Address—Bill Prost
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Could we begin this meeting by singing a somewhat unusual hymn 332?
332.
To him that is commonly sung in the gospel, and rightfully so.
But it's been adapted for singing by believers.
Notice the change of tense in the 1St 2 verses, just as I was.
For those that like the stories of hymns, you'll look in the back and see that this was written.
Way back in the 1800s by a woman by the name of Charlotte Elliott.
She wasn't saved and she was indulging in the pleasures of this world quite a bit.
And one time when her minister, pastor, whatever you want to call him, try to speak to her about the Lord, she rebuffed him rather pointedly. Excuse me?
Rebuffed him rather pointedly and.
Made it very clear that she didn't want to hear anything about that. But then afterwards, sometime later, she realized that that wasn't really the right thing to do and that she needed to know the Savior. So she went back to him and apologized for her previous behavior and said how do I get saved? What do I do?
And his reply was come to the Lord Jesus.
Just as you are.
What? She said. I come just as I am, Yes, he said. That's the only way to come.
And she did. And as a result of that, she wrote this hymn. But I was particularly interested in the last few verses. The last two verses, I should say.
Just as I am. Thy love I own has broken every barrier down. And then the last verse, just as I am of that free love.
The fullness and the depth to prove.
332, and there's only one tune to it.
Just as I am.
Now I will share.
It.
With you.
00:05:52
Well, now I have to apologize. After calling the attention of the rest of you to the tents of the 1St 2 verses, I started the hymn on autopilot and of course reverted to the gospel hymn. But anyway, we get the point. Let's ask the Lord's help.
Her loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for the precious truth of this hymn we have sung together and for each one here in the room who can sing.
Just as I was. Poor, wretched, blind.
And we thank the 2 Lord that every true believer here can say just as I am.
Thy love I own has broken every barrier down.
We thank Thee, our God and Father, for that love, and we thank the Lord Jesus that that love took thee not only all the way to Calvary's cross.
But also that love goes on with us every step of our Pilgrim journey. And more than that, we will enjoy that love for all eternity.
We look to thee now this afternoon for thy help as we open thy word together.
And our hearts go up to thee for our dear young people.
Who have a most difficult day in which to live for thee, our God.
In which to live for thy glory, Lord Jesus.
And yet we thank the.
That thy word is the same.
Thou art the same. Thy Holy Spirit is still here.
And that everything that thou has given us, our God, is just as much ours as it was in days of in days gone by. So we commend our time to thee and pray for thy help, For we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I want you young people to know that I feel very helpless standing up here.
I remember sitting in my chair down there, contemplating what I would say.
And two stories come to mind.
One of which has a little humor to it. Many, many years ago, there was an old brother in Christ who stood up to speak to children.
And in trying to make his point across, get his point across to them.
He became choked up and started having tears in his eyes. And this is a true story.
One boy said to the next one. Why is he crying up there?
The other one said if you had as little to say as he did, you'd cry too.
That hit home.
And I feel very helpless for other reasons too, because we all know that the generation gap in this world.
Is getting wider and wider for people in my age bracket, and generations are being defined in smaller and smaller increments.
When I was growing up, a generation was generally around 25 years or maybe even a little more. But now generations are changing so quickly that sometimes 10 or 15 years makes that difference.
And even the language changes.
I learned a new word up at Morning Star Camp a few days ago. Somebody said to me something is really lip really lit.
I had to learn the definition of that, and if others here don't know what it means, you ask some of the young people.
It brought home to me the fact that I was in some ways out of touch and I couldn't have anything to say to you young people except for this precious book.
00:10:05
But in this book we have everything we need.
And I'd like to talk a little to you this afternoon.
About something that has been referred to in the readings that we have had together.
And I trust it comes from the heart when I say I want to speak a little to you about devotedness to Christ and about the love of God.
To start off, let's turn to a couple of verses, the first one in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24.
Matthew 24.
And verse.
