Address—Wally Dear
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I trust the Lord give us something.
It's going to be for a.
Positive impact in our lives.
So I'd like to begin tonight to.
#339.
#339.
Our God is our salvation.
Our rescues in distress, what earthly tribulation can shake our steadfast peace?
Verse 7 The sun which smiling lights us is Jesus Christ alone, and what to song incites us is heaven on earth begun.
#339.
339.
Our God is our salvation.
Our.
S water everything a trend through the land.
Scape.
The ground.
Jesus Christ.
Alone.
And what song inside?
The ground.
So we're going to turn to the Bible. It's the word of God never changes.
It's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It's the written word of God. It's about the living Word.
Jesus Christ, He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And you know that speaks such.
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Joy and peace to my soul.
In a world that.
Is.
Shaky, it seems everywhere you look. We've gotten our hands here tonight. Something that's solid, something that we can build our faith on. A firm foundation. And when we do, we know we're going to be OK for time and eternity. How wonderful a God we have that would give us.
To enjoy salvation.
And to enjoy the Savior, I'd like to talk about the Savior tonight.
And.
I know as I look around this hall here tonight.
There are.
Many, most, I would like to say all that know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
And I see those that are.
Gathered through his name in a collective way.
Your desire is to be where Jesus is because he means something to you. Because.
He was willing to give his life and die for you and shed his own precious blood. And because he loves you, you want to be where he wants you to be.
Oh, how wonderful it is to enjoy the presence of the Lord. Individually He goes with us, but also in a collective way with other believers.
Now I'm going to turn to an Old Testament portion and then I'm going to refer to a New Testament portion. Now this is a portion that's often been referred to, but I trust we're not going to wear it out by going here again. And this is.
First Samuel.
Chapter.
22.
Now this is about David.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but it sees me.
That perhaps, David.
Apart from the Lord Jesus himself.
Is the individual who's mentioned most.
In the Bible next to the Lord Jesus.
His name is David.
And we learned that David, he was a man after God's own heart.
I believe that he was.
A picture of the Lord Jesus in many ways.
We find in this portion here that David has been rejected.
It's been cast out of Jerusalem.
The king has no use for David. His name is Saul. He was a man after the flesh.
He doesn't appreciate.
David. Because David was a man after God's own heart. I believe that Swallow was one who pursued his own interest. He was in this world for himself.
And.
David we found that he was in this world.
I believe for God wanted to please God, but he did have failure in his life and he falls fall far short of the perfection that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But David, he was rejected.
And he had to flee from salt. And here we're going to read about him. He's here in a cave. And this is First Samuel, chapter 22, verse one.
David therefore departed dance, and escaped to The Cave Adela, and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
And everyone that was in distress.
And everyone that was in debt and.
And everyone that was discontented gathered themselves onto him and he became a captain over then.
And they were with him about.
400 men.
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David goes to this place. I believe it was rather secure place, The Cave of a Dalam.
A place to hide, A place of shelter.
David.
He wasn't there by himself because it tells us.
When his brethren and all his father's house heard him, they went out thither to him. Now it doesn't say they went down to The Cave.
But why does it say to him? Because they had David in their heart and on their mind.
They were disappointed with the state of things where they lived.
And I they believe that in David they saw one who had faith in God.
And these ones.
It tells us they were in distress.
They were in debt.
And they were discontented.
Unhappy lot of individuals.
Distressed.
It's not a good thing.
I see in the word distressed stress.
It's a root word, stress.
Now stress can be good, but it can be bad.
When I think of distress.
I think of that which causes anxiety.
And worry.
And.
Fearfulness.
And that's not a good thing. You know, the Lord wants us to be here.
In this world.
Without anxiety.
Is anybody here anxious tonight? You've got a situation in your life that's causing anxiety.
Worry.
You know we're exhorted in Philippians chapter 4 to be anxious for nothing.
How can this be?
Well, it goes on to tell us, and we're all familiar, I think at least most here with the succeeding word be anxious for nothing but everything by prayer and supplication.
Let your request be made known unto God.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
And that's really what we want. We want peace in our souls about the situation.
And you know.
Peace is not the absence of trouble.
But it is the absence of fear.
And the Lord can allow trouble to continue in our lives, but.
We don't have to be fearful about it. We don't have to be anxious. We don't have to worry about it. And the reason is the Lord.
Has.
All in control.
In your life and mine.
Sometimes circumstances in life.
They're so difficult and so wild. We think things are spinning right out of control, and we wonder where God is in all of this.
