Open—Bob Thonney
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You ask for God's blessing. Our blessed Father, our God. It's a privilege to have this time set aside now for an open meeting. And we just asked for the undertaking that the Holy Spirit would be able to teach us, to edify us, and to exhort us as well in these things. Pray for the spirits of the brothers that would stand up as well, our Father, our God as vessels.
And open thy precious word, Father, we are so dependent upon thee and thy name we pray, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Matthew 16.
The first verses of the chapter.
The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him, that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, he say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red.
And lowering. Oh yeah, hypocrites.
He can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? Interesting.
Here are these Pharisees that had the scriptures in their hands.
And they could tell by how the sky looked, what kind of weather it would be, but they had no idea that they were standing in the presence of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Were there signs for that? Yes, there were definite Scriptures that told more or less when He would come and where He would come, and yet they did not know. Brethren, to me it is a real challenge in the world we live.
To have an understanding of the times we're living in. We're getting down close to the Lords coming and of course the rapture is not connected with any outward signs. It could happen at any moment.
But after the Rapture will come the appearing, in which we have a very interesting part.
And for the appearing there are multiple signs.
And we need to be alert and awake and discerning the signs of the times. Let's go over to Romans chapter 13.
Verse 11.
And that.
Knowing the time, here is question of time again that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. So here we have it again, question of the times.
And it's interesting, it says.
Now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed? Of course, that's not the salvation of the soul that we already have, but it's our full salvation, is what we were talking about yesterday in the Romans. Chapter 8 talks about the redemption of our body. That's when our salvation will be complete. And so we are to cast off the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light.
00:05:15
Now First Thessalonians chapter 5.
And verse one.
I think we're all aware of the fact that the last verses of chapter 4 are one of the clearest.
Declarations of the truth of the rapture, that which we look forward to at any moment. But when it comes to chapter 5, the first verse is really deal with the day of the Lord, which is the day when the Lord Jesus is going to exercise His Lordship.
He's going to come back and the times of the Gentiles in which we now live is going to end. The Lord Jesus is going to take back the reigns of government and He will reign supreme for 1000 years. That is the day of the Lord. So he says in verse one, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that are right unto you. They had the Scriptures to tell them about these things.
Interesting times and seasons. If you look back at Acts chapter one you have that expression used again.
In Acts chapter one.
And verse 6 the disciples after his resurrection, while he was still here with them, said, When therefore they were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
He said unto them, it is not for you to know the times and the seasons. It wasn't at that time that he was going to establish the Kingdom to Israel. And so he connects it with times and seasons, the very same words that are used here in our chapter five of Second Corinthians. Times and seasons are earthly events and they're connected with.
Signs.
It's really interesting to see that, but he says here.
Continuing to read here in the 1St Thessalonians 5 for yourselves. Know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. Whenever you have the Lord's coming as a thief in the night. I think we're all clear on this that we're not talking about the rapture, we're talking about His coming in power and glory.
He's not coming for us as a thief, brethren. He's coming as our heavenly bridegroom. And if I would ask any brother here, do you want the Lord to come? I think they would say yes. Do you wait for him? Yes. You don't wait for a thief. You don't want a thief to come. It's the world that doesn't wait for him and that doesn't want him to come.
For them, he's going to come as a thief for when they shall say peace and safety.
Then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. That makes it very clear that it's not is coming as a thief is not for us as believers. You're all the children of light and all the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and foreign helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation.
By our Lord Jesus Christ, that's one of the best verses that shows that the church will not go through the Tribulation at verse 9. But I just want to reflect on what it mentions in verse six and seven about two things that are going to be a snare to God's people at the time we live. One is sleep.
00:10:03
The other is drunkenness.
What does that mean? Sleep is something that happens.
You're a person that is asleep is not alert.
Are we alert as to the things that are happening in the world today? I don't think we have to get into political processes at all to be alert, but we should be aware of what's going on. We're getting close to the end. Things that are happening indicate that we are close. And so we should not be asleep. We should be alert as to what's going on.
