Cuyahoga Falls Conference: 2022
Table of Contents
Ephesians 6:10-12
Reading
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Too hot to read an 88?
In 280 years.
Preserved by.
Most graciously within thy shelter in full 288.
See, we got to.
I would like to suggest.
We read part of those verses in Ephesians 6 about our spiritual warfare. I.
Would like to suggest if we could go over that, I think it would be very helpful, especially for our young people in the day which we live. The spiritual warfare that's going on in this country is pretty impressive, honestly. And if we could read those verses again and we didn't read them all in their prayer meeting, but.
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I suggest that unless there's something else that needs to be taken up, we could read from chapter 6 of Ephesians from verse 10.
Down through.
20.
Is that suitable, Brandon?
Ephesians 6, verse 7.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
Where we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins heard about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints and for me, the utterance may be given unto me. They may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
We live in a world whose God and Prince is Satan.
He is the God of this world religiously.
He is the Prince of this world politically.
And so he swings a lot of power around in this world, and that's why there is spiritual conflict.
In this book, especially our position.
Is heavenly. If you go back to verse chapter one and verse three it says.
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
You have all spiritual blessings.
You may not enjoy them.
And the enemy is trying to get to take away that enjoyment in your soul. So there will be no power in your Christian life. So there's conflict. Look at chapter 2 and verse six. We have our position.
He's raised this up together and made us sit together.
In heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
That's why you don't have the Lords coming mentioned in the book of Ephesians, because we're already in heavenly places.
Wonderful. Do you enjoy that?
Or are you just worried about what's going on down here, where your life's going? It's a spiritual conflict. I'm impressed, brethren, with what is going on in our country, how the very basic core of society is being challenged and people are encouraged to think what they like to think.
Their man, they want to be a woman or a dog. It's incredible. I don't know where in the world this thing is going, but it's the spiritual warfare that there is and we need to be aware of it and we need to be have on the armor of God that is provided for us in such times as these.
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We've been reminded the number of times this book speak of the heavenly places or or the proper translation have it in the heavenlies. So there are many things that we don't see nor fully understand. So when we jump into a section like this, taking up the armor of God, we have to recognize the fact that there's more to just picking it up.
I know here in the United States you have the rights to pick up arms. Now I have to speak for some of the Canadian here that many of us have never picked up an arm in our lives. So if someone could some kind of arm on the table and say to me that go ahead, pick it up and use it, I would have looked at you and laughed because I wouldn't know even which end to point, whilst I suppose I know which end to point and that's about it. So in this book it introduced us to many things before.
We get toward the 6th chapter or toward the end where we are exhorted to check up the armor of God. We have to recognize that we're not of this world. So if we feel that we are of this world and we want to defend things in this world, that's wrong. Already in Christendom as a whole, we see that a very earthly minded. We want to make sure we have the right government.
To do things for us, we want to make sure that we have the right everything pertaining to life in this world. Well, that's wrong, isn't it? Is heavenlies And then the book introduced the thought mystery first chapter talk about the mystery that he introduced is not a mysterious thing. A mystery is almost like a secret, but really it's not a secret because the secret you would never know what the answers are.
A mystery is something that perhaps I don't know how to explain it. It's like a family secret. Once you come into the family, you get to know more about what it is. So there is the mystery. It introduced that in the first chapter, giving us that to look forward to the dispensation of the folders of times. And then it will find that it speaks about the mystery of God, which I don't want it to digress too far from that and the mystery of Christ.
That the mystery of God is that Christ will be the head of all things.
And the mystery of Christ is that we as Gentiles will be heir and Co heir with Christ. And then when we I I know we didn't read the beginning of the chapter, chapter 6. Then we find out walk that we ought to walk properly the godly order of how we ought to walk. Once we learn that, then we can say we got some training and we can pick up the armor of God. So just very briefly, there are things this world is specially Christendom do not follow.
You look at the.
The end of chapter 5 it talked about a Gray mystery concerning Christ and the church. We I know many here are raised in the assembly. Are you well versed in what that mystery is concerning Christ and his church and then it speaks about the position of a master and a slave. You look at today's society that distinction is is getting very.
To tell now we have even workers saying I don't, I don't, I work for you but I can quit anytime.
They don't follow what the word of God says, nor what the employer for that matter. And then we find children and parents, the godly order in those things, and father and so on, that we are to do things for the Lord. And once we learn to walk a godly life, then these armors as we are about to hit up would mean a whole lot more.
Net.
I should say 2 verse 10, what we began reading. That's why it sets that finally, my brethren.
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He's strong that what he said, not quiet, is it? He's strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Do not trust our own wisdom or strength.
And in regard to this armor is the whole armor is not just some back to the example of arms again, you may say, well, if I can have a gun, I'm OK, I can shoot. Well, what about the rest of the protection? So it's important to be reminded that it tells us to pick up the whole armor of God. And it's not just the fact that you're afraid that your brethren from across the hall is going to shoot you.
Because they said we wrestle not against flesh and blood, That's the part that's easier to understand, but the power of darkness and so on. I don't think hardly any one of us here fully comprehend what that is.
And how back in First Samuel?
Chapter 17, he was to go up against Goliath and all these weapons that you're talking about, Brother David speak of some of those things that King Saul offered him to protect himself, don't they? And he in chapter 17.
He offered all his armor to David, but David said he hadn't proved them. Didn't He said, I haven't proved those things. I can't use them for what the Lord has given me to do here. And so he said a little further down in verse 35 about the lion and the bear, He said, I went out after him and smote him and delivered it. Sorry, I should have started at verse 34. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep.
And there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servants slew both the lion and the bear. In this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing at the he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said. Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear.
He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And so he had proved those things, didn't he? And he knew that he could trust in God to protect him and to help him. And so that's really the lesson for us here too, isn't it? We can't take things into our own hands and think that we can go up against these principalities and powers, and we can't even see them. But they're there and they're most dangerous, aren't they? And so we need the armor of God to protect us, and we have to put it all on. But they've all been proven to us.
And we can trust them for it.
It's important to be strong in the Lord. What does that mean?
What would you say, Michael?
Not in our own strength, but in use. Yeah, but how can you be strong in the Lord?
Exercises spiritual muscles.
Keep on prayer reading #1 prayer reading, anything else, reading above those two things majorly. Get serious about Bible reading and meditation and prayer. I mean, I'm thankful to see young people who read the Word.
By just 5 minutes a day is not enough. You got to get serious about it. To be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might means you take it seriously and set aside some time deliberately to get into the Word and to pray. Very important.
I like that which you mentioned about David, because he had proved.
What did he use to kill that lion?
What are you thinking? It doesn't really say, does it?
He had a sling, we know, and a stone, but he had a shepherd's staff, too.
And that lion, I, I take it was an African lion because he said he caught him by the beard. I don't know of any other lion that has a beard, but an African lion. That's pretty impressive to me.
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There was simplicity of trust in God. He was out there all by himself. Nobody else was watching when he met with that bear and with that lion, but he trusted God.
And I must say, I marvel, brethren, when he went out to meet up with Goliath.
Saul even let him do that because there was a lot dependent on that. I mean, if that Goliath killed David, then the children of Israel were going to be servants to the Philistines.
But he saw the simplicity of faith in David, and he let him go.
And brethren, I say this, what made him strong is that he took God into the picture.
When Goliath sees him coming, he feels insulted. Am IA dog, that you come to me with staves.
And David said this. You come to me with a sword and a spear. I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel that you have defied.
I mean, the simplicity of faith was beautiful and God honored that faith. He was strong in the Lord.
I'd rather be this morning with the Second Samuel chapter 18 and I would like to refer to a verse and apply it to Ephesians 6.
Second Samuel, chapter 18.
It's the chapter in which.
Absalom has tried to take the throne from his father, and there's going to be war between the house, those who are following David and those who are following Absalom, and they've come to the day of the conflict between the two parties. Say that just to get a context for chapter 18 and verse 3.
And the people that is those who are with David.
Answered.
Because thou shalt they're speaking to David. Thou shalt not go forth.
For if we flee away, they will not care for us, neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But now thou art worth 10,000 of us. Therefore it is better that thou sucker us out of the city. Now let's we're commenting on it. Turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians, chapter one.
And.
Verse.
9.
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which on earth, even in Him. And.
Verse 22 and have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that Philip All in all.
For commenting on it, just to comment on what David and Goliath?
David, of all the people that went out, understood properly the true perspective of the conflict. The people looked at themselves and they looked at those who were against them, and they were afraid.
David did not look at it that way. David looked at it as a conflict between whom the armies of the living God and those who opposed it.
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He had a right perspective and therefore he had instead of a trust in himself and what he could do against the enemy, he looked and said the fight's not mine. The true nature of this conflict is between the armies of the living God and that which opposes it.
In Ephesians.
It's well to get the true nature of the conflict.
In order to properly apply Chapter 6.
The true nature of the conflict.
Is that now has been made known as had not been known before as is revealed really for the first time in Ephesians chapter one the purposes and counsels of God concerning his son and the church has identified with his son.
And consequently, the effort in chapter 6 in its highest order is that Satan wants to rob the Lord Jesus Christ of that which God has given to him, and to prevent him from having the enjoyment of it.
And he Satan, he's not a prophet, he doesn't know things ahead of time unless God makes them known, and consequently God had not made known even to Satan's knowledge.
The truth that's brought out in the beginning of Ephesians.
What he knew.
From long before that he wanted the place that God had given to His Son. And so the temptation of the Lord Jesus when he was a man on earth was to seek to take him out of the path as a man of obedience, and thereby rob him of having the place that God intended for him as the Christ, the chosen One of God.
There could be much more said along this line, but the reason for bringing out second.
Samuel chapter 18 is Satan's number one care.
Is not you. It's not me. It's not to rob you. It's not to rob me.
He cares 10,000 * 10,000 more as to the one that is the true source of blessing, His Son, the Lord, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now to make an application to us.
Satan.
Attacks on you and I is something that he does to rob the true David the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is truly important of having the joy of your fellowship and mine even if he cannot keep us from our ultimate destiny and so it is your identification and mine with the Lord Jesus and it's important to recognize it because the heart that.
Is attached to the Lord. Jesus will identify with him even if it brings conflict.
I say that because it's easy.
If I'll use it, this expression instead of having the armor of God and being attacked to use what one man, the little example, what one man once said he said someone was presenting the Lord Jesus Christ and.
Afterwards, another person came up to him and said I'm a believer too, but please don't tell anybody.
What was he doing? He was I seeking to avoid his identification in order to avoid the conflict. And whether you're young or whether you're old, the important thing is to start with the desire to be identified with the Lord Jesus.
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And if you are, you need the army, and you'll value it.
That's a couple of associations we'll add to that. I have jotted them down in my margin here. When is the saving grace of God?
Meets our condition as sinners, But the counsels of God which we have in Ephesians here, reveal what God has purpose to bring to pass for the satisfaction of his own heart. And then just another comment from Mr. Darby. It is in the intimacy of the councils and the grace of God that man fortifies himself for the warfare from which he cannot escape if he would enjoy his Christian privileges.
So the warfare here is different from the warfare in Galatians, isn't it? Galatians is more like what we have in the wilderness.
It's between the spirit and the flesh. But that's not what we have here. Here we're seen as being part of God's army in this world.
Marshalled against the enemy himself, Satan. And that's a tremendous privilege. And so in these verses we have that warfare. It's really the highest truths that we have in Ephesians, isn't it? And it's that warfare, it's the warfare of God against Satan in this world.
And so that's why we have in the first verse here the source of strength.
It's that secret communion with the Lord, isn't it? It has to start there. As Bob was mentioning, sometimes the question young people have especially, or even others, is, you know, I just don't have an appetite for scripture.
And I remember, Mr. London, you stop and say, well, don't have an appetite, read the scriptures and you'll get that appetite. And sometimes, you see, we come to meeting and we don't seem to have anything. Why is that? Because we haven't been diligent day by day. Remember Gordon Hayes saying it's a little off the subject, but along the same general lines, he said, you know, I've often noticed when couples get in trouble in their marriage, if you talk to them, you find out they've neglected reading and prayer in their household.
So here's the source of strength, isn't it in verse 10 and in the power of his might. It's in that secret communion with the Lord.
That we gain that strength to work to fight the Lords battles, not the battles with our own flesh. That is a separate warfare, but this is the battle of the Lord's. The Lord's battles here in this earth against his enemies. Actually five of them are enumerated there in verse 12, aren't they?
The spiritual wickedness in high places.
Crafty foal. He doesn't always come his approach. Depending on what the situation is. We have to hear that you can. Perhaps as a roaring lion if you can. What if that doesn't work? He could change his approach and come as a subtle serpent. So the warfare is very different. You don't just go up and thinking you're going to fight with all your mind because it's a spiritual warfare.
I'm just thinking of a portion just before Satan is finished. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 20. There are three names mentioned about Satan and it may give us an indication of how he works. Revelation chapter 20.
Is.
Verse 2.
So before he's being cast into the bottomless pit, he says verse two and he laid hold. Now notice the names here. And he laid hold on the dragon. That's the first name is used, that old serpent, that's the second name used here, which is the devil and Satan.
And found him for 1000 years. But why three different names now? I don't fully know, but he was. My simple thought on it Is that the the old the dragon? The dragon? I believe you can picture that as one with cruelty. That's the dragon. A picture of dragon with his cruelty. A serpent speaks of his subtlety.
And the devil himself, Satan, speaks of his wickedness and that all being dealt with. Actually, I shouldn't even just say wickedness. And he's also known as the accuser of the brethren.
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There's twelve chapter is is interesting. We wrestle not against.
Flesh and blood, we have the tendency, brethren, to look at figures in this world that are visible.
The President of the country or other governors in connection with the way things are going, and Christians large in a large measure, are encouraged to get involved into the politics of this present age.
Not realizing that's they're just the visible. I don't know if they use the word puppets, but they're just the visible ones. But we are not aware of the fact that behind.
Our real spiritual wickedness going on here, it says principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world.
Spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.
When you see what's going on in our world, it makes you realize that this is a very real thing.
People think they get out and on the street and protest. They'll have some effect on things.
You will have no greater effect on such matters unless you get down on your knees and pray like Scripture says, praying always with all prayer and supplication later on in this chapter. Oh, how important it is. And I just like to mention in the book of Daniel you have Daniel who was a man of prayer.
And in Chapter 9 of Daniel, he prays.
And it's interesting.
In verse 20, while as I was speaking.
And praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, Israel.
And presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God.
Years while I was speaking in prayer. Even the man Gabriel. This is one of the angels that is named that we know about.
Came and he gives them some information that is extremely important. But what I want to mention is in the next chapter Daniel was praying as well. Notice in verse two he says in those days I Daniel was mourning.
3-4 weeks I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself till three whole weeks were fulfilled. And then comes the answer. Why did he get his answer right away in Chapter 9 and in chapter 10 he had to wait three weeks?
It was because of spiritual conflict that was going on and at that time, he says later in the chapter that he had come from the Prince of Persia.
And then he was going to go to the Prince of Greece. In other words, there were spirit powers influencing in those government circles was the time when the Persian Empire was changing to the Grecian Empire and there were God's angels sent there to influence properly. And so Daniel.
Didn't receive his answer because of the spiritual conflict that was going on.
I think that's really helpful to see that this is what is going on in this world today and how important it is to be into the Scriptures to know what God has said about things that are future. He talks about what we where we are and the way things are going in this world today.
Your young people, I encourage you, get into it, have an understanding of where things are going.
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And pray you're going to have real influence if you do not outwardly.
Our warfare is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Lord help us, brethren, to recognize we are in a conflict zone. We come out here to a nice place like this beautiful place, nice, calm.
Lake out there when you enjoy it and I don't say that's wrong, but sometimes we don't get the picture that we are in conflict zone.
And it's not going to be any different until we get home to glory.
The source of all the power through the Spirit of God. But then sometimes as young people and even younger one, like many of us here feel inadequate, as if there is so much we don't understand. There's so much to learn. But yet we were to go back to the story of of David.
How did he conquer Goliath? How much has he learned to master that slaying as if it were?
He went, if you remember the story, he went and picked up five smooth stones. And did he have to use all 5 stones?
No, he only needed one.
The five stones, I suppose we can use it from an application standpoint, perhaps for those things of old, maybe a picture of reminding them the five books of Moses. Do they need to know all five books so well that they before they can exercise the good of it? No. And we find the Lord Jesus often quote one verse from the five books of Moses. So we know that.
The Spirit is within us, is in us, it dwells in US and the word of God says he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world. So when we read the word of God, when we walk close as we were reminded, the reading, the praying, and let me just sidetrack is like looking at a car. They have a tachrometer on it. It says RPM. That would be a nice reminder reading, praying and meditating on the word of God.
Then it's the strength from the Spirit of God using the Word of God to defeat our fault.
Back another example.
Like Joshua?
Found in Joshua chapter 4.
Moses.
Wasn't allowed to cross the Jordan River.
And the Lord passed the baton of responsibility for the children of Israel into the hands of Joshua.
And they crossed the Jordan River with the intention of taking the land promised to them by God.
That point is very much analogous to the beginning of Ephesians.
Because in Ephesians there is the truth of taking the spiritual portion that has been given to us in the land of promise for us, which is heavenly, but there's an important very beginning to it that is related in our chapter 6 to the words the Lord.
The Lord that begins the exhortations in chapter and verse 10. And so Joshua's cross, the children of Israel are now in the land, and they're ready to start their conflict. And the very first thing is done is what?
Circumcision.
Circumcision, it is the cutting off of the flesh that is ever so ready to take control of our lives. And they had to recognize, as Romans teaches us, death with Christ and his work to go into death for us, to deliver us from the enemy, which is the power of sin in the flesh in US. And so Romans gave them that truth which is analogous to the circumcision.
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But then the next point that's taken is found in Chapter 4.
And.
They have the 12 Stones. See if I can find the spot.
Yeah, I want to find it where it says maybe I'm wrong as the chapter where he says as captain of the Lords host, it might come to Joshua. Yes, in Chapter 5.
Chapter 5 and verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold.
And there stood a man over against him with a sword, and is drawn in his hand. And Joshua went up unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
This is almost, you might say, a question for the question at the beginning of Ephesians. And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come?
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him.
What saith my Lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy chew from off thy foot.
From the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
It's a it's the beginning of the beginning that we recognize in the conflict through the captain, the Lord's host is it's not you, it's not me, it's not your conflict with Satan. It's not my conflict with Satan.
The captain of the Lord's host is the Lord Jesus Christ and our place.
Is to follow Him in that conflict and to recognize in it He is Lord.
He is our place, is obedience. It's not even understanding. Understanding is important and helpful, and knowing prophecy is important and helpful, but it does not give strength in the conflict. And that is something we often misunderstand because we think, if only I understand what's going on, I'll be able to deal with it.
We often.
Can't deal with things even when we to understand them because we're not depending on the captain of the Lord's host as the true strength. And so we're given things in these exhortations to help us to walk in simple obedience to the captain of our salvation. And that includes prayer that's been given emphasis to because prayer is an expression of.
Dependence on somebody, and that somebody ought to be the Lord. Not dependence on our own wisdom, not dependence on our own understanding, and so on, but a dependence upon the captain of the Lord's host as taking the lead to preserve and use his people to continue his work, as Paul said in the end of the exhortation.
Why was he praying for Paul? That he might be faithful in what the gospel?
The gospel making known to others, and that's what's going to last.
Satan's work is going to have an end, but God's work will have an at last. And part of the reason for the armor is to enable us to continue on in that which God will bless, that has eternal value, rather than simply getting through this life and on the glory.
151.
Savior keep our spirits stayed hard following after Thee, till we in robes of white array Thy face and glory. See 151.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Luke 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.
We're going to sing one more song.
#20.
#20.
Behold us.
I.
No.
You can put the song sheets away for a little bit.
The first song that we sang said God in mercy.
Sent his son.
To a world by sin undone.
Why would God need to send his Son into the world?
It's a good question for those of you who have a Bible and have the opportunity to turn.
You can turn to a few passages.
For those of you who are otherwise occupied, feel free to listen.
We're going to start in John's Gospel chapter one and verse one.
John's Gospel chapter one and verse one.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
00:10:19
In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not.
We read here there's a story and it says that there is this person called the word.
That seems kind of odd. We don't use that language these days. Do you know anybody named the word?
Maybe in your class or maybe where you go to work? Do you know anybody named the word?
We don't use that language these days. What do we use words for?
To talk, to tell people what we want to know, if I want to tell you a message.
I could try to draw, but I can guarantee you're probably not going to be able to understand what I'm trying to draw. And so thank God someone invented words and we can communicate through words and God communicates or he speaks to us through someone called the word and we find that this word was a person that says.
That he existed in the beginning.
It says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.
And the word was God.
What? So you're saying God, but now you're saying the Word, and now you're saying they're the same thing?
Yes.
God is a triune God, and he has three parts.
Often in common words we would say we refer to him as God the Father.
And the Word, who is also called his Son, the Lord Jesus. And elsewhere we'll find that there is one called the Holy Spirit, and all three are part of one, and they all existed in eternity past. But we find that the one named the Word, later we'll find His name is Jesus.
Says he created the world's, he spoke and the world's came into existence.
I speak and my children don't listen to me.
I speak and sometimes my wife ignores me, probably because I'm wrong, but you never know.
But here it says that the word spoke in the whole entire universe was created.
The power in that person.
It says in him was life and the light of men.
So we find that this individual named the Word or the Lord Jesus was life and light.
And in verse five it says the light shineth in darkness.
And the darkness comprehended it not.
I don't think we fathom that.
How many times have you gone into a room that was completely black, completely dark, turned on the lights?
And the room stayed dark.
When we turn on the lights, either well, the light works or it doesn't work. But if we turn on the lights, the lights come on and everyone can see.
But here it says that God's Son came into this world.
And the world stayed black. The spirit of the world was such that they could not even comprehend who God was.
How is that possible? How is it that you can't understand?
Who God is.
We go back to the start of the Bible.
There's a story of a man and a woman named Adam and Eve.
And in that story, they did something bad.
They disobeyed God.
And when God came to see them.
They ran away and hid.
The heart of man is such that.
When God?
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God comes into their presence and man or women or a child.
Still has that sin in their hearts.
They run away and hide. They can have nothing to do with that light because they are in their sins.
Yep.
Now we might think, well, yeah, that's my neighbor, that's my brother, that's my sister. They get in trouble all the time. Me, I'm good. Have you ever thought that all my coworkers, they're always getting yelled at by the boss? They never can do their job right. But me, I'm good.
We like to think, Oh well, I was raised in a Christian family. I heard the gospel preached. I went to Sunday school. I'm good.
Are you good?
Let's see what God says. You know what? You can see what I say. But let's see what God says. We'll turn to Romans chapter 3.
Romans, chapter 3.
And verse 12.
Romans 3 and verse 12.
We'll back it up.
We'll start at verse 11. He says there is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are.
All gone out of the way together.
And become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good.
No, not one.
You might think that you're a little bit better than your brother. You might think that you're a little bit brother better than your sister.
Then your coworker, then your neighbor.
But my friends, God doesn't have a sin scale. He says there's none that doeth good.
In Romans 3 and verse 23 it says for all have sinned.
Send.
What we don't use that word? What does sin mean?
Sin is when we do something bad, when we do something that's against the rules. Have you told the lie?
Have you stolen something? Did you speed on the way to conference? You sinned.
Some of you maybe 100 times on the way to conference, but it says.
Not only have you sinned, it says you've come short of the glory of God.
So God has his glory. What? And I've come short of it. It says every single person.
Has come short of this.
That sounds like a problem.
Let's keep on reading.
Let's through to Romans chapter 3 and verse 20.
Says By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.
And his sight by the deeds of the law, what?
What does that mean?
I can stand up here and talk, but if you can't understand what I'm saying, it's not doing you any good.
What does this mean?
I'll tell you.
This says that there is absolutely nothing you can do.
To save yourself.
Deeds of the law. The law was a list of rules and it was saying you need to do.
ABCDEFGHIJ there's a lot of laws. Sometimes we break the laws because we don't even know them.
But it says even if you follow all the laws, there's no way that you can justify yourself in the sight of God.
In Isaiah chapter 64 and verse six it says that all our righteousnesses.
All the good things that we try to do to please God. He looks at them as filthy rags, as some dirty disgusting thing that he doesn't even want in his sight.
The very best that you try to do and bring to God.
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He says as a filthy rag that he wants nothing to do with.
OK, well, that's kind of a problem.
Well, maybe I can go to my parents for help.
For a classmate or something else?
Hmm.
Bible says that no man can by any means.
Redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.
There's a lot of big words in that too. What does that mean?
It means that your dad, your mom, your friend.
They've done something bad too, and they're just as guilty as you. They can't stand in the place.
They're just as guilty.
They've done something bad, just like you. Oh, wow. So now I've done something bad and I can't save myself. And I can't go to my parents and they can't save me. I can't go to my Sunday school teacher and they can't save me. What do I do?
I need some assistance. I need some help.
We'll turn to Job chapter 33 on verse 24.
Job.
33.
You know what?
And that's OK.
All right, Job 33 and verse 24.
Says deliver him from going down to the pit.
I have found a ransom pit ransom. Man, you're using a lot of big words today.
What does that mean?
We'll use this as a symbol. We'll say the pit is hell.
We can say God wants to provide a way to save you.
From being punished for your sins.
That says he found a ransom, a ransom. You don't use that word very often, but sometimes we hear of like hostages, bank robberies and someone's held captive and if you give a lot of money, you can get them back a payment. God has found a payment, a way that we could not get in trouble.
Hmm, that's fine about that. Let's go to first, John.
Chapter 4.
First John, chapter 4.
Verse 14.
And we have seen and you testify or tell everybody.
That the Father sent the Son. Remember him? We heard about him at the very beginning. The word the Father sent the Son to be the Savior.
Of the world.
Turn to Mark, Gospel of Mark.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 10.
On verse 45.
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto.
But the minister?
And to give his life.
Ransom.
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For many.
Again, there's a lot of big words.
What does it mean?
God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus.
Think of it, the creator of the universe who could speak in anything he wanted could happen.
Could do anything he wanted. He could touch and turn his favorite toy into gold if he wanted to.
You can make it so the phone never went dead. They didn't have phones back then. He could do anything he wanted.
He was, if he would say.
All Supreme. He was the top dog. Did he come so that every single person should come and say, oh, you're so wonderful here. We're going to give you presents. We're going to do this. Is that how he came?
No.
That says he came not to be ministered to. He didn't come to get all your trinkets that you're offering. He didn't come for your filthy rags.
Those things that you think are pleasing to God that he wants nothing to do with.
He came to give his life, give his life.
Why would he have to give his life?
We read elsewhere, it says the soul that Sinneth does something bad, it shall die. The punishment, you know, sometimes we get in trouble at school or by our parents and the punishment might be.
You're in timeout.
There might be you have to do an extra chore.
God says.
The punishment for telling a lie is death.
The punishment for wanting.
That toy that your sister has?
Debt.
That penalty for speeding? Death.
Well, that's pretty severe. I was hoping for some leniency.
How do we deal with this?
While it says he gave his life a ransom.
For many, we find that the penalty is death. OK, so how did the son give his life a ransom for many?
Hmm.
I'm sure most people have heard the story of the crucifixion.
But we'll turn there.
But before we'll turn there.
We'll go to a story before that and Matthew's Gospel chapter 26.
Yeah.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26.
We find that God the Father sent the Son.
To give his life.
And just before he gives his life.
And one of the most painful, excruciating ways to die possible.
Before he takes the penalty of sin.
He prays.
To his father.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, and we'll pick it up in Matthew's Gospel chapter 26.
And verse 38.
Matthew 26 and verse 38 Then said Jesus unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.
Tarry ye here, wait here and watch with me. Jesus was so worried and distraught.
He went out to pray.
He went to pray to his Father.
In verse 39 it says he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh my father.
00:30:04
If it be possible.
Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as I will.
There's a lot of big words in there.
That mean?
God, if there's any other way that this child can go to heaven?
Without me having to go to the cross and die. Let's do it.
Is there another way that this gentleman over here can make his way to heaven so that I don't have to go to the cross?
He knew what that meant. He knew what was in front.
What was the answer?
Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done, he said. I know that there is absolutely no other way that this can happen, that this boy or this girl can go to heaven.
Unless I go to the cross.
And thus I go to the cross. Well, how does he go into the cross?
Make a way.
That you can go to heaven.
And.
Hmm, good question.
Bible says without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin.
Without the shedding.
Blood and remission, man, this guy, we're using a lot of big words.
In order for the penalty of sin to be covered, it required a payment in full.
In order for someone to be able to pay in full, they had to have sufficient funds.
And first, Peter, it says we're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold.
Received from vain tradition from your father's.
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.
It required somebody who was absolutely perfect, who could have nothing.
On their account.
If Jesus had done a sin and he went to the cross, he would have paid for his sin.
We know it was impossible that he could have sinned.
But in order for the payment of sin to be covered, it must be done by someone who is absolutely perfect, who did absolutely nothing wrong.
And not only that, we find he went willingly and man crucified him to a cross. They took nails and they nailed them up to the cross.
They put nails in the hands and his feet. They spit upon him. They mocked him. They took a spear when he was dead and jammed it into his side.
Did that cover sin?
No, that was a hatred of man. That was man. Just saying I don't want him. That was man. If it were, we went back to the beginning. It says darkness comprehended it not.
A man or woman or child in sin has no way of understanding God, no way of comprehending it says. I want nothing to do with that.
So then how did he die on the cross? Provide a way that we could get this ransom that you're talking about?
Good question. We'll find that when he was on the cross.
There was a three hour period where God laid.
The punishment of sin.
On him, where he faced the punishment of sin.
But it says he was a ransom.
For many.
He went to the cross and he died.
A way that God could offer a payment for sin.
Let me ask a question.
Did it work?
Is God happy?
How would we know?
How would we know that God would have potentially been happy with Jesus going to the cross and dying?
We get that answer.
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We'll go and end up Matthew.
Matthew 28.
Matthew 28.
Picking it up in the middle of verse 5.
It says fear not ye.
For I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified.
He is not here.
For he is risen.
Risen.
Well, we use the word I rise up in the morning.
The proof that God was happy.
With this payment.
Was that he raised his son from the dead?
Not only did he raise him from the dead.
He brought him back to heaven.
And Saddam on the throne next to him.
If God was not happy with the payment, you can guarantee he would have been. You're still icky. Stay out.
The proof that God is happy or satisfied with the work of the cross.
Is that he raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.
OK, well, he raised them from the dead. Well, how does that help me? I've kind of got a little bit of the story, but.
Not all of it. Let's go to John's Gospel.
John's Gospel, chapter 3.
John's Gospel, chapter 3.
Verse 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Verse 36.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
But the wrath of God abideth on him.
In Romans it says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved.
It's that simple.
Confess the Lord Jesus.
As Lord say God, I've done something bad.
I believe you sent your Son the Lord Jesus.
To be my substitute who here likes to get in trouble.
Not me. If there is a way that I could get a substitute for somebody else to get in trouble for me.
That sounds like a good idea.
We had at the start of this meeting the talk of a ransom, someone to do the payment for me.
We find that God offers the Lord Jesus.
As a substitute for you.
But instead of ransom for many.
Why does it say you're ransomed for money and not a ransom for all?
Because God is offering you a way.
To not get in trouble.
He is offering you away so that you could say God. I want Jesus to get in trouble for me so I don't have to get in trouble.
But you have to accept it.
If you don't accept it, you don't have it. If someone offers you a present and you say yeah, that's nice and walk away, do you have it? No.
And if God says here is a way to sell, go to heaven, here is a way where you don't have to get in trouble for the bad things that you've done.
I just want you to believe in my son and repent of the sins or turn away from the sins that you've done and you say no.
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Well, what was the prayer of the Lord Jesus?
Do you remember he was in the garden before we went to the cross? What was his prayer?
Father, if it's possible that I don't have to go the cross and die.
So that this person can go to hell.
Let's do it.
You know what? It's not possible. And so we have.
John, 336.
He that believeth not the Son, if you don't accept that offer of salvation.
You're not going to see life, you're not going to go to heaven, you're going to have the wrath of God.
Would you rather have the wrath of God?
For all eternity.
We'll have a substitute who willingly is saying I am willing to get in trouble for you. Just let me get in trouble for you and you can go free. Just take it.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Bring our clothes with a thong.
#36.
#36.
Oh, do not laugh.
00:45:19
This song reminds us.
We're not promised tomorrow.
We're not promised later this evening.
You could have a heart attack and drop dead and by the time I'm done with this talk.
But God in his mercy.
He offers salvation. He offers that substitute.
But you can only make that choice when you're alive.
When you die, it's too late.
If you haven't made that choice yet, If you haven't asked the Lord Jesus.
To be your substitute to get in trouble for you.
Let's do it tonight. You might say, Well, I don't know how. That was a long talk. You got up there and you talked for 45 minutes and I forgot a lot of it.
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. It's that easy.
Ephesians 6:13-18
Reading
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In my presence we are happy.
In my presence we are secure. In my presence all afflictions we can easily endure.
Thy presence we can conquer, we can suffer, we can die wandering from Thee. We are feeble. Let thy love, Lord, keep us nice.
Savior Lead.
We're reading in Ephesians chapter 6.
And since many were not here yesterday, maybe we could can read again the same verses we read yesterday from 10 to 20.
Inclusive.
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Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 20. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins skirt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation.
And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. And for me the utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Yesterday we took up the early portion of this passage. I thought perhaps this is sum it up quickly. We can look at these verses this way. Verses 11:50 tells us about the warfare that we are.
Against and then verses 13 on to verse 20 tells us what are the armors, what are the protections that we need?
In order to withstand. And I enjoy our brother Don's comment yesterday too saying that this is not really about you.
Decisions, work, trying to destroy God's work, taking honor away from His Son. And I was thinking perhaps we can add a little bit of illustration because some of us may say, I don't see any warfare. I don't see Satan coming after me. And you may be right, because if you do not make a stand for Christ, there is no need for Satan to come after you.
But when you stand for him, so we think about the one who came into this world.
He suffered. Why did he suffer? Because he's bringing salvation to mankind, something that Satan did not want to see. What did we do to Satan's power? Man was against our blessed Savior. They put him to death. The consensus from this world was we do not want this man to reign over us. We see the apostles taking up the cause, continuing on to preach Christ. What did they receive?
Same rejection if we were to take up the cross and follow him, we too will face the rejection of this world. But as the book of Ephesians remind us that our home is not here is the heavenlies that we have to keep our eyes on. And we find in the book of Colossians it says if EV risen with Christ see those things which are above where prices. But here in Ephesians we are viewed as if we are already in the heavenlies.
And we need to enjoy what we have. Don't believe, brethren, because it soon should be a reality for us.
11 it says to stand.
Verse 13 Take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. So it's important to know what this armor is, and I trust we can take up the seven points that are so important in connection with the armor of God.
Because we need to stand against the wickedness, the spiritual wickedness of our day, and having done all, to stand.
We kneel before God.
But before the enemy we should stand and withstand.
00:10:09
Standing, Bob mentioned and even in verse 14 it repeats it again. Stand like to go back to chapter one because I think it gives us an understanding of what we're standing for and where we're standing. That word is what we're to hold on to.
In chapter one.
In verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us? Word, who believed according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. That's Christ. That's the place where He stands this morning. He stands while He's seated at the right hand of God, but his place is in heaven.
Having finished his work here on Earth and gone back to the Father's house.
By a mighty power that raised him into that place where he is this morning. But then if you go to chapter 2, you learn where we are. And it says in verse five. I'll read verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love we're with, He loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ.
By grace are you saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
As David already commented, that is the place.
Into which we have been brought in Ephesians, as seen with Christ in his place.
In Glory.
Heavens and the armor in chapter 6 is armor given to us that we might stand and not give up in our lives and in our way of life, the position and place to which we have been brought.
We are seen by God.
Enroll in Ephesians with Christ.
Where he is in heavenly places and we have armor here because the enemy Satan, who has access to heavenly places is does not want us to stand in the position in which we are. He would have us leave it.
Spiritually speaking, leave it in practice while we can't leave it in position, but leave it in practice and find ourselves like everybody else, living in the world and for the things of the world and not be identified with.
The Lord, the Master.
The one that would lead us on to keep that place with Him and give testimony to the world as a heavenly people.
So we're told four times, really, stand, stand with stand, stand. Don't leave it, don't give it up. And if we don't value it, we won't even enjoy it and won't care whether we stand for it or not. But if we do enter into it in our souls, then we will wish to have the armor that will keep us in that place that God has brought us into.