12 Matthew 24 and verse 12.
Never mind for the moment the verses that precede this, but just to read this verse, and because iniquity shall abound.
The love of many.
Shall wax cold.
Now one more verse in John's Gospel, chapter 16.
John 16.
And the last verse in the chapter verse 33.
These things I have spoken unto you that in me might have peace.
In the world notice this, ye shall not might.
But shall have tribulation.
But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
And one more verse in second Timothy.
Chapter 3.
Second Timothy Chapter 3.
And verse 12.
We might read verse 13 as well, but verse 12 is the one I had before me.
Yeah, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus.
Shall suffer notice the word, shall not might, but shall suffer persecution.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
We could read other verses, but these are sufficient for our purposes.
I don't think anyone this afternoon would argue that you and I are living.
In the last days that are described in the beginning of this chapter, Second Timothy 3, and the word of God calls them perilous, perilous, or dangerous times.
And I don't envy you young people growing up in that kind of a world, because as it says here in verse 13.
Evil men and seducers are indeed waxing worse and worse.
That word wax is an old English word, but it's not hard to understand. It means to increase. We speak of the waxing and waning of the moon. Something that's on the wane or waning is getting smaller and smaller. Something that waxes greater and greater is getting bigger and bigger. Again, a word we don't use much in modern English, but that's what it means.
And life is not easy today. Things are happening very rapidly in this world.
Where he read that verse in the prayer meeting this morning that.
This world is getting worse and worse, and men's hearts are failing them for fear for those things that are coming upon the earth.
Now we want to make one thing clear.
The fulfillment of those verses is future.
As is the fulfillment of that verse, we read in Matthew 24, that as the love of many shall whack, or as iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
But the moral principle remains the same. It is happening today.
00:15:00
And when the love of many wax is cold, what happens?
Then, and I speak to my own heart, the tendency is to say, the Lord isn't doing what he should be doing for me.
Does that happen sometimes?
Do we feel in our hearts that the Lord's ways with us are sometimes unfair?
If so, you're not alone.
I don't think there are very many believers here who at times in their lives have asked themselves the question, even if it were not made public.
What did I do to deserve this? Give me a break in modern language.
Did Job ask that question thousands of years ago? Indeed he did.
Job was a good man and things went along well for him. It seems that he had health, he had wealth, he had prosperity in every way. He was looked up to as a man whose advice was sought after.
He had a nice family of ten children.
Wonderful. Everything was going well for Job.
But then calamity struck and we won't go into all the details. And in a very short time he lost all his children. Can you imagine what a blow that would have been all in one day?
He lost practically all his possessions.
Whirlwinds came and took down his barns. The Sabians came and killed his servants and stole his cattle, one thing after another.
And then worse things followed, because then the Lord allowed Satan to take away.
Not merely his possessions, but his health.
And so he thought that God was being unfair.
You and I live in lands of opportunity. I happen to be a Canadian, of course, as most of you know, and there are other Canadians here. Most here are Americans, but we all live, for the most part, in wealthy countries that have not felt much of the effects of war.
And it's true, I can still remember way back in the 1960s when we had a rather lively.
I'm afraid. And one of our professors really gave us a going over once and told us, listen, you fellas, he said our class was largely men, he said. You fellas have never had to go through a depression or a war. Life for you has been nothing but a bowl of cherries, and I hope it stays that way.
But for goodness sakes, behave yourselves in my class.
Yes, he had been through all of that and he was giving us a going over because he knew we hadn't experienced it.
And many of us here in this room have had it pretty good, as they say. But now things are starting to fall apart and we are seeing the beginnings of what God is going to bring upon this world in a coming day. And we are seeing men's hearts fail them for fear, and we are feeling it as well.
The question is.
As we get in John 16.
Am I going to be an overcomer?
I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I see many today who are not being overcomers.
Who are saying this is too much?
Yes, I know the Lord is my savior, and I'm thankful. I know where I'm going when I leave this world, and I'm thankful for the assurance of my salvation. But beyond that?