We're getting close and so it's a moment to warn people.
These things that are happening are indicating the direction this world is going to. An awful time of judgment.
And then the other part, a problem with the drunkenness, sometimes we use the term under the influence, and it's not necessarily with alcohol that we're talking about drunkenness.
There's people that are under the influence of politics, there's people that are under the influence of sports or music.
Sometimes you see a young person in a car and it's reverberating that car with the music they're going on and they're kind of going up and down in the car.
Drunk.
And that's not to be characteristic of us. It will warp your apprehension of where we are. So those are the exhortations. Let's not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. And then coming down later on in the chapter, there's some.
Exhortations, rather than that, I must say, are I find very interesting.
Yesterday we were talking about commandments and that we have commandments in the New Testament. I think some of these, we could call them exhortations, but they are really commandments too, if you go down to.
Verse 16 Rejoice evermore. He doesn't say rejoice if he can no rejoice evermore.
Oh, brother, and we have reason to rejoice, and may the Lord help us. That joy would be the characteristic of our testimony. I think that is a real powerful testimony to people around us. Do they see us as people that are have a sad countenance and they're always downcast?
That's no good testimony. We have so much reason.
To rejoice evermore. Next one is pray without ceasing. Know how important to pray, But can you pray without ceasing? It's to be the attitude of our prayer of our lives. Brethren, you're writing down the freeway in your car. You're not going to close your eyes, but you can pray.
And we need to cultivate that spirit of prayer at all times.
Still remember somebody told me about my grandmother Clausen, who had ten children and she had a lot of work to do because she didn't have any extra help except for her own children. But she would take a bowl of potatoes she had to peel and she'd pick up one potato. And as she was peeling it, she'd, she'd pray for one of her children, another potato she'd.
For the next child, and so she prayed through her family that way. Oh, it's beautiful. Cultivate a spirit of prayer verse 17. I'm sorry, verse 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Doesn't say when things go good. Give thanks No in everything.
It's interesting you look at the corresponding verse in Ephesians chapter 5. It says giving thanks for all things, not only in all things, but for all things. Since we know that God makes all things work together for good. I find it a challenge, brethren, when things go negative.
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And sometimes they have a way of doing that. It's just to be able to stop and say.
Thank you Lord, thank you man. Let me tell you, sometimes I feel like everything inside me wants to do the opposite. But in everything give thanks. Why? For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Oh, rather than God is using every single circumstance, so let's give thanks in everything.
I found that it is really recognition that we accept what God has allowed in our life.
As something that we need, we accept it from His hand. That will bring peace in your heart.
But if you just look at people, how in the world this happened, that man, he, he was the problem.
You'll never get peace that way until you realize this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. How important it is to practice this. Then the next one is in verse 19. Quench not the Spirit. We've had a lot about the Spirit in our meetings and that the Spirit of God.
Is here to guide us in our lives. That's his purpose. Amazing fact that the Spirit of God dwells in US.
And I must say, brother, and I do believe that we should cultivate a sensitivity as to His presence with us and His guiding hand for us. When He lays something on your heart, be sensitive as to that and pray about it and do it.
Those are important things. If we don't do that, we.
Might quench the spirit.
And we're told not to do that.
I have to confess that I have quenched the spirit many times.
I don't know if I've told the story here, but one time after a Wheaton conference years ago when I was still young and still single, I had just gotten back to work from the conference and I was really felt wonderfully edified in my soul and I had at that time.
They at the hospital where I worked, they had given me a truck.
To take out to certain parts of the city where I was to get material for the hospital. And so I was waiting at this particular place and across the street there's.
A supervisor from the hospital standing over there, and it was just as if the Lord said to me, go give him the gospel.
Lord, he's a supervisor. I got to watch how I do this. You just don't treat supervisors lightly. You know how you use that as an excuse to kind of put it off twice? It seemed that the Lord came to me all of a sudden, here's this truck pulls up and he says I got some material for the hospital. So I said, OK, just back up to my truck and we'll transfer over the boxes to the other hospital, to the other truck.
