Let's read it again.
For I do always those things that please him.
That's what we want is Christians as believers, isn't it? We want our lives to be so consistent with the life of God that there is no ******* or hindrance to fellowship with Him. That's liberty. That's freedom. No connection with that which is opposed to God, the world.
Totally enmity with God the flesh.
Has no fellowship with God, the devil in complete opposition to God that all of those things are have been used as our enemy to keep us in *******.
00:25:02
And so the Lord Jesus knew perfect liberty. None of those things had any power over his soul. There was only one thing, one desire of His heart.
Was to do what pleased the Father.
And so as he spoke, that there were those that recognized what liberty was, what freedom was.
And he said, and they said in verse thir 30 says as he spake these words, many believed on him.
That was the one they wanted to follow, the one whose life was perfectly in accord with the heart, the will and the mind of God.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. If you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
As we were speaking about some of the comments that were made in the last reading, we were saying that sometimes it's easy to know what the answers are in our Christian life, but it's hard to be consistent in living, in the enjoyment, and in the liberty of them we are especially speaking about.
Spiritual pride and I, I don't have to look out into the room and give examples of spiritual pride. I can say that I know all too well what it is and what it has been in my life. And maybe a little bit of the keys that God has given through His word that would deliver from that tendency which.
Uh, doesn't produce righteousness.
We know that those that are born of God.
They're characterized by righteousness.
That righteousness which produces pride is not righteousness.
It is not the fruit.
Of my new nature.
It's the fruit of my old nature.
And yet it has such a tendency to have power over my soul that I need deliverance from this so that I can be free.
What is it?
That will set me free.
Well, in this case, when the Lord Jesus is talking about liberty and freedom, he says if you keep.
Let's read it again.
If you continue 30 verse 31.
If you continue in my word.
Ye shall be my disciples, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So here is a key.
For enjoying liberty as God's children, you know, as God's children we should not be bound to that which is not characteristic to being a child of His and having His nature. It is not natural.
As a child of God, to be bound by things that are not characteristic of God.
It may be that there is a learning process by which the Word of God will have to have an effect upon our soul so that our lives can be changed by it. That process may take time for us to learn.
But the net result of the word of God.
Will always be the result of producing that which is consistent with what God is, because as we've been speaking, we have God's nature and so.
As the Lord Jesus was telling those that had received him, that had believed upon him, he told them that it was the truth.
00:30:06
That was going to set them free.
Oftentimes, not long ago, I was on an airplane. I don't ride airplanes a lot, so don't think anything about that. But I was sitting next to a man and he had a book in his lap, and when I looked over, it was a book.
That I hadn't read read when I was a very young believer had to do with learning about my position in Christ. When I looked over there, I realized I was sitting next to a believer who was interested in the very same truth that I was. And it was a joy to my heart because that was the fastest plane trip I ever took. We, we opened up this subject, the word. We began to speak about things that we had in common.
But at the very end of our conversation, just as we're about to land.
He made a concession to me, he said. You know, I have a problem, even though.
I, I, I enjoy this truth. I have a problem that I just cannot overcome. It was clear that he knew the truth, and yet because of where he was in the development of his soul, the truth being made good to his soul, he still did not know the truth, how the truth would set him free.
Well, I didn't tell him to try any harder. You know, if you'll just try harder.
In in applying those truths.
You'll get liberty, you'll get free. That's really not how it works.
I believe that it's the truth itself that will set us free. Let's read this verse again.
And ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
It is the truth, the truth that we have been enjoying today.
Applied by the Spirit of God.
As the Spirit of God has liberty to make them good to our soul.
As we see the truth in Jesus, there will be a change in our lives. The change it says is that we will be conformed more into Him, His His likeness and in His image. Brethren, I believe that one of the greatest hindrances to our growth.
Is our attempt to grow.
I was talking to a brother recently and I was telling him that I had the Lord had brought my soul me and my soul into the good of some truth and I was trying to concentrate on it so that it would have effect upon my my soul. I was spending a lot of time thinking about it and his advice to me was.
It's not necessarily that.
You concentrating on that truth that is going to make the change, but it's more you spending time in the presence of God.
And that will have the greatest effect, because there's liberty in the presence of God, and the Spirit of God, when there is liberty in our soul, will take the truth, and He will.
Set us free.
I know that we all understand what this is.
To lay a hold of truth and say this is going to be the answer.