Things are just being a little too rough for me.
And what happens then?
The world says just exactly what the Apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 15, almost 2000 years ago. He said evil communications, corrupt good manners. And then he referred to what the logical outcome of that was. The saying let us eat and drink.
For tomorrow we die.
What is that? That's having an outlook that never goes further than the horizon of this world. That is, having an outlook that says I am going to live for today, that says I am going to live it up and enjoy myself in whatever way I would like.
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And that, of course, is the attitude of the world around. But I think you and I, if we are honest, have to admit that it has a tendency to spill over into the Church of God. Otherwise Paul wouldn't have said that.
And may I suggest?
And this is not just for young people, but for all of us. Excuse me.
May I suggest?
That perhaps the greatest need today among believers.
And if I, if I may, say it among young people.
Is devotedness.
Yes, it's good to have scriptural knowledge.
I was thankful to hear some comment between the meetings.
On the chapter we are taking up in the readings, and some have said I never really understood that chapter properly. I've read it before, but I'm glad to hear it.
Taken up in a way that I can understand it better. We need that.
Because having intelligence in the scriptures prevents are being carried away, as Ephesians 4 says, carried about with every wind of doctrine. It's necessary.
But all of that by itself will not keep us.
Intelligence in the word of God, wonderful though it is, will not keep us.
Unless, and we had a bit of this morning Star camp, I read the scripture in the right way and it takes me back to the source of it.
Scripture, read properly, will always take me back to the source of it.
And if it doesn't, then I'm going to find that I am using my natural mind to wrap myself around something that I don't understand.
And all it does is puzzle my mind. It reminds me, and I've told this story before, and some will recognize the source of it, of a young brother, probably 150 years ago or so, or maybe more, who wrote to a very well taught older brother with some very serious and difficult questions in the word of God.
Was he reading the word? Indeed he was, and he had questions.
Well, after about the third question, and in those days, it wasn't by e-mail or voicemail or texting or anything. It was by letter mail. After about the 3rd letter, the older brother discerned in that younger brother's letter or letters. Something that he addressed in his third letter when he wrote back and he said to that young brother.
From your questions, I would suspect that you are studying your Bible too much and not reading it enough.
Really. What did he mean?
He meant that he was going at the word of God the way you would go at a physics textbook or some other kind of book where you were saying, no, I have to learn this.
Instead of looking at it as the word of God addressed directly to him from a God who loved and cared for him and wanted to communicate not merely intelligence, but that which has to do with himself.
There is a difference.
And so when we pick up this precious book, it should speak to us.
About the Lord himself. And that's what we want to speak about a little bit this afternoon, because if your affections and mine are not engaged with Christ.
All the intelligence that we might have in the word of God is not going to keep us and we are going to find that when we hit some of the snags in life and they are there.
And when things don't go very well for us and they aren't always going to go well, and when the Lord allows difficulties in our lives.
Then we are not going to know just what to do, and somehow we are going to think that the Lord is not doing right by us.
Two things come to mind.
Both quotations from older brothers who are long since with the Lord.
00:25:02
Number one.
Let us remember.
And this was quoted at Morningstar Camp. I'll repeat it again.
All our failure.
Whether as sinners or as Saints.
Ultimately stems.
From our unbelief of the goodness that is in the heart of God.
Some of us are old enough to remember the brother that said it, thundering those words at us over and over again.
All our failure, whether as sinners or as Saints.
Ultimately stems from our unbelief of the goodness that is in the heart of God.
Young people never doubt the goodness or love of God.
Never.
Never.
This comes from a different brother of the same generation, and it's shorter.
We are never wiser than Scripture.
Sometimes when we read the word of God.
And it hits our consciences. And it does.
If I don't want to follow the word of God.
I will rationalize my way around it. What does that mean?
I will persuade myself that somehow my situation is different from what the Lord is applying that scripture to me. For I will try and get around the scripture by saying, well, it doesn't really mean that. Well, no, but I see it this way, and I think the Lord really means this. And in so doing we twist things around to such a point that effectively we have nullified the word of God.