There are several.
Admonitions given in Scripture. One of them is old, fat, and, as we've been speaking, stand fast.
And I believe there's a verse in the book of Judges, the 1St chapter of Judges, that frequencies do things together.
With a verse for a while that I had some difficulty understanding if we look to the first chapter of Judges.
And verse five, since then they found a donate peace act and peace act and they fought against them and they threw the Canaanites and the paradise, and the donations flagged and they pursued after him and caught him.
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And cut off his thumbs and grape toads that don't eat these excess restore 10 kings having their thumbs and their great toes credible gathered their meat under my table, as I have done so far have required me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. Well, without the problem. There is no opposition. We cannot grasp, we cannot hold anything. And so.
Characterized not only that game, but the three score 10 without your great toe. There's a lack of balance and we can't stand firm. So I believe that these two admonitions are so important. Hold fast and stand fast.
There's a word.
To the book of Ephesians, and that's in verse 10 of chapter 2. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, and the good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Well, that word workmanship is an interesting word.
The Greek word is poema. In other words, it's the word that we get our our word in English.
For home. So this is the epitome of God's counsels.
That we have in the book of Ephesians holy minutes, God's home, if we can put it that way, or sometimes it's been translated masterpiece. So the truth we're speaking about are the highest truths of Christianity have often appreciated A statement that Mister Faraday makes in his little book on Solomon, he says is Israel is the aristocracy of the earth. That's the theme of the Old Testament, isn't it? The Christian is the aristocracy of the universe.
But we need to enter into that calling and that's why he says in chapter 4 verse one, I therefore the prisoner in the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation of the calling wherewith your call. That's Our Calling is to enter into this these highest privileges that God has entrusted to any of his preachers. Now there's a difference, isn't there between wilderness.
Needs and cana needs. It's often been said that the book of Ephesians is the New Testament Joshua. And what that simply means is that in the Old Testament we have the wilderness, and the food in the wilderness was manna. And that scene is the Lord Jesus coming down, having taken manhood into his person. He lived in this world as a perfect man and his God at the same time. And that's a pattern for our life as strangers and pilgrims.
But then the children of Israel passed over the river Jordan and they entered into the land of Canaan. What does that speak of? Well, I read a quotation yesterday that's been a help to me. I'll just repeat it because somewhere here then. But it says the saving grace of God meets our condition as sinners. That's really coming out of the land of Egypt. But the councils of God reveal what God has purposed to bring to pass for the satisfaction of His own art.
Those are the things we're speaking about. That's the pole of God, the masterpiece of God. That's the warfare here, isn't it? Not the warfare between the flesh and the spirit that we have more in the wilderness, but it's a warp. That's a different warfare, the very real one. But what we have in the book of Ephesians is entering into Our Calling. I might just mention in Acts 20, we have a brief outline of Paul's teaching.
False gospel. He mentions three things, and it's important, I think, to lay a hold of those three things. This is when he's addressing the Ephesian elders. The 1St is the gospel of the grace of God. There's no blessing apart from that, is there? That's the foundation. But then it goes on to speak to the Ephesian elders and he speaks of the Kingdom of God. What does that mean? Well, that means if I'm a Christian, then I'm required and blessed.
To walk the holy life of Christian life, and that's so important. But many people's Christianity ends there. It's good to walk a Christian life, but many people do it, half in the world, half in Christianity. But what we're speaking about here is more the third thing the apostle speaks about, and it is practical as well, but it begins in the councils of God. And that is the third thing Paul mentioned in Acts 20, all the counsel of God.
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That which God has, as we just said.
Formed, headed to go here what God has purposed to bring the past for the satisfaction of His own heart, the highest truth of all God's creatures. We've passed far above angels in our privileges by the finished work of Christ and being brought into Christianity. This is the calling that we're to contend for.
In the book of Ephesians, is that right?
Yes and as soon as you want to walk in the enjoyment of all those things, you're going to find opposition. And to me it's interesting, brethren, how it shows itself in different ways. The enemy tries to sometimes distract, get your mind off of it, think about other things, material things that are we put so much importance on in this life and so.
In our chapter notice in verse 11 it speaks of the whole armor of God. Again speaks of that in verse 13. Take unto you the whole armor of God. There's a wholeness about it. 7 distinct things that I trust we can cover for our young people, for ourselves as well.
But let me just number them briefly before we start in taking them up. First is in verse 14, having your loins dirt about with truth. That's number one. Number two, having on the breastplate of righteousness #3.
Your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace #4 Above all, here's a very important one.
Taking the shield of faith #5 Verse 17. The helmet of salvation number six, The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God #7.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all things.
Brethren, these are practical things, and I trust we can see the importance of making them real in our hearts.
For example, in verse 14, the first one having your loins girt about with truth doesn't say that you need to know the truth. It's more than just knowing it, it's putting it on.
Practice it, be real with it. And this is so important if we're going to be able to stand. Oh, brother. And this is such a challenge in my own soul and I must say.
My own soul, I sometimes go over these seven things because you want to put the armor on before you go into the battle. You don't put the armor on when the battle has already taken place. No. And so we need to.
Be exercised to walk in the practical reality of these things.
Not only to know the truth, we talked about that yesterday, the importance of making a specific effort to learn the truth of God, the whole council of God that you were mentioning, but put it on. Let it be practical in your life. And to me, it's been such a challenge to think of the Lord Jesus here in this world, brethren, and those that followed on the apostles.
And especially the apostle Paul, who was the very chiefest of the apostles, and at the end of his life, he says for the love of Christ he had lost everything.
Was he ashamed?
He said to Timothy, I am not ashamed, for I am persuaded.
I'm going to have to read it, I'm sorry.
First or Second Timothy, chapter one and verse 12.
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Where the witch 'cause I suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day of the confidence with which he speaks, Even though he had lost everything, all those in Asia turned against him.
Was he ashamed? Not for the life of your brother. He was confident. And this to me, speaks so loudly. He made it practical. He lost everything down here.
Lord help us, brethren.
Refer to be the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He doesn't take on that high place to say look at me, look how well versed I am. No, he take the lowly place. And I want to go back with a bit to chapter 4. As our brother read that, I was thinking that as if it was the preparation before we put on the armor because as we walk with these armors, we have to keep something in mind. Let's just turn to chapter 4.
Verse two. How are we to walk as the one who belongs to Christ?
With loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. It wasn't long ago, a brother said to me, due to some political issues you folks have here and and as Vinnie know that the opinion in the politics are so strong, he said. We got to stand up and we got to fight for our rights.
It's not the thought, is it, that this world politics does not belong to us. We're to walk in loneliness and meekness.
We're to have long-suffering or forbearing one another. Oh boy, that's a tough one, isn't it? There are certain certain brother just rubbed me the wrong way. Do we ever feel that? Can we for bear one another? Verse 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Important, isn't it? I don't want to spend the time to turn that into another meeting. Verse four, there is one body.
And one spirit, even as we recall, in one hope of your calling. So how precious to that. We exhibit that there is one body to go through the book of Ephesians, you go through the book of Colossians, you'll find that the body is mentioned repeatedly. Important, isn't it? The mystery of God speaks of that. There is one body with a head in heaven.
There is one body that's a testimony, a quiet testimony to the world that we believe and we exercise that there is one body, there is one bullet. We if we Lord, leave us here till tomorrow, we have the privilege again. Why do we put one loaf exhibition to the world too? Isn't it not just to be remembered as we are one body? Those are the things we are to walk and these these warfare is not something that we can fight by our might.
We need the help. We need God's help. We need the Spirit guiding us into how we need to answer this world in a proper manner.
It's good to be reminded in this chapter that there's an order in which these things are given. There's an always an order in the ways of God. Still remember more than 10 years ago, brother and I that home assembly in Ontario, Canada. He pointed out that in James four and seven, it says to submit to God first and then it exists. The devil and he will flee from you. So sometimes we want to resist the devil, but if we haven't submitted to God, we wonder why the things will arrive.
Sometimes someone's going so reflect. Why do things go sideways?
Why does this happen? There's an order in the things of God. You see it in these verses that we've read here this morning. But also look at the Old Testament. In Exodus chapter 12 we have the Passover. Chapter 13, we have the feast of unknown and bread. Chapter 14, they have the crossing of the Red Sea. Chapter 15, they were worshipping. They were singing on the song of Moses there on the seashore. Then in chapter 16, they had the bread from heaven. Chapter 17, they had the water from the rocks.
And then it speaks of the battle they had, the battle they had and they were at one point almost losing until Moses, his hands were held up. And her brother had pointed out that the warfare and the wilderness is different. So this is not exactly the same. But we can see there's a sequence there. There's the Passover unleavened bread. There's the crossing of the Red Sea. There's the the worship. There's the song there the song of Moses. And there's the the bread from heaven. There's the water from the rock.
00:30:27
And then they can face the war there. And it's striking. It's interesting. My brother has mentioned there's three things in Acts chapter 20 that are given. And then at the end it said they sorrowed, but they sorrowed the most, that they would see his face no more. They had become attached to the person, the apostle Paul, who had been taken up and seen Christ and glory. He hadn't experienced it. Very few, if any, had ever had.
And you know, why do come people come from so far away here? We need each other. We need to be able to build one another up in our most holy face. But even more, we need to see his face. It says we will see his face and his name will be in their forehead. And when we see him, all of a sudden all the fears, all the troubles, all the doubts, all the conflicts, we find that in David inquired of the Lord, did he move? You know, look at the battle David took.
You know, when he was first playing his heart that says, I think four times in First Samuel 18, right after he defeated Goliath, it says he behaved himself wisely. He behaved himself wisely. And then we find that the battle strategies were different. Sometimes he was to charge ahead. Sometimes he was awake to go, the wind going through the trees.
Inquired of the Lord. I was on a family reunion many years ago in Colorado, and I don't remember the name of the mountains, but we spent all day hiking up this mountain in Colorado Springs. And we got there and we looked over and, you know, we've been sweating, we've been tired. All we could see was the rocks either side. And it was, it was like kind of miserable and tiring. We finally got to the summit and we can see the view.
And it was worth, that was one of the longest hikes of my life. It was worth it. And you know, we may sometimes feel like we're sweating. It's difficult. Maybe we're losing the battle, maybe it's struggling. But you know what? There is a view. And we need to look unto Jesus. We need to view him. They sorrow because they cannot see his face anymore. We have the one who loved us. There's an order here, there to submit. The parents should obey Masters. There isn't always an order. God's order is always right.
But He wants to bring us to that right state of soul, so that when these difficulties come, we can triumph when we triumph in Him, thanks to God, who always causes us to try, and in Christ.
I think.
The book of efficient is also contains both aspects, the oppositional aspect and the practical aspect. Like we have in chapter one, we believe of substitute with Christ in the heaven.
And in chapter 2 we have got to God by His grace. In chapter 2 we are reminded our sinful nature. We were lost without God. And in chapter 3 we are brought to the mystery of the church. We have become the part of the church.
All the provisional respect that God has done, and we did nothing for that.
But that does not seem dear. And chapter 4-5 and six.
There is a practical aspect, and many times Christians have forgotten those practical aspects.
Because many Christian thoughts are I am sent by grace, I am good. Now I have been brought to the relationship. Hallelujah, that that means. But that is only the positional aspect, what God has done. So I think from chapter 4 there is a practical aspect what we each Christian need to do not in not in order to get the salvation, not to be born again, but since we are already born again, we have found the salvation in God.
That we need to work up like a personal power says in First Thessalonians. Work out your own salvation.
So I think that for us, we question, we need to, we need to balance.
00:35:01
40 small and practical aspects.
We would love to be carried just away. We just need the Buddhism and we are not to be deceived that I am safe, that I am good now. That is not the end of the Christian process. I hope that we have from chapter 4 working. Of course, in chapter 5 we have the family relationship. In chapter 6 there is an offer of God and I think this two things have to go through alongside.
And if somebody is not born again, if somebody has been just received, just talking to the Christian sort of, but never born again.
Then we have nothing to do for chapter four, chapter 5, and chapter 6, and May God help us, but we also need to be a factor as well as because we have been sick, because there is a desire in our heart when we are saved by God because He loved us and there is the gratitude in our heart. We want to do something. I want to do something for that. I want to commit my life unto God. I want to be a practical, not just like a positional and dirty.
And make God.
That's why it says in verse 14 stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth. It's making it practical. It's putting it on mention that Scripture says there is one body, brethren, we have brethren all over the globe that some of that are suffering severe persecution. Does that affect you in your life? Is that something that's practical with you? Do you pray for them at least?
And there are some things that we can do to help them.
I understand in areas there is a real need for Bibles and they're crying for Bibles in China. They can't seem to supply the need for Bibles that there is because of how many that are converting to the Lord Jesus. So these are practical things, but it goes on in verse 14. The second piece is.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness, which covers the breast, that's very important.
One arrow right through the heart of the soldier is done. Brethren, this is very important to having on, and this is practical righteousness.
And it's I say brother, and I like to connect it with a good conscience.
You know when you do something wrong, you do not have a good conscience, and that's important to maintain a good conscience. The conscience is the knowledge of good and evil.
And when you do something wrong, your conscience is wrong.
Don't ignore the voice of conscience, attend to it. Judge yourself. Tendency of us is to justify ourselves, but when conscience voice speaks, we need to judge ourselves. Notice what Paul says in Acts chapter 24. I think it's such an important.
Verse in connection with this, the breastplate of righteousness.
Acts 24 and verse 16. Here is what he says in his testimony.
And herein, do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men? He doesn't say I always have a good conscience. No. I exercise myself. The exercise I have today, I'm going to have to exercise tomorrow too. It's a constant exercise to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men. How important.
Is this piece of the armor of God?
A question.
Because I know often when we speak I we look at it and many of us just listen but don't hear.
So I want to raise a question and and as I raised the question, I'd like to leave it perhaps without comment for a few seconds and perhaps then others can help because I'm thinking of the young people and particularly I want that question sink into your heart. So we just read in verse 14 to have your loins girt with about with truth. The question is what is truth by not lying?
00:40:11
And we sometimes say, then you're telling the truth. What is it really referring to? And I address it to the younger ones. If someone were to ask you that, what is truth, What is your answer? So give it a few seconds to think and maybe someone else can help us answer that.
That regardless very few inhibitor that years ago that I've never forgotten, he says. Truth is what is.
That's truth, isn't it?
But we know who is the truth. Lord Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the light.
Word is true, and I think it's important when we speak of truth.
To remember that in its absoluteness we have the truth in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His precious Word. Sometimes we like to make ourselves the reference points in connection with truth, but people look at us and they see failure.
And they shake their hands.
Brethren, let's be careful to keep the focus.
On the person of the Lord Jesus and His precious Word.
Living the day when I approved his relative the changes with circumstances, but that is a far cry from the absolute truth that we have in the word of God is about.
I would just like for a moment to go on and comment on something on verse 15 that I have enjoyed where it says add your feet shod with the preparation for the gospel of peace I think we have.
Example of this given.
In First Samuel chapter 25.
David is sending a message to Naval in this chapter and in verse five of that chapter says David sent out ten young men.
David said unto the young man, Get you off the Carmel, and go to neighbor, and greet him in my name, And thus shall he say to him that liveth in prosperity.
These be both thee, and peace be divine house, and peace be under all them all that thou hast.
Here were ten young men.
They were sent out by David.
To greet Mabel and his and David's name of peace. And we know I'm reading the chapter they were rejected.
Some of us who are older have gone to a foot doctor or a podiatrist and and all the times that I've been to podiatrist.
They've examined my feet, but they have never asked a very important question, where have these feet taken you? Where have these feet? And so I believe that we have that answer given in first Samuel chapter 25. And just briefly, one further verse in Isaiah chapter 52.
Where it says in verse 7 how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.
Fighting and that publishes peace and bringeth good. Tidings of good that publishes salvation. That said unto Zion, thy God reigneth.
Preparation of the gospel of peace. Not the gospel of peace per SE, but what lays the foundation for? Isn't it? Is that a consistent Christian life? Isn't that what gives power to the gospel of peace?
00:45:09
What he's saying to a person that was a professing believer, but his life testimony was not in order.
And it was said, what you do speak so loudly I can't hear what you say. And to me, that's exactly what that means. It's the preparation of the gospel of peace. The way you walk prepares the means to give the message.
It's a very strong statement that I hear about with Mahatma Gandhi.
He said that it wasn't for Christians. I would be a Christian. So he read the inconsistencies. He saw the inconsistencies of those that profess the name of Christ, and as a result, he did not see any reality in the message that they proclaimed.
14 and 15 as they relate to the heart.
What's controlling your life this morning?
Pretty important question, really. You're asked some questions last night in the gospel meeting. I'll ask one this morning. What's controlling your life this morning?
Whatever is controlling your heart.
Is controlling your life.
When he says stand.
It's standing.
That has to do with what should be and in the position what had the control of the hearts of the Saints. And so he says, let your loins be gird about with truth.
It's already been said. Truth is not fact. What hasn't been said, but the thought's been given.
Truth and facts are not the same thing. When the world talks about things, they very often will say, well, what's the truth they're really saying? Can you tell me what the facts of the case are in an accurate way? But in fact, truth has because I am the truth.
And the Word of God gives the truth. It gives everything in its proper respect and relationship to God.
And truth brings everything out that has yet properly related to God and what He is and what He does and what He says. And so to have truth, you have to have knowledge.
A child doesn't know much truth because it's a child, and so in order to have wines gird about with truth, knowledge is necessary. But the important fact about it is knowledge in the head is not where truth properly resides.
Now we get back to the heart.
The true residing place that's of truth.
Is the heart.
And if you don't have the truth in the heart, you don't have it and you can't walk in it.
Preparation of the gospel of peace. You can't present the message of God properly. You're not properly prepared to present it unless you can present it as from the heart of God.
A God who has made peace in his love by the cross as now from his own heart, presenting through his servants that message. And so in order to have it, you have to have it in the heart so that it may be presented not clearly, concisely, correctly, only all that's important. But if it's going to speak from the heart of God to the heart of a soul.
It has to come from God's heart, and His servant needs to be able to, whether consciously or otherwise, be entered into the heart of God in order to present God to the soul in peace.
One more living practical example of it who got.
The truth first on the morning of the resurrection.
00:50:05
Who got it first?
Was it John? He knew a lot. Was it Peter? He'd spent 3 1/2 years in the presence of truth. Did he get it first? No.
It's well to remember that the woman from whom 7 devils have been taken.
Had her heart bonded to the person of the Lord Jesus?
In a way that nothing else could satisfy her, and even if it was only to take the body.
And properly take care of it.
She could turn her back on angels, she could turn her back on other people, because there was only one object of her heart that could satisfy her soul, and that was the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the essence.
Of what it is to get the truth is to have a heart that's bonded to the person of the Lord Jesus.
So that nothing else short of that satisfies the heart. And she became.
The bearer of the most wonderful truth of Christianity. That morning when she saw the Lord and she recognized Him, he made his heart known to her and satisfied her heart. And on that day she was the most knowledgeable person in the world. She knew more than anybody else. So what was really important?
But again, it starts with the heart, and that's why these seven points begin with that which has to do with the heart, the truth that has to have its lodging place in the heart, the knowledge of the heart of God which is necessary if there's to be a preparation to share that message with others. The 13th verse of John chapter 20 for the daughter. And they say unto her, woman, why we could style.
She said under that because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had us said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why we bestow who seeketh style. She's supposing him to be the gardener set up in there. Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast played him, and I will take him away.
She supposed that everyone knew who that him was because the Lord was her objective. She didn't state his name, but she just said to him, and that's all that accounted to her, as our brother, John said.
They convert 50 with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's helpful.
To see that it's really the fullness of Philippians chapter 4 and penetrating all the way through to the God of peace that keep our feet in the conflict. It's just, it's not just peace with God that we're ready to proclaim to others. That's given to us, say in Romans, but in Philippians chapter four. We have those anxieties, we have those fears, and we lay them at his feet in prayer. And then that heart is open to take in and feed on what's noble, what's full of virtue and so on, feed on Christ.
Sequence in Philippians 4 ends with the God of peace. And it's knowing that person, that God of peace, that keeps my feet from being jittery. In the conflict. A Roman soldier had sandals that had cleats because they discovered that on grassy battlefields with blood, their feet tended to slip. And on the battlefield that we have in the conflict that we're in, our feet will slip unless we're in full and proper communion with the God of peace. That's what prepares our feet to stand in the conflict.
Is that personal, practical, as we've been talking communion with that one? And if my heart is filled with anxieties, if it's wrestling over things in the heart and it hasn't left them with Him in prayer, then my feet are in danger of being jittery and slipping in the conflict. But if we've gone through in the heart and mind are filled with that person and we're enjoying that God of peace, the feet are firm and standing in the conflict.
00:55:22
When you say something to these young people about this project.
The enemy of your soul is a liar.
We find in the word of God that he was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.
And so he will work insidiously.
And deviously to tell you that everything that God is for and everything God has done is wrong, you think back to his first interaction with Eve in the Garden.
He loved first, he introduced the doubt. Has God really said that? Then he says, oh, God's wrong, you're not going to die. And young people.
The enemy that we're striving against. I mean, this is sophisticated.
High level.
Elaborate work there that Satan would tell you.
God is not really for you. You don't have any value.
I look around at young people that I see and my interaction, you know, I have kids in high school and I look at young people and I tell you, my heart goes out to you and the messages that you're being given, God isn't for you. You don't have any value.
God is a liar. Or perhaps if we can't get you to believe that, maybe.
To your parents don't care about you. All these rules that they have, they're they're just being mean to you young people, don't take your basis of your thinking from Satan. He's a liar. Whatever he's telling you is not going to bring you closer to the Lord. I really appreciate brother Don your thoughts about the heart.
It's so critical.
To have your heart.
Engaged with the Lord Jesus.
To take hold of the fact that God is for you and all that he is. I can't quote this exactly right, but I've enjoyed this thought that.
All of our failures in life stem from a disbelief, that of the goodness that's in the heart of God. I don't know if we said that originally, but Satan would take God's truth.
And twist it, change it, you know, and we're under tremendous cultural.
Influence to say, well, you know, you need to take a few bricks off the wall. Compromise. You know, God really doesn't know what he's doing. He's not addressing your needs. He is, young people, he is.
I have a sister-in-law that's a banker and a cousin that's a banker.
Both of them have told me that the way they teach their employees direct to recognize counterfeit money is to handle the real money.
Learn to get familiar with the love of God, the truth of God, what he says your place is, you know the enemy would say you don't have any value, you don't have any worth. What does God say about it? We've been talking about this in the first chapter Chosen in Christ.
All those spiritual blessings, God is for you. And Satan would say no, no, no, no, God is not for you. He's against you.
Think of the we spoke about the truth of the one body. Why does.
Satan wants you attack that because it draws us closer to Christ and if anything he can do to undermine and attack, he's going to do it. And so that's why having this armor on and understanding.
That the messages from the enemy and the overwhelming flow of the culture of this world. It's a lie. Find truth here, don't find it out there in the world.
01:00:11
If you think that you're on solid standing, you're not. I have an enjoyment of history and I yesterday was.
Something that has a Newfoundlander. I was sharing this with the girls yesterday as Canada Day is also Beaumont Hamill Day.
What do you mean? Bernie Beaumont Hamill Day is World War One and the Newfoundland Regiment was designated yesterday in a battle in World War 1.
The insidiousness of the enemy. Some of the things that he would do is, I'll just use some World War One examples because I like history. They would tunnel underneath the enemy trench, fill it up with explosive and just blow it up. He wants to annihilate you that way. They can't get you that way.
You know, a deception. I think it's interesting that one of the tactics that was used this.
They would sneak up, take a piece of enemy trench, leave a bunch of false documents and retreat. The enemy would come. This is what David's plans are.
That's how the enemy works. Is present to you what isn't true as if it is true.
He wants to take you out, so recognize everything He's doing is against God and against Christ and against your enjoyment. Believe that.
Take into your soul the goodness that's in the heart of God. It's so critical.
It just said way more than I plan to. I'm sorry.
You're talking about me is verse 16 taking the shield of faith, implicit confidence in God and His Word and so often.
The enemy presents outward.
Evidences of his lies and you've got to learn to walk by faith, not by sight because what is seen is often not the full reality. So learn to go by God's word. That's the shield of faith. It's this thing that is generally in their left hand. They carried the shield and it says.
Which ye are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Now I like to say the darts are the doubts. Satan throws doubts at you. Did God really say that? No, you're not going to die. He put those doubts into Eve's heart and she fell for it. And the same tactic he's using today. Trust God implicitly. Trust him. When He says something in His word, He means it. You can count on it.
That's the shield of faith, and that's why it says here in verse 16. Above all, this is one of the most important pieces of the armor of God. Lord help us.
Two parts involved.
There's your heart and God's heart, and we've been having both sides of it.
It's so important is that we recognize that there needs to be a bonding between our own heart and the heart of God, and the shield of faith is connected with the heart of God is already brought out. If you go back to the first temptation of Adam and Eve, what was the work of Satan there? It was to bring doubt into the heart.
Of the heart of God. It was to make Eve question the heart of God and not trust what he said in faith. God said don't eat of it.
And Satan would say, wait a minute, it's going to make you wise. And it's true. It was going to make it wise. And so she responds and says, well.
We were told not to eat of it and not to touch it. That's the way the heart works. It adds to or changes the simplicity of what God says. That makes it a little more intolerable to us.
01:05:06
And so she adds that word, but nonetheless, the purpose behind it was to destroy her faith in the heart of God. And we one of the things that connected with it as well, as Bob mentioned a while ago, the good conscience.
It says if our heart condemn us not.
Then we have a good conscience toward God. And so it is the importance of not allowing anything that comes between our heart and God. And if we do something wrong, if our conscience bothers us and brings in a distance, and sometimes to cover up that distance, we're willing to compromise the truth as we know it because our heart condemns us and we aren't willing to submit.
And sub in repentance to what God has to say. So just again, let's remember not to let anything as Mary didn't on that resurrection morning come between her own heart and the heart of God.
And verse 5.
Says, And hope maketh not ashamed.
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, so this is God's way of bringing reality of His love home to our hearts so that our hearts can be healthy and so that we can be in fellowship with God and with His plans. Hope maketh not ashamed.
Well, hope.
Is always based upon the promises of God. Here we're taking up in our in our chapter in Romans, all the councils of God that center in Christ to bring us into that blessing in association with him. And Satan is wanting to rob us of the enjoyment of this and of the testimony that it will bring for the glory of God in our lives.
Hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
By the Holy Ghost, it's the activity of the Holy Ghost which takes the reality of the love of God and makes it good to our soul. And if there's anything hindering the Holy Ghost from doing that, then the love of God won't be able to float freely to our soul. So it's it is really important that the spirit be free.
It's not a matter of us putting forth all kinds of fleshly energy to enter into the love of God. No, it's just allowing the Spirit of God liberty to reveal the love of God to our hearts and and then we'll have the the hope of these things will be will be vibrant because the relationship that we have with God.
Is real, but I just want to emphasize the work of the Spirit of God.
Is essential. He has to be free because he's the one that communicates the reality.
Of relationship that we're in.
It says that the shield of faith extinguishes the fiery darts of the wicked. And lifting the shield, it doesn't take away the dark, but it extinguishes the dark. And I experienced this in my own life. I'm sure many here have. I know when I was a teenager.
I believe the devil sent me a fiery dart and it had to do with.
The the work of Christ, the substitutionary atonement of Christ. And it was, it was a clever strategy. And you know, it was a question, a challenge. I didn't have an answer for it.
And, you know, for a couple of hours I was rocked. You know, here I was. I wasn't, to my knowledge, going on in sin of some kind. It's not that kind of warfare. It's rather Eric brought out it was, this is the warfare when we're going on well and we get targeted.
01:10:16
And you know, what I need to do is lift the shield of faith. I lifted the shield of faith. Trust God. I can fall back on his heart. I can trust his love that this person I've come to know and that and the flame goes out, the fiery dart is extinguished. I may not have an answer, but the dart was extinguished. And then later on I was able to draw the the sword of the spirit and the Spirit of God brought.
A verse of Scripture to my mind that that just perfectly answered that and.
But again, above all, that shield of faith, if there's that burning.
Doubt that's there in your mind. Lift the shield of faith and they'll take care of it right away.
Very brief thought regarding Shields. We have the master.
Somebody else carried Goliath's shield.
He didn't respond. He was dependent on somebody else. We need our own faith.
Can't depend on the faith of our parents or grandparents or brothers or sisters or somebody else that we look up to. We need that shield of faith for ourselves. I know it's certainly God's order. The Goliath be killed by David with his faith in the Lord, but still Goliath and somebody else carrying the shield. We need to carry the shield for ourselves.
Brother Tim, you had something to say.
Steven better than I was going to so.
Take just one final comment as we're out of time, but at the beginning of verse 17, I think is so critical and sometimes misunderstood. And take the helmet of salvation. It's not what I'm first saved, is it? But salvation is in three tenses in Scripture, isn't it? It's past, present and future. And this is practical salvation day by day in our walk, not when I first came to the Lord, but it's salvation day by day and I just want to read.
Some verses in 2nd Corinthians 10 that I think are so critical here because in this day it's called the Information Age and there's all kinds of thoughts we can pick up on the Internet. For instance, we have to be careful to control our crops. That's what this is speaking about. They have to be in submission to the Word of God and not just free flow or we'll get in trouble. Just 2nd Corinthians 10.
Verse 3 where we walk.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And then this verse particularly, casting down imaginations or reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
I love you about the last verse of 16 in the appendix as the shield of the Helmet of Salvation, Brother Eric.
For every tribulation.
For every sore distress in Christ I've full salvation, Sure help and quiet rest, No Fear of foes prevailing. I triumph, Lord in thee, Oh Jesus, friend unfailing, how dear art thou to me?
Maybe we can sing that hymn.
The Ground of Gathering
Address—Tim Ruga
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#3 in the appendix.
The Wanderer.
00:05:47
So this afternoon in the meeting.
We had presented, or this morning I should say, a number of times about the truth of the one body.
And it is on my heart to present something of that, in particular the truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on the ground that there is one body.
And I want to do that as simply as I can, starting from Matthew 18 and verse 20.
So let's turn there.
Matthew 18 and verse 24, where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them.
Now this verse, of course, is found in context, and we're going to consider that context, but I'd just like to.
Explain very briefly what it's speaking about. It's talking about two or three that are gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's many things in that that I can't prove to you directly from this verse, but the Scripture bears them out. We're going to look at that this afternoon.
And it says where they are, so gathered there am I.
In the midst of them there is the special presence and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Now, before I go further into this, I just want to say that this is speaking about the assembly, and we know this because the context shows it. And let's just go back up to verse 15 because that's the beginning of this section. You'll see a paragraph mark there and speaking about a case of trespass against a brother.
It says, Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gain thy brother, but if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more.
That in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And so here is a case where you have an attempt to reconcile a brother failing the first attempt, then there's two or three others that are taken with him, and then we have next the assembly brought in if that fails.
Verses 17 to 20 speak about the assembly.
Says, If he shall neglect to hear them, then tell it unto the Church or the assembly.
But if you neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a republican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two or three, if two of you shall agree on earth, is touching, anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. And so these two or three that are gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Are spoken of here as.
The assembly.
And the assembly is that.
Expression of what Christians are when they are together in the Word of God. And we want to see what that is.
It says, first of all, we're two or three.
Are gathered now.
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Witnesses are gathered. I know from the grammar I understand this could mean that two or three simply get together, and in fact the words are used that way in First Corinthians 5 and they could be used that way here.
But in no sense is that speaking about how those two or three came to be gathered together.
Scripture is not silent about that. It tells us that there is one who gathers. There's a gathering center that's clear from this verse. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is one who gathers and is not left up to individuals to decide where we are going to meet or how we are going to be gathered. The Word of God presents clearly otherwise, and I want to look at that first.
So let's go over to Mark.
Chapter 14.
Mark 14 and we'll start at verse 12.
And the first day of the week, I'm sorry, the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him.
Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?
So what is happening here?
And they were about to take the Passover, and it was really that Passover that was immediately before the Lord went to the cross, where He, the true Passover, was to be sacrificed for his own.
And it was on this occasion that the Lord was going to introduce things to his disciples that they needed to know.
Because he was going away. He was going to die.
And he was going to be buried, then rise again, then go away, back to heaven. And the disciples needed to know something about all of that.
And so this is that occasion that we're speaking about here.
And you notice the first thing brought before us by the Spirit of God, who's the author of these words, is that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus.
Where will thou that we go?
Of course they did. He was their Lord. He was there, they asked him.
What it was that they were supposed to do, they didn't go ask someone else. They didn't make up their own mind about it. They asked him.
Verse 13 He sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city.
And there shall meet you a man bearing a picture of water. Follow him.
Why didn't the Lord tell them simply where to go?
Why did he tell them to go and they would meet them a man?
The Lord could have told them where they should go. He could have told them himself. He had before, but now he's going away and there's something new. They were going to be committed into the hands of another.
And the Lord's going to tell them about that one.
But first of all, he gives them this object lesson. I don't know who this man was, but I do know for sure that this man is a type of the Holy Spirit of God.
And you see that on his head is a picture of water and the scriptures. We always have these things presented together, the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Ephesians chapter 5, John 13. Many other places connect water with the word of God, the Spirit of God. And then in type is whom they were sent to go and meet, and this one LED them to that place.
They were going to meet the Lord. You see the point at what I'm getting at here this afternoon. Point made countless times by others, but I want to make sure.
That everyone understands it. It's important.
Verse 14 And whatsoever he shall, and whatsoever he shall go in, wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good men of the house, the Master saith, Where is the guest chamber? Where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared. There make ready for us.
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In just this part his disciples went forth and came into the city, and found as he had said.
Unto them the Lord gave instruction. They went. It was all the way that he said.
Now I want to go and look at what happened when they got there.
And we find the first thing, of course, right here in verse 17. In the evening he cometh with the 12. The Lord himself came to that place that he had appointed.
They found him there.
I want to see now what he said when he got there. Let's turn over to John.
John chapter 14 and I'll just refer to the end of chapter 13 because in chapter 13 the Lord Jesus introduced to them as he had already before that he was going away and this of course made the disciples very sad. So John 14 and verse one he said let not your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And so the Lord sets their hearts and their minds at ease, that with this wonderful fact that yes, He was going away, but he'd come back again.
And we enjoy that. And I'm going to pass on because that's not my subject.
My subject instead is the next question that they had and that the Lord answered.
And that is OK. What about the time until you come again?
And the Lord goes on to answer that in this chapter, and it's important to see it.
Verse 16 he says I will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth. And so the Lord Jesus speaks about one who he calls a comforter here, which I understand we don't have an exact word in the English language that expresses what the original was here Mr. Darby says something like a solicitor, but looking it up and and really.
Looking at what that word means, solicitor is pretty close. It's somebody who takes care of all of your affairs.
In the Greek I understand his paracletos.
In Malawi, they had almost an exact word called Chinkos way, and the Chinkos way was someone in the family who just took care of everything.
And I want you to notice one little word that we often skip over here. It's so important. The Lord Jesus says I will pray the Father and He will give you. He doesn't say He will give you a comforter. He does not say that He says He will give you another comforter.
Why does he say another comforter?
It's because he himself was that one who took care of all their affairs. That is why they said, Where wilt thou that we prepare the Passover?
Of course they asked him. He was the one who took care of all those things.
And he was going away and he says, I'm going to send another one, another like myself. And so it was that he was committing them into the hands of another. That's why that object lesson was so important. When they even went to that place, the Lord was at least getting them used to this idea that he was going to be gone, but they weren't going to be left as orphans.
There was going to be one who was going to come. That one was going to have a ministry on this earth of leading and guiding and directing them. In John chapter 1415 and 16, the Lord goes on to explain much about that ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we could spend the whole rest of this meeting on that, but we won't. We're going to pass on. I just want to refer to what we have just one verse in Romans.
Chapter 8, I think it's verse 14. It says as many as are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God.
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As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Spirit of God is the one who is here on earth today.
Leading and directing. He hasn't gone away. The Lord said the end of verse 16. That he may abide with you forever.
And he meant it. The Holy Spirit is with us right now. He has this ministry of leading and guiding. And so just like the disciples wouldn't go and say we're just going to pick a nice place to prepare the Passover, so it is today that we don't go and say we're going to pick a nice place where we're going to have the remembrance of the Lord and meet with him in that place and expect that he's going to be there.