Well, let's not castaway our confidence because I tell you where God is, He's all around you.
So you might have put it in heavenly love, abiding no change my heart shall fear.
And safe in such confiding for nothing changes here.
The storm may roar about me.
My heart mate. Lowly late.
God is round about me.
Can I be dismayed?
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God is round about me.
And the Lord Jesus says.
I will never.
Evening. Nor for safety. The word never. I think it's one of the strongest negatives in the Greek language. Never ever leave the work for safety.
I'm inclined to think it's the same word as we find in.
John 10 where the Lord Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, never, never, ever cares.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
I think in the original the word man is left out. No one, not even Satan, can pluck a sheep of Christ out of his hand. This is a place of security.
For you and for me.
On the shoulders of the Lord Jesus, because that's where when the shepherd found the sheep.
It tells us he laid it on his shoulders.
Shoulders of strength and he brings the sheep home, and he's rejoicing.
And I'm sure the sheep was happy.
But I believe the Shepherd's joy.
It was.
Above and beyond that of the sheep.
And, you know, we don't ever want to think that we can lose our salvation.
What would you think of the shepherd that was put?
With a flock of sheep to care for the sheep.
And.
In the course of time.
The shepherd, he goes to sleep.
And while he's sleeping.
Here comes the wolf.
He sees a sheep.
He's coming on the sheep.
He grabs it.
And he carries it away.
He kills it, He eats it.
Well, the shepherd wakes up.
He leaves the flock of sheep back.
To where they're sheltered at night and the owner of the flock counts the sheep. Oh, there's a sheep that's missing.
What happened? There's a sheep that's missing.
Well, the shepherd says, I'm sorry, but.
That sheep, they must have wandered off that sheep.
Apparently was.
Doing something it should have been doing. It wasn't remaining with the clock. I'm really sorry about that, but.
What does the owner say? Listen, you're responsible for that sheep.
And that sheep is lost and in fact they find out. Perhaps the wolf taking the sheep sheep is.
He's dead. He's eaten.
The Shepherd.
Failed.
To preserve.
That flock of sheep.
And one was lost, and it's the shepherd's fault.
It's not the sheep's fault. Well, I think about that in connection with you and me as believers. We are sheep of Christ, and He's taking us all the way home to heaven.
And you know, the Lord Jesus says all those that the Father has given me, I've lost none.
And if he was to lose 1 sheep, just one sheep.
That would be an aspersion.
On the.
Care, the protection, the power and love of the Lord Jesus.
Now what would you thought that one sheep of Christ would ever perish?
So we don't have anything to worry about there once when it comes to our eternal salvation.
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He's an all the way home savior. He's an all the way home shepherd.
But we do worry.
Yeah, we do get anxious.
About the.
Circumstances of life.
And that's not good. You know the Lord, He wants us to enjoy peace.
Not only with God.
But it wasn't us to enjoy the peace of God.
How do you think that God ever gets?
Worried about anything? Do you?
You think he ever gets anxious about what's happening in the world?
Of course not.
Everything is under his control.
He's not worrying.
You know it tells us.
That.
God is omnipotent.
He's all powerful.
He can do whatever he wants.
We had before us creation. The conference considered the stars, the heavens. The firmament is handy. Just think about it.
If you can make one star.
At least speak a star into existence and hold it out there in the universe.
You think there's anything too hard for the Lord? Anything too hard for God?
No, there's nothing too hard. But you know, he does allow.
Circumstances in our life to keep us independence on him.
He wants the very best sports.
I'll assure you of that.
Because he loves you and you and you and you. And the reason I say that is because.
No greater love is the man then that he lay down his life for his friends.
And that's what the Lord Jesus has done for you and for me. He laid down his life. He suffered, He bled, He died.
The Cross of Calvary.
And.
The love that was manifest at the Cross is that which we need to.
Dwell upon.
The love of God.
The love of Jesus.
One of the.
Contemporary hymn writers. Songwriters.
Written many, many Christian songs.
He was asked.
What lyrics?
Really seemed to be at the top.
Of your list.
You know, and without hesitation, he said.
The one that goes like this Could we with ink the ocean fill?
And where the skies of parchment made.
Where every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a tribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the Ocean Drive.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from earth to sky.
Imagine draining the ocean.
Try the ocean being filled with ink.
No more ink to write more about the love of God on that scroll. Can you imagine that? It seems like an exaggeration.
There's no exaggeration.
We need to keep ourselves in the love of God.
We've got an enemy.