My truck there and so I jumped up on the back of the truck and I opened it up and I find that they had just been rented. The truck had and I found that the previous renters had left a bunch of garbage in there. So I called to the supervisor across the street, what should I do with this garbage? And he came and stood at the base of the truck and I was looking into the truck.
And right at a certain moment I turned around and looked and here comes this truck and catches that guy right in the middle.
Killed him.
Imagine I felt, brother, I'm guilty having quenched the Spirit. I didn't give him the gospel. I know he's not going to go to hell because of my unfaithfulness, but it just was a real warning to me. When God lays somebody on your heart, it's with a purpose. That's the Spirit of God in you. Sometime later I was in Bolivia when we lived in Bolivia and.
00:20:20
A man who sold me one of my our jeeps that we had in prayer in that morning, the Lord laid him especially on my heart. And so I said, well, I'd better do something about it. I took a New Testament. I went down to his office. He was a pretty busy man, but I walked in and I said, Sir, I'd like to leave you this New Testament. I'd like to suggest you start reading in John's Gospel here and I marked.
For him, he thanked me and so I laughed. It was two weeks after he was a wealthy man and he had his own personal chauffeur, and he was coming back from the city of Santa Cruz to Montero, where our residents was.
And his chauffeur was driving and had a head on collision with another car and killed him.
I was so thankful that I obeyed the impulses of the Spirit of God that time.
Spirit of God is with us and I want to encourage you young brothers in the meetings to take part in. The Spirit of God is there to guide us just like our brother Dave was mentioning. It's for the liberty for the Spirit of God to use.
And so if the Lord lays something on your heart, I want to encourage you, especially when it comes to giving thanks to the Lord in the public meetings, praying.
It makes me a little bit sad sometimes in the prayer meetings at the conference and I see just the brethren and more on the front row, giving, praying. There's so many good brothers back there that have the priests, their priests just as well as anybody else. And you should be exercised in praying as well.
Let's not quench the spirit.
I must say I I realize it's carrying to maybe daunting to have to get up in a conference when there's so many, but try to concentrate on the Lord and not on the people around that will help you to do it. I know what it means to be daunted by older brother. And when I first went back to Oak Park, IL to work at Bible Truth Publishers, there was an old brother in the meeting there. I don't know.
Anybody here remembers him? Maybe some do. His name was John L Erzmann and he was a stern old brother and I was rather afraid of him.
Fact. I used to go up and say hello, Mr. how are you doing? And he would shake hands and one time I went up to him and I'm not sure why. Maybe I was a little bit too.
Forward, but I said hello, Mr. Husband, how are you tonight? Hello. And he turns square around. I said, man, I'm doing something wrong. I don't know what it is, but I better not go up to him anymore. So I didn't go up to him anymore and I found them that he came around to me and you say hello, Bob, how are you doing tonight? But he was stern and having that old brother in the meeting made me pretty.
Cautious about getting up to.
Take any part in the meeting.
And one day and breaking a bread meeting.
I was sitting there and Brother Erzman and his wife were sitting facing this direction. I was facing this way and Mrs. Arizona was on this side of him, so I couldn't really see him that much. But the Lord really laid it on my heart to get up and give thanks for the loaf that day.
But I said Mr. Ayersmann's here.
And.
There was a long, long pause. Somebody was quenching the Spirit. I don't know. I think he must have gotten the idea that maybe it was me. But all of a sudden he leans forward and looks straight at me. While he did that terrorize me, I wasn't about to get up. I'm afraid I further quenched the Spirit. But brethren, the Spirit of God is in US.
Yeah, you're going to make mistakes. Perhaps.
00:25:00
I think your brethren will realize that you're learning. Go ahead and make a few mistakes. The Lord.