That isn't the teaching of the Word of God.
I don't say that if you did that, that the Lord wouldn't bring blessing. No doubt He would.
But the teaching of the Word of God is what we're occupied with today, and that's what I want to show in the time that we have. Let's go back to Matthew 18 and verse 20.
Four where two or three are gathered together.
Why does this stay together?
If it just said where two or three are gathered, wouldn't they be together?
Yes, they would or they wouldn't be gathered. But obviously then this word gathered goes beyond just a simple fact of being together.
And this is what our brethren were getting at in our meeting this morning.
That the Word of God teaches.
That the Spirit of God gathers believers together.
The Lord spoke of it.
While he was here on Earth. And I'd just like to go look at a few. We'll refer to one, but let's go back, or forward, I should say. Matthew, chapter 20.
Six, I believe it is. I'm sorry, Chapter 23.
Matthew 23.
And verse 8 the Lord said to the disciples, he said, But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.
That's interesting, isn't it?
There's not many rabbis and rabbi means instructor, teacher. There weren't many teachers and many groups of brethren. The Lord said no, it's not going to be that way. There's only one. It's the Lord himself. This isn't to deny that we don't have features. We do. The New Testament plainly teaches that truth and we enjoyed it this morning. But.
It's saying that there's one instructor overall, and that's the Lord Jesus.
Himself and all the others are brethren, and you don't see that broken down into separate groups.
Go to John chapter 10. We have this brought out in a little bit different way.
John 10 and justice for context in this chapter quickly, the Lord was speaking about a fold. That fold was Israel.
And of that fold there was a true shepherd, and it was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And he wasn't just the true shepherd, He was the Good Shepherd that gives his life for the sheep.
And so he was the true and the Good Shepherd of Israel, but not them only. And this we have in verse 16 he says other sheep I have which are not of this fold.
Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be. Now this is something we need to correct in the King James. It's not one fold, it's one flock. There shall be one flock and one shepherd, only one. And that's not Israel.
That's other sheep that weren't Israel brought together with those of Israel.
Put together, now there's a flock and we could speak a lot on what that means, but very simply we can see again that the Lord is teaching that it's only one, only one shepherd, only one teacher, all the rest, brethren. And if we turned over to John chapter 17, we see that the Lord prays to His Father.
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And there he prays for these same disciples.
But just like he says here, he prays for others who should afterwards.
Believe through their word. That's you and that's me.
And he prays four times over that they might be one.
That they might be made perfect in one. That they might be one. That they might be one.
That prayer, of course, was answered.
And it's true, just like all the rest is true. There's only one teacher, everyone else's brethren. There's only one Shepherd.
All the rest of us are his flock.
And there's only one family of God. We're all that have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, all in that family, not just those here, but every believer on the face of this earth.
We are all part of that one family.
But you see again the importance on that issue. Yes, God made it perfectly true. But what I'm getting at here this afternoon is we're not giving truth just to have an abstract idea or to know something about the future. We're given truth so that we can act on it. Now, what good is it? Well, there is good, but we lose much, let me put it that way, if we have these truths presented to us.
And they have no present effect in our life. It's so important that we understand that there's a practical side of everything that we've been talking about here today.
And this truth goes on to something more intimate and close to the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Because the Lord Jesus did die.
And he did rise again.
And he was.
Received up by God into heaven, he ascended there and sat down in the right hand of God.
And then there came a time when the Lord Jesus received that promise of the Father that he spoke about in John chapter 14.
And that occurs in Acts chapter 2, which for the sake of time.
We won't turn 2, but Peter says when the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples at that time Peter explained it. He said this is.
That which the Lord Jesus received, He has poured out on you all, the Holy Spirit. He received that promise of the Father, He poured him out.
And as a result of that, what happened? Well, we know that the Holy Spirit came to earth. We know that we received our guide, that one who would take care of all of our affairs. But what happened? What did that really do? Let's go over to 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
1St Corinthians 12.
And we'll just start at verse 12. For as the body is one and half many members, and all the members of that body being many, are one body, so also is the Christ or Christ, For by 1 Spirit we are, are we all baptized into one body?
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free. And have it all been made to drink into one spirit?
The Spirit of God was poured out on that day and all the believers that were there.
And not just them, He says we all, we have been baptized into one body. That's what happened on that day. They were formed into this single body of Christ. He himself, the living head in heaven, had received the Spirit. He poured out the Spirit of God on them and the baptism that then formed them into one body, his own body on earth.
And the point that we have before us today.
Is that emphasis on the word 1?
00:30:01
It's not arbitrary, This thought of one body we have over and over again, and that's what we need to see in connection with our subject. Let's go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans 12 and verse 4.
For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ.
And everyone members of another. You see how integral this is? All the members all forming one body.
And it's true. It isn't just those who act practically on this. Again, I'm going to emphasize that it's a simple fact. Every believer is part of this one body. No believers left out of it.
All members of one body, but we are called to act practically on it, and that was referred to already this morning. Let's just go to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
And we can read from verse one. Your brother David explained a lot of this already, so we'll just read it.
And I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. I want to read that part at least, indicating, as our brother said, that we have responsibility, not good enough just to have truth presented to us. We are called to walk in it with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.
Endeavoring to keep.
The unity of the Spirit.
Oh, you see that the Spirit of God very much has something to do with us.
Yes, he is here. He has a ministry, and that ministry, among many other things, is that there's a unity. He gathers believers together, and he has a unity that he desires to be expressed practically while we're here.
It says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And what does he bring up immediately?
There is one body.
You can't read these verses and say, yes, I acknowledge there's one body, but it has no present application to me. No, it's put together here with this thought of unity that is of the Spirit, and we are told that we are to endeavor to keep it, you and I, that's our responsibility.
I want to go to one more in Colossians.
Just on this point.
Colossians 3.
As this emphasizes a slightly different part of it. Colossians 3 verse.
15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which ye are called in one body, and be thankful.
To which ye are called could be to which you have been called. It sounds like it means pretty much the same thing. And that's exactly what it does mean. You are called to it. It's not some future thing. We know for a fact that when we all believers get home to heaven, we're going to be one. Of course we are.
But we're called to it now. You have been called to it. This is present truth right now for us today.
And I'm going to just ask a question for you to think about because.
Because many have said, yes, I see all of that, but it's not practical to walk in it today.
Would the Spirit of God in these scriptures have given us this truth repeated over and over and over again so many times if it wasn't possible to walk in it?
I'll leave that question with you.
For me the answer is very simple. No, we are responsible to walk.
In this truth big of expression to it.
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First Corinthians chapter 10 is another part of this truth that we often enjoy showing the importance of it.
1St Corinthians 10.
And.
Verse 15 I speak as to wise men. Judge you what I say.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
That night when the Lord.
Was with the disciples there at the Passover.
He instituted this feast of the Lord's Supper.
And he said to them, when he gave them that loaf, he said, take, eat. This is my body, which is for you.
And of the cup, this is my blood. These symbols we know are very, very important symbols. They speak of the Lord Jesus Christ in his work on the cross, giving himself, shedding his blood.
And isn't it interesting that here the Spirit of God takes that very symbol by which the Lord gave his life?
And connects it with the fact of what he gave his life for.
That he would have a body and a bride and that loathe before it is broken speaks of the fact that there's one body.
And from this verse at least, we know that meeting together to remember the Lord.
It's very important that we do it in the way that he is appointed. It gives expression to the fact that there's one body.
This is no idle thing. I hope we can all see that many people pass on from these verses and from these thoughts and think, well, that's not a major truth of God.
If that was true, why do we have it over and over again? This is dear to the Lord Himself.
Let's go on to.
The First Corinthians chapter 12, again, back where we were. So I just want to talk just for a minute about what that body is.
That isn't not just a group of things or a group of people. In our case, we might talk about a body of knowledge.
It's not like that. It's often been said it's not an organization, it's an Organism. And that's true because it's living.
And Paul learned this at the moment of his conversion. The Lord struck him down on the Damascus road and said.
Saul saw Why persecutest thou me?
He learned right at that moment that he had touched the Lord's people, and in doing that he touched the Lord himself. And that's what this body is. It's a living Organism, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not some abstract idea that he's away in heaven representative. No, he's vitally connected with his body.
And I'm saying this because it again emphasized, emphasizes how important this truth is.
And what we have here.
It says in verse 20.
Six. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
Or one member be honored. All the members rejoice with it.
That's quite an expression of unity, isn't it?
And so it is. This body is one, and we actually do feel it. And Brother Bob was talking about that earlier this morning, that these ones are suffering. Maybe we don't feel like we should, but we do feel it. It's real.
But the practical side of that is we should act it out as well if we really believe that we really need to act on that, to be together with others, but not again to choose that ourselves. I'm going to come back to that. The Spirit of God is the one who will gather Christians together on that principle that there is one body so that it can be acted out in practice.
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It says here.
Verse 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. Does that mean that that Corinthian assembly was a whole body of Christ? Of course not. The Holy Spirit baptized all believers into one body. And we see this also from the next verse which says, and God has set some in the church or the assemblies first apostles. Did he put all the apostles in the Corinthian assembly?
No.
This is speaking about not the Corinthian assembly, but the whole body of Christ, and they were simply representative of that locally. That's what they were. And notice too what it says about them and members in particular.
What were they members of? Were they members of the Corinthian church?
No, absolutely not. They were members of the body of Christ.
And get this.
The Word of God shows no other membership.
That's all we have. You're a member of the body of Christ, or you're a member of something. You may still be a member of the body of Christ, but if you take another membership, you're going outside of what the Word of God recognizes. This is the only membership recognized in the Scripture.
Well, for the sake of time, I just want to go and just abbreviate this a little bit. Ephesians chapter one. I'm sorry, 1St Corinthians 1. Let's go back to the first chapter.
Because the thought naturally comes up what of divisions and I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I do want to just suggest a few things about it.
First Corinthians one and verse 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
And so that was the instruction. That's what they were asked to do right then. At that time, things were coming in by where they were going to start to divide. They hadn't yet inside the assembly. There was these divisions going on. There were still one assembly, but divisions were coming in already.
And he says here it have been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the House of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I have Christ. You see what they were doing? They were starting to follow leaders. It wasn't anymore. One is your teacher and your old brethren, was it?
That's what the Lord said it was supposed to be.
But they had gotten away from that somehow.
And say, well, So what if they did? That doesn't affect the fact that there's one body, does it?
Actually no, and actually yes.
They can't do anything to affect the fact that there's one body, because God has done that and nothing that man does can destroy that.
But what they were doing was denying it, and that was unacceptable. Look what Paul says next. Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? And so on.
When we don't act practically on this truth.
To be gathered together by the Spirit of God.
With the Spirit of God would have us on this ground that there's one body.
Or even if we do what they did in this Corinthian assembly.
That is to have divisions among ourselves, and we have to hang our heads, I'm afraid, on that one.
Then we are suggesting that Christ is divided.
Even though he isn't and he couldn't be.
But that is what in effect we're saying by our actions. This is a serious issue and it wasn't me who put it this way.
It was the Apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God.
We could go on. Chapter 11 takes the thought just a little bit further.
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There was going to be a day in that assembly when there was no longer just splits inside the assembly, but there was going to be a full open division and another one.
And you say, well then everything is destroyed. You no longer can do any of this. But the Spirit of God says that the approved may be made manifest among you. And so when that happened in the Corinthian assembly, and I know nothing about it other than what it says in Chapter 11.
When that happened, there were those who were approved.
And obviously and necessarily, there were those who were not.
And so God still has a place where we can meet together. He gave these scriptures so that we might have a foundation for how it is that he desires us to meet. And why I'm going through all of this is you say, well, what's the point? Don't we just follow the Spirit of God and just go wherever he says?
Yes, we do, but don't forget that that man had a pitcher of water on his head. And the Spirit of God never ever leads contrary to the Word of God. And so we will find that place where the Spirit of God leads believers to be gathered together to be consistent with the Word of God. And that's why we're going over these principles.
The Spirit of God wrote these things down. He uses the word of God.
In that process of guiding his own to the place where he desires they should be gathered together. Now let's go back to Matthew 18.
Matthew 18 Four where two verse 20 where two or three are gathered together.
In my name, or to my name unto my name says There am I in the midst of them, just a few words on in my name.
And we sang together thy precious name. It is thy bear.
Tells us in Acts Chapter 11 That the disciples were first called Christians.
At Antioch and then the Spirit of God took.
That word, that name by which they were called, and sanctions it not only by mentioning it there, but in first Peter chapter four, he says if any man suffers a Christian, he shows that this is what we're called by the name of Christ. That's what Christian is one who is called by Christ. We bear his name.
I really enjoyed how a brother in Malawi.
With explaining these things, one day he actually turned to a gospel verse. He went to Acts chapter 4 and verse 12 where it says there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And his comment that I enjoyed so much was this, that God hasn't given any other name by which we must be saved.
And he hasn't given any other name by which we must be gathered either. It's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that that's the name that God has taken and exalted above every name in Philippians 2. That is the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so these ones are gathered.
To the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Spirit of God does. He's not here.
To speak of himself, the Lord says in John 16, No, he speaks of me, and he gathers believers together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then what does the Lord Jesus say?
He says there am I in the midst of them.
Now we could take a lot of time on this too, but speaking about the presence of the Lord Jesus and in context here, it's speaking about His authority.
But it goes beyond to His presence in a special way. There's simply no question of that. And the Scriptures present that you say, isn't the Lord Jesus present everywhere?
Yes, of course he is. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be God.
One of the attributes of God is that he's omniscient. And the Lord Jesus could say in John chapter 3, no man hath come down from, has ascended up into heaven, except you came down from heaven. Even the Son of Man who is in heaven, the Lord Jesus. I said omniscient, I meant omnipresent. The Lord Jesus is everywhere at once. That's his attribute of being God.
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Omnipresence.
And so he is, isn't he with every believer?
And in a special way.
Yes, of course he is. In Hebrews 13 tells us that He says I will never leave you nor forsake you. We have those promises and we know it's true.
But there is yet another way spoken of in this verse.
That the Lord Jesus is with his own that are gathered to his name.
You get something of the idea of in Exodus 33, which we won't turn to. But Moses says to the Lord, if thy presence go not with us, then we will not go up, Heather. And the Lord says, my presence will go with you. Wasn't the Lord always with them? Yeah, the Lord everywhere. Jehovah was everywhere. But that special presence is what Moses was looking for. And here the Lord says, I will be there.
There am I in the midst of them, and if you went over to 1St Corinthians chapter 5, you'd find more taken up on this subject of authority. It says there in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together. Let me see it again there. That's the other sense. By the way, the Corinthian assembly came together at that time.
And the Lord says.
That is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that came together in a special way.
And there it was, that they had the Lord there.
And the power of my spirit with our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, to commit such a one to Satan. The authority of the Lord was there to do it. And when they did that, he speaks to them at the end of the chapter, he says.
Do not you judge those that are within?
Now that was a day of simplicity. The in the within was just inside the assembly, which was, as we saw, a representative of the whole body of Christ.
And that was given to them to judge. And that without he speaks up next, them that are without God judges. That's Speaking of unbelievers, the lost in the world. And that's all you had at that time, just those that were within and those that are without. Today there's confusion of man, but it still doesn't change.
What God set out in His Word is what He desired.
We have that here in Matthew 18 as well, verse 18.
Verily I say unto you that whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So the Lord is speaking about the fact that these ones who are on earth without Him present as to His physical body, we're going to bind something, and it wasn't going to be bound just in the assembly there.
It was going to be bound in heaven and the same with the loosen.
Which shows that this was something that was done because the Lord and it says that plainly.
For or because where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. They had the authority to do it because he was actually there, even though they couldn't see him.
It's important.
And so.
They were.
Given this authority to act.
In the name of the Lord and I just want to say our time is over here.
That these are principles laid out in the scripture.
I trust that I've shown that.
For today, the truth is that the Spirit of God is gathering through the name of the Lord Jesus. He himself is still in the midst according to this promise. There's still this authority to act, and you and I have responsibility as to what we do with this truth.
We have responsibility before the Lord. Nobody going to come up to you or to me and say you have to do this.
But one day we all give an account, and I'm going to stop with that. Except that I don't want to end on a bad note.
00:55:01
There's a beautiful side of this that I just love.
I don't know that every Christian appreciates these things.
But every single one will, and there's a verse that speaks of it, and I love the verse. Let's go there to close the meeting. 2nd Thessalonians 2.
2nd Thessalonians 2 and verse one.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And they're gathering together unto him.
Not one.
Will be missing.
We're all going to be perfectly gathered one day.
But am I going to give the Lord the privilege of being gathered to His name before that day?
I trust.
The Armor of God
Open—Bob Thonney
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330.
What raise the?
Heart.
Rate of the Revenge of the US.
I would like to.
Just touch on the rest of the Armor of God that we didn't get around to this morning in our reading.
I want to make an additional comment on the.
Shield of faith. To me it is such an important part of the armor of God.
Believing God.
And we are so taught in today's world to go by what you see around.
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But the verse comes so clearly in Scripture. We walk by faith, not by sight. Doesn't mean you close your eyes. No, you use your eyes.
But you don't go by what you see, you go by what God says in his Word.
And one of the illustrations I'd like to give for your meditation is in Acts chapter 27, where Paul is on his voyage to Rome and you remember they got into one awful storm.
And in the middle of the storm, God came comes to Paul.
They have been driven up and down and it says all hope that they should be saved was taken away.
But notice.
He says in verse. I'm going to just read a few verses here in chapter 27 and verse.
21 But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them. Remember, there's 276 people on board this ship. That's quite a few.
I'll guess. I don't know. Is that the amount of people that are here at the conference? Brother Joe? Oh, Brother Joe's not here.
More or less. I hear some, see some nods.
And he says he stood in the midst of them, and says, Sir, she should have hearkened on me when and not have loose from Cretin to have gained this farm and loss.
Now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve sane. Fear not, Paul.
Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God has given thee all them that sail with thee.
Verse 25 Notice what he says. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. You might say Paul, Paul, come on, be reasonable. Look at this storm we're in the middle of and the condition of the ship.
I believe God. He didn't choose to believe the circumstances, He believed God. That's the shield of faith. And brethren, we're going to be increasingly challenged to doubt God.
Choose, dear young people and older ones too, to believe God. When you have some statement of Scripture that specifically says it, choose to believe God. That's the shield of faith. But I'd like to go back now to Ephesians chapter 6, just to touch on those that we didn't get around to. We mentioned the helmet.
Of salvation, which is the next one after the shield of faith.
The assurance that all is going to end well, We know that from Scripture.
If you could tell a soldier that he was going into battle, I know you're going to come out victorious.
With what assurance he would go in to fight, knowing that no matter what happened, he was going to come out victorious. That's the helmet of salvation. And brethren, that's what we have. Are there trials? Let me tell you, they're all over the place.
Sicknesses, death, and I don't know how to explain it. Don't ask me please. But Scripture is clear that He is going to bring it to work together for good according to His eternal purposes.
That were depended on me. I'm kind of hard headed and stiff necked brethren, but who do you think is going to win?
God and his eternal purposes or this hard headed, stiff necked guy that's standing up here, You know who's going to win? God and his eternal purposes and we can count on him. Oh, how wonderful it is, brethren, that's the helmet of salvation. But now.
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The only offensive part of the armor is the second part of verse 17. Ephesians 617 and.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Oh how important it is to have the word of God in our hearts. You know the Lord Jesus, every time Satan tempted him, he did not stop to reason with the devil. He simply said it is written and the devil quoted scripture to him. Not completely, but partially it was so.
The Lord Jesus said it is.
Written again, you know we have the tendency sometimes to reason with unbelievers.
You don't have to reason with them, just give them scripture. The word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two edged sword. How important it is to be able to give scripture to them? Somebody has said when the Lord Jesus answered in those three.
Instances the devil why he quoted all three are found in Deuteronomy and two are found in the same chapter. So it doesn't mean that you have to know a whole lot of scripture, but let it be living in your heart Scripture and that's what will the Satan will have to give way to he could not.
He could not withstand.
When the Lord Jesus said it is written, that's the sword of the Spirit. How important it is to be versed in Scripture. Now I want to encourage you to memorize Scripture. You know what, when I was a young person, a young boy, we had Sunday school treat in Walla Walla and I had to memorize Scripture those.
Still stick in my mind. I try to memorize today and I can for some bit, but it doesn't last that long now because my mind isn't that fresh as it was. So I just want to encourage you to memorize scripture. You know, we used to have a different term for memorization. We used to call it learn by heart.
And what was said this morning about the heart getting into the picture, how important it is?
I find when you enjoy a scripture in your heart.
It sticks, it really does. So I ask you, in your reading and meditation, let it sink down into the heart to enjoy it. You will find it sticks.
And then I want to briefly mention as well, because I want to give way to others here the last, which is verse 18.
Pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints, and for me that utterance may be given unto me.
That I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds.
That there and I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Well, here we have the matter of prayer.
And in this warfare?
Brethren, we go forward on our knees in prayer.
I don't know how to impress the importance of prayer.
You know Martin Luther.
Stated one time and it impressed me. It was a man that God used mightily in the time of the Reformation.
And.
He didn't get all the truth of God, but he did get the question of justification by faith very clearly and gave it out.
00:15:02
But he made this statement. I have so much to do.
Every day I dare not take any less than three hours to pray in the morning.
That impressed me. We say I have so much to do. I'm afraid I just have to pray as I run out the door. No wonder there's no power.
Brethren.
Praying always doesn't mean that we're always on our knees.
No, you can pray as you're driving down the highway. I hope you don't close your eyes, but you can pray as you're driving down the highway. You can pray at all times. Praying always let your life be a constant conversation with the Lord that is beside us. Oh, how important it is.
To have that openness with the Lord praying always. And notice it says with all prayer and supplication. What is supplication? It is something more intense. Why do we have to supplicate God?
Do we have some? Do we have the idea that we have to convince him? No.
God has more desire to bless than we do of getting the blessing.
But brethren, has come to me this way, that in prayer and supplication we show our fellowship with God in his desire to bless, and so supplication is in the Spirit.
I really want to encourage you. I must say I cannot say I'm an example at all. Please don't take that way. But I have found it such a blessing to get up during the night hours when you like to be sunked out and snoring and get up.
Discipline yourself to go out and take time to present yourself before the throne of grace.
You know, I have a particular place in my house where I go and I kneel down there and sometimes I say, what importance is this place in my house? It's not here, but in spirit I'm going into the very presence of God.
Think of it, the God of the universe. What right do I have to enter his presence?
Because of Jesus, because of that precious blood that was shed, the way is opened and there around his throne are those mighty angels.
Millions.
Upon millions of those mighty angels. And when I approached the throne, those angels opened their ranks and let me go.
Writing to the very presence of God.
Oh, brethren, we don't understand the amazing blessing privilege of doing that. And I just want to say that in Scripture we have clearly.
Three areas where prayer is made. Just going to mention briefly that in Matthew's Gospel it says enter thy closet. That's individual prayer and that's very important.
It's what we've been talking about to get individually before the Lord. You know, the Lord Jesus one time in the Gospels it said he spent all night in prayer to God.
Why did he spend all night in prayer to God? If you notice, the next day he chose his 12 disciples.
And I think one of the reasons he spent all night was one of those disciples was Judas Iscariot. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And I think that cost him a lot to have to choose Judas Iscariot, knowing that he is called the sun.
00:20:11
A perdition.
But the Lord encouraged us in our individual prayers. Brethren, remember our brother, late brother Clem Buchanan saying.
Long prayers for the closet. Short prayers for the prayer meeting.
And I remember him and his prayers for the prayer meeting were fairly short. Generally speaking, I'm afraid I haven't followed his example quite as much as maybe I should. But I must say, brethren, we have collective prayer given in Acts chapter 4. I'd just like to show it to you because I think it's important.
To see that we have the example of collective prayer.
Here in this chapter, they are threatened. The disciples are threatened by the authorities.
And they verse 23 says, being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them, And when they had heard that, they lifted up.
Their voice. Notice it's one voice.
To God with one accord that beautiful.
One voice, but they are all represented in that one voice. So one who gets up to pray in a prayer meeting, a collective meeting of the Lord's people, speaks in the plural.
Lord our Lord Jesus, we have come together. This is collective prayer and what you say you are representing all the ones that are present there.
And I think that is important to see that that is the case. And so when they say Amen.
Why we can say Amen.
I'm not sure why, brethren, but in Latin America the sisters say quite a bit of amens too.
Here, I don't know, maybe they say I'm under their breath, but.
But it's proper that we should say Amen. That's collective prayer. I remember one time being at a meeting somewhere and I forget where it was, but when I said Amen at the end, nobody said Amen. Oh boy, did I say something wrong. I must have said something wrong. That's why they didn't say Amen. But brethren, let's give the sense that it is collective prayer, and that's the way we should do it. But.
I would just want to encourage you younger brothers too. You know when we pray.
We are exercising priesthood. We are not exercising gift.
You younger brothers are priests just as well as the older brothers, and I want to encourage you to exercise your priesthood in the prayer meeting and also in the breaking of bread meeting. We exercise priesthood.
Remember being at some of the meetings in the Testimony in Brazil in the early days just after they had come into fellowship there. One place we were at was a prayer meeting.
And I think there was maybe 25 brethren together.
You know, in that prayer meeting, I must say I was blessed. All the 25 prayed once. I would say more than half prayed twice and some prayed even three times. You know that that had to be pretty short prayers. And I find when you keep your prayers short and concise.
That we keep more awake, otherwise sometimes we fall asleep.
Lord help us brethren, to be exercised by these things. I think it's really proper and I want to encourage you, younger brothers, we live in a world that is so full of need. Not only.
We think about praying for those that are sick, and that's proper, my brother. There's a lot of other reasons to be praying for our dear brethren. There's many parts of the world where there's severe persecution going on.
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And we should be aware of it, and we should be praying for them, seriously praying for them. The Lord help us, brethren, to be stirred to be praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there unto that word. Watching means that we expect an answer.
It's so interesting the prayer meeting that is registered in Acts chapter 12.
It seems like nobody expected Peter to get out of prison.
What kind of a God were they praying to anyhow?
Rather, we don't. We don't grasp these things. I have to say for myself, please don't think I'm just pointing the finger at you. I have to point it at myself. But we don't grasp. We need to be watching for the answer. And so here comes Peter down the street.
Who would have ever thought that could happen? He knocks at the door and I suppose he was pretty anxious to get inside so he wouldn't be exposed outside there. But they didn't answer the door. That little girl ran in and said it's Peter at the door. No, you can't be right. You've got to be. That's got to be a spirit.
And so finally they come out, and because he keeps knocking in, it is Peter.
Brethren, why don't we more simply believe that's what it means? It says, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints, not only those of us gathered to His precious name, but All Saints, just like our brother was mentioning in the address.
The one body of Christ includes every true believer.
On the face of the earth and we are united with them even though we may not break bread with them. We need to pray for them and supplicate for them. Lord help us brethren. I just wanted to finish with these before we got to the end of our meetings.
The Shining Sword
Open—Jonathan Grinton
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Was considering.
Since yesterday.
As a believer.
What we might have in our hearts.
I know Mr. Rule and.
Stephen both mentioned those points earlier today.
And how important it is to be engaged with Christ.
With our Lord and Savior.
And how our minds and hearts must be completely.
Occupied with him and with his things.
And I know I walked by Steven in the lunchroom and.
I said to him, It reminded me, and I think it's in Matthew that.
We cannot serve 2 masters.
So the Lord doesn't make room.
In our hearts.
For anything other than himself.
We're not to make room in our hearts.
For anything other than him.
So I was thinking of this portion in Ephesians 6.
And it reminded me, if I can say of a story.
It was a while back that a brother came from Palmyra to visit.
And he wanted to send me a little story book, and maybe you've read it, but it was called The Shining Sword, I believe it was.
And everything that seems to have been brought out.
In the last two days of reading meetings has pointed that.
Story out to me.
And I don't want to go just through a storybook while I'm here, but.
I think of you young people, and I'm almost 50 and I read that book only a few years ago and it was a great help to me.
And understanding some of these things in Ephesians 6.
But first, there had to be salvation.
And so I ask you, each one in this room, have you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Do you believe that he died in the cross?
Shed His precious blood to wash your sins away. We had a gospel meeting last night.
And our brother told you how important it is to know Him as your savior.
And so there was this man, this boy that lived in this valley.
And he didn't know.
Anything about the Lord?
And I might not have all the details quite correct.
But you know, there was a mountain nearby, and I think that might represent the heavenlies in our chapter.
And he got LED up.
Into the mountain.
Where he saw something that was much greater than what he had ever seen in the valley. He thought the valley had been great. He thought it had everything that was needed for him.
But he was shown something greater.
But I don't believe he received it right at that time.
I believe he decided to return to the valley.
And quite possibly, as the story goes, the Lord worked in his heart.
Until he realized that.
The heavenlies offered something much greater, being near to Christ, whom they referred to as the King.
I don't remember his name but.
I do recall that when he returned to the mountain, they took him into a castle or a Kingdom.
And you saw many things.
Many things that quite possibly encouraged him.
Maybe some things even frightened him.
And when you look at all these things in Ephesians 6, I will not pretend to say I understand the mall. I will not pretend to tell you that I know what each one of these.
Tools are in the armor.
But they made it clear to him there that they were necessary.
00:05:04
For one to go out.
For one to be protected. And that's what armor is, isn't it?
Armor is protection.
It's not a weapon, it's protection.
We need protection, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Those things truly exist in Ephesians 6 and verse 12, and in our lives here in this world, they truly exist.
And that young man was shown bits and pieces of that.
As he made his way to that Kingdom.
Somebody else could probably tell you the order of these things and what they mean better than I.
But you know, being a young, I guess I'm not that young now, but I still feel young being a young man, probably the first thing I would like to do is take that sword.
I'd be the most interesting thing to pick up and wield around and.
But in the story.
The young man had to be taught.
In a different order.
And they had people there that were, can I say, experts.
With each one of those tools.
And I just want to say that.
There are ones here in this room.
And we might not use the word expert, but there are ones here in this room that God has given.
Wisdom tooth.
He has given knowledge to.
That he is trained up in a way.
And they understand that responsibility.
And that they can teach you these things.
But you have to listen.
And you have to pay attention if you only have two of these tools in Ephesians 6.
Her pieces of armor, it might not be enough.
They're all listed here because we need the mall.
And so that young man had to be trained on each one of these things.
So that he could go out.
And you can withstand these things in the battle.
Well.
Now I think of First Kings 12, just for a moment, with Raya Bone.
And you know, he had an opportunity.
To listen to the older men there in that time.
And he didn't do that.
I think it's first Kings 12.
We won't go into the whole story but in verse six it says in King Raya Bone consulted with the old men.
That stood before Solomon and his father while he yet lived, and said, How do you advise that I may answer this people? And they spake unto him, saying, If that will be a servant unto this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever.
But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him.
Well, you can continue to read that portion on your own, but.
I'm reminded of those ones. We just spoke about it with somebody the other night in First Peter 5.
And it tells us there of.
Wisdom.
In First Peter 5.
Says in verse one, the elders which are among you, I exhort you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly.
00:10:02
Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples.
To the flock.
And you know those ones that are mentioned there, they had experience.
Wisdom that was gained by years and I'm certain that if Rehoboam had have listened to those older men in First Kings 12.
The blessing might have come much sooner.
Then all the suffering they had to endure to get to it.
Certainly, probably each one has gone through suffering here in this room or trial and tribulation.
And maybe you can look back too, and recognize that had you taken heed? Had you listened in the meetings? Had you read your Bible? Had you got on your knees and prayed? Had you waited on the Lord that blessing?
May have come soon instead of going through such a difficult time.
While I merely point that out because I think and I know that there are many here in this room, that God is blessed with those those tools for us and you young people sitting back there, don't waste it.
Take heed.
Mr. Ruhl mentioned yesterday.
About the battle and surely, as it mentions in Ephesians 6.
That battle is in the gospel of Christ and being able to speak it and tell others about it.
I think we read about that in verse 15 and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel.
Of peace.
There is a verse in Romans 10 and 15 I believe it is.
And it reminds me of this young man who was so eager to go out.
And serve the king.
But he hadn't yet received all the tools.
And so has he went through the learning of how to use each weapon and how to use.
All the things that the king had to offer him.
Eventually.
He went back down into the valley.
And when he went back down into the valley, he met some that he had remembered from before, and he could give them the gospel, and he could tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you have the capability to do that?
Or are you ashamed? I think we had that before us yesterday.
Here it says, And how shall they preach, except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.
That young man had a desire to show somebody else what he had received.
Not so much the fighting of the battle, but of bringing them to Christ.
To showing Christ to them, so that they might realize.
Not only their need of a Savior, but of the place that He prepared for them, where they could spend eternity.
Looking second, Timothy.
Chapter One.
Second Timothy one and verse seven. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear.
But of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Be not, though, therefore, ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death.
00:15:06
And hath brought life and immortality to light.
Through the Gospel.
I can certainly tell you at times in my life.
That I couldn't stand and speak the gospel to anybody. I wasn't prepared to show Christ to them.
And it's not that I couldn't have been trained up for it, I just merely wasn't.
Because I didn't take heed. I didn't listen.
I can tell you this one little story that I remember very clearly of being a boy in Laurenville conference.
And in John, Kent would come and Wally Deer would come and they'd have a van and they'd say let's go pass out tracks at the local mall.
Well.
I would go because.
I think I really wanted to do it, but by the time I got there I was pretty afraid to do it.
I can remember Mr. Dear would give me a track and then he'd give me a little push from behind towards somebody's go give it to that fella.
But I was afraid and possibly even ashamed at times. But Paul tells Timothy.
Not to be.
But we need.
Those things in Ephesians 6.
It's the power. It's the power of the Lord within us.
That helps us to show Christ to the world, but we have to trust Him.
We have to know him.
You know, I was thinking of Tim's message.
Thank you for it too.
This young man, he went and he learned.
All these tools.
I sure hope you read this story, it's way better than I'm telling you.
But he took the shield, he took the sword, and he went out, and he never went alone.
He always had another with him, or even more than that.
And they worked side by side.
And they knew how to protect and how to care for one another. And they knew how to love one another.
And it was so important that they never let one.
Remain behind so that he might fall.
We are one body.
We are the bride of Christ.
Do you have the same care for me that I have for you?
Do you think?
Of each one.
When they leave here.
Maybe tomorrow, maybe Tuesday, for you young people, will you remember?
That you need to pray for one another.
Will you remember?
All these things in Ephesians that are so evil.
And frightening. And how quickly they can bring one of us down. Will you remember to pray for one another?
If you hear of something.
That maybe has fallen.
One of your friends, One of your loved ones.
We reach out. Will you go to them? Will you pick them up?
I might not say this right, but this is something I've been considering for quite a while. But don't say it right. I'm sure you'll forgive me, but.
You know, this is a bit of a training ground right here that we are in and I think Tim alluded to that.
One day He is going to come again and receive us unto himself. Everyone that believes in Him. Everyone.
It says we will be with him and like him for all eternity.
00:20:05
Now.
Is when we prove that thing.
Now is when we love one another.
Now is when we take care of one another.
When we show that.
We're going to be so occupied with him in that day.
That we won't really have time probably to do that.
But he wants us to see. He wants to see it in us now.
Our brother mentioned.
Earlier today that there might be a brother that really annoys you.
There shouldn't be.
We could probably go through 1St Corinthians 12 and read all those verses about the eye and the hand and then all those things.
But I think you know it.
We are members in particular.
And he loves each one of us individually, but individually we make up something so much greater.
That Kingdom in that book?
All those ones that were trained up.
All those ones that withstood the battle, it was a defensive battle. They protected all those behind the Kingdom. They protected it. They protected one another.
All through the power of God, all through the King.
That is our position today.
That is why Ephesians Six was brought before us.
You know, in that verse.
Verse 18 I believe it was it said.
Ephesians 6 and 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
Our brother spoke.
Said expecting an answer.
And maybe I don't understand this verse very well myself, but it made me think of Gideon in this 300 men and judges and how he had to come to the 300 men. And so he had those ones that would drink the water and the ones that stayed watching and drank.
Out of their hands I believe is how that went. Reminds me of this watching Thereunto with all perseverance.
And so now it's not just that if somebody falls, we go to them and help them. But are we watching?
With all perseverance for one another, it says in supplication for All Saints, are we watching for one another?
Borrowed Armor
Open—Bruce Christensen
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Like to go say a few words like I'm sorry, it's OK.
With what we have been speaking about.
And these few words are in First Samuel chapter 17.