Well, actually we got three enemies. I was thinking about Satan.
He wants to sew in your mind.
Suspicion.
As to the love of God, the goodness of God.
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He wants us to be suspicious.
Of the love of God He wants us to doubt.
Next week he went with he. He tried to cast aspersion, cast doubt by the goodness of God.
Yeah, hath God said this? Well, I'll tell you what, God, he's withholding something from you.
Something for your happiness, and Satan is doing the very same today.
Talking with Danny here today.
He was telling me about some group on the move today, I believe. Did you say it was faith destroyers?
Deconstruction of faith. This group deconstruction of faith. Basically the same.
So Can you imagine?
Deconstruction of faith. This is what this group has as its objective.
And I want to tell you something. They seem to be.
Successful.
There's more and more atheists.
People that don't even believe it is God.
Well, we know Satan is behind it and it tells us that in the last days, perilous times are coming and.
It tells us that evil men and deceivers are going to last worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
So when I heard that.
That only supported the authenticity of the Word of God.
There's nothing we can do, really, to tear down the Word of God. We can try, but it won't work.
Picasso, you could speak up. We can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
You know this book it's been referred to.
As Amber.
Hammers of unbelief.
Had been worn out on the gamble of Holy Scripture.
The Bible stands like a rock on daunted.
And you know, the more I read the Bible, the more I want to read it.
And the more I read it, the more I realize.
How little I really know.
About it.
It's a wonderful book.
And we've got opportunities past two days to come to the conference.
Really enjoyed seeing interaction, you know between the the believers, young people, the older ones as well the children playing together. The fellowship is so nice, so wonderful to see.
And that God provides that for us.
But I do believe the fellowship is based on this book.
You're the believers that continued steadfastly first of all in the apostles doctrine.
And that's what we have in this book.
Your pastor's doctrine. It's the word of God.
And it's the basis of our fellowship, true fellowship that is. And the book is all about Christ. And that's wonderful. And of course, they continued to in fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.
And we saw that over these past two days.
It's wonderful how God gives this opportunity to get together in this way.
And.
I trust those that have been directly involved in hosting this conference are going to see eternal results you may not see.
The final result here on Earth. But when you get the glory, you're going to find out.
I believe the fruit of your effort.
Got something to look forward to?
Now stress. You know there is a good stress.
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Yeah, it just brings to mind my wife and.
Daughter, granddaughter they they attended a.
Cake decorated class for four weeks.
And.
It's very interesting the productions in that class.
It seemed like it was easier to decorate the cake than to eat it because.
It didn't seem like there was always a great interest to eat these cakes, so we did, I guess, pass on the cake. But anyway, the declaration was interesting.
And.
What I saw was that.
This icing was prepared.
And then a BLOB of the icing.
Was put into a little bag.
And one end of the bag was twisted.
And on the other end of the peg, there was this.
Little metal, triangular.
Piece attached to the bag on the other end.
So what were they going to do? You're going to make a rose?
Carefully.
Apply pressure to the bag.
And outcomes a BLOB.
And apparently that was a base for what was to follow. So here's this BLOB on this little stand and then.
A little more pressure.
And outcomes.
This little string of icing a little more.
And a little more pressure.
And.
I see a rose actually being formed on that BLOB.
And it was because there was pressure.
Being applied just the right amount, because if you apply too much, you're going to ruin the ropes.
And if you don't apply enough.
You're not going to have any rooms, so the pressure was applied.
And this rose began to form and you know.
When all was said and done, it was a beautiful rose.
But it involved pressure, pressure.
At the right time, in the right place, you know what David said.
When pressure.
How fast enlarged me.
And I think you know that we experience.
Pressure in our lives.
And.
It.
If it's that which makes us anxious and worried and fearful, it's not a good thing.
But you know the Lord, He knows exactly what is needed to carry out His purposes for your blessing, and even more than that, for His own eternal glory.
And so God is at work and.
We find there were those here that were in distress.
And you know.
Stress can be a bad thing.
If it's distress.
You know, what is it that causes distress? It could be a number of things. I mean, in the world they recognize certain things, you know, like.
Maybe the death of the log flood or?
Or divorce, or maybe losing a job or an illness of some sort. These things can be distressing.
But you know.
As a child of God.
We know that he loves us.
His desire is to do us good.
And he never gives us more than what we can bear. It tells us plainly. I believe it is in First Corinthians chapter 10 that God is faithful.
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Who will not suffer you to be tried about what you're able to bear, but will, with the trial, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. He lost us too much.