Takes our prayers and praises and presents them to God properly. That's why He's there. So don't quench the Spirit. Recognize that He's in you to guide you individually and collectively. It's important to give the Spirit of God His place.
Next one is despise, not prophesying. Notice the next verse after prove all things hold fast that which is good. What we've had in these meetings are prophesying. What is prophecy speaking to men, to edification, exhortation and comfort. Edification to build that exhortation to stir up.
And.
Comfort to bind up. Those are ways that the Spirit of God uses His Word to help us. Sometimes we need instruction. That's edification. Sometimes we know it and what we need is not instruction, is exhortation. Hey, come on, walk as you are. But there's times when we need comfort too. And so the Spirit of God is here to give us according to our need.
So.
Despise not prophesying, but it doesn't say that everything that is prophesied is all right. Prove all things. You got your Bible there in front of you. Read it. What he's saying about it is that what really means there? I think that's what it will make. It will cement it into your heart if you can see it from Scripture.
Oh, how important it is. Prove all things.
Hold fast.
That which is good.
I remember I used to travel somewhat with Brother Clem Buchanan.
In my younger days before I was married and remember one time after a certain meeting.
Got up, I talked into Clem Buchanan and he said, I said to him, when that particular brother speaks, I just can't hardly listen to him. He looked at me and he said, despise not prophesying. He said, you might not appreciate that brother, but listen, God may be giving you a message in what he's saying.
And God uses instruments sometimes that we least expect.
He used the mouth of a donkey to reprove a disobedient prophet.
Have one wonder how I would have reacted if a donkey spoke to me. I think I would have stepped back. What's going on here?
Balin didn't know how to listen and he just answered his donkey back. Well, God uses instruments, and I found that sometimes He uses instruments we least expect. So when God uses an instrument to speak to you, take it to the Lord. Try it with His word. Is it square there? If it's good, hold it fast. If it's not good, you can leave it aside.
Says abstain from all appearance of evil and then verse 23 the very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless into the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it.
When it comes to a matter of our faithfulness, brethren.
Am I faithful? That's my desire is to be faithful, but I can't pass judgment. Whether I'm faithful or not, the Lord knows, and he's going to say at the judgment seat if I'd been faithful or not.
But the point is.
There is somebody that is faithful, and to me this is such a consolation, passing through a world where there are circumstances that are confusing. Sometimes we come to the wrong conclusion.
How wonderful this little statement. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. His purpose is that we would be sanctified Holy Spirit, soul and body for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I like the illustration illustrate these.
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Three.
Things they were made in the image and likeness of God. God is three and one, and so He's made us in his image and likeness. So we are three and one, two, spirit, soul and body. The body is the physical part.
Like we were talking yesterday, that's also belongs to the Lord, and we should recognize that that this body is not mine to do what I'd like to do with it. It is the Lord's.
In creation we have the plant creation, we have the animal creation, and then we have human beings.
The plants have a body, but no soul or spirit. The animals have a body and a soul. Not a living soul like a human being does, but a soul. That's why an animal can show emotions. An animal can show love.
A mother dog gives birth to her little puppies. How she takes care of them. What is that? That's the soul.
But ask a dog about God doesn't have any ability.
Or to relate on that, on that issue, on that level, only the human beings have this God consciousness, the spirit. It's the part of the being that can reason. And so we are to be preserved, blameless.
There are things that contaminate on the spirit level, there are things that contaminate on the soul level, there are things that contaminate on the body level. And the Lord's desire for us is that we would be sanctified Holy Spirit, soul and body. The soul is the.
Perhaps we can say the personality. It's the desires, the likes and the dislikes.
I like certain kinds of food. I dislike other kinds of food. That's my soul. And but the spirit is that God conscious part. You know how important there are things in this world that contaminate. Brother Mark last night was talking about it in the gospel of what's on the Internet and how subtle some of it is to draw people in and to contaminate them.
We need to be careful.
We need the Word of God like our brother Jim was bringing out to cleanse us daily. Oh how important that is.
The very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless into the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it.