So all of my needs and then somehow we don't get the effects that we we're wanting, maybe because we're trying to apply it in our own ability and strength. But if we will go on in the presence of God.
Says if you continue in my word.
So.
We continue in the word.
We continue enjoying the presence of God, and the Spirit of God will apply the truth in such a way that we will understand its liberty. I just wanna bring out the second part of this chapter 2. Umm.
00:35:17
Verse 36. Verse 36 says that the sun therefore shall make you free. You shall be free indeed. I'm not gonna spend much time on this.
But.
The Lord Jesus is talking to a different group of people here.
He's not talking to those who in the first instance needed to be set free, but they were on the right course because they had received the Lord Jesus. They had actually believed on the sun, and so it was going to be the truth in that regard that was going to set them free. Here it was those who were actually rejecting the testimony of the sun, and they were in complete and total *******.
To sin. They were lost, and they absolutely knew nothing of the liberty that the Lord Jesus had expressed of being obedient and doing always those things which please the Father. They knew nothing of the deliverance from the power of Satan and from everything that unsaved man is in ******* too. And So what did they need?
They needed to receive the sun, they needed to open their heart and receive God's answer to their need so that they could enjoy the liberty of the ******* that they were under. And so there's several, you might say there's several types of ******* that a soul can be under. It can be under the total ******* of sin and the, the, the umm, the penalty, the guilt of those sins.
And he can know absolutely no liberty, but he, there's, there's another type kind of, of ******* you might say that we might be under. And that is, uh, that which God as, as believers.
Umm, we we need to be set free by the Word of God. These wonderful truths that we're having in our meetings will have the effect of setting our souls at liberty.
And we will not have to struggle and be in ******* to things that we have difficulty with.
To start with a verse in the Psalms.
I didn't have the privilege of being here with the radiating or I just caught the tail in the brothers comments about the love of Christ constraining us and liberty.
So my question to you and I why is there no smile on her face? Why are we not happy?
We should be and express happy Christians as we journey through this world, but some of us haven't smiled for so long that her faces would crack if we did. Let's turn to Psalm 56 for reverse. I want to speak just to the young people in all of this too. Only have a few minutes left, but coming up here, I was on this cool St. Highway 232. Is it 332? And I thought it was on a roller coaster just going up and down, up and down. And sometimes young people your life.
Seems like a roller coaster.
And sometimes you have to think on your feet. Sometimes you have to answer questions and difficulties on your feet.
Well, let's turn to a verse in Psalm 56.
Just the last part of verse 9.
We had if the sun shall make you free, he shall be free indeed. And to know these things and to enjoy them. And I want to start from square one, if you would. Psalm 56 and verse 9.
Into the verse. This I know for God is for me. Some of you may be sitting here and brought up in a family like I did.
There wasn't much Gray shell and there wasn't much love shown. And yet you say, well, where is this grace? Where is this love that these people are talking about? I don't see it. And yet here is a verse from God himself that the psalmist that entered into and he realized as he was journeying through his life and all the trials and difficulties he was in that God was for him. And we like to impress it on each one of our hearts this afternoon.
00:40:27
That God is for you. Romans 8 says If God before us.
Who can be against us? So if you have a problem or difficulty in your life.
God is for you. Well, how do I know he's for me? I have to read the scriptures, don't I? Let's turn over to Ephesians chapter one.
I had the privilege of speaking on this once at Saint Thomas. I trusted brethren here would forgive me those who are at Saint Thomas.
In the gospel, but here it's important for us, I believe, to realize.
A few things. Ephesians chapter one.
Verse three Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us. Wow. Here's how we start off. You have been blessed. You may not appreciate the family you've been brought into, but you've been blessed. You may not appreciate the assembly that you've been brought into because you're born.
Where you are, but you have been blessed. God has looked down through the ages and saw this little room here tonight, this afternoon, and you have been blessed just by being here who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings. That's the problem. We as Christians seem to think that our blessings are earthly.
We think that we have to have the best house, the best car, the best boat, the best whatever.
But God has blessed us with spiritual blessings, and in order for us to receive them by faith, He has done a few things for us. He has delivered us from the wrath to come so we don't have to worry about what's coming on this world. We've been delivered from it. Don't get your heart occupied with the world that's going to come under the judgment of God. You've been delivered from it.