To give us something that's going to overcome us to where we have to throw up our hands in despair and just.
Just say, well, it's too much. I can't handle this. He never does that to us.
So made me find comfort annoying.
That the Father's love. It never changes, it's always the same.
And perfect love casts out fear. That's one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. It's so simple but so profound. Perfect love casts out here and.
I want to tell you something. The perfect love refers to His love for you and me.
Don't refer to your love for him because.
If that was the case, I would be fearful.
No this.
Perfect blood test out here. It's his love for you and me.
Absolutely tender, absolutely true. Understanding all things. Understanding you infinitely, Loving intimately.
Near this is God our Father.
What have we interfere?
Well, I believe that David, he was an answer to the distress of these ones, because it tells us that he became a captain over these ones that were in distress.
He become a leader.
And we know that.
David accomplished some wonderful exploits.
His faith in God.
And the people.
That followed David. They didn't tremble like they did with salt.
Tells us earlier in this book about circumstances where enemies came and and saw he didn't know how to handle the situation and the people, they just went here and there since they were trembling, trembling.
Well, dear ones, tonight.
David, there's a picture to us.
Of our captain.
And if you turn over to Hebrews chapter 2.
You're going to see who our captain is.
This is Hebrews.
Chapter 2.
And verse.
Well, we could read verse 9, Hebrews 29, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels.
For the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things. In bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. The captain of our salvation is Jesus.
And he's bringing many signs. He's leading.
Many sons to glory, and I trust that each and everyone here is part of that company.
The mightiest foes, most people. Are we before our great leader?
They flee.
Satan is no match for our great captain, a great leader.
I'll tell you something though.
You and I were no match for Satan.
You'll get the best of us.
And also, I mentioned two other enemies. One is the world and the other is the flesh. We're going to try to confront these enemies and overcome these enemies in our own strength. Forget it, you're done.
You'll be overcome. I'm not saying you're going to lose your salvation, but you have to put your faith and confidence in the great captain of our salvation, and that's Jesus, and he'll give you the victory.
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Pastor Paul, he says, thanks be unto God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you.
We don't deserve it.
But the Lord is good.
We ask folks, you know.
Well, how are you today? How many times did you do that at the conference?
You know, with a sincere concern for the to know about the person's welfare. Well, how are you today? How are you doing?
I asked it where I live in the community and you get all kinds of different answers all the way from oh, I'm just getting by to.
Fantastic.
And I'm inclined to think that the.
The former response is little more.
Accurate.
Then the latter one I mentioned.
Different responses.
To the question, how are you? But there's a brother and I think perhaps every time I've asked him how he's doing, and I'm not going to mention his name, but you perhaps know who it is.
He's answered you the same way. You know what he says.
He says.
I'm better than I deserve.
That's a nice answer.
I'm better than I deserve.
You know a person like that is a thankful person.
Because we don't really deserve any anything but you know, God is goodness provides for us and.
It's good to be thankful. We have so much to thank the Lord for.
And.
A thankful person is a happy person.
And we are to give thanks always for all things.
Well, this other D here, there's two other DS is debt, debt.
Now this is.
Something that.
And be a very painful.
Debt I know in business commercial settings on.
People make debt.
Work to make money.
But you know.
There are so many today that are in debt.
Financially because they live above their means.
And.
Sometimes they feel they need to keep up an image, You know, they call it keeping up with the Joneses.
And somebody was telling about some of these professionals. They got these big homes and they got these big cars.
And they wear fancy clothes.
And they are sunk in debt, but they want to keep up an image.
It's not a good thing.
Because you know to be in debt.
Is to be in *******.
It tells us in the proverbs. I believe that.
The borrowers servant.
To the lender.
And that's the case.
If a person is in debt, they think about what they owe to that person.
And that person is looking for.
Payment.
And if the payment isn't there?
That person is upset, or at least maybe not right at the time, but if you missed 234 payments.
You better be careful. You better watch out.
That it's not good, You know there's something worse, though, than financial debt.
Spiritual Debt.
The death of our sin.
What we owe to God.
Because of the fact that we have sinned.
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We can never pay the debt.
But you know, the Lord Jesus came from glory.
To pay a debt.
He didn't know.
Because we owed a debt we couldn't pay.
He paid the debt with his own precious blood, the Cross of Calvary. He's released us from the dead.
The debt is gone, our sins are gone, never to be brought up again.
Washed like we had in the conference. You know, we saw those two bottles. What happened? The one bottle was filled with the.