And said, it doesn't really mean that.
No, I am never wiser than the word of God.
Our brother Verne Clark remarked on it in his prayer. We have it in our hands, the complete word of God, and it says so.
Colossians tells us that Paul completed the word of God.
Don't let anyone tell you that someone can come along hundreds of years later and add to it.
But this word of God is good for all time, all cultures, all nations. No matter where we take it in the world, God doesn't have to rewrite it.
We are never wiser than Scripture.
Well now in the time we have left.
What is the antidote? What is the remedy? What is the treatment for a lack of devotedness to Christ?
We have talked a little bit in our reading meetings about getting away from the Lord. We have talked a little bit of how things go when we allow sin in our lives. We've talked a little bit about what happens when we persuade ourselves that maybe the Lord isn't doing the very best for us. Does He not do the best for us? Indeed he does.
Let's turn to Romans 8 for a verse. I'm going to look at 4 verses. We'll talk about them and I hope we can fit them into the time. Romans 8.
Verse 32.
Verse 32.
It has already told us a little earlier, a few verses earlier.
That all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.
But here it says in Romans 8 and 32 he that spared not his own son.
Delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
I say to each one of us, the Lord paid too high a price for you.
Not to do the right thing by you.
The Lord paid too much for you.
Not to do right by you.
The Lord loves you too much.
If there's anyone here that isn't saved.
The Lord sent his Son. God sent his Son to die for you. He loves you and wants to bring you to himself.
But for those of us that are believers.
00:30:03
And let's allow for the fact that maybe there are some in the room.
Excuse me?
Let me get a little disillusioned at times. Say things aren't working out very well for me. I tried to do what was right. I tried to honor the Lord. And now look what happened.
Is the Lord doing the right thing? Indeed he is. He is doing the right thing. But let's look at it from this point of view and we'll get into this a little bit more.
If everything went absolutely smoothly for you and me in this world, what would the world say?
Oh, they'd say. Look at those people. No wonder they're happy. No wonder they always wear a smile. No wonder they can sing. The Lord looks after them. And that's the very thing that Satan threw up to the Lord about Job. Satan said to the Lord, no wonder Job is a good man. No wonder he honors you. Look at all you gave him. Look at everything you do for him.
And the Lord showed Satan that even though he took everything away that Job had in a temporal sense and even his help, Job did not turn against the Lord. The devil said He'll curse you to your face.
And Job didn't do that.
The Lord is using you and me, and the trials and difficulties.
In order to show the world around us how a believer can react.
Under severe difficulties.
And when we read that verse in Second Timothy 3 in the world ye shall have tribulation.
Some of us at lunchtime were discussing the terrible pure persecution that has occurred and is occurring every day in many parts of the world in believers lives.
Thrown into prison?
Beaten.
Separated from their families, their livelihood, taken away from sometimes not only put in prison but in solitary confinement. I can't imagine what that would be like.
Awful things. And I could go on and on. I know at least two people, and I knew them both personally in India who came out boldly for Christ.
One of them was gathered to the Lord's name. The other one didn't get a chance to do that. He'd only been saved 10 days, and he was murdered for his faith by his relatives. And so was the young woman who was gathered to the Lord's name for a year and a half.
And her relatives murdered her because she was a Christian.
Nothing ever happened. Everybody just looked the other way and that was that.
It's going on all the time.
I say to my own soul and to us here in these favored lands, I thank God for the liberty we have, and I trust with all my heart that it continues. But I say, are we going to escape persecution? Is the Lord going to give all of us here in North America an easy ride to glory? Well, he puts those and other lands through terrible persecution.
No, the Lord's going to allow us to feel the difficulties and problems in the way, and sometimes they come from without. Sometimes, sad to say, if I could put it bluntly, they come from within. Some of the worst persecution comes from within the Great House of Christendom. And, sad to say, even among those gathered to the Lord's name, sometimes the going can be pretty rough.