And I'm sorry, I thought our brother finished.
Connection with David Smith Street over Goliath.
The three to peel these versions without much comment.
Says it when the words verse 31 were heard which David Spade, they rehearsed them before Saul and he sent for him. David said to Saul, at no man's heart failed because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
So Saul says to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with them, for thou art what a youth, and he a man of war from a Jew. So David replies to Saul. He speaks about two instances where a lion and a bear aimed to threaten that flock.
And David being the true shepherd.
That Good Shepherd defending that flock, and the lion and the bear.
We're both planned.
And verse 37 says David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the fourth lion, not of the fall of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with thee. And it's the next few verses that I would just like to look at Paul arm David.
With his armor.
And he put his helmet of grass upon his head. Also he armed him with a coat of mail. And David Gerdes has soared upon his armor, and he is saved to go, for he had not proved him. And David sent us all. I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off.
What a lesson that is today.
How often we sometimes try to go against the enemy using another person sword.
Using another person's armor, but David realized that he could not go.
In the confidence of the flesh, here he had the very armor.
Of King Saul. I'm sure many others would have been proud to go against the enemy in that code of mail using that mighty sword that Saul had used.
But we see that David defeats the enemy using those five smooth stones that were in the brook. David takes the sword at the end, does he not?
In verse 51 Says therefore David and Rand, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and threw it out of the sheath, and slew him.
And cut off his head there are. And when the Philistines saw their champion was there, they fled. So what a lesson to us. David did not go against this enemy in the confidence of his flash. He did not go as saved or armed in the armor of soul.
He did not go initially using.
Soul Sword.
But he selected that which God had in mind for that particular occasion. So might we not have confidence in the flesh? And may we be ever before the Lord independence upon Himself?
We sing that and let's be the victor's name who brought the fight along.
Gospel 2
Gospel—David So
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Well, good evening.
It's good to see many here, children included.
I thought perhaps we're going to sing two children's him first, if that's OK with you, and then we'll sing one.
For the adults, and let me suggest one in the back of the hymn sheet. Hymn #40. I believe every child here should know that. Let's sing the 1St and the second verse of hymn #40.
The second hymn I like to sing is number 42. Many of you know that's one of my favorite. It's a short ham, but you have the sing it my way. We sing that him twice. The first time around we sing it the way it is. The second time around we change just couple of words in there because I believe this theme includes all children of all ages. So the second time around we were saying a little child of.
70 I like that as I'm getting close to that number. So #70 looks good. And then the second verse was saying or even 34 and I think some of you could be around that age. We got that ready.
Lord.
00:05:13
I enjoy that hymn because not only we can sort of relate to it, that awe in this room.
Old or young can relate to it, whether you are 70 or seven or three or four. And the way of salvation is simple because God knows our stubborn heart.
Is saying we're saying this here, How do we? How can we be saved? Is that for when the heart, not the head?
But the hard believeth on Christ the Son of God.
Oh, you know, in this world a lot of people say I believe in Jesus. There are people you even say I got proved that I wear the cross. But do they believe on the same Jesus they will be preaching tonight? The Jesus who is the Son of God, the one who came into this world.
A born as a man gone through manhood so that he can taste death for every man.
The one who gone through men heard without sin. I know their children here. They can be little baby, that we say. Look how innocent they are. Yet we know they well. For lack of a better word, I said they all have an opinion.
They have an opinion of what things should be the moment they are born. They are there to train the parents of how things ought to be.
And you're smiling because you have children. You know if they know they can get away with things, they will.
Because the Word of God tells us that they were born in sins. We were all born in sins and shaping in iniquity. For there is none that doeth good. No, not one. We just had a new grandchild. He's three months old. We can see that when he wants something, the tempers got to start to flare. That's our nature, isn't it?
The sin We were born with sin, but how precious here that the word of God is simple.
As the Philippian jailer said to Paul and Silas, they said to him, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Simple question, is there anyone in this room tonight is seeking a way of salvation? Are you one of the one that is asking that same question? What must I do to be saved?
And we know the answer. We all learned it at Sunday school. This most that I can recognize in this room.
We can easily say that verse believe, believe what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Precious verse, isn't it? You know I like that verse because that verse doesn't just end there. You look it up.
Is that belief on the Lord Jesus Christ? And thou shalt be saved.
Comma. Interesting, isn't it? The statement is not completed.
And thine house.
Our precious Savior. Delight to bless family.
When we we see accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, whether we are three or four.
Your blessings not only for you to be saved from the wrath to come, but that the Lords promises and thine house.
So I trust that a simple message that perhaps even the younger one are able to take home with. I know this meeting is not gear for children. That's worry. If the Lord leave us here till tomorrow, we'll have a Sunday school that are more gear for children but nevertheless.
Thank you children for attending this meeting and that this is for you too, isn't it?
I like to share a story before I go to the portion that I want to turn into two different stories. And I don't even remember who I talked with yesterday. This young sister said to me, they got here finally. I said, oh, you should have follow AGPS.
And she said we did.
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We still got lost. I said GPS doesn't work. No, it's me.
How many of us have the guided Word of God that we carried in our hand?
And perhaps you too will say, well, it doesn't work.
Is that because the word of God doesn't work? Or can we be honest and say.
That it's me, and I trust that tonight as we open the word of God.
That we would listen and hear what God has for you.
Then I'll share another story with you. I know, and some of you may have the same experience. My children always say don't talk about me.
We get complain like that all the time. So tonight I have a four year old grandson here. I don't think he understand if I talk about him, so I'll talk about a little story on the way here. This is his first trip here. He was all excited that he can come with us.
The only problem was half an hour into the trip this is about 6 hour drive and we had about an hour delay at the US Canadian border. So that was more than seven hours plus lunch plus well little kids breaks. It was a long trip and we have forgotten as our kids are growing that phrase. Are we there yet?
Somewhere you still remember that, right? Are we there yet? We heard that many times over.
Excited about coming here because we told him a little bit about what he can do and play.
About 3 hours into the trip, he said.
I want to go back to your house.
I tell you that story because do we find? We do that because we thought we found someone or something better.
But then because we didn't search it out, because we didn't look hard enough to see what the better is.
We want to go back to your house because something we're comfortable with, but yet there is something far better than we can see or expect. So I'm going to, we're going to sing one more hymn, just one stanza to build a thought hymn #24 perhaps we were just saying the first verse only then we'll go into our reading.
Hymn #24 verse one only.
Perhaps someone can help me start at hymn?
We have before us the last two days the book of Ephesians. What a wonderful book, and I would like you to turn with me to the Book of Ephesians, chapter one.
I know some of you might say, well, we've been in this book for a while, but this is a wonderful book. And as a side comment, I'll challenge you. I see many young people sitting at the back there. Learn the book of Ephesians. Learn it to the point where you can expound. What is chapter one about? How is the book divided? You know, we have the privilege of going through chapter 6 and we have the privilege of some told us.
The difference the the work that we have.
So I won't spend the time on it, but I'll give you a hint that the book begins by addressing to the faithful, to the sayings and faithful. And they give you a hint that you are too thought for the book. The 1St 3 chapters that we didn't take up is in regard to the to those who are called Saints. But we are. It's not two different categories of people. But the second part of the book is how do we walk as faithful chapter 4 and as I think a brother tried to.
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What's the difference the other day? So let's begin with Ephesians one. Let me preface this. And brother Tim was telling a story how someone else spoke on this book. And as he told the story, oh boy, I hope it didn't read my note. And I go, well, I don't have any notes so we couldn't read my notes. But I think it's a wonderful chapter. My thought tonight was the story I told you how someone would say I want to go back to your house.
Part of that reason is because we don't know what to expect at the new place, do we?
So rather than often we preach urging you the need to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior, I'd like to change the tone a little bit to share with you. What is it like to be hissed?
What is it like to be redeemed by the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ?
What are the blessings that we have been talking about and if you are paying attention, we talk about a lot of these already.
But I think is good that we talk about it again. You know, it's interesting to me to comment to someone this afternoon. I had a visit with an older brother recently, far away from here, maybe a few 1000 miles away. He, he said to me, he said I don't know what's wrong with the young people today. How's that? He said we have to tell them things over and over again. They don't seem to get it.
I looked at him. I go. Are you talking about me?
He said no, no, no, no, I'm talking about the young people. I said, I think you're talking about me. He thought, no, I'm not. I said, well, I want to be honest. I said, you may be speaking and I may be looking back at you with a smile.
But I'm not there.
Do we find that? So sometimes you might say we talk about that, but you have to remember there are times that people like me that is not there. So it's good, isn't it, to repeat the word of God. Hopefully we trust that when it's repeated at the right moment that you are with us. And here this is in regard to your salvation. This is in regard to eternity, not just.
Meeting where you learn something or not. So let's see the blessings that maybe you already know or perhaps for some of you.
Is that I didn't know that. And I trust that you would want to learn. Perhaps we'll use it in another phrase. We're sharing it with your family's secrets. Doesn't that neat to know, right? I know a lot of young people will go. Oh, secret that kept my attention. I want to know now. Of course, if it's a real secret, I can't tell you.
Because if I tell you, then it's no longer a secret.
So the word of God used the word mystery. So sometimes they would say, well, it's like a secret, but no, not really a secret because once you learn it, it's no longer a secret. It's just that it wasn't talk about much. So before I go in, let me give you the example. So what's the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, a secret to the Jewish nation?
No, I'm sure you can think of many passages.
In the Old Testament that talk about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, What about his suffering on the cross? Can you think of passages that talk about that? Well, if so is not a secret. But then there are things we're going to read that in a minute that are not mentioned in the Old Testament that in a sense is a mystery until you learn it. So let's turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Now let's just read a few verses and we talk about it briefly. The power and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the sayings which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's an introduction to this book.
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That is from God.
The Father is from our Lord Jesus Christ. How important now is this letter to you? And as we work through it, as we go through, it is also telling us the work of the Holy Spirit.
Isn't it precious to see the Trinity is at work? Yes, we can say, well, this book is church truth, giving us this highest truth as if it were, but yet it's also a book.
To tell us the blessing we receive as a redeemed person and then if we have time into the second chapter if draw the analogy to see how we have no part with God's work. We were alienated from him but yet because of grace we're brought into blessing. Isn't that a wonderful secret that was kept is good for us. So just to preface it with time we find I'm going to read verses.
Four to verse 6 together and as I preface that this as we read it is telling us what has God done.
What has God done for you? Let's read that. I don't think you will even need much explanation. Verse four. According as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.
To Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us, accepted in the Beloved.
Rather long, but there are three things we want to sum it up quickly because of time here that we find God has done something very special for us. In verse four He says He has chosen us. Did you know that you were chosen before the foundation of this world?
God himself has chosen you.
Before the foundation of the world, to be without blame, to be holy, to be like himself. Before the foundation of the world, verse five said and predestinated. Now that word predestination is a little bit difficult to understand. I like the new translation. Use the word you have been marked out.
You know, I, I heard there's a list for you to do things right. Can you picture someone saying I'm going to mark all those that have to do the dishes three times more than the other ones?
Right. That's what marking always is. We pick those things. The Lord have picked your name. You are marked out way before.
Until the adoption unto sonship. Now you find the adoption of children or children is not there in the new translation, it's just the adoption of the proper translation is in the place of a son.
Wow, did you know that? Did you know that God beforehand?
Not sometimes man would think of predestination. They said yeah, this this guy is predestinated to go to hell. That's a terrible thought. And I do not believe anywhere in scripture that mention predestinating to hell, but we have been predestinated to sonship. So three things he owe and.
And it is according to His good pleasure to be the praise of His glory. And then He sat. Then because of that, we are found to be accepted in the Beloved.
Now let's look at something here. What did we have to do to get all this?
I don't see a condition here.
Is God's grace, isn't it, that we have been chosen, we've been marked out?
As a son and accepted in the beloved the grace of God before you were even born. Now let's look at another portion verse 7 to verse 12. Now this is talking about the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did he do because we'd see the Godhead, the Trinity is at work for our blessing. Verse seven in whom we have redemption through.
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His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein he had abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence or intelligence, having made known unto us.
The mystery. Oh, now what mystery pops up here now the mystery of His will, according to his good pleasure.
That He had purpose in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.
In whom also we have obtained, and inheritance, being predestinated, according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of His will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who trusted in Christ.
The Son of God.
The Son who shared his blood in order to redeem you, in whom we have redemption through his blood, Even the forgiveness of sins, isn't that a big issue? That for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we know from reading of the scripture.
The Sunday school or gospel meeting we learned that the wages of sin.
Is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, so we find that because of his finished work on the cross.
Because he came to die for sinful men, he came to do God's will.
We find in the book of Hebrews he would say, I come to do thy will, O God.
No one else can say that to come and do the Father's will. And so we find the work of the Lord Jesus for us there, that that we have redemption because of his finished work. And then he came, and he may know of a mystery. What is this mystery?
The mystery that he.
For free the Gentiles, that he's going to make the Gentiles to be part of the one body. It's interesting as you go through the book of Ephesians and the book of Colossians 2, that the body of Christ is mentioned many times. There is one body. We don't separate the two from the gospel to the breaking of the bread because there is one body.
He died so that we can be pard of that one body.
And we have an inheritance that he has given us. Now I'm going to skip ahead now verse 13, verse 14, it tells us now the work of the Spirit of God, in whom ye also trusted. After that he heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also.
After that ye believe.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise which is the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. And to the praise of His glory. Oh, we are to be the praise of His glory now. It's interesting to see that too, in.
In here in verse 12 we ended it previously. It says who trusted in Christ? Who is that we should also be the praise of his glory? Who first trusted in Christ? Brethren, how many of us here have first trusted in Christ?
Or are we in the situation in verse 13, in whom ye also trusted, after you have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation?
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Precious, isn't it? To see the two different categories of people as if it were those who first trusted. That's a Jewish nation, isn't it? They trust it. And then we Gentiles, after the gospel was presented to us, we too trusted in Christ. And because of the work of the Spirit, it says we are sealed. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
And we have even given that as an earnest.
As if there's a deposit saying that you are his.
And that we are to be the praise of his glory. Now I I skip a lot of things there because of time. It's precious to read through that. And then we find here that.
That the Apostles prayer raised those questions is good for you to read through our Lita. For now, I'd like to go to chapter 2. Chapter 2 reminds us of the conditions that we were in.
What will we by nature, chapter 2 verse one and you had the quickened who were who were dead.
In trespasses and sins.
Do we see that that's our conditions before we were saved? The word of God look at it and say you are dead, you were in trespasses of sins, when in time past you walk according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Do you recall we took up a lot of these power of darkness?
We'll talk about the enemy, Satan, the devil, the dragon, and so on. Yeah, now we see he is the Prince of the power of this air. Verse three. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature.
The Children of Wrath.
Even as others.
As we read this, does it remind you of someone? Can you look across the room?
Can picture someone who was in this category of people who were in trespasses against God with no part?
Walking in the lessons of the flesh, perhaps you look across, perhaps you should look at the person next to you. And you go, hmm, And what if it's that person?
Or perhaps we can do this in this room. Perhaps we should pick up a mirror and look into the mirror and see is the word of God talking about me?
And I have to say when my heads bow, those were my conditions. And I think many in this room would be, would be able to say that that was us. Sad, isn't it? No parts. We were by nature children of wrath. Let's go to verse four. What did God do but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved.
Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us to gather. What cries by grace are you saved? Oh, what a wonderful picture here, God, who is rich in mercy.
How rich was his mercy? We know God is a righteous God. God cannot have sin in His presence.
So how can he reconcile sinful man to be in his presence? Oh, that's when the redemption work has to be done, a prize has to be paid, that we have to be redeemed to be back into his presence, that he sent his Son, that we read earlier on the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son.
Cleanse of us from all sins. How precious to know that.
Even though we were violent, as vile as we were, we're now new creature in Christ by believing that God sent his son to die for me. What do you have to do? There's nothing to do. It's a hymn who are sometimes saying there is nothing to buy. It is simply by believing that God.
00:35:22
Sent his son. The work of redemption has been accomplished.
And all we, for lack of a better word, to do is to accept the fact that our sins are forgiven because of the work. So verse seven tells us that that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace.
In verse 8:00 and 9:00, we often have those that memorize our brother said.
You know, it's good to memorize versus and I look at our brother Bob. I say, yeah, brother bra, Bob, you're getting older. But I look at myself and say, yeah, me too. I'm having trouble memorizing verses. So I will echo the same sentiment to you younger ones. Remember, try to memorize the verses when you're younger is much. It'll be very handy as you're going along the path of life. So let's read that verse, verse 8:00 and 9:00.
Four, by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
With God's grace, what have you done to deserve that? We don't, we haven't, but it's the grace of God that we are saved and.
Nothing to do with yourself, not that. Not of yourself is a gift. What do you have to do to receive a gift? You say thank you.
But then the next verse I found a very fascinating for me because that verse as we read this in the gospel sense, it says lest any man should boast because you can't save yourself. We can't even save our children or grandchildren because the salvation that you, you have to be, it would be between you and the Lord.
It's not of work.
Why? Because if I can do something about it, I will.
I don't know how many of you have this problem. I have this problem that I don't like to let go. I would say, yeah, there's one more thing I can try. We try, we try, we struggle, and oh, there's one more thing I can try.
We find that here is set. When it comes to South Asia, it is not of works.
Don't bother trying, it won't work. Why? Because if I can do it, then I can say I did it. It's not the work of God.
So we assess, lest any man should boast. Let me take the liberty to expand this application.
I believe even with our Christian lives we need to take that it's not a works because if we can find a way to work around our lives to be better, especially spiritual lives, then we can boast of our life. Look what I have done.
Not a works, Not a works, lest any man should boast just a couple more verses. Verse 11.
Wherefore remember that when ye being in time, pass Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands.
That at that time you were without Christ.
Being alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, or may not, by the blood of Christ.
I know I crisscrossed the thought I began by seeing kind of show you the inside secrets.
So for many of us here who are His, who has been redeemed by the precious blood, we are reminded with His phrase, aren't we, that we were?
00:40:11
In times past, we're just Gentiles in the flesh.
That we were without Christ.
Being an outsider from the Commonwealth of Israel.
Strangers from the Covenant of Promise. And as if that wasn't enough.
Without hope.
Without God in the world.
Put a desperate command, isn't it?
How many in this world are in despair? Why are they in despair?
Because they have no hope. You may have read stories of what people that are in distress, perhaps prisoner of war, so someone in dire situation. And most stories that I read is that they survive because they hope. They have hope either to be somewhere or see the loved ones.
Hope keep things alive.
That is set here without hope.
If you are without Christ.
What hope do you have?
Do you hope that it will be better tomorrow? Can you hope the sun may shine again tomorrow?
You can. If it does, then what?
Still in the same despair.
Without hope, why are there so many suicide in this society?
No hope.
Nothing more to live for.
Man would think by taking their lives so they don't phase anymore problems.
But here it tells us even more without God.
Oh, not only do you have no hope if you don't have the Lord Jesus without God.
God is not mocked. Where will you spend eternity? The world is trying to deny that there is a God.
But you know The funny thing is, when it comes to time of trouble, they cry for God.
Without a whole, without God in the world. Oh, how precious. Dear friends, if you are still lost in your sins, we presented the way of salvation. The gospel message was presented to you last night. It is presented to you tonight. The Christ Jesus is the Savior for sinners.
By believing, you can be saved believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
By believing that He came into the world not just to save the world, but to save you as sinners.
But let me speak from the sense that what I believe many in this room would echo as redeem one the things as the chapter begins with. But now.
In Christ Jesus.
Ye who sometimes were full of Maynard by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall or partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained inordinances.
For to make it in himself of train a new man.
So making peace. Oh, he tells us that we become a new creature in Christ because he has shed his blood force.
Brother Tim, I hope it's not you. Don't mind me quoting you. He said A brother talk about this and then he abruptly stopped.
I don't know if I did that. If I did, it's not intentional, but all I can exalt you is receive Christ. Christ is the Savior for sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
00:45:01
If you reject this offer, there may not be a second chance.
As I look across the room tonight.
Some of you don't quite recognize, but when I take a good hard look.
I remember you from a few years back. You just have grown. You just have grown a little older, a little bit bigger.
So I believe that almost everyone here have heard.
Of the way of salvation.
Whether the speaker tonight or last night did or didn't present it, clearly, you know what the answer is from the Word of God. You are responsible to God.
Where would you spend eternity if you were taken home tonight? And I know our time is gone. Let me just take the liberty to address many who are His.
The event around us is telling us the Lord's return is so ever near.
Do you still think you have time to delete?
Do not delay, my dear friends, my young people.
Eternity where you must acknowledge that before God.
Two Natures and Two Masters
Children—Joseph Countouris
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.
All right, welcome to the Sunday School.
We're going to do some singing first. Does anybody have a song?
If you have a song sheet, there are children's hymns on the back of it.
Which one do you want?
#46.
If somebody could start all these, I'd like us all to be able to enjoy them.
Anybody else have one?
Hey number, do you want #8 #8 #8 please?
Anybody else have one?
4343 and what number was that?
6016 Thank you. I was 40.
43 All right #43 first, then 16.
1.
00:05:02
Outside on the inside of you.
I'm ignoring only.
Decide on where side are you.
All right then #16.
#41.
#41 please.
Around the.
Children's Day children, Christians are all for everywhere.
And say.
It's not even a little spot. That's why I need to find a real vision.
Avery, you had one, right?
25 #25.
Like the best.
I.
We're going to move on to the memory verse. If anybody has wants to say it, you don't have to. I do have some treats here, if you will say it. There's a little incentive.
Does anybody want to say it? You do.
Let me grab a couple.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent.
All right, good.
Jeremiah 17, Nine to 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know that I, the Lord, search the heart? Jeremiah 17, nine to 10.
00:15:06
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent. Good job. Anybody else?
Anybody else you do?
My 17 nine to 10, the heart is successful above all, thanks desperately as who can know what I thought? JMI 17 nine to 10. Very good. There you go.
Jeremiah 17 under 10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know what I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 1700 Very good, excellent.
Somebody else?
The heart is deceitfully wicked, but above all things the heart it is equally wicked above all things. The The heart is deceitful above all things, and deathly wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, Church of heart, Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent, good job. The heart is deceitful, but all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, Sir, the heart, Jeremiah.
17/9 and 10.
Good job.
Go.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
I, the Lord, searched the heart.
Jeremiah 17910 Good job, very good. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10.
Somebody else? OK, I'll go over there.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart.
Jeremiah Iron and Tech.
You want to say.
I did, Lord search the heart. Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1710. Good job.
This one.
That is deceitful above all things. Who can know either or search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent. Very good.
The heart is deceitful above all things.
And just really wicked. Who can know either? Lord search the heart Jeremiah 17910 Very good. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I the Lord search shall heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Good job.
Everybody will get a chance. Give me one second.
All right.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine through 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately awakened. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17 through 9 and 10. That was excellent.
The heart. The heart is easy for about all things and desperately weak. Good. He'll can know what I Lords, is the heart. Jeremiah 17. That's very good. I like the way you guys say it.
Who is the heart is deceitful?
Above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
I, the Lord.
Sarge Dahl.
Jeremiah.
17/9 and 10 Very good job.
00:20:02
Is that everybody?
OK.
So let's sing one more. Does somebody have one more favorite?
You do OK? What number?
44 #44.
Sanity.
All right.
I would like to talk to you kids today about the subject of two natures and two masters, 2 natures and two masters. Does anybody know what we've been talking about in our reading meetings at the conference this weekend?
We've been talking about the.
Our armor.
The armor of God, the armor of God, right? And we've been talking about a conflict that is that the Christian goes through and how that we need that armor. And I would like to talk to you guys about another conflict that usually happens before we get to that conflict. And in fact, it's a conflict that probably the believer spends more time in.
And even though it may not be normal.
From God's perspective, oftentimes it's normal in our life and it's the conflict of two natures. And so before we start talking about that, I'd like to play a little game. Have you guys ever played tug of war?
We just had a picnic and we played tug of war. You guys want to play tug of war? All right, so I need from you all the way over here. You guys go down here. Go ahead up, get up. You're going to grab the rope. Go ahead. And then everybody down here, you're going to stand up and you're going to grab this rope.
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No, you're going to be down there, Jack. You guys are all down here.
You're right down there. Pick up the rope.
And this is what's going to happen. You guys are going to pull and they're going to pull, and we're going to see who's going to win. Can somebody just hold on to this microphone there? Thank you. OK. So we don't have much room to pull. So I'm going to say go. And then when I say stop, you're going to have to stop.
All right. You guys ready?
You sure? All right, 123?
Pull.
Stop, stop, stop. Good job. All right, we're going to call you guys team one and you guys are team two. Can you just loosen up a little bit? Walk this way. Walk this way. Let's go back. All right. Now, does that seem fair? Team One.
They seemed a little overpowered, but you know something in this game, there's a weird thing that happens. OK, we're going to play best. Out of three, you guys won one. But in this game, when you lose, things don't get easier for you, they get harder. So you guys need to lose somebody, and we're going to pick your best, strongest person. Can you go take a seat?
But not only do they get weaker, you guys get stronger.
You're allowed to lookout into anyone in this room, and you're allowed to pick somebody to be on your team.
He's saying Craig, you want Craig? All right, Craig, you're up.
All right. I hope you guys don't fly ready go.
Oh, all right, Good, good, good. All right. What happened? Why didn't you get him that time?
All right, you guys can drop the rope. You can go back to your seats. Let's talk about this for a little bit.
All right, two natures.
We have two natures. Let's just read a verse that talks about these two natures in John chapter 3.
Guys, I believe you'll remember the story about Nicodemus. He comes to the Lord.
And what he's been hearing from people who were in his circle did not match what he was seeing and hearing. And so he was having this conflict. And the Lord gets to the root of the problem, and that is that Nicodemus, just like you and I, needed something. And what he needed was life. He needed to be born again. He needed a new nature. And so the Lord said to him in John chapter 3 and verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, is spirit or spiritual. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. You have to be born again.
And so the Lord presents here that there were two natures. When we are born into this world, we come from the seed of Adam, and we all are born with an old nature. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it can never get any better. It's always flesh. And so we need new life from the Spirit of God.
And he imparts that life, and the Spirit of God gives what is spiritual a spiritual life.
That life can get no worse.
But when we receive that new life, the old nature, the flesh sin, doesn't leave, it stays, and it creates a conflict like this game of tug of war, where one side is pulling and the other side is pulling.
Both sides want to win. Who's going to win in your life? I'm talking to believers here this morning. I should have said that this isn't a gospel per SE. If you're lost in your sins, you have one nature. It's an old nature. It's the flesh. You're on your way to hell.
You need life.
You need to ask the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart to take your sins away. Repent of those sins, accept them as your savior. But to those of us who are saved, who are believers here, you children, you have two natures. You have an old nature and you have a new nature. When your parents tell you to do something, they say, what's your name? Marcus. Marcus, come here.
Do you do that every time that your parents say that?
00:30:01
Every single time.
I didn't either.
And when the Lord talks to me, even today, I don't always do that. Something happens inside of us sometimes. And when our parents say come here.
Someone wants to say, no, I don't want to go. And there's this tug of war. Who are we going to listen to? All right, so let's read about this little tug of war. The context of the of the verses I'm going to read are a little bit different, but I'm going to take them in the application of of the struggle that we see between life and death. OK, so let's look at Galatians chapter 5.
In verse 17.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit.
One side against the other and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, constantly pulling this way and pulling this way so that you do not do the things that you wish or the things that you want to do. Romans 7.
Romans 7, verse 19.
I'm going to get to some questions in a minute about what I've been talking about. And we got more gum, so you got to listen.
OK, so Romans 7 verse 19, really there's a number of verses here that you could read, but I'm just going to read this one for the good that I will to do. I do not do.
So this man is saying he sees something good. My mom calls me and says come and I know it would be good to come but I don't do it. But the evil I will not to do. He doesn't want to do evil.
That I practice. So there's something that's positively wrong. Maybe you take a toy from your friend. Maybe you take a toy from your brother or sister. Maybe you speak not nice to your brother or sister.
Inside of you, if you're saved, you know that that isn't right. You know that that's wrong. And yet there's something in you that's telling you, tugging. You go ahead and say it. Go ahead and do it, and you do it. And this man is finding this struggle. The evil that I don't want to do, I keep doing.
All right. So a couple of questions on these two natures that we need to understand that we have.
How many natures does an unbeliever have?
How many natures does an unbeliever have?
Juan, Juan, Juan, very good, Jack, how many natures does a believer have?
Sorry, I'll get you 22. Very good. OK, I'll get back to my questions.
How would you describe these two natures? What are they called?
What's one of them?
Out Old, old nature. Good job. What's another way that we could describe one of these natures? The new nature, New nature, Good job. Anybody have another one? Another way that we could describe this. Did you have one?
The old nature? Yep. Anything else? Any other besides old?
Sinful nature. Sinful nature.
Sinful pill. OK, another word that we could use to describe it as the flesh.
On the the good side, we could call it the spiritual nature, that which is of the spirit of spiritual. OK, another question, can the flesh?
The nature that we received when we were born into this world as children of Adam, can that flesh get any better? Can we improve it? Can we get it to the point where it's just a little bit better? No. No. Can the new nature, the nature that the Spirit of God gives, can it get any worse? Can it get worse? No. No. OK, so we have the flesh sin, the old nature, it can't get any better.
We have the new nature, the spiritual nature, that that which is from the Spirit of God.
It can't get any worse. It's perfect.
What happens? Remember our tug of war game? Remember what happens when you guys lost?
What happens when one of those natures, either the old or the new, wins a battle? When they win, what happens? I just gave you one. Anybody else? What happens when?
00:35:03
What happens?
The one that lost gets.
The strongest person goes away, right? Very good. So, so when you when you lose a battle, that nature gets weaker. What happens when you win a battle? When the when, when one of the natures wins, you get in the next person you do. And that means that it gets stronger. There was more strength over there.
All right, so you have these two natures, flesh, sin, new nature, spiritual.
You use one of them, there's a tug of war. You use one, it gets stronger. You use the other, it gets stronger. You use one, this other one gets weaker. So what happens when you your parents say come do the dishes, clean up your room, be nice to your kids, share and you don't do it.
What nature are you using?
Which nature are you using?
The bad nature, that's right. And what happens when you use that bad nature? What happens to it? You know what happens to that bad nature?
It gets stronger, it gets stronger. And so the next time you're confronted with this tug of war, is it easier or harder to win and do what your parents want you to do and ultimately what the Lord? Harder, harder.
That's a tough lesson to learn.
It's a lesson that often takes a long time to learn.
All right. I want to talk to you now about two masters.
OK, so Bob, Tony yesterday said that.
Talked about a ship and he talked about I think there was 276 about.
On that ship. And he said no, there's about 276 people here. And I would like you guys to use your imagination when your kids usually you have a vivid imagination. So look around this room. You know, we're on here, we're on a ship.
It's a huge ship. Up there is where the captain is. He's got the steering wheel up there. This ship is triple masted, double decks, 50 guns. We'll call it the Unicorn.
It's huge.
But on this ship you have a captain, and the captain has gone crazy.
What are you going to do with a crazy captain? He keeps shouting out crazy things. Jack, burn the sails down.
Avery, jump overboard.
What are we going to do with the crazy captain?
You know what we're going to do? We're going to take them to the mast because he's gone crazy. And if we follow what he's saying to do, we're all going to die. And we're going to tie him up with this rope. So imagine this big mast in the middle and we tie him up and we appoint a new master, a new ship captain. And the ship captain gives you good orders. And he said the winds at our backs sails up. Let's go.
But the old master is still there.
Was it Marcus? Was that your name? Marcus walked the plank.
Says the old captain.
Sorry, says the old captain tied to the mast. Are you going to listen to the old captain Marcus?
No.
He's still shouting out crazy orders. Burn down the sails. Are you going to burn down the sails? Who are you going to listen to?
The new captain. The new captain. All right, so let's read some verses.
Keep that story in mind.
Romans 6.
Verse One. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Sin is that old captain. He's the one who's calling out all these crazy orders. But if you're saved, you have a new captain. Who's the new captain? Who's the new captain?
Jesus, Jesus Christ, He is the new captain. You take your orders from him. When you receive that new nature. The old doesn't go away. You're still going to hear from that old captain.
00:40:06
But we have a secret in this chapter, in chapter six, that is incredible.
It is amazing what God has done for us and what He has helped us to know.
Let's keep reading. We're going to skip down to verse 7, Romans 6, and verse seven. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more death, no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, listen to this.
You also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin that old master, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Avery, can you do something for me? I want to climb up here on this table.
And I just want you to lay down. Can you do that? I'm going to hold on to it. Go ahead.
OK. And what I want you to do, Avery, I'm going to put your hands like this. When you close your eyes, you're dead, OK? I want you to pretend that you're dead, OK? And so when when I talk to you, I want you to respond like you're dead.
Avery, take all the gum in the bag.
Avery, go take the candy that I gave to all the other kids.
Avery.
Why isn't he doing what I say?
Why isn't he doing what I say?
Because then he's dead. If you were dead, how would you respond to sin telling you to go do something bad? How would you respond if your parents said, hey, come, hey, clean your room and something inside you said don't do that. How would you respond to that? Don't do that.
I will listen. I go clean my room and, and and you would respond to that voice in your head from that old master as if you were dead.
We're dead. We're dead to that master cave where you can stand up. But not only are we dead, but it says that just as Christ has risen from the dead.
We.
Walk in newness of life. And so Avery, do you have any gum left?
Do you have any gum left in your pockets or do you eat it all? It's OK if you did, I don't care. Does anybody have any gum left?
You have come, OK? What I want you to do. I'm that new ship, Captain. Could you take all the gun that you have left and give it to somebody else that doesn't have it?
You can give it right to the person behind you. Could you give it to him?
Thank you. You can give you got to give it all though.
That all you have left.
Okay.
So we walk in newness of life.
And what does the Lord do when we use that new nature and we walk in newness of life? He blesses us. He gives us more.
He will be no man's debtor, Satan, sin. They want you to believe that God doesn't have your best interest in view, that you're going to miss out. But in reality, you walk according to that new master who operates with that new nature and he is going to bless you.
OK, so just a couple of questions here. Who is the old master? What's his name?
Not stating exactly.
Sin very good. Who's our new master?
Jesus, what do we become? Sorry.
What do we become to the master we serve?
When a master tells us to do something, one of those two masters, what do we become when we say yes to that master?
Starts with an S sin. Now we become a slave slave. We become a slave to that master.
How are we to respond? How are we to respond when that old nature, sin, nature tries to tell us something? We respond as if we are dead. How do I know I can respond this way? Because God said it. God said it right in this chapter. If you guys are struggling with that, ask your parents to sit down with you or sit down yourself. Open up your Bible and read chapter 6 of Romans.
00:45:02
And it says no know this, know this.
Take God up at His Word.
Believe that God has said you are dead. Do we need to try to do it? No, it's a work that God has done. We just need to take God up at His Word and act in the good of it. There's nothing we can do. OK, so we didn't get to the results. The results. You can go home and you can read Romans 616 to 23 and you can see the happy, fruitful results of following.
Not submitting to that old nature under control of that old master.
Anger
Address—Stephen Rule
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.
Just like to start this afternoon by rereading the last three lines. Well, for connection, I'll read the last four that we sang this morning. This is the subject that's on my heart this afternoon. Hope we'll enjoy together.
We sang #245 the last stanza this morning. It's the last few not lines that are on my heart.
We show thy death, Lord Jesus, and here would seek to be.
More to thy death conforming. Whilst we remember thee here would seek to be more to thy death conformed.
It's also saying #186 I'm thinking particularly the last couple stanzas, but let's sing the whole hymn if someone would start #186.
You need to turn around.
And see how long I'm saying.
That I'm here.
And for stanza we just sang and fully all to have attained the image of our Lord. It's really my desire this afternoon is that all of us fully would approach that moment. It's going to come when we're with him. But while we're here, it's his desire that we would express his image in this world.
Because of that, half of what we'll talk about this afternoon will be the topic of anger.
And that sounds really strange. It's going to be the middle part. I want to start with the whole purpose for dealing with anger and finish where we start. But in between we'll come that topic of anger just so you know what's coming. And it's going to stand in the place of perhaps other things that you deal with. The Lord's only exercise me on that subject in the last maybe year or so. And so it's what He's been taking me through in part.