Galatians and Colossians, he has delivered us from the power of darkness that was mentioned. Think of it, the power of darkness is gripping this country, gripping this world. This country just celebrated 4th of July with celebration. Why liberty? They were excited, and we should be excited with the liberty that we have in Christ. It's real. It isn't just something that's up here, but it's here, here and here.
Remember the high priest, he had his ear with blood. He had his right thumb with blood in his right toe. And as we walk through this scene, we are, as it were, since we're all priests, been stained, if you would, with the blood of Christ. And this world has cast him out. We've been delivered from the power of darkness. We've been delivered from this present evil world. And so you're trying to make your life in this world, young people, it's evil.
It's in the hand of the evil one, the wicked one.
But you've been delivered from the truth. She'll set you free. Are you delivered? Yes. Are you free? Yes. How come you're not happy?
The sole thing, isn't it? You have to realize that it's true, and it's true. He actually did this. Then we find that we've been delivered through fear of death all our lifetime. Those that are subject to violence, you're afraid to die. Is there someone in this room who's afraid to die? God has delivered you from that fear. Fear is what keeps us from enjoying the things of Christ.
I believe it's the devil's number one enemy. The number one tool, rather, is fear. Just so little seed. Oh, God doesn't really love you. God doesn't really care about you. Why did he allow this to happen in your life? Why is it happening now? Because it's the trial of your faith. So it'd be tested with fire. My wife and I were talking on the way down. If you and I were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, how would we have responded?
To the King, we've been delivered. From the wrath to come, we've been delivered. From the power of darkness, we've been delivered. From this evil world, we've been delivered. We've been delivered, said at liberty.
00:45:07
When Charles de Gaulle came to Canada, I believe he said Viva la Canada, Quebec, freedom for Quebec. People want freedom, but they don't realize they're under the power and ******* of Satan. You and I, brethren, young people, you have been delivered. You have been delivered. Don't put yourself back in the *******. Paul says. Shall we continue and sin, that grace may abound? No, we are to judge, we are to reckon.
But it's not an easy thing to reckon ourselves dead. We can do it up here.
But if something flashes across their eyes, something flashes in our ears, well, that old nature just jumps right out, it doesn't it? The thing is that we've been delivered. You don't have to rely on that. You don't have to search for things that you can't reach.
Verse 440 Necia chosen us in him. Not only is he for you, not only has he blessed you young people, but he's chosen you. What a thrill that is to my soul to realize he chose me just like I chose my wife and wait 10 years for her, but I chose her and sometimes God in the sovereign love has to wait many years, young people for you to come to Christ.
Brought up in a Christian home and perhaps don't know the Savior.
But he's chosen you. He wants you. He wants you to be part of his bride and win before the foundation of the world. And we look at our little life story and we say, oh, pity me, look at all the trouble I am. Nobody loves me. Nobody cares. Nobody's interested. Look up, look up. There is one who cares. And believe it or not, young people, your brother care for you.
We care for you, we care about you. We don't want you to be empty chairs.
We want you to be pillars. We want you to be established in the truth. Why? Because the truth sets you free. It's not just words, but it's a reality. The truth shall and does set us free. Verse 5. Having predestinated us, how can it get any better? We've been blessed. We've been chosen how we've been predestinated.
What's the next thing?
For six to the praise of the glory of His grace, where he has made us accepted, and the beloved marvelous, you've been brought into the very heart of God, and you've been accepted.
Oh, these things should encourage your heart. These things should motivate us to indeed reckon ourselves as dead. Paul says I die daily. Pray we have to confess. We don't even know what that means sometimes we die daily, but it's true.
Paul he could say that, but here it says here verse six to the praise of the glory of his grace. Grace comes back to grace, doesn't it? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Marvelous grace.
Have you tasted young people that the Lord is gracious. Lord is gracious. Well, what's the next thing he's done for us? Verse eight. He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence and is made known unto us the mystery of as well. Not only has he brought us into every blessing that we can possibly think of the relationships, but now he's poured out his mind, He's poured out his soul and he's informed you. He's informed me.
What the plans are for his son and for you and I. He's made that known to us.
Let us through the scriptures. We need to spend time in the scriptures. You go to school, college, you spend 2-3 hours in a class, You got six hours of homework. How much time do we spend in this book? How much time do we spend meditating on God's Word? What's the next thing?
Chapter 2.
Thought it was rich in mercy.
For his great love wherewith? What's the next word?