And you know what I'm talking about. Because we are not by any means a perfect company, and things come in that cause sorrow and heartache.
That ought to bring us to our knees, and sometimes it doesn't. But remember the Lord Jesus says here in John 16 Fear not.
I have overcome the world. You can be an overcomer too.
Never doubt the love of God.
Now let's turn back to John's Gospel, Chapter 15.
John's Gospel, chapter 15.
And verse 9.
And 10.
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As the Father.
Hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Notice it does not say.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall have a smooth pathway.
And say that.
He shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love.
And then we'll read the next verse. These things have I spoken unto you.
That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy.
Might be full.
It's a wonderful thing.
To abide in someone's love.
I hope it's OK to tell a personal story.
My wife isn't here.
Number of years ago.
We had a particularly hard thing happen, at least to me anyway.
And it was very, very difficult.
For me, anyway.
Very, very difficult. I won't go into the detail of what it was, but I have to tell you that I was pretty broken about it.
And I came home and told my wife, Charlotte about it, told her what had happened.
And it wasn't that I didn't trust the Lord, but at that moment it hardly seemed to be possible to know where things would go, or what I would do, or how I would manage the situation.
And I can still remember what it felt like.
She said, well, what about this person? And what about that person? And I said, no, no, they can't be of any help. Some people would like to help, but they can't. And some people could help, but they don't want to know. I said it's just not going to work.
And she came up, put her arms around me, gave me a big hug and a kiss, and said remember, you've got me.
I think every husband here can relate to that. Maybe wives have had a husband that did the same. You've got me.
She didn't do that just once. She's done it a few times.
Why do I tell that story?
Because it brought, but brings before us the fact that even on the human level, God has provided those who can get close to us and who will be with us even if everyone else forsakes us.
But do we sometimes feel all alone?
When I was growing up, I sometimes did before I was married. Sometimes I didn't feel as if my parents could understand, and nobody else seemed to be able to enter into what I was going through.
Could we say it with all reverence? The Lord Jesus wants to put his arms around you and say.
And I say this reverently.
You have me.
But I don't believe the Lord says it that way.
He says something different.
From his point of view, the Lord says.
I have you.
I have you.
And what the Lord is saying to His disciples here is anticipating the time when He would go to the cross.
And then eventually leave them and go back to heaven.
And he tells them something so wonderful that I can never wrap my mind around.
As the Father has his love to him.
The love of the Father for the Lord Jesus was the same love that he had.
And does have He had for his disciples? And He has for you and for me.
But there is something else. If you keep my commandments, Not that you won't have any trouble, but you shall abide in my love. Oh, there's nothing better than abiding in the sense of his love and what are His commandments. It's not a legalistic thing like the Old Testament law. It's simply doing what He has told us will please him and when we get to know someone.
After a while.
00:40:01
Get to know what pleases them without their having to tell us, don't we? I've had more than that. More often me rephrase that. I've had many occasions when I've spoken to a wife.
And maybe said something to her and she said without even asking him, Well, my husband wouldn't care for that. Or I've spoken to a husband. He says no, no, let's not do it that way. I know my wife wouldn't go for that.
He didn't have to ask her. She didn't have to ask him. They knew one another well.
The Lord wants you and me to have that kind of a relationship with him, and it's possible. It's possible.
To go to the Lord as you would a dear friend.
But as we've had in our meetings, in our reading meetings, I can't go freely to the Lord. If I have willfully disobeyed and done something which I knew did not please him, can I abide in His love under those circumstances? No, I can't, can I?
We all understand that.
My children couldn't come to me with the freedom and liberty that they wanted to. If they knew very well that they had done something that displeased me, they knew something had to be straightened out first. And thank God. In our chapter in the readings, we see how God wants to straighten it out, and how can he straighten it out because it was already looked after at the cross. Beautiful.
Ye shall abide in my love. And the Lord Jesus puts himself into that position. Isn't that beautiful?