00:05:01
Are one of the things, and that's why you're going to get that one particular topic in the middle. But the purpose of it is so that we put away those things. Now, anger is a big topic. There's righteous anger. I'll touch on it briefly, but that's not the subject that we're going to deal with here in the middle. It's not the aspect of it. It's the anger that comes from the flesh. But I want to start with the purpose. So if you'll turn with me to first, Peter.
Chapter 2.
Read a couple verses here, one of which we're not going to dwell on, other than I do want to touchback on it a little bit later on in the hour. First Peter, chapter 2.
We'll read two very well known verses.
But one will be.
One aspect of one of them will be our subject. Second Peter, First Peter chapter 2 and verse five. He also, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, our priesthood toward God, including worship.
And in verse 9, the ER a chosen generation.
A royal priesthood and holy nation, A peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who have called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. I'm going to read the last part of that verse from Mr. Darby's translation, that he might set forth the Excellencies.
Of him who was called, set forth the Excellencies.
Of him who has called you. That's the character of our Lord. That's his moral character. And it's to be on display in our lives. Every single one of us is called by God to put on display the excellencies of our Lord. And we'll look at an example later on of a person totally unconscious to themselves pouring out the excellencies of the Lord in their life, their hindrances to it. That's why we'll talk about anger in the middle.
But the excellencies, the Lord, or what are to be on display in our life?
In the first chapter of this epistle, first Peter one and verse three, I also want to touch on just a little something there and by way of introduction.
I'm sorry, not first Peter one, but second Peter one.
Second Peter one and verse 3.
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. That word virtue right here is the very same word that's given where we just read the excellencies of Him. The excellencies of him are the virtue that they're in this verse that we're called to.
Verse five as it begins to get developed and displayed in our life, verse five says and besides this giving all diligence, add to your faith.
Virtue, same word again. It's the excellencies of the moral character of our Lord that are to be on display in our life. And some of the things that we'll talk about today are hard. They're very difficult. They involve the little day-to-day tough moments, the big difficult life moments and everything in between. But we have here in verse three, it's according as his divine power hath given unto us all things.
I've loved that emphasis this morning in the memory verse on all.
I wish I could do it with the same voice, but perhaps you could hear a child's voice this morning with that all. And if you can hear it again in this verse, it's the same emphasis. It's all. There's nothing left out. There's nothing left out. The power of God is present so that in your life this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow, and every day until he calls us home, the excellencies of God's Son can be on display and there's no excuse.
And there doesn't need to be. And when we fail, there's forgiveness. We'll come to that. But the beauty of it is the power is there and the purpose is there. It's God's purpose. He says, call this to glory and virtue, or by glory and virtue. And so that very purpose of God is that you and that I would look just like his Son.
00:10:03
Sometimes we don't. Sometimes there are those little things that come in and I want to turn and lay out for you some principles. Really In Matthew 5, we'll touch on a few other scriptures, lay out some principles for how that image sometimes gets marred.
Really, the Lord may not touch your conscience with this particular topic of anger as He has mine.
But perhaps there's something else that he would touch you with, and that's fine. The purpose is that you and I both would look just like our Lord. That's the that's the focus.
Before we begin to read these verses in Matthew 5, just say about anger.
This and then you can take this. You're gonna have to do it on your own. You can take it and apply it if the Lord touches your conscience somewhere else are quite a few years ago.
I don't remember how long we've been married, but there was a young couple that had been in the gathering there in Addison and they had left. We still had some contact with them in one way or another and we got a call late 1 evening and the sister.
I was quite concerned because her husband was out, He was going to be coming home. She was pretty sure that he was going to be drinking and she knew he'd be angry. She wanted somebody with her when he got home. And I don't remember the circumstances much, but I do remember that we left and we went and we were sitting on the couch in the room and she was kind of pacing around waiting for him to walk in the door. And you can see the door. And also from where we were sitting, you could see.
Big hole in the plasterboard there on the wall. And while we were waiting, she said that's where he had punched a hole in the wall a little while before. He'd never been violent toward her, but he had.
Anger and.
So it's like the Pharisee. And then my heart was I thank thee that I'm not, as other men are.
Hole punchers.
But there's a lot of ways that anger gets shown on the life. You know, we've got those types that are we lived on the side of a volcano for six years and twice while we were there, it erupted. One of the times was standing on the roof. And you can watch those clouds of ash going up, hitting the jet stream, traveling across and overhead. And they dumped their masks on the roof and.
And it was gone. The period of volcanic activity that time lasted a few months and it was over.
It left its mess and it was gone. And some people's anger is like that, if I can put it that way. There's that explosion and it's messy and it's ugly and it's gone. There's another kind of anger, and perhaps not all of us see it in ourselves.
It's got that glacial kind. People take pictures. In fact, we had a nice big poster taken by a brother there in Quito with a verse on it of one of the eruptions. And it was big and it was memorable and it was worth discussing and had a nice verse put on it. And we had it in our home. But people don't take photos of the glacier event.
What glacier event? It just grinds slow and quiet and cold, and it leaves sand and gravel in its wake, and it's just as deadly. And God wants all of it out of our lives. I don't know who I'm speaking to here, because I'll absolutely tell you this is not geared toward anybody. These are things the Lord's laid on my conscience. But He wants you, and He wants me to look like His Son. So I'm going to suppose there's a couple.
And one of you has got that we lived on Mount Pichincha. You've got that Mount Pichincha anger. The other one of you has got the Glacier National Park anger. And you're, you're well aware that your spouses got that Mount Pichincha explosive stuff and you're concerned about it. You haven't seen it in your own heart. And it's grind slow and it grinds fine. And it's anger too.
That's what we do with sin.
We draw this tight little box around other people's sin. I'm speaking generally. I'm going to point to the verses here in a moment. We'll look at them in Matthew 5. When we draw this tight little box around other people's sin and maybe the occasional sin in our own life, and then everything outside that box is OK.
00:15:07
Now watch what the Lord does Matthew 5 and verse 21.
You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill.
And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. That's what I'm calling This tight little box comes straight out of the law. Thou shalt not kill. It's clear, It's definite. It involves action, wrong action. That is an outflow of anger.
Now the Lord speaks.
But I say unto you, the Lord's here present on earth, speaking these words, and you can't put God in that little box. It doesn't fit. And we can't do it in our lives either. We can't do it if we want to look like Him. We can't stick that sin down in that little box and then say, I'm not doing it. Everything else out around it, we're good.
Doesn't work. So here's what he says, and I'll read the entirety of it and we'll go back through it.
But I say unto you, verse 22, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raka shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire.
We'll stop there.
Three things.
Remember, we started with an action murder.
Killing.
Big, obvious out there, we didn't do it. We're good. And that's what the flesh does, right? So you pick a different spot in this chapter. You can look at lust in the same way. Big out there, adultery and what's under the hood and God's dealing with what's under the hood, what's not showing, what I want to bring out in this progression here and the verse we just read three things.
The first one.
Where's the action?
Let's look back at it. Verse 22 Whosoever is angry with his brother without a 'cause that says are lightly angry. Mr. Darby's translation gives.
Tried to look up the word a, very hard time grasping the exact nuance and.
Be very happy for your help later. So rather than trying to exposit what lightly angry means because I can't.
I want to bring out this.
Are there any words mentioned here?
Are there any actions mentioned here?
I don't see either.
Says I'll read it for Mr. Darby's translation.
Everyone that is lightly angry.
Lightly angry.
It just suggests this to you as a very practical matter. It's a very practical matter that's been very helpful to me.
And dealing with this route that God wants dealt with because he wants us to look like His Son.
If you find yourself in your head and we're going to look at a man who had words in his head. If you look at yourself with words in your head, nothing coming out of your mouth, no actions with your hands and your feet, and you're destroying that other person with your argument.
You've already lost.
Because you shouldn't be in it.
Anger is alive there in the heart, and I can't speak to anyone here. I don't know of anyone in this circumstance. This is the kind of thing that comes up in my own heart, and the flesh is the flesh in each of us. You go through a circumstance and you feel insulted. Maybe it happened to you here at this conference. Something came up and you feel insulted, and we'll look at the Lord when He was insulted. In a little bit, that circumstance comes up and you're insulted and you start to go through where that other person was wrong.
Or maybe somebody did something and it wasn't very nice. Maybe it wasn't very nice toward your child.
There will touch briefly on righteous anger later. What I'm talking about what comes from the flesh in those circumstances, and you're running through it and the other person is the focus of it, not the glory of the Lord, not the need of the child. If it was the child, it's that other person that's the focus.
We're already into lightly angry, but it goes from there.
00:20:05
The next expression is something that comes out. And so whosoever shall say to his brother Raqqa believe this is the only time this word, Raqqa is used in the New Testament. And again, I've struggled in the past with understanding really, what's the weight of that word. I've looked through half a dozen lexicons, and I'm lousy with memory.
So I will read to you the definition I found the most helpful.
Of this rack on comes from the Aramaic, the street language of the land of Israel, the time of the Lord the Lord when he spoke Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani from the cross was speaking in that child heart language of Aramaic. It's that just day-to-day flow of things. This word Raqqa comes from the Aramaic and here's the definition.
A mildly insulting word used to tease.
Meaning empty used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence.
Used here in the context of anger. Remember the heading for this is Thou shalt not kill, and the Lord is bringing out the moral weight that lies behind that expression. And when He does the first word out of here as a light, mildly insulting word, use the tease.
I'm guilty on many occasions of teasing. My mother went to be with the Lord of Lobo three years ago and.
Shortly before her death, just a few weeks before I teased her, brought a smile to her face. Well, no, I didn't. She was indignant, but in a good way. And when I teased in that circumstance, I don't think that it was intended in any way to be mildly insulting. So I'm not trying to cover all of teasing here, but I think what this is, is inside there's that little.
Churning and the person's there. Maybe it's maybe it's a child in your family.
And they are always leaving their messy clothes around. It's just always, and it bugs you and it's in there and there's training, right? So it's in there and you're working on the training program and you're asking the Lord how you can help and what it tells me about that. No, sometimes what's in there is not again. And so to make it not so heavy.
You use an expression which is.
Mildly insulting. We're used to tease and it's intended to hurt and hopefully inflict some pain because there's a little anger on the inside.
Or your husband and wife and you're in the home and there's that thing and for.
Next week, now a little bit more than one week, will be my 31St anniversary. We'll say that there is something in my life that's been going on, and I'll say in my wife's life, because the sin is on the side of the person angry here. Let's say there's been that little habit for 31 years and it's there and it's never going to go away. And you keep tripping over it and maybe it's not even sin. Maybe it's a natural thing and you keep.
Tripping over it and there's just that little dig there.
Let's say I'm not going to pick a real example here. I'm not going to leave a mess behind. Let's say it was that my wife was always late.
Thankfully, though we have different senses of time, we're not that different in time.
Umm, we're in the same time family anyway.
And so she's late again. And rather than thank the Lord for the wonderful character and all that's in it, and the reason she was late was she was taking care of a child who had a need. I really enjoyed looking over yesterday and seeing my wife bandaging a knee and I thought, oh, OK, Yep, that's her. And so maybe that's what was going on and that's why she's late.
But that's not what you're seeing. You're the husband. And this is wow. Let's see. Calculate at least once a day, 365 days, 31 years. Wow, that's a lot.
And a little dig.
Let's raka. It's not the pronunciation of the sounds.
So what's going on under the hood, coming out of the mouth? That isn't the love and grace of Christ. It's not His attitude, it's not His spirit, it's not the virtue and the excellencies of him that have called you. It's your flesh displaying itself.
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There's one more.
And it is.
Whosoever shall say thou fool.
Whosoever shall say thou fool.
This is stronger as far as I can understand. And again, I'm not going to present myself as an expert on the language. I did struggle with it. I did look through half a dozen lexicons again, and I'm going to pick one, the exact same one that I just read you a definition from so that it's at least consistent because I think it shows the graduation of the thought.
Fool is the Greek word moros, and it's a foolish person who?
Lacks good judgment.
It's a subtle difference here. It's not so much the action in the heat of the moment and the irritation. It's a judgment on the whole person. It's a foolish person. And as I understand it, it is a word that's at least related to. I don't know if it's derived from, maybe it is. One of the lexicons I looked up said it's related to this Hebrew word, perhaps drive from it, but it's certainly in the Greek here.
And it's related to the word used for nabal, who was a churro.
Enable the whole character of Nabal in the Old Testament, nobody could say anything to him. He was the law where he was. Nabal was a churro, and apparently that's the basic sense of the word. And his wife says of him that he, Nabal, is his name. And he is, he's a fool. Nabel was a fool. His whole character was that.
These words here are pronouncing judgment on my brother.
And saying or my sister, my wife, my child, the other person. It's a settled conclusion about the other person and it comes from a lot of thoughts all collected together. This is anger that's built up to the point where there's a settled conclusion brought out of the mouth and stated about the other person.
There are very few places where it's used in the New Testament, but just to give a little bit more flavor to the word, we'll turn to one of them. And it comes from the Lorde mouth. So that's not the pronunciation of the syllables, fool. That's in in question here because the Lord himself uses this exact same word. And clearly that was not sin, but the word is used by the Lord in.
Matthew 23 a couple times actually, and.
He's speaking the scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, and Matthew 23.
And verse.
17.
It's almost like the Lord has to say this.
He had no other choice.
It's at the end of his public ministry. He's ready to go to the cross and he's yearned over this people. These are not words of frustration coming out of his mouth. This is the divine Son of God pronouncing a statement on these people. And he says verse 17, Matthew 23, verse 17, ye fools and blind.
That's the same word.
That's the same word, and it's his statement as the divine Son of God, as God, as the one that could evaluate and make a statement about this one. You're fools. All that I've poured out towards you, all that love that I've shown to you, and you're closed to it. The foolishness was in shutting the mind and shutting the heart to the person who was there.
That's an expression of anger and I trust it doesn't come from our mouth. That can be used with a lot of different words.
But again, it was a stronger set of words than what came before.
Now which action did the Lord talk about?
Remember back a little while ago I mentioned looking on my brother. I believe he's a brother in the Lord. Although these walks gone a long way from the Lord, the one who put his first through the the the plasterboard pounded a hole in the wall. An action of anger. Which action of the anger has the Lord laid his finger on in this verse?
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Model 1.
Not a one.
That's anger too, right? My point is this, we create this little box and I didn't hit him. I didn't put her in a headlock. I didn't. I didn't this, I didn't that, I didn't the other.
So I wasn't angry.
No, the Lord says. If it's not my character flowing from you.
If it's not my grace, if it's not my love, then it's not me. It's not me and it shouldn't be coming out of you. We're going to come to how how it's drained really in a little bit, but.
Let's not draw the block so small that we're smug and comfortable outside it. Let's take God's definition of what this is and judge it in the thought, in the light word, in the heavy word, before it ever becomes an action in our life. And if something that's ongoing, it's something that hinders the display of Christ.
In our life, let's look at one more verse related to anger. This one. Well, 2. Two more passages. You don't want to take too much longer on them. I want to look at God's solution, but I want to look at the root of it.
At least suggest to you a root of it back in Genesis. The first case that I know of, of the display of this anger in Genesis 4. You know the story well. It ended in action. But I want to show you what comes before that action with Cain murdering his brother Abel.
So Genesis chapter 4.
Says in verse three, the process of time it came to pass that came broad of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And we know this story well. We know that it was faith in Abel that laid hold of an offering.
And he was accepted because that offering was accepted.
Cain brought an offering of his own work, and that's not the aspect I want to bring up. I want to bring up what happens now in what follows. And Cain was very rough, and his countenance fell.
What insult has Cain said to his brother at this point?
Talks to his brother in a moment.
They haven't said a word to him yet.
Hasn't killed him yet. In fact, he hasn't done anything.
But it's leaking. His anger has leaked out of his heart, and it wouldn't need to leak out, but it has leaked out because it's showing on his face and God is dealing with it. I just want to suggest this to you. God is immensely faithful. That's what I love about the Lord right here. At this particular point, Cain hasn't murdered yet, and God's working with them. He sees that sin leaking out.
And he works to stop it.
And the Lord speaks to him, He speaks to him about it, and the Lord speaks to us. If it's not anger in your life that's simmering a little there under the hood, that pops up here and there, that's expressed toward another brother or sister in your assembly or someone in your family, it is God's desire to stop it growing.
And he speaks, it's a beautiful thing. And he talks to Cain and he says to him.
And the Lord said unto Cain, verse six. Or art thou Roth? And why is thy countenance fallen?
Just.
Or tried to say this to me a lot in the last year, and I'm going to give you the kind of example people involved. And I want, I want to illustrate a principle here with anger, because the Lord is immensely faithful, wonderful.
Often.
Let me give an illustration of something first, because I think it will help in understanding the application of it. I know next to nothing of forest fires, but I, I looked up some information on it. I was meditating on it from my own personal need and this particular subject thinking of fire. Some words we may look on touch on a little bit. And I understand that there's a, there's different places the fire can run through the forest. They can run through the canopy, it can run through the basic.
Of the tree or it can run essentially underground underneath the leaf cover where isn't it seen through the root systems. And so if you build a fire and you do it in an unapproved place in the Forest Service gave you a spot to build your fire and you found that one that looked a lot nicer it was more comfortable to your tent and so you built according to your own view of things where you thought you should build and you ignited your fire there and then it ran along under the ground the fire itself can pop up 30.
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Away, 30 feet away. I don't remember the exact distance, but it's a long way from where you ignited that fire. And where it pops up over here is not where the problem started. The problem started way over here.
And let me give you a very concrete example for the purpose of focusing on it, but for not keeping things in this tight little box. That's that's the desire of my heart is that we would properly apply God's Word to all of our lives, all of it, and put away what dishonours him that his character would show.
I have far too often in the workplace in my life, done a job that's easier.
Not a non work related item, a work related item, but a work related item that's more pleasurable. It's got less pain in it, it's simpler, it's easier rather than the real priority.
Don't want any confessions of procrastinators here, but you're hearing one form of procrastination. No show of hands. That's not the point. The point is, I think there's a couple of you out there and we're not procrastinating and you know, playing games or anything like that. It's, it's work that's work that needs to get done. It's just not the number one priority. And the clock is ticking and ticking and ticking and ticking and ticking and tensions building inside and you've got to deal with that top priority. So you start to tackle.
Top priority and you think of the top priority, real high speed, you got to get it done real quickly because you're running out of time because you only had about two hours left and you really should give it six hours. And so you're tackling it as quickly as you possibly can. And somebody comes in your office and wants that again, ask you that question. Why do they always the anger that's popping up is because of self six hours earlier. The rushing at that point is coming in and the anger is coming out.
Because the fire got started in the non approved place way over here.
30 feet away because it just was a lot nicer to work with that fire in front of my tent with that project, that was a little nicer. And now it's popping up over here as anger. That's not where it started. It started a long time ago. Maybe no words come out of my mouth, but that probably leak out of my face.
Leaked out of Cain's face and God spoke to him.
And God would speak to us right then and there pops up. He'd speak to us because he wants his character on display. He's so faithful, He's so wonderful. And I want to just suggest something to you. I believe it's a thought of scripture.
It's given by one of the older writers here. There's a lot of discussion as to what the end of verse 7 means.
I'll read the first part. There's little argument there. If they'll do us well, shalt thou not be accepted. So a lot of discussion on how to to translate the last half of this verse. I'm just going to give you an interpretation which I believe is supported by Scripture, and Mr. Kelly gives it here for this half of the verse.
And I love the thought of God acting in this way. And if thou doest not, well, Sinliath at the door, that's been translated by many, Mr. Darby, Mr. Kelly on down. The most modern translations give that somewhere and along the lines of sin lies crouching or lying at the door. It's out there in the open, Cain. You haven't hit a thing that's out there in the open, you know.
That's a wonderful thing to know. When our sin we think it's hidden. We deny it. We deny it to our family.
Your wife says to you, what are you mad about? I'm not mad. Yeah, right.
It's leaked out on your face. It's there and she can see it and God says it's out there. There's also the thought of and there's a there's a sacrifice for it.
But it seems that the main thought is it's out there and seen at your door, and then there is a way to deal with it, and all the scripture gives us the way to deal with it.
There's a second aspect here of I love what the Lord does here, and I believe it's what He does with each of us. He says unto them, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
If you have a.
Anyone of many conservative modern translations, it'll give the sense of this part as.
00:40:02
Sin itself is lying there crouching, ready to devour you and.
It's the true thought sin is there ready to cause wreak havoc. So I take nothing from it. But I believe the following is a scriptural thought and I enjoy seeing it here as Mr. Kelly gave it here, and that's this.
Is the interpretation this way of that expression says?
Came.
I made you the first born, my hardest towards you, my hardest towards you, and I haven't taken it back.
And I haven't taken it back.
Believe. That's a scriptural thought for a believer. We'll see it clearly in the life of David, but I enjoy it here in this first example. Here God's heart is toward that one who sinned in the heart, and it's not fully out in the life yet, but it's leaked out on the face.
And God says, my heart is towards you.
My favor that I've given to you is still there. It's still there.
Be that as it may, we'll clearly see that in the life of David, I want to turn very briefly to the New Testament and just cover this principle and ask for your help on something here.
Give you something to look up for me and Ephesians chapter 4.
Street 2 verses.
Well, I'll read 3 but with very little comment verse Ephesians 4 verse 26.
Lord has just mentioned in verse 24 holiness, and in verse 26 He says be ye angry and sin not. This is the righteous anger. It says be ye angry. It doesn't say don't be ye angry. It says be ye angry. And the root word behind that anger is one we're going to see in a moment in the fleshly sense. But I believe this, the sense of it is God's holy wrath against sin never changes.
Same root word that you see here with be angry.
Give you a second to guess which two New Testament books use it over and over and over again. Two of them over half the times in the New Testament of one of the words for anger come up or about a third of them, very roughly speaking, a third of them. So this word root word for anger appears in the book of Romans.
When it speaks of God's wrath being revealed, it's that this holy God hates sin and it's a subtle disposition against it, with consequences, with retribution that will follow. And about 1/3 of the references appear there in the book of Romans. I bet you can guess what the other book of the Testament is then where the another third of those references appear. It's the Book of Revelation.
Book of Revelation where it's poured out, but in the Book of Revelation it adds a second word.
Over roughly half of the times that second word for anger appears in the New Testament appear in the Book of Revelation. Because when it's carried out, there's heat that comes with it. Now down to verse 31.
Let all again, can you, can you call back to mind that beautiful emphasis of all this morning? Let all.
Let all.
Bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. I'm going to read that. Just a couple of those words in Mr. Darby's translation, verse 31, it says heat of passion and wrath.
You'll have to use a Greek concordance to trace these words, because it doesn't appear to me that they're consistently translated and or translated in the same way throughout Mr. Darby's translation or the King James or most others. But the two words in verse 31 are thumas. That's the heat of passion, as Mr. Darby gives it, and orge the wrath, as Mr. Darby gives it.
Thumas, I believe, is a little bit more of that boiling up of passion.
Used to the Lord in the Book of Revelation. It's the pouring out and the passion.
In that brief period of time when he publicly deals with sin, it's the pouring out.
Of that passion, heat of passion and wrath. Is that settled?
Judgment against sin and it too is poured out in the Book of Revelation, but is prominent also in Romans. But this is what comes from the flesh, their equivalents in the flesh in US. And all of it is the go, not just what shows not just the big stuff, all of it so that the next verse and be kind one to another can't read this verse.
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Without hearing my mother's voice.
This is the most quoted verse in my life as a child. You can guess why.
Probably not because she was underlining, emphasizing and highlighting the beauty of that character in my life, but rather wishing for it. So there are three words that got the the emphasis.
Be kind.
One to another.
Tender hearted.
Forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you.
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you that, and we're going to look at it in a second here. And the time that we have remaining that forms the fountain, an understanding of that fountain, of the forgiveness of God to us causes the character, causes grace to pour into our lives and causes.
Causes these things to pour out tender hearted.
Forgiving.
About my mother when she was saying these words.
The last thought in our mind is the fact that I would be quoting this verse in this context here. So if you're a mom and you're quoting quoted that same verse or given the same thought or the same instruction to your child 49 times and you're ready to have a little bit of thumas on the 50th time, look ahead to God's purposes and just just count on him to work in your child's life. And really that's that's the heart of it. It's when we seize the rains and try to run the show that we.
Flow over and anger. But when we count on God, we don't.
There's a beautiful example in David's life. I want to give you a homework assignment. And this is genuine. This is not, hey, I've got the answer. Come to me afterwards. This is because I don't know. But I, I say it to you because I think the word of God is just immense. It's rich, it's full. And I think there's more on this subject that I haven't, I don't know. And that is in Ephesians, right where we read it.
It gives the order of what were to put away as thumas followed by or gay, the Burlington, the boiling up of passion and that settled anger with retribution. But in Colossians it flips the order. It says orgay followed by thumas. The heat of passion comes second. I have no idea why. I'm sure there's a good reason. Probably learn something helpful about anger from it and how to put it away. I'd be happy for the answer, but I want to turn it over to something I really.
On this subject in Ephesians, I'm sorry, not in Ephesians, but in Luke Chapter 7.
When you assume you know this story.
It came before me because this is a circumstance and I meditated on it for myself. This is one of the circumstances that tend to produce anger in our lives. The Lord and Matthew and Luke 7 and the verses we're going to read was insulted. He was rudely insulted. He was treated terribly and the in a social sense, and maybe you have been this weekend. I trust not, but it happens in life and treated in a terrible way and I want you to see how he responds. This is the Christ life.
This is the excellence of Christ coming out in the Lord Jesus and what he would produce. And you and I, I'm not going to read the whole story. You know it pretty well, but this is in Luke 7 toward the end. Verses 36 to 50 are well worth going back and reading through and thoughtfully, I'm going to presume that you know it well. The Lord enters the House of the Pharisee, Simon, and I'll give the brief summary. He enters the house.
Simon the Pharisee and.
There are three people in the story. There have to have been more in the house, but there were three in the story, the Lord Simon and a woman.
The Lord displaying the excellencies of Christ because he was He couldn't do anything else. The woman pouring out the excellencies of Christ that were the result of forgiveness. See, she didn't have this little box to stick her sin in and feel good.
She couldn't do it toward the beginning of the story. You read it for yourself. I'll touch on the highlights toward the beginning of the story. It says God's statement narrating, writing the book.
00:50:02
She was a Sinner.
Simon, looking on, says she's a Sinner. Everybody knew it.
I'll just suggest when we try to hide our sin, maybe it's just from our wife. I'm not mad, no, not upset.
Just your imagination, we're not hiding anything.
It's not hidden, it's out there. It's on the face, it's in the words, it's in the tone. And we're missing out on grace because grace comes pouring out when there's that sense of the need of forgiveness. And this woman's sin was out there. Simon knew it. I take it the whole village knew it. The Lord knew it.
But she'd seen something in this one, and she came to him, and what was pouring out of her wasn't her sin.
What was pouring out of her was the excellence of Let's Die back where we started. She's worshipping all our actions, call out worship for that person that had grabbed her and taken a hold of her heart and pouring out of her as one of his characters. She's just giving, you know, there she was weeping. There's no doubt repentance. She was washing his feet with her tears. I would presume that was her tear bottle that she was pouring from, not just her eyes.
She's pouring from her alabaster box ointment on his feet. This is flowing out of her because she knew forgiveness from a God who gives, who's full of grace. And when we draw that tight little box and say, I don't need forgiveness, we're denying him an expression of his grace. We're cutting off from ourselves the forgiveness that's going to draw out the praise and the worship.
Maybe we think we're maintaining our reputation and our family and our home assembly and our work or whatever it is, but.
We haven't said I'm sorry I was wrong in the last week.
You've already reached the end of the hymn that we started with. You're already looked like the Lord, awful lot like the Lord.
If we haven't in one way or another said it, because we do offend in many ways, we all offend. But taking a hold of that forgiveness and this, the worship pours out of her. And I would like to suggest that she's pouring out the excellencies of Christ. She's putting them on display. There are no words recorded of this woman here.
It's there's the royal priesthood isn't all about words. It's not about going out and preaching. It's a display of the life that shows Christ.
And that's what she's doing here. She's displaying the life and Simon is looking on. But Simon doesn't get it because like so many other Pharisees, he's like the one that later in this book praised us with himself, saying I am not as other men are. And look at what the Lord does with her offering in verse 40. Well, Lord.
Maybe I should just say before I show what the Lord does with it. This portion came before me originally because.
It's beautiful. What did the Lord say to Simon when he walked in and was insulted, didn't get the kiss? In Ecuador, you would be socially in trouble if you walked up to somebody and didn't give the the air air kiss. You go cheek to cheek, you each blow a little kiss into the air and you go all the way around the room. And everybody be kind of hard in the room like this. And they do skip it at a conference because it would be a little impractical. But in small social situations, you just would not, would not walk in and not give the air kiss.
To somebody, Simon there and he didn't do the other common courtesies of his day and the Lord, the Lord of glory, the Lord who merited him more than anybody that ever did. What did he say? He didn't bring it up until he wanted to bring out the beauty of this woman who was being attacked, attacked in the thoughts, by the way of Simon. Simon didn't think the Lord was a prophet.
So the Lord chose. He's a prophet. He brings Simon's thoughts right out.
And he deals with them. But here's how the Lord made use of her offering, He says in verse.
And.
Verse 44, after telling Simon the story, the 550 pence debtors, he says, and he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into my house? And he goes through the list. And then he says in verse 47, Wherefore I say unto thee, he's talking to Simon. This is a message to Simon, not to the woman.
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. Now here's I believe, what's going on, he says. That love pouring out of her is evidence to you, Simon, that this woman is forgiven.
00:55:04
He's not saying because she's loving enough, I'll forgive her sins. That's not it. That's not the thought I don't believe. The thought is she's putting on display the excellencies of this person and it's evidence of a work that's gone in on in her heart. When he speaks to the woman, he says in verse 50 and he said, the woman, thy faith has saved thee, go in peace. There's the root of it. There's the assurance of her salvation from the testimony from his mouth. His word gives the testimony and assurance for the peace.
Tour. The basis of it was faith, but what was pouring out of her was the evidence of it and that the Lord uses to speak to Simon's heart.
I have no scriptural justification to say with any confidence that I'm going to give Simon a hug and glory someday, but I'd love to think so. And the reason I'd love to think so is that the Lord was addressing Simon the Pharisee, and he was addressing him on this very issue. And because the Lord addresses me on these issues because he loves me, I know he's addressing Simon because he loves Simon. And perhaps.
It would be wonderful to think that that message reached home. Maybe Simon was one of the ones in the beginning of Acts that believed. I do not know. Scripture does not tell us.
But it is the heart of our God. It is the heart of our God to delight in and to bring out the excellencies of His Son. I'm going to finish with a few verses back in first Peter. It was a wonderful example of these things in the life of David, if you want to look at it in second Samuel 6 and seven. But we're not going to turn there. We're going to turn and finish just a few verses and first Peter.
Verse Peter chapter 2 again.
Again, there's a wonderful situation here at the end of the chapter with servants. They are the household servants beginning in verse 18. Not slaves, not the do lost slave, but a household servant much closer in direct analogy to you and I in a work environment. And there's difficulties there where anger might come up. We'll skip over them and I'm going to just read from verse.
21 For even here unto were ye called.
Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. It hurt him. Reproach broken my heart. It's not that there's not pain when anger is directed toward us. It's not that there's not pain when insult comes toward us. But what flowed from that perfect man was perfection. And in those circumstances when he was reviled, he reviled not again. He didn't try to be.
The one to ultimately deal with a situation that says when when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him the judgeth righteously who his own self bear our sins, and his own body on the tree, though we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. That's been my burden this afternoon. Though we spoken so much on anger. Someone has said this is the complimentary set of verses to what we had in the Sunday school this morning.
Romans 6 It's dead to sin, and that whole sin nature and that whole root, and God doesn't want the fruit either, and it's here.
Bear who? His own self? Bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Why? So that our bodies would live unto righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed. We're dead to sins. Sins plural. Dead to sins complementary to Romans 6. Why?
Because everything. All of it.
Needs to go so that.
Verse 425 You were a sheep going astray, but you are now returned unto the shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Worldviews
YP Address—Eric James
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What we have available, so 127.
What else could satisfy the heart of those Jesus fled? His homemade art is taught as well. Our hearts will force you given the fortune of the first born Son to pull the light of heaven. One of my favorite favorite things in the book. So let's start with verse 2.
Oh, what up?
He owes me, owe his love, everybody.
Lovely, love to have my friends.
The Father.
And came to her to make it wrong.
That we might share with God.
Oh what the hell. Therefore, let's love.
Coins from my but some people are in effect and slow.
Throughout this time and life.
And for reform, the Father is to fill with joy.
A heart.
Nobody said.
Give me blessings.
Or double true.
OK, it's been 50 years since I've been here so I don't know a lot of your names but I know a lot of your last names. At least when you mentioned them I seem to recognize them. Although I have to also ask what your grandfathers name is because they're kind of my generation but you'll excuse me for that. But it's it's certainly wonderful to be here and appreciate the people that have made such an effort to make this possible.
I want to talk about something called Worldview tonight. I know that maybe sounds a little.
A little popular, that kind of thing. But let me tell you a little story. When I was a sophomore in high school, I first really heard that term. That's been a few years ago now, but I suspect there's a number of you here that are not too many years on either side of that age group. And I was taking a biology class in high school, and they were, of course, teaching something called evolution, I'm sure you've all heard of.
And I figured, well, you know, they must have a lot of answers and a lot of evidence.
In order to support their views of evolution. And I listened and listened, and then I came across a book. Let's take a quick look at that here in a moment. But I came across a book that explained worldview. And we're going to talk about that just a moment. Because in a nutshell, worldview is the grid through which you see the world.
And I discovered pretty quickly that people that were teaching evolution were looking through a very different worldview.
00:05:06
Than the worldview I learned at meeting and that I learned from the word of God even more importantly. And that's what I want to talk about tonight. So let's go ahead.
Look at a few of these things here.
Here's a quotation.
From one of my favorite.
Devotional books, and I encourage you young people to read something devotional. This is when I happen to enjoy. It's my favorite one called One Day at a Time by a name man named Mr. William McDonald. A lot of good things in there and I appreciate some of the quotations he has. Here's something that he quoted. One of the great tragedies of our existence is to see men and women living wasted lives.
That's a good point for us to remember, isn't it? This is kind of a preface to what we're going to talk about.
But there's a danger that we live a wasted life. That's not what we were created for, certainly not what we were saved for. Is the living wasted life. So we want to talk about that today and hopefully how to avoid that. Give some hints at least.
Here's what Francis Schaeffer, a man named Francis Schaeffer, wrote about worldview. That was a real help to me at the time when I was in those biology classes. And I hope it'll be a help to you young people as well. And here's what he says about worldview. As a man thinketh, so is he. Proverbs 23 seven. That statement is really most profound.
They will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions.
Then they themselves may realize by presuppositions we mean the basic worldview, the grid through which he sees the world. People's presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Although worldviews have many variations, there are not many basic ones. We all have a worldview, and we're going to talk about worldview today.
Look at the true worldview.
One we've heard of often and look at some false worldview, some competing worldviews that are actually corruptions of the true world view. I don't want to say one other thing, too.
You know that first quotation?
I can get the. Well I can't get this thing to.
Oops, sorry about that. A little bit technology challenged here, you'll have to excuse that, but the first statement, again, you know, my best friend when I was out of college, he was actually my best man in my wedding. He said something in his high school yearbook that I thought was helpful. We didn't go to school together, but we met later on and just thinking of that tragedy.
Of living a wasted life, he said in that yearbook.
He says I want to live a life that's worth living.
And I hope that resonates with each one of us. How can we live a life worth living? You know, Satan wants the sandbag us. He wants to rob us of what's real.
So we're going to talk about the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Of course. That's first John 4/6.
Truth. First of all, here's a quotation from Mr. Darby. The Bible and its object is a whole which presents to us God coming forth from His essential fullness to manifest all that He is, and to bring back into the enjoyment of this fullness with Himself those who, having been made partakers of His nature, have become capable.
Of comprehending and loving his counsels and himself. You know what? I underlined the word capable.
And the reason I did that was because.
Our capacity for appreciating the Lord Jesus is formed in this world.
If we waste our world, the old brother used to say, you know, when some of us get to heaven, we're only going to have a thimble full of appreciation for Christ in his work. That's pretty much a wasted life, isn't it? We are Christians, but we just got there kind of as a fire escape, and that's for all eternity. Yes, we'll get there, and yes, it'll be a happy time and a blessed time, but our capacity will be limited.