He loved us.
Not just simply that Jesus died on the cross for us, that Christ loved us, that it's the love of Christ that constrains us, but God himself loves you, dear young people. He loves you and he wants you to have a happy life. But it's a Christian life he wants you to have, not a life of lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. This world, this city, this country is turning into Sodom and Gomorrah.
00:50:23
And yet Lot pitched his tent closer and closer to the world until he was there as a judge. And when he tried to speak to other people, they mocked him. They thought he was a comedian.
Is your life sometimes like that? A comedian? People don't really take you serious. This is serious stuff we're talking about. This is serious.
He loved us even when we were dead and since have quickened us.
Let me ask you a question. Can I throw out a name out there? Luke, you don't mind if I throw out a name? It could be anybody's name, could be done, It could be anybody. What's the operative word that we're talking about this afternoon?
Two letter word.
Anybody.
What do you think?
You're good at spelling 2 letter word.
That's with EU and ends with an S.
What is that word? That's a tough one, isn't it?
U and us, what's the middle word of truth?
Middle letter of truth TR blank TH middle letter brother Jennings.
What's the middle letter for the word truth?
You, that's right, you and the truth will set you free and then you can set your brethren free because some of us are still under *******. Some of us still live in the past, still have baggage we have to deal with, but we bring it all to Christ. And then I like verse seven, I realized time is short. Verse 7, the age is to call me might show the exceeding riches of his kindness.
And it's great.
In his kindness toward.
Everything that he's done in the pre chosen Bless now in the future, he's gonna show the kindness of his heart to you, to me.
Has he been kind to you this weekend?
We perhaps may not realize it, but he's been kind. We made the wrong turn coming down here and got off on the wrong exit. And so this place doesn't look right. And that's how you shouldn't be. Young people, as Christians, you get yourself into a situation. You should say the Spirit of God has the liberty to speak to your heart that this isn't right, this isn't right. You have an unction from the Holy One. You know all things.
And you have the mind of Christ, you have the capability, you have everything that God has provided for you and for us, all these things. This is just the beginning, this is Ephesians. You can go through the rest of the New Testament and find all the things that He has done for us.
And so as we started this little talk, realizing no matter what your situation is, no matter how far you perhaps feel you slipped away, God is for you.
And if God is for you, there's no power on earth or hell that can touch you.
But if you're walking in path of disobedience, beware. Isaiah speaks about those who walk.
In their own life, the sparks of their own campfires. And it says this shall you have of my hand. You'll lie down in sorrow. God loves your Voi boys and girls, young people. He wants you to be happy. It's a privilege to be able to realize that's the love of Christ that constrains us. It isn't head knowledge. It's the realization there was a man in the glory who suffered on Calvary's cross because of what I did. So what I did.
And he loves me just the same, and he's forgiven me, and he'll forgive you.
Let me just close in one verse.
Thessalonians.
First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
00:55:00
This is my prayer, and I trust that's the prayer of each older one here for you young people, verse 23, first lesson only is 5/23.
Laveri, God of peace, that's what liberty does for other young people. It gives you peace. And here's the God of peace. You can read in Romans and others about the various attributes of God, God of mercy, God of grace.
But here it's the God of peace, and these people are going through terrible times. They were going through difficulties. You may be going through difficulties right now, but it's the God of peace that's going to sustain you. And this is our prayer. The very God of peace sets you apart, holy and I pray God, your whole spirit, soul and body.
They preserve the blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithfully see that all of you who also will do it.
He will brother, he Will Young people.
Spirit, soul and body. Remember Gordon Hayhoe used to tell us that if you get those three mixed up, you're gonna have problems in your life. It's spirit, soul and body. If you allow your soul to take over your life, things are gonna get out of hand. You're gonna find loving the wrong person. If your body gets in control, who knows what's gonna happen but to have your mind preserved and kept by the power of God.
Your affections, your soul in control, your body will be a blessing to the Lord. May the Lord bless the reading of His precious Word.
Our Father, we are thankful that our thoughts have been directed towards the grace of God and, uh, the liberty which we are to stand and we just do. We thank Thee that, umm, we know that God is for us.
Just to, uh, pray that we might live in this world with these rather simple thoughts before us.
And just go on in simplicity to honor the one who laid down his life for us.
Dying in we give thanks for Jesus.
Things the Lord Jesus Does for You
Philippians 3:10-21