Here was one who never did a single thing. Contrary to the Father's will, never a single sin soiled his pathway. And yet he says.
I kept my father's commandments and I abide in his love. Isn't that beautiful? He's the perfect example for us. He was the perfect dependent man. And in walking that pathway that he walked, we abide in His love.
Does that mean that we won't have rough times? No, it doesn't. But it means that those rough times are only an occasion for the Lord to show more and more of His love and to open things up that we never thought could happen.
And I won't multiply stories explaining that, but it's true.
But we need to go on. Let's go on now. Excuse me for a moment.
This time to.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians 5.
I was about to turn to another scripture, but this will be a better order in which to take them up, hence the slight hesitancy.
2nd Corinthians 5.
Verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraint us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And he died, or that doesn't need to be there, it should read. And he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
What does it mean to constrain?
Let me tell a story that will illustrate that, this time from another member of my family.
I can remember when my daughter was about three or four years old, she badly wanted me to do something.
And I wasn't particularly disposed to do it right at that time. I didn't mind doing it, but I had other concerns on my mind and other considerations that seemed more important than satisfying the wishes of a four year old girl.
And fathers here, and grandfathers too can probably relate to that.
And I can still remember her taking me by the hand and looking into my eyes and saying, but Daddy, you she'd learned enough language to get the point across. Daddy, you you you have to.
00:45:14
And she started pulling me by the hand.
I was finished.
I had to go. No more excuses, no more putting her off. I had to go.
And I'm glad I did.
There was something compelling about those words in that little hand and the look on that little face that couldn't be denied.
Is there something compelling about the Lord Jesus?
The love of Christ constraineth us.
Does that have a tug on my heart?
If it doesn't, there's something wrong with me as a Christian.
If I am living in the enjoyment of that love, that love does constrain me. It doesn't say it should constrain me. It does. It has a pull, just as a magnet has a pull on iron filings.
But if the iron filings were way down there by John Kent and I had a magnet in my hand here, and I'd say, well, something wrong with this magnet, those filings aren't moving. You'd say, well, come on, Bill, did you ever study physics?
The.
Pull of a magnetic field varies as the square of the distance from it and those.
Flattings are so far away for practical purposes, the pull is gone.
That's what happens when I don't keep his commandments. I get further and further away and then I say I don't feel that full.
But it's there. It's there. The love of Christ constraineth us.
And what does the rest of the verse mean? It means as we had in this morning's reading.
That we were all dead.
Dead in trespasses and sins.
Death separated from God as Brother Don was bringing out. That's where we were, and it was only the finished work of Christ that brought us back.
Otherwise, we were doomed to a lost eternity.
Does that love not constrain?
There are children here. May I tell you a story?
This concerns a boy whose name was Tom, who lived many years ago, long before my time or anyone else here back in the 1800s. And he was an orphan.
And you know, in North America today, orphaned children generally are able to be adopted pretty well. There are usually plenty of people who are more than happy to look after them. But in those days, not only were there many more orphans because parents got sick and died of diseases that could be helped today, but also people were in general much poorer and many people didn't have enough money.
To take on an extra person to look after.
And the lady that was looking after Tom didn't care for the job.
She looked after him because she was related to him, and I forget for the moment just how she was related, but it doesn't matter.
But there was worse than that. Tom was crippled, and he couldn't go out and do anything to help earn his living. He couldn't grow up and try and have a career because whatever kind of problem had caused him to be crippled. They didn't have all the things they have today to look after crippled people, and they didn't have prosthetic limbs to put on them and all the things that could be done today. So Tom was pretty much confined to his room.
But he had a good friend. And I'll tell this story a little more quickly because I want to talk about one last verse. But Tom had a good friend, and one day his friend was going to go away to another city and he came to Tom and he said, Tom, I'm leaving, you know that.
But I have something for you. I've saved up because the other boy was just what you'd call a a street boy. He didn't live by his wits. He didn't have parents either, but he managed to, to save what in those days in England, they called a shilling.