But there's others that will have a full barrel full of capacity, and that capacity was formed in the training ground of this world. So let's keep this in mind. It's not just a just a, it's not just a game. It's not just something we can take or leave, but it's something that's very serious and we need to take it seriously.
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So our capacity for eternity is being formed at this time. Yes, we'll all get there.
As Christians, we're Christians, but our capacity will vary.
So here's the truth, O taste and see that the Lord is good.
O taste and see that the Lord is good. This is a great secret, and I hope each one of us can appreciate that that the Lord is good. He wants our blessing. He wants us to be truly happy and joyful. He wants us to have the peace of God and the peace of Christ. He wants us to have a good capacity for eternity.
O taste, and see that the Lord is good unto you, therefore which believe He.
Is precious. It's the person of Christ that's the center of truth. He's the one that said I am the way, the truth and the life. We've been talking about that some of the meetings, haven't we? It's true, you know, being 70 years old has some disadvantages, Needless to say, but there's a few advantages to being a little older. One of those advantages I think is we can kind of look back.
We can think about when we were young people.
The people we knew when we were young people and we can see different pathways that people took and we can see the results of those pathways. That's what we're going to talk about a little bit tonight. What happens if you follow a certain pathway? What are the results? That's what we're going to talk about.
There's the hymn we just sang for some of the people that came in a little bit late. Here's the last stands of this beautiful hymn, one of my favorites. One, as I mentioned, oh, what a home. The Lord Jesus came from heaven, from that essential fullness because he wanted our blessing and our happiness. He wanted us to be part of his family, not only for time, but for all eternity.
I went to home, but such his love that He must bring us there, even if such tremendous cost.
To fill that home, to be with him in all his glory, Share. You know, we spoke about it at our meetings, didn't we? But the Christian has the highest privileges of all God's creatures. Just think about them. We have more privileges than angels.
An Archangel would covet what we have. We have more privileges than Jews do. We have more privileges than Abraham or Isaac or Jacob because we're Christians.
We belong to a dispensation of the highest privileges of God's creatures, and this is kind of the essence of it. He wants us to fill that home, to be with Him in all His glory, share the Father's house, the Father's heart. All that the Son is given, made ours, the objects of His love.
And he our joy in heaven.
OK, we have truth, but we have error as well. What can we say about error? Satan, because we've heard in these meetings and certainly have heard many other times, is the God and Prince of this world.
I hope that you young people can get ahold of that.
Such a profound truth to understand that Satan is the head of this religious world and also the head of this political or civil world. He's the one who has claimed that place. No, he doesn't deserve it, but he's created a world, and we're going to look at that world some, and it's formed on those principles that he's the center.
Of this world system.
He's the God and the Prince.
Well, let's look a little bit at Satan.
What is Satan? We looked at what God is. God is good. We can taste and see that God is good. But what about Satan? He's a liar. We heard about that, didn't we? There's a quotation. John 844. He is a liar. He's going to lie to you. And I have to say, I've seen that many, many times over my lifetime. Satan is a liar.
He'll lead you down the wrong pathway every time.
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He's also a thief. He wants to rob you of the blessing that your birthright as a Christian. He wants to rob us as a thief. So he's a liar. He's a thief. What's the third one?
What else is Satan?
Gets even worse.
Course Cirque du Lanes.
Murder. You know, I spoke on this once.
He's going to speak on this to the Sunday school children. Our local Sunday school, we had a number of children that were coming out at the time.
And I wanted to speak about Satan, to warn him about Satan, that he's a liar and a thief. And that night I heard that one of my nieces had taken her life. He's a murderer too, and he would love to murder young people. Two of my nieces in the last three years have taken their lives raised in Christian homes.
You know, it's an interesting fact that the Christian can be the most miserable person in the world. That sounds strange.
But I'll tell you why that's true. Because the person who's not a Christian can live in the filth of this world, and he's just living out his nature. He doesn't know anything better, or if he does, it's only distant. But a Christian has a new life. He has the Spirit of God indwelling him. He has a hope outside this world. What happens when a Christian lives like the person in the world?
He's miserable.
Because he knows better. He has a nature that's different and far higher, desires far better things. He has the Spirit of God that's striving with them to act consistently with that new nature and when he lives contrary to it.
He can be the most miserable person in the world. Just a few weeks ago, we heard in our in our home assembly one of the young brothers had Sunday school again, and he said one of his cousins lived in Oregon, had just taken his life raised in a Christian home. Again, he got into substance abuse.
And he was murdered by Satan, wasn't he? He was at a substance abuse program. He felt there was no hope, so he couldn't turn anywhere. He was a believer. I believe some people I know teach that if somebody takes their lives that they're lost. But that's not true at all, because a Christian, again, can be the most miserable person in the world because you have a new nature and the Spirit of God and a hope that teaches you so differently from the life that you're living.
So Satan is a liar, a thief, and a murderer. Several months later, I had the Sunday school again, and I asked the Sunday school children. I said, you remember what I said last time? And immediately one of the boys picked it up. He's a liar, he's a thief, and he's a murderer. Let's not forget that Satan does not have your best interest at heart.
Satan's world is not meant for us.
And so he's that liar, that thief and murderer, He wants to rob you of all that really satisfies, of all that can truly satisfy, not only for time, but for all eternity. He wants to rob you of your happiness in this world. He wants to rob you. He can't rob you of your eternal life, but he wants to rob you. And he wants you to dishonor the Lord Jesus at the same time. It's a serious, serious thing.
And how many times we've seen that? And we'll be talking about other examples as well, but let's not forget this. Satan is a liar. He's a thief, and he's a murderer.
OK, let's talk about worldview.
We know there's some principles here, there's the truth and there's error. In other words, worldview is not actually in scripture. But interestingly enough, we'll look at the 2nd chapter of Colossians briefly and we see that the word rudiment through the expression rudiments of the world is there or it could be translated elements of the world.
That's, I think, what we could call worldview in little more modern language.
What are the elements of the world? What are the foundational principles of the world? Well, that's human error because it belongs to Satans world and there's it's based on three things that in themselves are not bad, but we're going to talk about the distinction. The truth is God's revelation to us, but error can be based on our personal experience.
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Our tradition that we receive from others.
Or philosophical basis, and we're going to talk about that in a little bit more detail. Let's look.
OK, the principles.
There we go. OK, in First Corinthians 2 verses 9 and 10, you don't need to turn there, but I've just summarized it here. It says there I have not seen. That's personal experience. What has your eyes seen? What have you observed yourself nor ear heard things that you've heard. Maybe you've read in books, tradition that others have developed their cultural traditions. Not necessarily bad, but they can be perverted.
Neither entered into the heart philosophies of men.
And of course, opposed to that is the revelation of God. Neither entered into the heart The things which God hath prepared for them that love him, that's God's world. OK, Colossians 2, let's go ahead and look at Colossians 2 because I'm not going to look at a lot of passages for the sake of time. But I do want to look at Colossians 2 because I believe in that chapter.
We have really worldview.
Colossians 2 verse two it says.
That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement.
Of the mystery of God. Now the rest of that verse doesn't belong. The mystery of God. What is the mystery of God? We heard about that a little bit in gospel meeting last night, didn't we?
It's the secrets of the universe. The deepest truths of the universe are what's called the mystery of God. And then we have some other other.
Passages as well. We're completing him verse 10. We don't need those things of Satan as the liar offers to us because in verse 10 it tells us that we're complete in him. Ye are complete in him.
Which is the head of all principalities and power. Now let me tell you, I know you pick full somewhere taking pictures and so on. I've got a chart in the back that'll be the summary chart of all this. So you don't need to bother doing that. I've got all these these, not all the slides necessary, but I have the the final summary chart. If you're interested, you can pick that up. Whoops. I don't know what happened here. Looks like we see.
Steve Van Holstein is.
Been the omen on this and we appreciate that. There we go. I'm sure it's something I did, but.
All right. Thanks, Steve.
OK, there we go. All right, let's look then at the principles of error.
Look at verse 8 and I believe we have all three principles there. Error.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy. We have that to the far right.
And vain deceit. I think that's probably what we might call only self observation or self occupation.
And after the tradition of men, that's the second worldview.
After the rudiments of the world, well, that's human error and not after Christ.
Well, that's explained a little bit more in this chapter. We're not going to go into it in a lot of detail, but look at verse. Let's look at verse. What is that? It's a little hard to read, isn't it? Verse 18 and 19 on experience.
This is what it says. Let no man beguile you of your reward. That's what Satan would desire to do in voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head. Head is capitalized. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, so you can see holding the head there in verse 19 is the antidote to the vain deceit of Satan's.
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And then next we have verses 14 and 17 on tradition, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances. That was against us. That's the Jews, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them, openly triumphing over them in it. Let no man, therefore judge you and me, or drink, or in respect of a holy day.
Or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath.
Which are shadows of things that come, but the body or the substance is of Christ. And so the traditions of men, the religious traditions of men, even for a Jew, were only shadows of that which was real. And then philosophy. It's interesting I put it in parentheses because it really doesn't speak of.
Philosophy so much. It doesn't go on a long discourse about that, but it does speak of what the antidote is to philosophy versus 9 to 13. For in him dwelleth all the fullness.
Of the Godhead bodily, and year completed him, as we read in whom also ye are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and putting off of the of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with him in baptism. But let me talk about that just a little bit. You can see here.
The antidote for not holding the head is vain deceit or the flesh. My personal observation only.
The shadow versus the body with tradition, Baptism and circumcision. You know, a lot of times people confuse what the meaning of baptism and circumcision is. Let me just say this briefly before we move on. Baptism has to do with the fact that we're saved. Baptism is a picture of my being saved and identified with Christ. But what about circumcision?
Circumcision has to do with discipleship.
I hope we understand the difference between salvation and discipleship. Salvation is when we become Christians. But a lot of times when we become Christians, we may not be consecrated to Christ. There may be a period of time before we actually say, Lord Jesus, I want to follow you not just as Savior, but as Lord day by day.
That's true consecration, and I hope you all get a hold of that. There's a distinction between salvation and consecration.
Should there be a distinction? Well, in time, yes. But as far as reality, no, because every Christian will only be happy if they're truly a disciple. That's the secret of blessing and happiness. So there's that distinction between baptism and circumcision. All right, let's move on here. We've got plenty to cover. I want to talk here briefly. You can see the other two, top two we've already looked at. There's other names for truth.
Delivered to the States, you read that in Jude. It's a heavenly calling where strangers and pilgrims in this world. We're called to be the light of the world. That's to be a light to this Dark World, both in what we say and in what we do. There's a brother in our home assembly used to say preach Christ, use words if necessary. We talked about feet. We talked about the preparation of the gospel of peace, didn't we? The preparation of the.
Peace is a life lived for Christ. Our life, our gospel, won't have much weight if we don't have a life consistent with what we're speaking about. So light of the world, salt of the earth, little different thought or salt of the earth. The earth actually is Christendom if we look carefully at Scripture. These are from Matthew chapter 5.
And the salt of the earth is that we're preserving principle and Christendom. We don't just go along with all that's happening in Christendom, but rather the Lord has called us to be.
Overcomers. And that's the salt of the earth until he comes and takes us home. Some people say, you know well, it's all over. No use. Things aren't all in confusion. But who is it that has the right to end the dispensation? Anybody here want to raise their hand? Who has a right to end the dispensation?
Some people say it's all over. Can't live as a full Christian anymore, can't meet like our brother Tim Ruga was telling us. Who has the right to end the dispensation?
Not a hard question.
God, when's it going to happen?
Yeah, you're, you're too old. But yeah, but at the rapture, until the rapture comes, this dispensation goes on and we have the privilege and the responsibility to walk according to the truth of Scripture. That is simple principle. Some people say, Oh no, too much confusion, can't do that. That's what God asked us to do. That's what the salt of the earth is.
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And it's a tremendous privilege, tremendous responsibility. Philadelphian truth, We often speak about that. What's Philadelphian truth? I'll kept my word and not denied my name. What about dispensational truth? You know, dispensational truth has been called the Magna Carta of the recovered truth. What do I mean by dispensational truth? Very briefly, there's a difference between.
Jews, Gentile and Church of God, we need to understand those principles and that opens up the rest of Scripture.
Until we understand dispensational truth, we cannot understand the Old Testament types and figures. We cannot understand prophecy, We cannot understand the Psalms. It makes no sense until we understand dispensational truth. OK, we have to move on. How about experience in mysticism? Now I want to say something here.
Experience isn't necessarily a bad thing. We all learn to a certain extent by experience, don't we? What I'm talking about is a corruption of experience.
It's leaving God out. That's what men do in Satan's world, is we leave God out and we only occupy ourselves with our personal experience. And when that happens, what's the result? Well, it's all about me. How many times have we heard that psychology?
Same thing. It's interesting that a man named.
Dave Hunt wrote a book that I've read several times called The Seduction of Christianity. I hope that some of you will read it because he shows that psychology is actually a rival Christian religion.
Its intent, maybe not the intent of all psychologists, I don't mean that because they're often ignorant, but the intent of psychology itself is to rob us of our Christianity, Materialism. This is one of the greatest things. My brother Bob, Tony's not here, but he often reminds us of that. How many Christians we've seen that money becomes an object, Having a nice home, a fancy home, a nice job, you know, a brother.
To me, I don't want to make too much of this, but a brother, older brother sat in our living room one day and he said, have you ever noticed that whenever a person becomes a doctor, they rarely stay gathered to the Lord's name?
Not an indictment of all the doctors I know. We have a doctor here, a couple dentists. They seem to be a little better off of some of the others. But it seems that the problem is when you, the higher you get up in the world, the more dangerous there are. And that's a great danger, is materialism, immorality that destroys families.
The families destroyed. It corrupts the assembly and corrupts your Christian testimony. It raps you.
Robs us of our Christian testimony. Immorality. One of the greatest things that Satan lead, Satan lies about. Don't be fooled by a general gender corruption. We see that all the time, don't we? Only in the last 30 years or so has it become commonplace. But gender corruption, whether it's male on male, female and female.
Transgender. Whatever it happens to be, it's.
It's a challenge to the Creator himself.
Pleasure, addiction, this is what we are speaking about before. Oftentimes it starts so small, doesn't it? A little drink here, it's a little tampering with some kind of drug with this, that and the other.
It becomes if it's not judged quickly.
*********** is one of the worst addictions today, they tell me. I heard something on the radio the other day. They said they had a program on the Christian radio about *********** and they got more response from that than any other program. So, young people, be careful. Be careful that Satan's lying to rob us of our Christian privileges and Christian testimony.
And I mentioned occultism. You may say I'm not getting into occultism.
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But that's often the power behind these pleasure addictions, including ***********. When people get deep into it, they find it so strong they can't get out of it. Why? Because there's demon power involved. Same thing with many pleasure addictions. That's why some of these young people I spoke about took their lives was because they didn't see any hope, even though they were Christians, they got.
So strongly into these pleasure addictions.
And it's robbed them of their Christian testimony and even, ultimately of their lives.
Tradition that has to do with religion mainly. There's often an appeal to an earthly religion that get involved in the earth, want to make it a better place to live. That's not what we're called to. Ritualism simply has to do with outward forms without inward reality. That's attractive religion to a lot of people. Go to church and you get a lot of beautiful forms and beautiful music, and you can go out and live like the world.
That's what we mean by the danger of ritualism.
Superstition, very closely related Catholicism. We know about the Catholic system that prevailed for nearly seven or 800 years in the Western world and the corrupted men to such an extent that men like Martin Luther, you know, he was called, he was a monk, and he was called to roam, to represent his order.
And he thought, this is the holy city. I'll go there and I'll see how wonderful things are there.
And he saw it was filled with ***** ****** for the priests. He saw that complete corruption of the bishops and of the Cardinals. And he was so sickened, he went back. And that was the beginning of the Reformation. So Catholicism. I have a nephew raised in a Christian home. Now he's deep in the Catholicism. Why? Well, he took some bad steps. They usually happened little by little.
And now he thinks the ritualism Catholicism is the answer.
Covenantalism. What's that? That's the opposite of dispensational truth. It says that we belong to this world. There's really no distinction. Or it homogenizes, I might say, the the church, the Jew and the Gentile and says that maybe the church has replaced the Jew and so on. That's not true. God made certain promises to the Jew and he's going to keep them because God is good to His word. That's really why you have Romans 9.
11 The apostle Paul was writing to the Gentiles, and they might have said, you know, the gospel has has replaced to a certain extent Judaism. But how do we know that God is good to his word if Judaism failed? If so it appears, how do we know that God keeps his promises? And so the apostle Paul wrote those 33 chapters, Romans 9:10 and 11:00, and he said.
He said Christianity is really just a parenthesis in God's ways.
He's going to bring Israel back when this church dispensation is over.
The goodness, the the the.
The call of God is without repentance, and sure enough, he's going to bring it back. Ecumenism. Let me just read something on ecumenism again from this little book. It's the only book I bought besides my Bible that's devotional. But let me read something about ecumenism. You know what ecumenism is? It's the principle that all the churches are coming together.
That's basically the principle of ecumenism. How can all the churches come together? Isn't that a wonderful thing? Well, let me read something here for a man named Malcolm Muggeridge by one of our times larger ironies. Ecumenism is triumphant just when there is nothing to be ecumenical about. The various religious bodies are likely to find it easy to join together only because believing little.
They correspondingly differ.
About little.
So the churches are falling into ecumenism and they think it's a wonderful thing. It's a lie of Satan.
OK, philosophy, we could say a lot about this. Humanism, you know, the definition of humanism. There was a man about the 5th century BC, as I recall, a Greek, and he said man is the measurable things. That's the definition of humanism. So as he said before, a philosophy at a certain extent, if it has the Lord first, it can be a help. But humanism says, OK, we're going to leave God out and we're going to create.
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That is suited to us. That's humanism. Man is the measure of all things that leads to secularism or naturalism, which is actually similar to agnosticism and atheism. In other words, leave God out and then what you have left is a system of philosophy that.
Completely leaves God out of your out of your life.
Rationalism sounds good, doesn't it? You know, reason is a gift of God.
We don't debate that one bit. Reason is a gift of God, but the problem is that it's a poor master. We can't just start with rationalism, because you have to have a presupposition in order to deduce truth reasonably. And if we don't start with the principles of God's word, rationalism is going to lead us astray. That's another lie of Satan. It sounds good.
Important, doesn't it? Rationally, aren't you being reasonable? Well, depends on where you started. Did you start with the principles of God's Word, or did you start with humanism? If we started with humanism, it's going to lead us astray. And then scientism. Notice I use the word scientism because there's much about science that is simply a philosophy, not a fact.
I studied it for years and taught it for years, even at the college level.
And I know that's simply true. Scientism is a religion. Evolution, for instance, is a religion. We don't have time to go into it much, but it's.
It's what Scripture calls science, falsely so-called. It pretends to be the truth. The word itself is speaks about the study of facts or the truth. But it isn't. It's a lie of Satan.
OK, here's the whole table again. I've got a copy of it for those who are interested in the back. Let's jump on to the next thing. Does Scripture talk about these things? Like, yes, it does. I think we have these three main worldviews as opposed to scripture. And again, experience is not bad if it's if it's subject to the Lord. Tradition is not bad if it's subject to the Lord or even philosophy.
Our philosophy of life and so on is a good thing if it's subject to this principles of scripture.
The blessing that the Lord wants to give us, but if they leave God out, which is the foundation of Satan's world.
Then it becomes a corrupt worldview, and these are the three major corrupt worldviews that based on experience, based on tradition, which is religion, mainly based on philosophy. If we go back to Cain's world in Genesis chapter 4, you find that we have the formation of the first world system.
Let's do that very quickly. I know we're running short on time, but let's go very quickly back to.
Genesis chapter 4. This is Cain's world. Remember, Cain left the presence of the Lord, and he formed in his own world. That would not be.
Would not accept God's principles and God's truth. And so in Genesis chapter four, we have Cain knew his wife.
Verse 17 She conceived in bare Enoch which means teacher, and he builded a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch their self-serving and under Enoch was born Irad that means a person who lives in the city.
City is built by man, Kappa said. God made the country and so here we have the beginning of the city and Irad Bigot.
Which means grief of God. Not sure exactly what that means. The word L is God. So there was some sense of religion. You notice we're looking really at verses 17 and 18, a tradition. There was some nod to religion in the world has its own religion.
It gives some nod to religion as we mentioned things like Catholicism and so on. Ecumenism. But a grief of God. Perhaps he meant that God was a grief to him and he was going to create his own world system. And mahu JL begat Methuselah, which again has several meanings, but one is death from God.
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He didn't want God's interference in his life. And then, interestingly enough, enthusiasm begat Lamech, which means destroyer. They didn't want anything to do with God at all. That's verses 17 and 18.
Verses 19 to 22 Lamech took also unto him two wives.
That's corruption, isn't it? The lust of the flesh, That's experience. It's all about me, just what I can get in this world, the lust of the flesh. And he married two wives. That was corruption from God's order, one man and one woman. And Ada Verjayville, he was the father of such as, well, intense. He was a businessman, a shepherd.
And that became his life, and his brother's name was Jubal.
He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. He was the father of the entertainment world and Zilla, she also bare two volcanoes. He was the instructor of every artificer and brass and iron. And he's the beginning of industry and technology in this world apart from God.
And two who came sister was Naima.
Well, Naomi means ornament and so are Charming. I'm sorry, Charming, seeking to have a party life. So these are all dangers that we speak about. And then in the philosophy we find that Lamech.
Was the head of philosophy of violence. He took two wives, and he says of King be shall be Avenged Sevenfold truly Lamech 70 and sevenfold. He felt he was much more justified.
In a life of violence, let's look at another scripture, Job's friends. We won't look at these specifically for the sake of time that Eli who remember was the youngest of the three friends and he speaks words from God as a mediator. Elites was the oldest of Job's three friends and he represents.
Experience, he says. As I have seen, it's his own life.
And what he has seen personally. And then we have Bildad. Bildad said, no, no, it's not just what you've seen, But he said, it's what the former ages teach us. You see that language, The former ages are tradition. And then Zofar comes along and says, oh, no, no, no, you've got to go back further than that. You have to develop some kind of a philosophy.
A broader worldview and so so far really speaks.
Of the philosopher, Let's go on to another scripture.
During the life Lord's lifetime, I think we have these same worldviews. Of course, the Lord Jesus and John the Baptist speak of the revelation.
What about the Herodians? Well, they were Jews, but they said, you know, Herod, who was, by the way, he was not even a Jew. He was an Edomite, one of the enemies of the Jews. But he was the king that the Romans had put in place. And they said, you know, we only have one life to live. I guess we need to get the best we can out of it. So we'll cozy up the Herod.
Because we only have one life to live.
That's a worldview of personal experience only. What about tradition? Well, the Pharisees had a lot of traditions, but the Lord says you're like white and sepulchers. He says you look great on the outside, but within you're full of dead men's bones. So the Pharisees had this tradition, but their lives were filthy lives.
What about the Sadducees? Well, the Sadducees were the philosophers, the rationalists of the day. They didn't believe in the unseen world, They didn't believe in angels, they didn't believe in spirits, they didn't believe in the resurrection. They said we're only going to believe what we can see and reason. And so you had those three same world views in the Lord's Day. Let's look at another example. Jude 11 don't have time to go into that much, but you have the same 3.
Balaam Balaam was a an occultist, a demonic medium. He dealt with the demons, the power of demons. Cora tried to corrupt religion and that's what tradition has done apart from God. And Cain had a had a philosophy of.
00:50:02
As we read, it started a whole new world system. He began a whole new world system. You can look into these on your own time.
Prophetically, what do these speak of? The Antichrist? He's a Jewish man. He claims to be the Messiah. He's the false prophet. He works closely with the political beast, the head of the revived Roman Empire. But it's all about him. He wants to be worshipped as God. What about the harlot? We read about the false church. The anti church in Revelation is the end of religious tradition. The harlot and so.
The ecumenical movement ends up in the harlots. Stay away from the ecumenical movement. It sounds attractive, doesn't it? A lot of things for young people, a lot of things for families, a lot of seminars about this, that and the other. But it's going to end up as the harlot. A harlot's not a not a good thing. It's a perversion of God's order. And that's where religion is going as a rule. And then the political beast.
You know, we see in the West now there's a certain amount of unity, but the Bible tells us that anarchy is going to come into our Western world. And we see, I think, the beginnings of that today in our economic system, our political system. People are so polarized. I just in the last year have read or browsed through several articles which speak of the end of what they call constitutional democracy in the US Used to never read articles like that.
But this is in the secular press, and people are worried that the United States is actually falling apart. And when that happens, a strongman comes in. That's what the political beast is. He's going to be the strongman that's going to going to.
Be a dictator really, in the West, in Western Europe and in probably the United States, because people can't stand anarchy very long.
OK, there's the chart pretty much that's what I've got copies of back there.
A summary of what we've talked about so far. Just a couple other things here we'll finish up. This is important, I think to understand. I know we've covered a lot of things, but certain of these world systems.
Are predominate In certain areas of this world, experience especially predominates.
In the world of entertainment, be careful of what you're entertained with. I know video games are popular. Be careful of that. They can lead you into demonism in a number of other things that's been well documented. Be very careful. Entertainment is about self. How about tradition? Well.
It predominates in the world of religion and again, there's all kinds of attractive things in various churches.
To attract us away from being the light of the world and the salt of the earth. How about philosophy? You know, I read recently that 80% of Christian young people are professing Christian young people that go to college give up Christianity because in the world system, the education system in college, they're going to teach you essentially that there's no God.
That's what they're going to teach you. You're going to have to be armed as we read.
In our in our Chapter 6 of Ephesians this week. So be forewarned because that predominates in this in the world of education.
Revelation appears to the Spirit that's the highest part of us, our God consciousness.
Are that where we have a relationship with God Himself? Experience appeals to our imagination, tradition, to our emotions. You go into some churches and they have beautiful robes and beautiful buildings and beautiful.
Colors and all kinds of things. Philosophy, of course, appeals to the intellect. We have to be careful of those things that we don't get imbalanced by those things.
National identification in scripture is interesting. National identification of truth is heaven. We belong to heaven. Experience the Orient, that is the the eastern religions. The Jew was the traditionalist philosophy came originally from Egypt and then later on Rome became the world of experience. You know the Romans, Romans didn't care.
00:55:04
About religion, they took all the gods of the people they conquered and they put them in their, in their pantheon there in Rome, and they didn't care which one, which one was there. They all offset one another. Tradition, of course, Babylon speaks of corrupted Judaism. The Jews were carried away for 70 years into Babylon because they went into corrupted religion and then Greece.
Were the founders of philosophy?
Of ancient philosophy.
OK, one other thing.
We hear if you read some things about Christianity and Christian history you find that the historical identification of tradition is pre modernism. In other words, before this modern world began with modern science and the Reformation.
Essentially, or the Renaissance, there was the Catholic system that predominated. That's called pre modernism. Modernism began really with men like Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon and we have science as a result. And post modernism is what we have today where people have given up in a certain sense even.
Even of modernism, they don't want modernism so much, they just want to be made happy.
Or what they think will fulfill them. And that's called most post modernism. And that's much of what we have today is what's called post modernism. It only has to do with me and what's in it for me.
OK, there's the chart I have in the back. I know there's a lot of information there. I hope it gives you a sketch or an outline of some of the things we've been speaking about. I know we've thrown a lot of information at you, but the big thing I want you to understand, there's a difference between truth and error. Satan's world is formed on the basis of three primary.
World Systems.
And they're based on the fact that you leave God out and this is what works, or so they tell you. It's a lie, He's a liar, he's a thief, and he's a murderer. It's only the Lord Jesus Christ that has our good and blessing in view and can bring it to us. Let me just finish with one more slide.
I like the name Bethany. You know a lot of people are named Bethany. You know what it means? Are you Bethany?
Pardon.
Yeah, House of Dates, but what's the Yeah, I didn't get that separated. But you know, in the Old Testament, the reason I put that in there and the Old Testament, they didn't have a lot of confectionaries, like they didn't have a lot of desserts like we have. So a date is a pretty sweet thing, isn't it? That was their dessert. And you know, Bethany was a special place for the Lord Jesus was. Remember who lived at Bethany in Bible times when the Lord Jesus was here, who lived in Bethany?
Mary.
Throughout.
Mary, Martha Lazarus, right? It's often been said that was the closest thing to a home the Lord Jesus had during the time of his ministry there. He was loved and so.
That was the place, the House of dates. It was a very special place that the Lord Jesus.
What is the House of dates for us today? Well, here's a song we sometimes sing in the secret of His presence. How my soul delights to hide.
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learned that Jesus side earthly cares.
Forever vexed me why thy trials lay below. But when Satan comes to Tevin, to that secret place I go, to that secret place I go. That's the secret of a happy Christian life. The secret of a life that honors the Lord Jesus. The secret of the life that develops capacity for all eternity is to walk.
Daily in the Lord's presence.
The Heart
YP Address—Bernie Roossinck
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.
Well, good afternoon, everybody.
My name is Bernie. Like I know most of you, but I don't know all of you. Joe, can you hear me back there? All right.
OK, I've been told lots that I speak too softly. So Joe, if I'm speaking to you softly, just give me the signal, will you?
All right.
I I find speaking to you young people to be a great.
Privilege, and I also find it to be.
And uneasy task because I look at your faces and I remember very short time ago that I was you and I still think that I'm a young person.
Even though my knees and the rest of my body says now you're an old fat guy now.
But I look at you young people and I just feel a real kinship with you. And I hope that the time we have together this afternoon will be for profit and help for you. And I would also say this.
My mind is pretty simple and so we're not going to be diving into deep things today. We're going to be talking about simple things.
And if you have a question or a comment, I want you to raise your hand or just holler it out and ask me.
So this is an open forum, don't be afraid.
I'm just a regular guy.
Let's start with singing number 76 in the appendix.
Thine Jesus, dine no more this heart of mine.
Shall seek its joy apart from thee. The world is crucified to me, and I am dying.
#76 in the appendix.
Find Jesus.
I'm no more than.
Our love, Yeah.
Seek joy apart from the.
World is crucified.
Who I die?
My joy. My my.
Now we're sleeping.
And die.
They shine my soul.
No more.
For us.
Forever.
Skype's joy.
Yes, I AM and I.
'M more Lord.
Jesus Christ.
Like me.
When God dealing.
Dear, dear.
Make my.
Precious Lord.
And for?
00:05:01
Our.
Joy.
So.
I.
Before I get into the topic that I had before me, turn to you third John.
Which is a pretty short book.
This is going to read a couple of verses here and it really reflects how I feel in my heart toward you and I think that many of the others that are involved in hosting this camp feel about you young people. The elder unto the well beloved Gaius.
Whom I love and the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health.
Even as thy soul prospers.
For I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee.
Even as thou walkest in truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
I want you to put your own name in verse one.
I'm a little older than you.
Ernie.
To the well beloved Cameron.
Or Logan.
We don't have time to go all the way around the room, but the point is this your young people.
We love you. You are beloved both to us and to God.
And here the apostle John was writing to gas, and I think it's beautiful that he could say this person is well beloved. And he didn't wait until his funeral was telling him either. He did it pretty much to his face. And I want to encourage you guys to do that, too. Look around the room.
These are your beloved brethren.
Learn to love them now, he says. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper.
And be in health even as thy soul prospers. You know, most of the time in today's world, we have it the other way around, you know, with all this emphasis on being fit and getting medical treatment for this, that and the other thing. And people suffer in their souls. Well, this is the opposite we want you to be.
Feeling physically as well as your soul is doing, and that is a great exercise of mind for you, dear young people.
That you would be prospering in your souls and to be walking in truth.
That we had a lot about truth this conference and to make its own and walk in it is so important.
The subject that I want to go through with you is this. It's in Proverbs chapter 23. Let's turn to it.
Proverbs 23 and verse 26.
And I'm going to read this as it is in my Bible and then we'll.
Broaden it out a bit, my son.
Give me.
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Nine hearts.
My daughter.
Give me thine heart. You know, young people, the heart is the innermost seat of your affections. We're not talking about the the physical heart of the body, you know that pumps the blood. We're talking about the innermost affections. And here I want to ask, say this to you from the Lord Jesus.
My son, my daughter, give me thine heart, you know? I think as parents, as I'll speak for myself as a parent, that is a great desire to say to my own children, give me your heart, you know?
Doesn't take very long for a parent to figure out if a child has given you their heart or not and what a blessing it is when the heart is.
Right hand the heart is given. I want you young people to you. Give your whole heart to the Lord Jesus.
It's so important and what a blessed thing it is to go through life as challenging as it is. There are so many things to attack, to destroy, to compromise. And the Lord is saying to you, my son, give me your heart.
The enemy of your souls is saying you can give them a little slice, but give me.
This, this and this part of it. And I have found in my own Christian life that when I have a divided heart, I make no progress.
So that's the topic we're going to get into is my son. Give me 9 hearts.
Turn first to Acts Chapter 11.
Acts 11.
And we'll read verse 20. Start with verse 22, I guess.
This is when the assembly at Antioch was.
This is where people were first called Christians. We had this yesterday or the day before. Then tidings of these things came of the elders of the church which is in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch.
Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted the mall, that with purpose of heart.
They should cleave unto the Lord.
Purpose of heart? What does it mean? Somebody tell me what purpose?
It means.
To me it means you make a decision.
Yeah, We read how Daniel purposed in his heart that he wouldn't defile himself with the portion of the King's meat, right. He decided that's what he did. And here Barnabas, which by the way, means the meaning of names in Scripture, is important. Barnabas means the son of consolation.
I'm not as good at name lexicons as Steven is, but we're going to say that it means the set of encouragement or exhortation.
And here he was exhorting these Christians at Antioch, that with purpose of heart they should cleave.
Unto the Lord, O young people, that is so important that to decide to cleave to the Lord. This is not something that comes naturally that we just I.
Suddenly wake up one morning and we're.
Spiritual, I mean, I guess in a certain way when you accept the Lord and and the Spirit of God indwells you as a believer, you are seeing that way, but you know.
Where where we've had a lot of time spent at this conference talking about the spiritual warfare and putting on and getting used to the armor of God and how to use it. And it takes a.
00:15:03
Decision to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart, and I want to encourage you dear young people to make that decision to cleave to the Lord. Cleave means don't just loosely hold it. You know, you could say am I cleving to my inbox right now?
About this.
There's a big difference, right? You say you come to a camp like this and go, hey, I'm a Christian, that's going good for me. Look, everybody look at me, Clay to the Lord. And then you go out to the workplace tomorrow or Tuesday.
And that's a difference set of circumstances and maybe you have a divided heart that's not cleaving to the Lord. So I just wanted to press that first upon you. So important cleave with a steadfast heart to the Lord.
Now let's go to the Old Testament for an example of this.
This is a beautiful passage in the life of David. First Chronicles, chapter 12.
Thank you.
The situation here is.
Saul and Jonathan had been slain in battle.
And there is a time, a period of time in Israel's history when there was a vacuum of leadership and Abner had put Saul's son in charge of some of the country and some of the people were following David. And there was a a bit of confusion. And the time came. Of course, God knew what was going to happen. He had told David that you were going to be reigning over Israel.
And David was God's choice. But there came a time when the people had to make a choice.
So let's there's a couple of verses here I want to look at First Chronicles 12, first verse 18.
And I'm just going to read parts of this. Then the Spirit came upon a Messiah.
Who was chief of the captains? And he said Thine are we David?
And on thy side, thou son of Jesse, peace be unto thee.
Zine thoui, David.
Now let's go down to you, verse 32.
And the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times.
To know what Israel ought to do.
Verse 33.
Expert in war.
At the end of the verse which could keep ring, they were not of a double heart.
Verse 38.
All these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David King.
Young people.
David is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus.
Are you able to say to the Lord Jesus today?
Thine are we?
David And on thy side, thou son of Jesse.
And it's interesting I didn't read this. I should have. When these men came, David asked them, Are you coming in peace? Because if you are, that'll be good. But if you're not, we're going to fight. And here they can say no, David, we're yours.
Young people, I want to plead with you to make the same choice in your own life, to say Lord Jesus.
I'm yours.
And to do that with a perfect heart says here that none of these people had a double heart. You know, it's so easy, young people, to have a double heart.
To live out in front of all of your friends a certain way, and then when you're not around your friends, to live in a totally different way, a way that perhaps has all kinds of compromise in it and all kinds of.
00:20:01
Bad behavior. The Lord Jesus wants your whole affection, all of it. And here these men could come and say.
We're years with a perfect heart and it says here they could keep rank. That tells me that they were diligent and that they were.