A shilling and it would have been worth about 1/4.
00:50:02
But 1/4?
But of course, money went further in those days. With a shilling you could easily buy a good meal, so it went a lot further than it would today.
Said Tom. I got a shilling for you.
You buy something you really want.
Tom said, listen, I already know what I want and you've got time to go and get it. You go down, there's a store, and Tom told him exactly where it was. He said they sell Bibles there and I want you to find me a Bible.
Wow, the other boy said. Bible. You want a Bible? I want you to buy something really good with this, Tom said. I want that more than anything else. Please get it before they close. So the boy went and got the Bible.
And he was able to pay for it and he came back a little changed because.
He told the man in the store the story and the man assured him he was a believer. He said, Young man, you couldn't be investing this shilling any better.
So the boy brightened up. Well, Tom read the Bible and he got saved.
And he wanted to do something for the Lord Jesus. And I'll skip over some of the details because of time.
But he had no money and he was crippled. What could he do?
He spoke to the lady.
Looked after him and he said, you know, I'd like pencil and paper.
See, I haven't gotten the extra money to give you pencil and paper.
Well, if you cut back and gave me only half the amount of milk you usually give me every day.
Would that be enough to buy a pencil and a little pad of paper? Yeah, I guess so.
So Tom got his pencil and paper for giving up half his milk every day, and he didn't get much. He didn't have the kind of spread that Tony and Becky put on for us at noon today.
And Tom?
Wrote out Bible verses.
On those pieces of paper and folded them nicely and on the outside wrote.
To the passerby, please read.
And he dropped them out his window. He was at an upper Storey window onto the busy St. down below. He lived in a big city in England.
People picked them up.
Some people read them. People got saved.
Some people, of course, just that was littering and they just picked them up and threw them in the nearest trash bin and some people read them and I don't care, but people got saved.
One day, a man picked up that piece of paper.
And he got saved through it.
And he was a wealthy man.
And, he wondered, where did that paper come from?
He walked down that street every day, and he noticed that every day there were pieces of paper dropped there.
And he tried to figure out where do they come from. Hmm.
Why are they always in the same spot?
Knocked on the door, talked to the lady, found out who crippled Tom was, went upstairs and found out that he was the boy that was doing it.
Oh, the man said. I got saved through what you wrote on that paper.
Oh, Tom was overjoyed. He said. That's wonderful.
O, the man said. Look, you're in terrible conditions here, and you're skinny. You're not getting enough to eat. You're not getting proper care. Let me. You come with me. I'll let you live at my house. I'll feed you well. I'll give you lots of pencils and paper, and you can do you can. I'll tell you a way to get these things out.
You know what Tom said.
He said. Thank you, Sir.
That's wonderful.
But you know, if I came with you and got too taken up with all the good things you're offering me.
Might take me a little bit away from the Lord.
If you don't mind, Sir.
I think I'll stay here.
I think I'll stay here and then I won't get taken up with anything but what I can do for the Lord.
Does that illustrate the verse did the love of?
I don't want to do what I said at the beginning of the meeting and start breaking down, but.
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The point is, the love of Christ constrained him.
In such a way that it didn't matter what happened to him.
His heart was so filled with his blessed Lord and master.
Now, God doesn't call all of us to live in poor circumstances like that, and he doesn't call all of us to do that kind of thing. But what I'm pointing out is that if the love of Christ.
Is present in your heart and mind, It will constrain.
And there will not only be the enjoyment of that love, there will be the earnest desire.
To do, but he would have us to do. It may be different for each one of us.
But we will do what he wants us to do. One last verse in the 5 minutes that remain.
John 17.
Brother Don Rule, read this before the prayer meeting this morning, but we'll read it again.
John 17 verse 24.
John 17 and 24.
Father I will.
Here's the Lord expressing his wish to the Father. He's about to do the Father's will.
In a perfect way, but he says.
I will.
But they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
That they may behold my glory which thou has given me. And here's the phrase.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
I've never been able to understand that verse perfectly.