Disciplined. This is not a cobbled together bunch of people. This was a.
A concerted consecration that David, you're the king, and we're here to make sure that you are.
There also speaks about having understanding of the tones, you know young people.
We're in some really, really tumultuous times.
I.
I look across your faces and I don't know the struggles or the inner thoughts that everyone of you have, but I remember when I was in your chairs having questions in my own mind and heart about.
My own value, even before the Lord or before other young people, really.
I came from a place that was very isolated.
We didn't. There was two other families in their assembly. We were at a For us to get to a conference like this would be at least.
14 to 18 hour trip to the closest one.
I think that there are some lonely people in this room.
There's there's some people that are wondering what their value is.
I want you to know.
The Lord understands and knows your heart.
And you can come to him and be accepted.
To be.
Really part of this purpose. You don't. It's hard for me to express what I'm trying to get at here, young people.
The the assaults against you in the workplace, in your school systems, in the general culture. I just, I marvel when I see what's happening here in the United States and in Canada. And really the Europeans are already well past where we're at.
And absolutely shutting God out and taking what you would consider to be.
Normal living and calling it criminal behavior.
And vice versa, taking what's wrong and perverted behavior and saying we demand our rights to do this.
I just think about things like the Supreme Court decision last week.
To say.
You probably shouldn't be killing your own children.
Ah, that's terrible. How could you take that right away from us?
And the influences of the culture are hitting you young people head on face, and it's good. You need to have an understanding of the times and today more than ever to be able to open up the Word of God and to you draw from its pages that communion and that.
Source of encouragement and instruction and.
Exhortation and power from this one that says give me your hearts. I made you for a purpose. I put you in the place you're at for a reason. I made your personality the way I made it. I orchestrated the circumstances in your life that you don't understand right now. And the Lord says, give me your heart. Do you trust me?
And in today's culture, more than ever, I think I'm looking at you, Joe. And when you and I were young people, things were pretty ugly. It's a lot worse now. And I really feel for you, dear young people. So be willing to come to the Lord and say thine we are David and on thy side.
All right, now we're going to go to Psalm 119.
00:25:01
You know, to take up a subject like Give me thine heart that you could probably turn through thousands of verses, and obviously we can't do that. So what I'm giving you are just some things that came before me.
But it's by no means a exhaustive study of it. So Psalm 119.
We'll start with verse nine and you might say to me, Bernie.
I already am in a place where there's problems and I don't know how to get out of it.
I already have a divided heart. How do I get out of it? Let's read this together.
Psalm 119, verse 9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way for a young woman cleanse her way?
By taking heed thereto, according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Young people.
I know from experience all too well what it is like to be in this position.
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto, according to thy word?
How do you get to know the Savior better?
It's by spending time with them.
By getting into his words. By sitting quietly.
And I'm not suggesting you have to be some, you know, monk that sits on a platform in a tree and isolate yourself from the world. That's not a Christian living. But there's it's important and valuable to spend time, dedicate time to being with the Lord and to listening to him and to having his word in your heart.
Now, as mentioned a few times about memorizing.
The Lord has blessed me with a pretty decent memory and I'm thankful for it. But I agree with what the other older brother said. I can't remember now like I did when I was a kid.
But I was three or four. I could quote John 10 totally.
I can't do it now, I forgot it.
Mr. So again, I was the Chinese brother when I was a kid. He was just freshly into Canada and he spoke fluently Chinese. That was his home and his mother tongue. He told me yesterday I forgot. I can't even string two sentences together anymore. And that's what happens when we're not in it, using it.
Let me give you a practical example from my own life.
When I was dating my wife.
We actually wrote letters to each other, which for some of you is when you take a pen and you write it on a piece of paper, you fold it up and you mail it to somebody. I'm just teasing.
We wrote letters to each other. You know, You know what I did when I got a letter from from Becky that I lived in Truro where Jonathan and Sarah lived. And at that time the meeting room was a one room meeting room.
How many square feet? I'm like 20 by 20 maybe?
You could fit like 6 chairs, 7 chairs around the outside, that's it.
And there was a little bathroom, so it was a two room.
Apartments, anyway.
I would walk home from school and check the mailbox, man. There's a letter from Becky. What do you think I did with it?
What would you do with?
Jake, what would you do with a letter from your fiance?
And I would probably.
Yes, Sir.
First thing I did when I got in the door was open it up and read it.
And you know what I did? Even though I already knew what it said, I read it again.
And I read it again and I still have them too. We got a pretty good sized box of letters that we wrote back and forth to each other.
00:30:01
The interesting now to go back after 26 years and see what the thoughts of an immature men were.
Probably be embarrassed to read them now, but the point is this, the Lord has given you a direct letter.
The Lord precious to you, do you mean anything to you?
Open up His Word and get into it. I'm not suggesting that you're starting Ezekiel. You'll probably struggle. I think most of us would if we started there. If you're not in a regular habit of reading God's Word, start somewhere.
Easy and critically important. I would say start reading in John's Gospel.
Easy to understand.
Small words, beautiful message.
And learn who is this person that I'm giving my heart to? And when you're done reading it, do it again and again and again. There's nothing wrong with rereading something. I read my wife's letters. Dozens of films.
I hope that's a helpful illustration. Why wouldn't we do that with the message from the savior? I hope that you do. And if you don't, I don't want you to feel embarrassed or shunned by that. Like I think you're lesser of a of a valuable young person and saying to you, you're never getting, you're never going to be younger than you are right now. So.
When you go to bed tonight.
Open up your Bible and read a little. Tomorrow, do the same thing. Start doing it. And I'll tell you this to young people. You develop an appetite for the things of the Lord, and the more you do it, the better it is. It's kind of like when Joey were pulling on the rope there. You know you have a win, and then you get some more momentum and another win.
Is I? I've appreciated Dave, you shared this with me one time.
Searching through the word of God and you find a nugget. You've never seen it before. Like wow, look at that. And it one, it makes you want to go find another one and find another one. So young people, get into the word of God and pour it into your soul and you'll find comfort in it. You know there are things that happen in life.
That are devastating. Very sad.
And to open up the Word of God and to find comfort.
What a what a place of refuge.
He's going to get into this one later, but let's go to it now. Sound 61.
I think everyone of us have had things in our lives.
That have overwhelmed us.
Psalm 61 Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer.
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee.
When my heart is overwhelmed.
Have you been there?
I think you have.
When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy Tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Beloved young people.
Things happen in your life. God has allowed.
A severe trial, A test, A great loss. Bad news.
Whatever it is, your heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And who is the rock that's higher than I? It's the Lord Jesus. And he says, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
When your heart is overwhelmed, that's where we need to go.
Jeremiah, chapter 20.
00:35:17
Jeremiah was a young man that received the call from God for service at a young young age. I can't say exactly, but I think around 14 or 15 years old he got a call from God. He can read about it in chapter one.
But that's not the subject of our topic right now.
And Jeremiah preached faithfully.
His whole life.
There were times that he wanted to quit, so let's read chapter Jeremiah 20.
Verse 9.
Then I said.
I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name.
Speaking of God.
But His word was in my heart.
As a burning fire shut up in my bones.
That I was weary with forbearing that I could not stay.
What's this talking about? Jeremiah was preaching no response. None. So he said. All right, Lord, I'm finished. I'm done. Not doing it anymore.
You know what he found out?
The call of God was in his soul, in his heart. God had his affections and it says his word was in my heart like a burning fire.
And in my bones.
And I could not stay.
I'll tell you a story that's encouraged me. Some of you probably listen to your recorded ministry. If you don't, I would suggest that you spend some time doing that.
There is a brother named Eric Smith.
That you can listen to on Whose Faith Follow and other websites too. And he is a lovely servant of Christ, a man that gave up privilege beyond what most folks have and took a life of poverty.
Left New Zealand, where he could have been fabulously prosperous, and went to A1 Room mud Hut.
With a dirt floor to serve the Lord.
And this verse was one of the ones that sitting there.
The Lord says, will you serve me?
The exercise of soul is thy word within thy heart, and in my bones like a burning fire. And I couldn't stay.
That's what we desire for you young people.
To serve the Lord in the workplace, in your home, at school, in such a way that he's so attached to, so gathered your affections that you can't keep your nose shut. You can't not talk to somebody. You can't not go to the down and outer and talk with them about their soul. You can't not do something kind for the outcast because.
Christ has gotten a hold of your soul, and it's in your bones.
Like a fire and you can't stop.
Get to that place.
Now let's turn to Matthew 6.
Matthew 621 Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
And in connection to that, turn it over to Matthew 13.
Verse 44.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in the field.
The witch, when a man have found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he had, and buy at that field. Young people, the Lord Jesus found its treasure in the field.
00:40:00
Then he sold all that he had and bought the whole field.
Because that's where his heart was. What are we talking about, Bernie? I don't like riddles. Let's just make it clear. Logan. Christ looks at you.
He says I'm buying him no matter what the cost.
And he went to the cross. He would have done it if it was just you.
On what basis could we say that the Son of God who loved me?
Singular you deary, the Son of God, who loved you.
Gave himself for you. He bought the field because of you.
The treasure now young people.
Could God ask any less of us?
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also? Does Christ mean anything to you? Is He in your hearts? Is there an affection for Him?
A care, a love, a desire to respond to that one that gave his life for you. I hope that there is I find in my own life though I find my heart sometimes is thinking about.
Other stuff worked. Nothing wrong with work by the way, but it needs to be kept in its proper place, the Lord first.
I'll tell you young people, I'm guilty of this to say I can't go into Carrollton and speak to you because I have obligations at work and I'm busy.
And the Lord says.
Am I first?
Maybe for you is something else.
Maybe it's the team that you're on. Not speaking against playing sports either, but what I am saying is, is the board 1St?
He wants to be first and you will struggle to have growth in your Christian life if the Lord is not first. He has to be first.
Maybe Bobby and I are taken up with fishing or whatever. I don't know what you'd like to do, Bobby, But the Lord did say, Bobby, is it me or the boat?
Anything wrong with fishing?
There is if the Lord gets knocked out of the number one place. Is it video games? Maybe it's.
There's so many things you could fill in the blank, right? The point is this, beloved young people, where your heart is, where your treasure is, that's where your heart is going to be. And the Lord says, put me first.
I think about.
There in Matthew 6 where it says Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you. This is an illustration that helped me a lot. Teacher came in to the classroom with a big glass, let's say a giant pickle jar. You guys all picture that. OK, so.
He filled it up with pretty good like baseball sized rocks right to the top and you're looking at it and go, all right, is it full?
Yep, you couldn't get any more baseball sized rocks in there that must be full. No, it isn't. And he took some a bag of little rocks, poured it in there, shook it around. They all tumbled down in throughout the big ones.
There it is and fold to the top. Is it full now?
A lot of the kids want, boy, yeah, it's full, can't get anymore in there. So then he took a bucket of sea and then poured it in there.
Shook it around right right up to the top. Now is it full?
Maybe.
Then he took water and poured it in on top of all that and it sucked it up and filled it in. The wine goes after the tap. Now it's full. What's the lesson?
The lesson is put the big things in first.
They put the sand and the water in first.
You won't be able to get all the big rocks in you. Follow the illustration. Young people put the big things in first. That's what it means by the Lord saying put me first.
That I'll take care of all that other stuff.
Now seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Is not God giving you a blank check to say, all right, read your Bible and then you can go by a giant sailboat with three jet skis? That's not what I was talking about. He's talking about needs, not wants. But the Lord is gracious young people. Put him first and He will take care of you.
00:45:18
This next question is the searching one to me.
We're running out of time, so I'm just going to quote it to you. This is a question that Delilah asked Samson.
But I want to just be very clear that I'm in no way promoting the behavior that Samson and Delilah had as anything Christian. It ain't. But it's a hard question. It's this, she said to Samson. How can you say you love me?
When your heart is not with me.
That search your soul.
It does mine, the Lord say, Bernie, you say you love me, but your heart isn't with me.
Young people, I want to I hope that exercises your heart.
It's one thing to say something with your mouth or you know, maybe you're with your friends and you come up a certain way, but the Lord looks on the heart and He knows. Am I in the number one spot or not? How can you say you love me when your heart's not with me?
I would suggest to you too as you guys get older and get married.
Doesn't make a very good marriage to say, oh, I love you. And then everything that you do or say as a husband or wife is the opposite. It's what's inside that counts. All right, another one that's serious.
I'll read this too, because we're running out of time. This is Psalm 6618.
If I regard iniquity in my heart.
I will not hear me.
That's a serious enough one where I do want to turn to this to make sure I get it right.
Psalm 66.
Verse 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Young people.
You can regard things in your heart.
Be taken up with things privately that destroy your communion and fellowship with the Lord. And you sit there and you ask yourself, why am I not making any progress?
Ask yourself this question. Is there something in your heart that you're regarding that is iniquity?
And I'm going to leave it to you to think about what those things are, because we don't have time, but it's a critical, important thing to understand. You cannot.
Secretly. Covertly. Quietly.
Harbor sin in your life and expect God's blessing.
I'll just give you an example. The scripture is very clear that you shouldn't marry an unbeliever.
So it's wrong thinking to say, well, God is the God of grace, so I'm going to do it, and then he'll probably make it right later. So we're going to roll with it and see what happens. We dare not take a step of disobedience expecting God's grace to bail us out of a bad choice. Don't do it.
Let's talk to you young men.
Looking at *********** on the Internet, nobody knows except for you. It will ruin your life. It will absolutely kill your Christian walk.
You ladies.
That read books like.
I didn't even know if I want to name any of them. Books that are ****** in nature. The imagination and the mind gets taken up. The only person that knows you read that is you and the Lord.
It will kill your Christian life. That's regarding iniquity and you are shutting off the flow of communion. And so get before the Lord and have it out with them. Deal with it. Get to the roots and get it out.
Psalm 51.
00:50:00
We all know that David was a man after God's own heart.
And he's called the friend of God.
But David made mistakes. One of them was.
He stole his neighbor's wife, got her pregnant, murdered her husband.
This was done by the man after God's own heart. It's pretty serious, right? And David had to learn.
To get right with the Lord. By the way, if you're in a position like that, I hope you're not in a position like that. But any place where you're out of communion because of direct sin, read chapter Psalm 51 and then read Psalm 32, I think it is.
As the sequel to it and you'll find their forgiveness and grace of God. But anyway, here David gets to head to say created me a clean heart.
Oh God, they renew a right spirit within me.
The verse I was thinking of is verse 17. A broken and contrite heart. Oh God, thou wilt not despise.
There's a problem in your life.
Go privately to the Lord.
With a broken and contrite heart, he won't despise you.
There is a path forward in communion with the word contrite means you really mean it. By the way, you can't just go, hey, Lord, things are going badly. Can fix my problems. Thanks. I got to go see you. I think sometimes our prayer lives can be like that. So hey, Lord, it's me. We haven't spoken in weeks, but I got problems. Now here's the top three things I need you to get fixed for me by Wednesday. Thank you. Goodbye.
That's not praying, that's not communion with the Lord. That's just a greedy person making demands. There's no communion in that.
Song of Solomon, chapter 5.
This is the passage I love young people. If you're going to memorize some passages, this would be a good one.
The son of Solomon is a conversation between the bridegroom and the bride.
And for today's talk, I want to say this to you as the Lord Jesus and you.
This is the bride speaking. This is you and me.
I sleep. Ever find in your Christian life that you're asleep?
I have. I sleep.
But my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that Knocketh saying.
Open to me, my sister. I love my dove, my undefiled.
For my head is filled with you.
And my locks with the drops of the night.
I had cut off my coat. How shall I put it?
I've washed my feet. How shall I defile them?
My beloved put his hand.
By the whole of the door.
And my bowels were moved for him.
I rose to open to my beloved.
There's more to the story that we all have time to develop. There is a breach of communication here, breach of fellowship here. It's as if it was you and I were asleep in our Christian lives. And there's the Lord saying Toby.
Open to me.
You miserable, cheating piece of joke. Is that what he said? No, he says, My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Can the Lord Jesus say that about you? Yes, he can and he does.
My head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night. That makes me think young people of the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, anticipating.
The terrible price at the crop.
00:55:00
Says the swept was, as it were, a great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Ever heaven. No, he's bleeding. It's really bleeding. Then there's a you lean over and there's a big splash of blood. The sweat was pouring off the Savior like that. Think of the anguish of soul.
As he anticipated being taking Bernie's sins and being punished for him.
My head was still with you and my locks with the drops of the night. What is it now? And she makes excuses too. Haha. I already took my coat off. I can't no too late come back and come back somewhere. I I just washed my feet. I can't come out and open TNL. What was it that generated the response?
In here my beloved put his hand by the whole of the doer.
And my vowels removed for him. That means my whole inner being went out to him.
You see the hands of the Lord Jesus.
With those nail holes in them, he says.
I did this for you. Is your heart with me. And that's what brought out the response. When she saw the hand, she said, oh, I'm in now. And she got up right away. Young people, you want to get back into your full happy communion with the Lord. Spend time letting the Lord Jesus love you spend time.
Thinking about the blessed, lovely man that he is.
That Savior of sinners, that one with those holes in his hands. And I think about when the disciples were there in the upper room and they, the Lord came in right through the door and they were afraid. They thought he was a ghost. And now it's me.
Behold my hands and my feet. That's high myself.
Get in a spot where you're stuck. Go there, occupy your heart with the blessed Savior, and there will be a response.
All right, this is the last one, Deuteronomy chapter 8.
I've written this passage on birthday cards.
I got this given to me by my own dad when I turned 40.
We're just going to read a couple of things here. Deuteronomy 8 verse two. Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED babies 40 years in the wilderness.
To humble thee, and to prove thee to know what was in thine heart.
Whether that would keep his commandments or no.
Now we'll go down to.
Let's read part of verse 14.
Thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of ******* Who led thee through this great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water? Who brought thee forth water out of the rock of Flint? Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not that he might humble be, that he might prove thee to do thee good?
At bilateral end, young people.
God is for you, and we are going through a wilderness. There are trials, serious sad situations, difficulties, isolation, lack of friends. Maybe you're struggling, hoping that you'll find a life partner soon, and it doesn't seem like anything's happening.
Maybe you're dealing with the exercise of heart about something at work or school, whatever it is.
God is leading you down a pathway to teach you what to trust Him to Give Him your heart first.
And it's to do you good in your latter end. You know, some things that happened to us would say there's nothing good about that burden. It's just bad to the core. God says I'm doing this for your good. Think about Joseph, right? And all of his time spent and rejected by his brothers, sold as a slave, wrongly accused, thrown into the dungeon.
01:00:16
Years go by and he's innocent of all of it. And then he could say at the end of his life.
God sent me here before you to preserve life, and there was a purpose in it. So the Lord wants to know what's in your heart. Don't give up on Him, love Him.
Ankles brave. So we have to tell them that by the phone. I put up with a 75. I suppose it's pretty bad for you, but it would respond. I don't know if you can do it right now, 75.
Sometimes. OK, Thank you.
Thank you brother.
I said.
That.
Be quick and from the dead I gave my life.
40 What has so given for me?
I gave my life for.
Thee what hast so good for me? Maybe the last verse as well, and I have brought it.
Down from my salvation.
Full and free.
I heard an end my love.
I bring.
Riches to thee what has the.
To me.
I.
Guess to be.
What has the brought to me?
Excuses
YP Address—Jonathan Grinton
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.
Let's begin with hymn #62 in the back of the little flock.
That all right? Steve couldn't see through it.
#62 in the back.
I am not told to labor.
To lay my sins.
So foolish we can hide when I never could begin.
My pleasure to find my way.
Psoriasis.
Yes.
Says on his strong arm. I fall.
That's nice to hear. A hearty Amen when you pray.
Well.
I was wondering if you might tell me.
By raising your hands.
How many are having fun?
00:05:04
I think everybody's hand is up.
Who enjoyed getting potatoed? Wow, a lot of hands. I'm not sure mine should be out the flatter.
Now, you don't have to raise your hand, but I want you to consider something for a moment.
If I asked you to raise your hand.
And tell me if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
What would be in your heart?
Would you put your hand up because everybody else does?
I have to tell you, I put my hand up about the potato thing and I'm not sure I really meant it.
Would you put your hand up because everybody else does?
Or is it real?
I wouldn't be able to tell.
But God knows and He knows your heart, and I just want to tell you that.
Mr. James spoke yesterday, Mr. Rusink spoke earlier today and I know the brothers and sisters in the assembly here.
And myself.
My wife, we love you and we want to see each one of you in the glory someday.
I was thinking of just that simple verse in Acts 16, you know that Philippian jailer, he said what must I do to be saved? And the response was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And you know he did it. He did it and he was saved.
He didn't go.
Paul and Silas and say, well, maybe next week.
Maybe tomorrow.
I just have to finish doing this little job first.
There's no reason or excuse. He did it and He did it right then. And so I know this isn't necessarily a gospel meeting, but it doesn't seem right to stand here before you and not tell you about the one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you, who went to that cross.
They nailed them there with a crown of thorns and they hated them and they spit in his face.
He laid down his life for you and I, and that soldier pierced his side and shed his precious blood and water, and it's available to you right now, and it will wash every guilty stain, every sin you've ever had away, and you never have to worry about it again.
And so you know when you have the privilege to stand up here and talk to you all.
You kind of run maybe some scenarios through your brain and what you might start out to say.
Well, I can tell you the start is already way different than what I thought it was going to be.
So what do you suppose you could tell me about the game up in the field today?
That I didn't really participate in, but I kind of got a little bit caught up in it with the mashed potatoes and the whipped cream and all these things. I saw that the red tea particularly.
Seemed to have won.
They brought the flags to the picnic table and I would seem to think that they must have won the game. Is that right?
A lot of head nodding. So there was three other teams. Were you on the red team? Why didn't you win?
Any idea?
They're better. That's actually a fair answer. That's not what I expected.
Can anybody give me another reason of why your team didn't win Ben?
Less players. Is that a valid reason then, or is that an excuse?
It's legit. Well, Oh yes.
00:10:01
That might be judging.
But we'll count it as an excuse.
And I want to talk to you tonight about excuses.
And I started out a little bit with the gospel message.
Because I wanted to be bold enough to look at you and ask you, if you haven't asked the Lord Jesus to wash your sins away, what is your excuse?
What is your excuse for not coming to that one that we have said loved you and gave himself for you?
And so many times in our life.
I have done it.
Far too many times where I made an excuse.
For not doing what the Lord would want me to do, or maybe my parents, or maybe my boss, whatever it might be.
So I want to know what your excuse is.
And I'm going to read you something that.
My brother John Kaiser wrote.
And then we're going to go from there. And you might even find a little bit of it to be a bit a bit hard, But I think it's truth. And I think that we need to recognize what an excuse is. So let me read this to you, please.
It says excuse.
It's the thin skin of a reason.
Stuffed with a lie.
An excuse is an attempt to avoid an issue and to escape responsibility.
A man who lives by excuses endorses conditional obedience and is an excuse for a man.
We may take sword, we may make excuses, or we may make progress.
But not both at the same time.
David faced Goliath before he killed him.
Beware excuses and excuses, the symptom of the secret presence of an idol.
God provides an escape, not an excuse.
Multiplied excuses amount to insult.
Excuses cheapen apologies and their users.
They are the maggots.
Which sucked the light from an apology.
They are the opposite of repentance.
Some of those things are maybe harsh when we hear them.
But it's truth.
It's truth.
And again, if you're sitting in your sins, what is your excuse?
I looked up a few different portions in God's Word.
And you can turn to loop 14.
And so you remember the supper that was being made here in Luke 14.
I was thinking of.
Verses 17 and 18 particularly remember he sent a man out in verse 16, Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden common, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground.
And I must need to go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. And another said I have bought 5 yoga boxing and I go to prove them I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.
A lot of excuses.
And the reality of it is that they missed out on something extremely wonderful and special.
You go to the beginning of your Bible.
00:15:01
Genesis.
Chapter 3.
Mr. James Folk the other night, and you mentioned that he was a liar, a thief and murderer, Satan.
Look at how he starts Genesis chapter 3 and verse one. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.
Which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yeah, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. And then he does what?
He gives an excuse.
He lies and he says.
For God doth know that in the day ye thereof.
Then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took it a fruit.
Then Adam few verses over when God comes looking.
Verses 10 and 13.
The end of nine he says we're out though. And he said I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked.
And I hid myself, and he said, Who told me that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to me with me, to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Another excuse.
Lacks responsibility, doesn't it?
Well, look at a few more, maybe I'll just tell you that these ones, Abraham and Isaac, both in Genesis 20 and 26, they went to Gerrard, they went down and they made excuse about their wives.
And they said she is my sister. Why? Because they thought that they would die or that their wife would be taken from them. And so they made excuse.
And then we see.
Even with Jonah, you remember that he fled from doing the will of God, didn't he?
And he made excuses and in chapter 4.
He felt so sorry for himself.
Well, it's easy to feel sorry for ourselves, isn't it?
But that's not what God wants. He wants us to be happy. You remember when, Joseph?
Went out to do his father's bidding. We have to check on his brothers.
And they took him.
Threw him in that pit and then they sold.
Well, they made excuse. They took his clothes and they dipped it in blood and they took it and said he was dead and his father believed them. They made an excuse for their poor behavior, didn't they?
You remember Peter?
The Lord told me he said you'll deny me three times looking Luke 22.
Verse 54.
Luke 22 and 54 then took they him and led him, and brought him into the high priest's house, and Peter followed afar off, and when they had kindled the fire in the midst of the hall.
And were set down together. Peter sat down among them, but a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him. And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not excuse.
No, after, after a little while another saw him and said, There are also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying of a truth, this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest.
00:20:15
Excuse after excuse.
Naman, he thought he was too good for those dirty waters.
So he made an excuse that he should be dipped in a much nicer, cleaner river somewhere, didn't he?
Think of those two on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24.
They've reasoned among themselves why they were going away.
Jesus came along and walked with them, didn't He?
And he reminded them, and he opened their eyes, and they saw him.
Look in John chapter 20.
I.
Verse 24 with Thomas. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
That was his excuse.
What is your excuse tonight to not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
The reality of it is you're the one that's responsible.
The reality of it is.
If you don't accept it, you're on your way to hell and there's no return from there.
And so I beg you tonight to come to him, if you haven't already.
And so then earlier, you know, today we talked about.
Purpose.
Well, as believers, what is our purpose?
I looked it up when Mr. Rusink was speaking and it said intention or objective.
You know, in Ezra chapter 8 I believe it is.
Umm.
Sword 7 Ezra seven. I thought of this verse earlier.
In verse 10.
It said For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it.
And to do it, I remember I looked that word prepared up one time in connection with Daniel and how he purposed in his heart.
And it's.
The same word or the same meaning. And so he prepared his heart to seek the law.
Well, we don't seek the law today, but everyone of us has one of these.
Everyone of us has one of these.
Do you read it?
We had that before us a little bit today. We had it a lot before us on the weekend. Part of the Armor of God. Do you read it?
When I get asked to do this meeting, it was suggested that I'd be encouraging.
That it'd be encouraging, so I want to encourage you.
To not make excuses.
In your lives as believers.
And take out your Bible and read it.
Every ounce of guidance you need for your life is right here.
There is not one thing.
In this life, in this world that you will need, that God will not provide for you.
If you read it.
And learning, He'll teach it to you. I'm going to show you a verse that I really like, somebody said about Nuggets.
00:25:03
And if you don't think I have the verse right, you can tell me later. But I love this verse. Go to.
First Chronicles, 28.
Do you remember that David wanted to build the temple?
But it wasn't his job to do. It was going to be Solomon's job.
But God showed David all the things that were going to be made from the temple, and He laid it all out for him, the whole pattern of it. But I want you to look at this verse when we read it and think about it as you reading your Bible. OK, First Chronicles chapter 28 and verse 19. Now this is after God revealed all these things.
To David, he says.
David says all this, said David. The Lord made me understand in writing.
So in this book for you and I.
By his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern. And so I look at that verse and I love it. And I put my name in there instead of David.
I say all this that I need in this lifetime while I'm here.
The Lord made me to understand. How could I understand unless I have the Holy Ghost?
How could I understand unless I asked the Lord to help me understand? I remember a brother saying one time when you're going to go and sit down and read your Bible.
Pray, ask God to help you understand it. Just take a minute and it puts you in the right frame of mind. It gets you prepared like Azure while you're seeking those things out so that you might understand them. And so made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the works of this pack, everything I need as a believer in this lifetime.
Everything.
And you know, he encouraged his son in that. We'll read the next verse as well because it says David said to Solomon, his son, be strong and of good courage and do it. And I want to encourage you tonight to do it. Stop making excuses in your life. If that is what you're doing. It's a waste. It's empty. Look in the mirror. Ask yourself.
Am I making excuses or am I doing it?
David told Solomon to do it.
He said, fear not nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be with me. He will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the House of the Lord.
Well.
I am most certain.
That God has something for every one of us to do in our life as a believer.
And you might be a little bit afraid.
Would it be OK to tell you I was a little bit afraid to stand up here tonight in front of you all?
Maybe you can see through there and see my knees knocking. I'm not sure. Should have hung a sheep.
Well.
I'll tell you this little story that happened this weekend that comes to mind right now.
I was here for the first prayer meeting on Friday.
And Mr. Tony read the verses in Ephesians 6 before he prayed. And I thought in my own heart, I said, I wonder if those would be the verses that we would take up in the reading meeting.
And then the next meeting was the reading meeting.
And I get up and I prayed before it, and I asked that we would have.
You know we that might say something or suggest a portion would have the courage.
To suggest the portion that the Lord would have us to take up.
And now you might lead us to it.
And that it would go out to each one for a blessing.
For profit. Well, I sat back down after I prayed and then I sat there and I sat there and I sat there and I really felt that Ephesians 6 was the right portion, that I didn't say it. And then thankfully by the Spirit of God, Mr. Tony said, I'll vote. We take up those verses in Ephesians 6.
00:30:20
I was so thankful, but I I didn't have the courage.
And I was afraid.
Maybe it wasn't my place to say it, I don't know, because the Lord brought it out anyway. He gave me the courage to stand here now so He can do it. You remember that verse in Philippians 4, right? Thirteen I think it is. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget that He says here be strong and of good courage. Fear not nor Venus made for the Lord God. Even my God will be with me. He will not fail thee.
Or for safety, until thou has finished all the work for the service of the House of the Lord, He has something for you to do, and that is service. But I want to go on another note from service to worship for a minute.
I believe the order is worship before service.
And it was mentioned at the end of the Breaking of Bread on Lords Day about why you do not remember the Lord.
Maybe you have a reason that is a good reason. I don't know that. But if you don't, again, I'm going to ask you reality. What is your excuse?
What is your excuse?
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and you love him and you are so thankful to Him.
For washing your sins away in his precious blood.
What is your excuse?
He simply said, Remember Me.
I was talking to a young brother not that long ago and I thought I came up with a fairly decent analogy. And I said to him, you know, you enjoy your birthday, don't you?
Yes.
Do you like to get gifts and have people celebrate it with you? Yes.
You enjoy the birthday cake, yes?
So what happens if next year your birthday comes up?
Nobody shows up and you don't get any cards. There's no cake, there's no gifts. Nobody calls and says happy birthday.
How would you feel?
No, I wouldn't feel very good.
So what is your excuse? You might say to your friends, Hey, where were you? How come you didn't call me?
Where were you? You'd feel bad.
I think the Lord feels bad when we all sit there.
Watch the emblems and the wine, the bread and the wine go by.
That's your opportunity.
To thank him.
And to praise Him, to give to him.
For what he has done for you.
I am certain that at times in my life I sat there and thought I was getting something. It was a good idea for me to be there because I was getting something.
While I didn't really have a very clear good understanding because that's the opportunity to give to him and he loves it. I'll tell you something though, and I'll guarantee you there's 100% if you prepare your heart, if you judge yourself in your life.
And you show up on Wednesday morning to remember him in his death.
You will come out of that room blessed, and even though you were there to give to Him, He loved you so much He gave it back.
Guarantee you will not regret it if your heart is right with him, if you are in tune with him.
You'll never you'll never regret it, and he'll keep you. So I want to read you this calendar page.
This is just out of the calendar page. OK, so I've kept this for quite a while, maybe just for today.
Bear with me and let me read it to you. It says eat and drink. Maybe you read it, maybe you remember, but listen close.
00:35:06
Because it's better than my analogy about the birthday. It says for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lorde death till he come. First Corinthians 11 and 26.
Do you know what it is to eat and drink of the Lord's Supper?
I have often wished that the words eat and drink were printed in capital letters in our Bibles. Many will say I can remember the Lord of my heart, and while that is true, we need to realize that there is something physical that He has asked us to do to give expression to what is in our hearts.
Now listen.
What would I think if you were invited to my home for a meal, sat down at my table, but refused to eat of the supper I provided?
I would be very disappointed. Yet often there are those who are truly saved, who come to the breaking of bread meeting and yet never eat and drink of the Lord's Supper. What a disappointment.
What a disappointment.
This must be to the one who died for us, and who has invited us and requested take eat after the same manner. Also he took the cup. This do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. First Corinthians 1124 and 25.
Then there's a question, Will you eat and drink of that supper today?
If you say no, then I ask you again, what's your excuse? What could possibly stop you? It's between you and him. It's a personal thing.
I've heard every excuse in the book. Well, so and so is there. It's not anything to do with that is between you and the Lord. So what is your excuse?
I believe these things are solemn, and I think that each one of us really need to consider it very deeply, reflect on it, recognize the reality of it and the responsibility that each one of us has in these things.
As we're prepared his heart.
Prepare your hearts, dear ones. How do you do that?
Well.
You know, we had a lot before us about reading our Bibles on the weekend.
I am particularly.
Think of.
A verse, but I just want to tell you that.
Talking to the Lord.
Praying is key.
In your Christian life, it's key.
Turn to Jude.
So you saw the Ezra prepared his heart. You remember that Daniel purposed in his heart. You saw David who learned all the things, the pattern that were written, God's Word with his hand upon him, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost upon you, His hand upon you, reading his Word.
Then David told Solomon to do it.
And I'm telling you to do it, do these things.
How does that burst go?
If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them.
I don't remember where it's found.
Here are four things in Jude that you can do.
00:40:00
Verse 20.
Beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.
Praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God.
And looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ on eternal life.
Well, I've had this broken down for me many times and.
Probably not the right guy to break them down for you, but you know, building up yourself. I would say reading your bibles.
Praying and get before the Lord, Ask Him for help in your life.
Make sure you know him. Make sure you hear his voice.
Keep yourselves in the love of God.
Walking in close communion with him. Happy fellowship. Obedience through faith.
And then looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ on the eternal life.
I remember this being so important to me when the Lord turned me around.
You probably thought I always went on so faithfully and did everything right, huh?
Not so.
So Lord grabbed on to me one day, kind of like David did with the Lions chin, and he said, dude, you got to go this way because I wasn't really paying attention.
And I remember thinking that.
I didn't spend anytime.
Thinking about the Lord's coming.
I love the Lord. I still wanted to remember Him, I still wanted to please him, but I wasn't really giving him much time in my life. I was making excuses.
I had plenty of them.
And then it occurred to me that the reason I wasn't looking for his coming.
It's because I was looking for everything else to come that I wanted, which meant all the things in this world that I lusted after and desired.
And it reminded me Bernie of the Gospel tent Mr. Blenner has it. And I told this story before.
But in Warrenville it was a little fishing village and you know, you come in through and there's a hill on one side and you go way down in to the where the water is and then you go up a hill on the other side. My grandfather lived on one hill and he could sit on his lawn and he could look across and see the other hills quite a piece of way. But I used to sit there and I would wait for the gospel tent bus to come because it had all the stuff on it and we knew we.
Going to set the tent up that night and.
Of course I knew they were coming that day. We don't know when the Lord is going to come, but still. I'd go and I'd maybe even mow the lawn, but I was always watching and wait to see that orange school bus come over with all the verses written on it.
And that, dear ones, should be the purpose.
Of your heart It should be the desire of your heart to hear that shout, to look and see him coming in the clouds.
To take us to be with him.
You know that little song, don't you?
And hope I get it right. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
If you really desire him, if it really is the purpose of your heart, If you love him.
The way he loves you.
You will watch for him.
You will pay attention and you'll very soon find.
That the excuses you once had, that the desires that you once had for the things of this world.
They'll disappear.
Would disappear and you'll recognize.
That you're no longer serving 2 masters as we had, but you're serving one.
00:45:08
Jerusalem read a verse today. I can't remember where it was but it mentioned about prospering.