The Lord Jesus makes a request to his father.
And I want to say this very reverently.
He makes the request for you and me.
And if I may put it this way, and I hope it isn't reaching overreaching scripture, but he makes the request, I will.
That they also, whom thou has given me be where I am, that they may behold my glory.
Which thou hast given me, And then, if I could say it reverently, he constrains his father by saying.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
Can anything compare to that love?
The Lord Jesus is Father.
You loved me before the foundation of the world, and now I am here in the world that has turned away from you and is filled with wickedness. And I am on the way to the cross in order to redeem those out of the world whom thou hast given me.
And I make a request based on that love that you have for me.
Before the foundation of the world.
God wants you and me, and this is OK for young people. He wants to take us right out of ourselves to see things from his vantage point.
Isn't that beautiful?
And we're living in a world where everything is me, me, me. I want what I want. And people trample on one another in order to get what they want, in order to have what they think they need. And we've been taught, sad to say in these last 30 years or more, that we are to put ourselves first. Because after all, if you don't look after yourselves, who else will?
Man came over from another country and.
It doesn't mean, I don't mean to implicate the United States because he happened to be here in America. It's not much different where I come from in Canada. But he said I know why America does so well and has so much prosperity. Somebody said to him, why? Well, he said because in America everybody puts him or herself first. That's why America is so prosperous.
Well, he missed the point. That is not true.
That America's prosperous because it's me first.
But the observation wasn't too far wrong.
And if we're not careful, we start looking at Christianity and looking at the Lord. The word that comes to mind is a philanthropist, one who is there to give me things. We look at the Lord as if He's there to give me things.
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After all, isn't he promised to look after us? And doesn't the Lord love me and so can't I go to him with my requests and have him fulfil them? Isn't isn't that the way it goes?
Oh, how wonderful the Lord loves to give us.
But there's something even more wonderful than enjoying what He can give us, and that is to have our hearts taken right outside of ourselves, to see things from His side. And there are many places in Scripture where the Lord Jesus speaks to us in order to show us how He looks at things from His side, and to appreciate that love which existed in this case, between Him and his Father.
Long before this world ever existed. But isn't it beautiful that the Lord makes a request?
For the blessing of you and me, based on that love that existed.
Way back in a past eternity. That's beyond our understanding, isn't it?
We are going to close now. I can't say anymore.
Except to emphasize the fact that what we need more than anything today is a sense of God's love, and to live and move in the enjoyment of that love, to enjoy it. Because living in the enjoyment of that love can't help but produce that devotedness. And that is what is needed more than anything. If the heart is right, everything else will fall into place.
Will I be intelligent in the word? Of course I'll want to be, but.
It has to start with the enjoyment of his love in my heart and the response of my heart to his.
Maybe we have time for part of another hymn.
2 verses may be of #18 in the appendix.
18 in the appendix.
And for the sake of time, we'll sing verses 2.
And three.
O Jesus, Lord, who loved me like to thee.
And in the original hymn there was an exclamation mark after the word work in the second line fruit of thy work.
With thee 2 There to see thy glory, Lord, while endless ages roll.
And yet.
The Lord is not going to take it all and enjoy it all without us. The objects of His love. Verses two and three of #18 in the appendix, and we'll just sing it to the regular tune.
Oh Jesus Lord.
Whole of me like to thee.
Horrible.
Yeah, it must be.
More.
Lower.
Where my name.
No way.
Bless God our Father.
But more can we say in thy presence here this afternoon.
Our love, if we will allow it, washes over us like an ocean.
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And we thank thee that thou hast given us, not only to feel the effect of that love.
Through Calvary's cross. But thou hast enabled us to live in the joy.
In the enjoyment of that love throughout our Christian pathway. And we thank Thee our God, that we will enjoy that love for all eternity. Help us more to live in the good of it, now that we might feel its constraining power, and that we might enter into it more. For we ask it. Lord Jesus, in thy alone, worthy and precious name. Amen.