You know, the Lord wants us to be prosperous while we're here in this life, while we're watching for His return.
So turn with me to some verses I really enjoy in Joshua chapter one.
Says some similar things here as to what David said to Solomon.
Partway through verse five of Joshua one it says, I will be with thee.
I will not fail thee, nor for safety.
Be strong and of good courage. Verse 7.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. You remember that Ezra prepared his heart to seek after the law, and I said for us today, it's God's word. Well, same thing here.
May us observe to do according to all the law.
Which Moses my servant commanded thee. And then he says, this is important. Turn not from it to the right hand, or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
Did you know what is right?
If you know what is right to do.
And you don't do it.
James, it says it's a sin.
Says turn not from it and you'll be prosperous.
Prosperous in your Christian life as a believer to walk in the way that he wants you to walk.
To do the things that He wants you to do, you can praise and worship Him, and then you can serve Him.
Says that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart unto thy mouth. Look at this. But thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Do you do that?
I have to admit, on this trip it's been rather difficult.
Rather difficult to pick up my Bible and just sit back and read it. We've logged a lot of miles, we've visited a lot of places.
There's been a lot of meetings.
So the Lord feeds us in other ways sometimes, but when you're at home, when you're at school.
Even when you're at work.
You can meditate on these things when I'm doing you guys are all in miles here when I'm doing 5000 miles that we've done so far. You can meditate on a lot of things from God's Word, can't you?
Have to be honest that when I was coming here for this meeting, I had so many things in my head that I could not for a moment think of what the Lord might have me to speak about. Until yesterday.
And really is probably only coming in together here right now, but it says, Meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Good success.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage, Be not afraid, neither be that is made, for the Lord. Thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
And you might think.
That this is only for the big things in your life.
You might think that it's only for the huge decisions you have to make.
But it's not.
Is for everything.
Everything I want to tell you this story.
Where is she?
Where is LD.
Oh, there she is. She's in the back row and she hurt her shoulder today. I told her I was going to tell this. She said it was OK.
00:50:02
She hurt her shoulder today.
I came in and I found her out here getting some care from some of the ladies.
In the end, she was thirsty, so I said, well, I have a Gatorade up in my trailer, which is quite a ways up the hill. And you know, I ran very, very hard to get away from Megan. So I was pretty tired and hot. However, I said I'll go up and I'll get that Gatorade for you. Ellie and I went all the way up there, like all the way.
And I got the Gatorade out of the trailer and a bottle of water because I thought she might want that too.
And I closed the trailer up and I walked probably 10 to 15 feet away from the trailer heading back.
And I thought maybe I should get my phone. It's been charging. I could charge it up longer when I come back tonight.
No, I don't need it. I took maybe one or two steps. Yeah, I better go get it. I turned around and went back to the trailer. I opened the door. I was on the top step going in. I could see my phone on the other side of the trailer and it lit up.
I walked over.
My wife sent me a message from down here. Could you please bring some ibuprofen with you on your way back?
It's just a little thing, isn't it? It's just a little thing.
But you see how God did that? I 100% believe that God controlled that situation and had me go back to get my phone to see it light up.
And I don't want to make fun of this in any way whatsoever because I would have had to come back and then she would have told me to go get the ibuprofen and I would have had to walk all the way back up there. So as fun as that might be to think about, you know, the Lord knew, I believe that LED did that ibuprofen. I'm sure we could have got some down here. But He controls that. He controls all those things.
He loves us. He doesn't want us to waste our time. He doesn't waste our time.
And he's with us whithersoever we go.
In every situation.
And we shouldn't just dwell on.
What school to go to, what job to take. You know, there are many things in our lives that are difficult. Sorrow, illness, lots of things. But there are small little things.
That means so much in the grand scheme of things.
And we can trust them for them, and we can just go to them and ask them.
Well.
I hope and pray.
That these words were clear.
And that you'll in a sense of.
Responsibility and reality.
That you'll look at yourself in the mirror.
That you'll really take a close check.
Ask yourself if you're done with the excuses.
Set that stuff by asking for help.
And go on to worship and serve Him, that One who loved you and gave himself for you.
Could I read you one more verse?
The end of June.
You don't have to turn to it, I can just read it to you if you like.
Verse 24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling.
And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Your Value and Worth To God
YP Address—Bernie Roossinck
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.
All right. Good morning.
Probably nobody wanted to walk in the rain.
But I thought it's great, we need Rainbow. So thank you Lord, for the rain.
I had young people, a subject in mind, Estelle and Jonathan before he and I were speaking about, you know, our heart to be an encouragement to help you guys and you mentioned last night, John, he got all this stuff in your mind and.
Yeah, it's like going to the supermarket, going what shall I take?
So I wanted to speak to you guys about.
Building towers and digging wells.
But.
Something happened.
Sunday night and Monday morning early that I laid in bed and changed my mind.
So I'm not quite sure how this will go.
But I hope what we're going to take up will be helpful and useful to you. And before we get into it, we're going to sing #221.
How many of you guys think that the tune that you use to a hymn effects how it comes out?
So when I grew up in Newfoundland, we would sing this hymn and the tunes in Newfoundland were a combination of Grand Rapids tunes from my dad and Denver tunes for Mr. Beliselli. And the one that we used for this hymn sounded like an Irish funeral dirt and we would be singing happy.
And it sounded terrible, but this him, young people, is that beautiful him. And so we're going to use a tune that steps along a bit faster. So I don't want to be too fast and be disrespectful. But when we sing this, we are happy people. Lots of reasons to be happy. And so we should sing like we're happy.
So hopefully I know a lot of tunes, so if I get the right one here.
Happy they trust in Jesus, we therefore it is unsure who am the full and other seasons he will give me some steel.
Happy people, happy people, happy.
Go this voice that's hoisted and pour.
Happy people, happy people, happy.
Go despise and for.
Sense is love and mercy found us, we are precious, sin is saying. Thousands moving all around us as it's more people.
To play.
God is presence.
By his presence.
Gives us faith.
By day and day.
Oh, our Savior? Never.
Ever.
Was foolish his hair.
Glow, we cannot boast out the numbers.
In history.
Secure we are, so we therefore force him.
With Air Force and.
Saviors. I miss there.
Swing their horse and sweet their portion.
In my saviors kindness.
00:05:05
As suffer beating.
Their feathers.
Objects of hair care.
So the Lord, his children, gathers, spreads.
I stand there.
To the protected.
The protagonists all.
Staples, we dare.
Thus protocol.
S they fall weak and.
What a beautiful hymn.
All right.
You'll have to wait to hear about digging wells and building towers.
Although I will tell you young people study those two topics because they're very encouraging and super helpful in your Christian development.
What I want to talk to you about instead.
Is your value and your worth in the sight of God?
And let's say.
A big topic, and I'm just going to talk about a few things that came into my mind as I laid in my bunk at about 3:00 in the morning.
Thinking about you.
I know that you, there's a lot of views in here. Everyone of you is unique and special and created in the image of God. And I was thinking when we were studying the 6th chapter of Galatians about the armor of God and thinking about the attacks that the enemy would bring against you.
One of the things that.
We had this on Sunday night.
That the enemy of your souls is a liar, a murderer, a cheater, a thief, a robber, and he would tell you you don't have any value.
You're a misfit.
You can't contribute anything worthwhile.
And So what I want to try to do is bring out from God's word.
The opposite. What does God really think and how does he view you and I right now?
Now, before I open the word of God, I'm going to tell you something about me.
I was born.
Before the time when moms could see ultrasound pictures.
And so my mother was shocked to be handed a child with a gaping hole in his face. I was born with a complete cleft lip and palette, so the nose and mouth is one big ****.
And.
That was a shock to her. That's not the way she anticipated me being born. And.
Condition like that needs to be treated. Obviously you can't.
You can't suck. You can't swallow right. You can't. You certainly can't whistle. Like I promise you that.
And and that's something that I had to deal with as a kid too. And so I just, I'll tell you, I hope you don't mind me using some personal references.
In Newfoundland, there was no doctors that could.
Properly address that so every child would be sent to the Children's Hospital in Halifax. Is that the Jane Waste? What's the name of the Halifax? So I went to the Children's Hospital in Halifax and made a lot of trips there too. I don't remember the first one obviously, I was just bored.
But I other subsequent ones with surgeries that I had to have.
00:10:02
We stayed at Tom and Leah Roaches house and I can remember Tim and.
His siblings. I remember Susan reading me Richard Scary books. Anyway, it's funny how you remember stuff like that.
We get to the hospital and the Lord had worked it out that they were having an international conference of plastic surgeons that week for children with plethora problems.
And then I arrived and there was a doctor there named Doctor Ross, and he's retired since, but I remember him as a teenager going to get checked, you know, And what a kind, lovely doctor.
Anyway, the Lord worked it out where He said that.
We're going to use this kid as an example and I'll do the surgery and you guys are watching me.
That's what happens.
But you know, kids, as I was growing up as a smaller child, I couldn't talk right. I had a list. My nose was crooked.
All the kids called me flat nose.
And it hurts.
And one day my mom sat me down and she said, I want to read you something that the Lord gave me the day you were born, and I'm going to give it to you right now.
Isaiah 43.
Isaiah 43. Now before I read this, I'll just say this is God speaking to Israel.
And I am not a covenant theology person, so don't come up to me afterwards and go, hey, hey, you're wrong dude, this dispensationalism.
Where the church is not Israel. What I'm talking about right now is the heart of God toward what it is a phone loved ones. And in this case, I want you to hear what I'm reading God speaking to you right now.
Verse one. Thus saith the Lord that created thee.
God made you young people, exactly like you are. Thus saith the Lord that created you, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not.
For I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine.
Is what the Lord thinks about you when he looks at you. I made you. I created you. I called you by your name, your mind. Don't people. Satan tells you you're not of any value. It's a lie. God says you are of great value. I made you exactly the way I wanted you to be.
Verse two, when they'll pass us through the waters.
I might be with you if I feel happy about you now, and that's not what it says. When thou passes through the waters, I will be with you.
Through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Verse 4.
Thou was precious in my sight. Do you hear that, young people? It's God's heart to you right now.
Thou was precious in my sight.
Let's go down a bit further.
I have loved me.
Feel alone in this world. Remember this God says I as love me right now.
Verse seven halfway through verse six, bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory.
I have formed him, yeah, I have made him.
00:15:04
My mom shared that with me. It was a big encouragement.
Young people, everyone of you is unique.
Everyone of you has had different experiences that are shaping who you are and God is working with you and in you.
And you're his, he says. Here I have created you for my glory.
Some of you are good at relationships.
Some of you don't really care for people that much. Not that you're right angry person, but you're just more of a person that would rather be alone. But God has given you other abilities maybe you're good at.
Art maybe you're good at.
Encouraging somebody, just maybe writing. Maybe you're a good writer or a poet or whatever. Maybe you can sing.
Everybody is unique and God has created you for his own glory and his purpose. So I want to first thing I want to do is just encourage you young people don't look around at everybody else and go because I can't do what they're doing or I'm not that good at it or I don't feel like I fit in that I'm not of any value. That's not true. Satan would tell you see.
You can't jump as high as Logan, so you're you're no good.
Yeah, I guess Logan can't even draw a stick, man, but you can, you know what I mean? And say I opened my mouth to sing in the hymn singing. It smells like a bullfrog, but I listen to some of you. I really enjoyed when we're down there by the water and listening to you guys singing.
Sounded like angels to me. If I tried to join into that, it'd be like quiet him down, put a put a bag over his sadness. But the the Lord young people has uniqueness for you. So I wanted to share that because of my own history, my own struggle with physical problems, and how the Lord used my mom to share this verse with me.
Now let's go to Jeremiah again.
I referred to this yesterday, but something different now. Jeremiah chapter one.
Jeremiah was a young person and I don't know exactly what the math is but I think I'm close. He was in his young to mid teens.
Will say he's 14 years old.
I looked across your faces. I see a lot of people under 18 here, so put yourself in Jeremiah's shoes right here.
Jeremiah one verse 4.
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Now listen to this young people, before I formed the in the belly. I knew that you get that before you were even conceived.
The Lord says I knew you and He can say that about you right now. Put your own name in it. I hope you guys don't mind when I call people out by name, but I think it makes things more relevant. So I'm going to use you, Joe Smith.
The Lord could say, Joe, before you were born, I knew that you would be a dentist.
Alex, before you were conceived, the Lord knew that you'd be sitting in that chair right now. That's the God we have. Before I formed thee in the valley, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
The Lord has given you your circumstances. He's given you who you are, your personality, your genetics, everything about it. Nothing about you is a surprise to God. Nothing is.
And here he is telling Jeremiah, I have sanctified you. That means I set you apart to be a prophet to the nations. And here's Jeremiah's just barely. Maybe he's halfway into adolescence. And God's going, hey, Jeremiah.
00:20:01
I picked you for this and it's going to be all your life and this is what I need, Jeremiah says. Then I said, oh Lord God, behold, I cannot speak. I am but a child. I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not that I am a child.
For thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid, for I am with thee to deliver thee, and so on. And the Lord put his words into Jeremiah's mouth. The reason I read that, young people, is to just remind you.
God has made you.
He knew every piece of your life. He knows the good, the bad, the ugly. He knows when you're having a great day. He knows when you're having a bad day. He knows your family situation. He knows your school situation. He knows your friend's situation. And he knew it before you were even conceived.
You think that person is trustworthy young people, I do.
Route down anchor in that that God says you are valuable to me.
And don't let the enemy tell you that's a lie.
You know, I was talking and meeting Saturday about the types of attacks. You know, I like history. You guys are up there on the potato field and I was sitting there on the edge and I looked across that field of play and saw you guys setting up your forts and it made me think of.
Lots of different things. I thought about David and Goliath, you know, and there's this field of battle and out of the one side comes Goliath and here comes David approaching each other and.
The battle is set in the ray and the next thing you know it's game on, right? But Satan in in attacking you spiritually is a liar, a thief, a murderer, and he would tell you.
Everything that God says about you is wrong. He's not being honest, He's not being genuine. He's not being good to you. That's a lie.
And you know, as I think back through history, when there's conflicts in battle, sometimes it's just flat out smashing each other head to head.
And if that doesn't work as well, we're going to flank them and go around either side, get them from the edges.
Sometimes it's undermining, as I was mentioning that in World War 1.
Tremendous amount of effort going into tunneling underneath the other guy's threads, filling it up with bombs, setting it off, and next thing you know a whole hill is just gone.
There's a crater in Belgium right now. You can still go visit that's like a 3/4 of a mile wide where they did that. And that's the kind of attack the enemy is going. If you can't take your head on, it gets you from the side or it gets you under my knees. Did God really say that?
And I know you're not of any value, young people, you are a great value. So don't allow the enemy to attack like that. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 10.
I'm going to read two different passages here.
Matthew 10 verse 29. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
Are not two sparrows so for a Farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not. Therefore ye have more value than many sparrows. So here you could buy 2 for a dollar basically. I don't know what a Farthing is, we'll just say 2 for a dollar because.
Inflation is rising.
OK, Lid 12/6.
Arnav, 5 sparrows sold for two varnish. Not one of them is forgotten before God, but even the very hairs of her head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye have more value than many sparrows, OK?
This is not a a evidence of inconsistency in the scripture. What we have here is basic market bargains. How many of you like flea markets or garage sales or getting a deal?
00:25:08
I like getting a deal. Here's the way it works. The Lord is saying, Cameron, here's a little bird that's so cheap and insignificant that if you buy 2, we'll throw one in. If you buy four, we'll give you an extra one for free. That's what was happening. It's two for a dollar.
Or five for $2.00.
Pretty cheap, right?
And then the Lord says young people.
That one of those cheap little birds falls to the ground without your father's care and notice. Think about that some little bird out there in the woods.
Gets knocked off by a hawk or whatever, dies just a just a little bird.
It says the Lord Jesus said my Father knows about that and he takes care. Now ye are of more value than many sparrows. OK, well the reason I wanted to read this to you is whatever is happening in your life, God cares about it. He knows about it. He.
Is affected by it. You know there's nothing that happens in your life that God has asked that my deal.
I don't care about that. Just let it roll. Never.
That one Sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's notice. Take that into your soul. When the enemy says you're worthless, you don't have any value. It's not true. God sees the smallest little bird fall and goes, I care about that. And you're way, way vastly more valuable than that.
Some of us were joking last night about.
Hair loss and changing the color of your hair, trying to look younger, whatever.
Bobby, I hope you don't mind this.
You have more hairs on your head or Jonathan.
Bobby said last night that he was perfectly happy as a bald guy. But you know what? The Lord knows how many hairs around your head, Bobby.
Everyone. He has the number. Does that care? Young people 100% yes indeed. Joe 38.
This is a question.
That the Lord asked you, Job 3822.
Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?
Stop with that.
OK, kids, kids.
You should talk to my Sunday school class, young people.
There is no two snowflakes alike.
The treasures of the snow. Think of the billions and billions and trillions of snowflakes that fall.
God has made that in a way that there is no two the same, not one.
If you entered into that thought to say, Lord, why have you made me like this? And the Lord can say to you, have you entered into the treasures of how I made you? You are precious, unique, one-of-a-kind.
And a scar that did it.
Think about that, young people.
The enemy says yeah, you don't matter.
You are uniquely created by God. Think about the treasures of the snow. We don't have time to develop this a lot, but I just wanted to impress that on you. There is no two snowflakes the same and there are trillions of snowflakes. That is the God that loves you. That's the one that said I made you for my glory.
Remember that.
Psalm 139.
This is a some young people that if you are memorizing some, this would be a good one.
This is a little bit of a rabbit trail, but I'll tell you this.
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My parents have this sum on their wall. It was.
CNC routered onto a giant piece of cherry wood the beautiful text made by an Amish Craftsman somewhere in Ohio. And when my dad showed it to me, I told him I'd like to have that because.
You can't have it then.
It's hanging in my mom's living room. This song was used by the Lord to send my dad to Newfoundland. Partially he felt exercised to go and preach the gospel, and the Lord was telling him in his soul, you can't just go up there for two weeks a year and leave.
I need somebody there all the time.
And my dad grew up in West Michigan on a farm, and he liked horses, he liked tractors. He worked for a Case IH dealer.
He didn't want to do it.
He said, Lord, there's nobody up there. It'd just be me. I'm engaged to be married. If I tell my fiance what this exercise is, she'd probably drop me like a rock. I can't do it. I'm not going.
And a number of times the Lord gave him verses about the islands.
And the sea. So then he told the Lord well.
There would probably be a language barrier.
I can't go somewhere where I don't know the language. So the Lord gave him the verse and that's sending you to a people of a strange stone. But man, this excuses right, Jonathan, there's the verse, right? I'm not sending you to a people of a strange tongue. They speak English, God, man. So he got that. He was reading this chapter.
And I'll just read here verse 7. Where there shall I go from thy spirit?
Or Withers, shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, Hades, behold, thou art there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea.
Eden Berry.
Shall thy hand lead me?
And my right hand shall hold me.
And this was the verse that made him say, yes, Lord, I'll do it.
Going to the uttermost parts of the sea. That's moving to Newton. You know what happened, young people? He said yes to the Lord. I'll do it. Then he had to go face my mother and tell her I'm thinking for a honeymoon. We're moving across the continent where we know nobody and we're going to live in a van. You know what she said?
I'll go.
And then you know what happened. Completely unknown to them, God had put on the heart of Mr. and Missus Bellisoli to do the exact same thing, and neither family knew it. And they both moved to the exact same town on the other side of the continent, completely unknown to the other.
Does God look after his own?
100% he does.
He does.
And so that's how the racing family and the Bella Sally family became still connected. Steve, I feel like I stole your grandpa and grandma in a certain way because.
They were Uncle Donnie and Aunt Betty to me as a kid and kind of like surrogate grandparents. And what a heritage.
Young people.
God places something in your path. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what he's going to do. And you can trust them. The Lord puts something in your heart to do. Do it. Don't put it off. So easy to go. Yeah, Yeah, I should do that. I'm going to do that next week. I'll get to it.
This is still a rabbit thrill, but I'll share this with you.
There is a man that worked for the same company I work for. His name is Danny Stratton.
Very high spirited man. I've seen many of the copy cup fly across the office.
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Danny was a He was better than a morning cup of coffee if he needed something. Then if you got a call from Danny, it was 6:00 AM and it wasn't, hey, how's it going? It was.
Let's get her done, man. Let's go anyway.
Danny was familiar with the gospel and I liked him. He wound up running a a part of the company where we do aerial application with airplanes.
And.
Found out that Denny had cancer and he lived in the town I worked in in Edmore, MI.
And on a Friday night, I thought, man, I should go up and talk to Danny about it. So.
I'll go up there Monday and see him.
Got a call Sunday afternoon. Danny just died.
And I fell from my soul, man. Should have went there Friday night and I didn't do it.
And I regret that. Anyway, the Lord gives you something to do. Maybe it's like, hey.
Go over and put your M around this kid and talk to him. Do it. Don't wait, do it right now. Support, OK?
Now back to you, your value and worth in God's sake.
You really could read this whole chapter, but I'm just going to pick out a few verses here. Verse 3 Thou compassed my path and my lying down and are equated with all my ways. The Lord knows yo people, your heart, your mind, your position, and he cares about it. He knows all about it.
Verse 17.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sins. And when I awake, I am still with Thee.
Verse 23 Search me O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
The Lord knows all about it.
And there's nothing you can go to the Lord with in your life that's a surprise to him. That one thing you could say to me, Bernie, I've gotten myself privately into the ugliest situation you can imagine. I'm ashamed to even say what it is.
You think you get on your knees and tell the Lord that he's like, oh really? I'm glad you mentioned that because I hadn't noticed. He knows and he wants to help you. He wants to you come into your life and.
Lead you into the way everlasting Satan would tell you, hey, you've screwed it up so bad that you may as well just quit.
Thanks. The Lord is going to be interested in a broken vessel like you.
You're of no worth or value, so just eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. That's what Satan would tell you. The Lord doesn't say that. He says I already know. Just come to me and I'll help you get it right. That's what he's saying to you. There's a lot more in in that.
I guess the the other thing I would say.
About this is let me go back up to.
Verse 13 For thou hast possessed my reigns. Reigns in the Scripture means your inner.
You know the literal translation is your kidneys.
The point I want to make to you is the reins here. Talk about your inside being of who You are now as possessed my reigns. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.
My substance was not hit from day.
When I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth and so on. Well, because of time, we're going to keep moving. But I just say this beloved young person, you are uniquely and wonderfully made. You are.
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God's creation for His glory.
First Peter, chapter 2.
For Speeder 2.
Let's read verse five. Ye also, as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. If you belong to the Lord Jesus, beloved friend, you are a living stone that God has placed in the building of His church.
That's valuable and different from every other stone in the place. You know, we could go to Home Depot and find some manufactured stone that might look the same, but that's fake. If you go out there on the beach or any place and start picking up stones, they're all different and young people.
God the If you belong to him, if you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, he says.
You are a living stone, a valuable member of my church.
And you are placed there for my glory, for a unique purpose, something I want to bring out from your life. And so don't let the enemy tell you you're just a number someplace. You're not just a number. You are a living stone place there by God for him.
We could take this up in.
Corinthians 12 as well about the members of the body, you know, it says.
There, if the whole body wasn't was a hand, where would the need for the noise be? I can't quote it exactly right, right. But you've got some Tom Lake parts, some uncommon lake parts, your fingers, nose smelling all that stuff. One of the things that I find really encouraging in that chapter is it says the head cannot say to the foot.
I don't need you now. Who is the head of the body, young people? It's him. It's the Lord Jesus in there The Spirit of God brings out that the Lord is saying to you, I need you.
The head cannot say to the foot diet. No need to be.
Think about that. When Satan tells you, yeah, somebody else will fill your spot, you don't mean anything, That's a lie. The Lord says I was you. That's what he's saying.
All right now.
Now I want to switch gears for a little bit because.
All of us are.
Subject to.
Our culture, our family raising there is such a thing as family character. There is such a thing as well. Just to put it bluntly, when Joe was up here with that big rope, he belonged to the Lord. You have two natures.
An old nature and a new nature. And so yes, God has made you the way he wants you to be. But now I need to balance it with this.
There are things because we were born in sin and shape and iniquity that God has to deal with. So we can't say the reason that I'm a pathological liar is because God made me this way. That's missing the point. And God has to deal with us in our Christian lives about problems that are brought in by sin.
And brought in by choices that we've made.
That are not according to the way, everlasting and so.
Let's go first to Jan 15 for this.
It's not an excuse to say I'm just going to wallow along in misery because God made me this way and I can't help it. So there's another side to this.
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15.
Verse one, I am the true vine. This is the Lord Jesus speaking, and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth that fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth brood he purseth it, that it might bring forth more fruit.
And let's get down to verse five. I am the vine, you're the branches, He that abideth in me and I in him.
The same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me can do nothing. Well, here's the point, young people.
God wants to produce fruit in your life and sometimes there is a a pruning that happens. So I work in agriculture, some with grapes, but a lot more with apples and.
A whole lot more important, soybeans. But I know I understand what purging and pruning is about. And if you're keeping grapes, there is you have to cut back the old bones every year. And if you don't, the old minds choke out the new. And so you can go buy a vineyard that's just got those huge drapery of deadlines everywhere.
Hasn't been properly looked after, and there's only two or three clusters of grapes on it, if any.
And the principle that the Lord Jesus is bringing out here is he wants to bring out fruit, then more fruit and then less fruit. And so the Lord deals with us in our lives in this pruning way so that we can get more fruit and much fruit. And so don't be discouraged and say, well, God is against me.
You know, I think about the story of Ruth.
And the limit, like in Naomi, made a wrong choice.
They left Bethlehem and they went to Moab. It was the wrong choice. There was God's direction was not in it. And the result was that a women like hand, His two sons both died in Moab.
And God had to deal with them, what Naomi and her and her family and Naomi, thankfully has brought back to Bethlehem. And she might have thought, well, God is against me.
Young people, God can be against your wicked ways. If you're living in a way that is overtly sinful, you can't say, well, God made me this way, so it's fine. It's not.
And so God is pruning. I didn't even know if I should have mentioned this, but I guess I will.
There is a very popular country singer named George Jones.
And in country music circles, they would say George Jones could tear your heart out.
And he has a song called Choices.
And it's about making a lot of choices in his life that were wrong and reaping the consequences cost him multiple marriages, cost him time in jail, cost him a lot of money. And he came at the end of his life to realize the truth of the scripture that says.
You reap what you sow, we sow soweth to the flesh of the flesh. Free corruption.
He that soweth through the Spirit. So if the Spirit replay the last thing, I don't know if George Jones came to know the Lord or not. I hope he did.
But the song that he sings, called Choices, is a.
Rings pretty true to me.
Living and dying with the choices I made.
But you don't have to die with the choices you make. The Lord says Bring it to me.
Now Hebrews 12.
Something happens in the life of one of your fellow young people.
The temptation could be to say, aha, God is dealing with that person because they have been living a bad life. That's not necessarily true.
Let's read verse 5.
My son, halfway down the verse, my son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. If we endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? And so on. Well, if you're going through your Christian life.
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Or your regular life and you're not saved.
You might say I don't feel the hand of God on me in any way.
That's a dangerous place to be. I would have to ask, is there really life in this person?
If you're not one of the sons or daughters of God.
Jennifer brought the cell last night. None of this is applicable to you because you're out of your way through a lost eternity. But if you are a son or daughter of God, then I believe most all of you probably are.
There will be chastening in your life now. It could be what we call punitive chastening. That means I deliberately choose wrong and the Lord has to take me on to deal with it.
And there is that kind of chastening in the Christian life.
But it's not the only kind of chastening.
The Lord may be pruning you for a specific thing to bring out more fruit. And so if let's say I leave here and and my van gets smashed to bits, we might conclude aha, he's been living a life of sin and the Lord took him on. Well maybe, but we can't say that God knows what he's doing.
You know.
Just working with people to bring them to Himself, to submit to His will to do. You know, I think about the way the Lord worked in my own life.
To bring me to where I'm at, the doors that he opened and doors that he closed. Things that happened to me that I didn't want to happen to me. I remember a few years ago I was gradually losing sight in my right eye. And at first it's so slow, you couldn't even tell. Like you're something in your eye, you're blinking a little bit and ever get.
One day I set the back of Saint right. It's about a halfway across my eyesight. It was just Gray.
So I went to the eye doctor and he looked in there and he goes, hey, you should go see the retina specialist.
And Mike, is there a problem? He goes just go see him, but probably tomorrow would be good.
I'm like, that's not good.
And so we went to the retinal specialist and, yeah, he puts you in this chair and he leans you back and he's got this light that would shine through the back of your skull. And he goes, don't blink.
And he looked in there with his little scope for about, I don't know, back what, 10 seconds or less pushes his chair back and he goes, young man.
If I don't address this immediately, you'll be blind for life.
I'm a pretty tough guy. You know what happened?
I fainted in the chair.
It was a hot day. It was summer. It was about 4:00. I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch. And he said that to me. He goes, you're going to be blind for life. I'm like, I knew it. God, why did you do this to me?
I can't, I don't have time to do this. And we were having a family reunion the next week, I think it was, and back and I were in charge of.
Taking care of it. Everybody was coming to Michigan and the doctor goes, you won't be going.
So anyway he did the surgery, he fixed the retina and he goes now the recovery time is face down. Like your eyes have to be lower than your ears constantly for like 3 weeks. So just try that a second.
Yeah, you're way down like this. And the reason is they put a gas bubble. You know how, you know, level the bubble moves to the to the top of the fluid.
Well, they, your retina is the back of your eyes, so they use this gas bubble to push up on their retina and hold it in place while it heals. And so because of the back here, right, it means the front of your eye needs to be down. And I'm here to tell you that the softest pillow in the world feels like 2 by 4 after about an hour.
But the Lord allowed all that.
For a purpose.
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And so this kind of chastening happens in your life, young people.
There will be bad things to happen in your life, but don't throw away your confidence. Think it's there in the Hebrews 10 where it says cast not away, therefore thy confidence. We have need of patience. See if I can find that really quick.
Yes, one page back.
Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompensive reward. We have need of patience. After He had done the will of God, you might receive the promise. For yet a little while He that shall come will come, and will not tear you, and so on. So, young people, yes, bad things happen in your life, but don't, if the Lord is dealing with you on something sinful, get it right. Don't put it off if the Lord is dealing with you.
On matters of your character.
Or your natural bent. You know, I mentioned family character. I'll just tell you, young people, something that is inherent to my nature that I've had to learn to take to the Lord and deal with this a critical nature. It's easier for me to be critical.
And the Lord has had to chasten me to say.
That route needs to come out my stores, child of God, Yes I am, but the Lord is trying young people to conform you in your life more and more and more to the image of his Son. And so when the Lord is dealing with you on something, don't get angry or say, see, he hates me. No, he loves you and he's saying this thing right here. I need to take it out.
It's for your good.
And it hurts. But don't run away. Don't deny it, Say Lord.
I wore what you want.
And do it. You know, the another thing that chastening might be is to prepare you for something. My Grandpa Pilkington used to go down to the Caribbean, and he wouldn't take his sons with him until they learned that they served Watson. And I remember him telling us that he took Uncle Robert on a mission trip only after he had dropped about four or five ants in his teacup and he drank the tea without fishing him out. And he goes, now you're ready.
It's just things like that that the Lord could be preparing you for, to say here's adversity because 5 or 10 years from now I'm going to have you in another slot and you need to know how to play.
So don't.
The taken in by the lives of Satan to say see God is against you, quit him. No, no, no, say Lord, what's in it for me? How can we walk this path together?
We're out of time. I'll just mention this one. First Timothy 221 talks about a great house. In that great house there's vessels to honor and vessels to dishonor.
Then it says better turn through it to get it right. First Timothy 221.
Maybe you guys ever go through the books of the Bible in your mind when you.
I'm glad we have been selling our kids book because I use it all the time. First Timothy 2.
The second committee. Sorry, 221.
If a man therefore purges himself from these, that means the vessels to dishonor, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified, and meet for the master's use prepared unto every good work. So young people.
God may be working with you in your life through adversity to help sanctify you as a vessel. Meet for the Masters. Use.
Imagine the Lord looking across this room and going, I have a unique job and Brittany, you're the one that I prepared for the job.
And be able to say, I'm ready, Lord, here we go. Instead of saying.
That's uncomfortable.
It's difficult and they might think I'm stupid.
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Don't do that, the Lord says, hey.
Marianne, I prepare you for one specific thing. I need you to go put your arm around that other person telling me appreciate them and do it. Now it's like I don't even know I'm going to do it. That is a vessel sanctified and meet for the Master's use.
Now you guys might advice, give one more example here. I know we're past time. Is it OK, Ted? All right.
When David was rejected, there was a time that saw our Jonathan came out and found him in the wood and strengthened his hand and God.
Young people we need.
Young people like Jonathan to go to other young people and strengthen their hand in God.
Maybe you're the one that says I need somebody to come and strengthen my hand of God. All of us need that. So be willing to do that. The Lord says you're something I want you to do for me. That can be a blessing to somebody else. Do it. I'm not going to mention names here, but I'm going to mention two things that I've noticed that really impressed me.
A young person that has sent into our family.
Handwritten letters of encouragement, so valuable.
You know who you are. Thank you, the Lord says. Do it, do it.
Another young person.
That has taken initiative to gather up the young little girls.
Have a tea party forum.
Is that valuable?
You think those little girls are influenced in their spiritual life by that 100%. Now those are only two things I know about. A third one maybe that pops in my mind periodically. I receive a text from a good friend of mine of just words of encouragement. How we how many texts do we send in a week? Wow. I think probably thousands.
You think about somebody in this room tomorrow or next week that could use.
Two or three words or a sentence or two of encouragement.
That gonna cost you anything. Do it. Strengthen their hand and God we need it.
I was going to mention, I will mention this. We talked about it briefly yesterday. Barnabas, it means the son of encouragement. You know, the Saul was violently imprisoning and killing Christians. God got ahold of his soul, met him in the road, spoke with him directly. And then he sends Ananias over there. He says, hey, go talk to Saul. He's sitting at this house.
And Ananias said, are you crazy? He came here to kill me. And the Lord goes, I know, but he's a chosen vessel of mine. You go talk to him. And he did it.
The Lord met that man where he was at, saved him.
Tremendous value and purpose in his life. A lot of the New Testament that we enjoy, God used the Apostle Paul to write it. You know what the other disciples said when they heard Paul got saved?
Yeah, that's a fake. I'm avoiding that dude like the plague. I don't want him to get anywhere near him.
And the Lord had the state of Barnabas. Son, I need you to go.
Spend a little time with my chosen vessel.
You know, young people, maybe there's somebody in this room and you say, I don't know what to say. I'm not too good at this.
The Lord Cathy on the shoulder and said, Go speak a kind word to him, be their friend, encourage him do it.
You'll find in your lives is a tremendous, tremendous blessing to get up every morning and say, Lord, here I am. I'm not your agent, I'm your vessel. You know, an agent is somebody that's working for money.
You know, a vessel with someone, the Lord can go, I'm going to pour this into you. You take it over there and pour it into somebody else. Do that. Well, I apologize for the past.
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That's what came before me at 3:00 in the morning and Monday, young people, I love you.
Vastly bigger than that, the Lord who loves you, you are special to him. Live your life in a way that is in communion and fellowship with Him. And if there's something in the way.
Get it out before the Lord. It's not a surprise to him, He says in Song of Solomon, let me hear your voice. Let me see your face or sweet is your voice and your face is beautiful. I'm not quoting that exactly right comely I think it says, but that's what it means. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice.
That's his heart for you, and that's the heart that we have for you too.
So I was actually wondering if we could sing one verse of one hymn before we kind of move into activities because I know some of you may be leaving before lunch and I thought that this would be nice for those of you who have the Little Flock Hymn book or you have your app on your phone. I was thinking the last verse of 242 is just very fitting, I think in light of the 1St that we had before us for the young people time.
Which is God is the strength of my heart and the portion of my heart or in my portion forever. And this verse says, sing aloud to God our strength, he is with us where we go.
Fear not for the journey's length, Fear we not the mighty foe. All our foes shall be defeated and our journey safe, completed. Maybe we could just sing that one verse, if that's OK.
Sing aloud to God our strength.
He is with us where we go.
Here we not adjourn.
Here we not the mighty bow.
All our.
Shall be beaten and.
Our journey sat on completed.
Sing aloud to.
God, our strength.
He is with us where we go.
Very fitting him I think at this last meeting.