Black substance there.
I'm thankful I didn't have to drink that.
But there it was, and there's better look very nice look like a nice clear glass.
Of water.
Whatever it was, but anyway, you know, we found out how the.
Black.
One away, remember.
And become nice and clear, nice and clean.
And we know.
Just as that little hymn says, we often sing that my heart was black to see it until the Savior came in. His precious blood I know has washed me white as snow.
No rhymes with snow. I know I am white as snow.
In fact, David said, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
It's a wonderful condition to be in before God.
And you know, it doesn't change now. We talked about at the conference, we can allow sin in our life.
And it does not affect our salvation.
We're not going to lose our salvation, but we're going to lose the enjoyment of it. I recall that years ago. John Curry.
He used to like to give the illustration of these big ships. They come into harbor.
And they would be secured at the dock or the pier with these huge ropes.
Big ropes, I suppose. Maybe 6 inches in diameter. Huge ropes.
And you know, that ship was there. It was tied up to the dock with these big ropes.
And then before they had the wireless communication, they would take a wire. Now you know what, the wire is just a little thin.
Wire and they take it and run it from the office in the building.
On the dock, out to the bridge where the captain is in the ship, and now they can communicate back and forth between the ship and.
The Land Office.
By this little wire.
And it's important to be able to communicate like this, you know, to get instructions and to know what to do next and so on and so forth.
One day.
Little Rodent is on the ship. I don't know if it was a rat or a mouse or what it was. It actually started chewing on the wire.
And that little thin wire broke.
Oh dear.
Now we can't talk back and forth. We got a problem.
Well, is the ship going to save because the fact that the wire is chewed? No. The ship is secure at the top with those huge rows, but the problem is is with the communication.
And I never forgot that illustration, because when we come to Christ, we become a child of His.
We enter into a relationship that cannot be changed. It is secure, but we can allow in our lives something that would hinder our talking with the Lord, our communication with the Lord. And that's a serious thing because, you know, the Lord wants to instruct us. He wants us to enjoy his companionship. He wants to encourage us through his word, He.
Wants to talk to us and he wants us to talk to him. But if there's not that communion, we got a problem. So that's the point. It's a question of state and standing. Our standing is secure, it's perfect. But our state can be affected by what we allow in our lives. And if we do allow, a sin.
00:50:16
You need to confess it.
1000 tells us in first John chapter one.
That if we confess our sin.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin into forgive us.
From all righteousness.
We don't even have to ask for forgiveness, we just confess and it's automatic. That's a wonderful thing.
So.
And then we got discontentment. Oh dear, discontentment. This is a sad situation, These ones, they were not content under salt.
Yeah, so they come to David.
And I do believe that become satisfaction in David. And you know, there's many contented believers today, but how many in the world are discontent?
And you look around and you see protests here, protests there, and people striking here and striking there and not content. And I have to look into my own heart because.
There can be discontentment in my own heart, but that's a very sad thing. You mean to say that we can't be content with the Lord Jesus?
Over in Hebrews it says, be content with such things as you have, For he has said, I will never leave thee, nor for safety.
It's wonderful to be in the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so that we may boldly say.
The Lord is my helper. I'll not fear what man can do unto me.
Samuel Rutherford.
He was a believer and he wrote poems and believed letters and so on.
For the Lord, he was a true child of God.
But he was imprisoned.
And I can't tell you exactly. I think it was for his, his faith. Somebody here could tell us, no doubt.
But there he was in that cell, that prison cell. Not a nice place to be. But you know what he said.
So last night Jesus Christ came into this cell and every stone that flashed like a Ruby.
Yeah, he was able to enjoy the Lord in those circumstances.
Honor and majesty.
Are before him. Strength and beauty are in the sanctuary.
That's a wonderful thing to have before us, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So these ones, they went out to David and I don't think they were disappointed.
He became a leader over there. Now I'd like to turn to one more portion just in the next 3 minutes that we have left. And this is found in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13.
Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 13. It's easy to remember this reference because the chapter is 13 and the verse is 13.
And the verse says 13 words in it.
Which means.
What word would be at the very center of the verse?
Anybody tell me what number it'd be?
Who said seven? You're right.
7.
What's the 7th word here?
123-4567 Him. Who's him?
Jesus, what does it say? Let us go forth, therefore, hunting him without the camp.
Bearing his reproach.
For here there'll be no continuing city, but we seek one to come. What a beautiful verse. You know the camp is an ordered arrangement. It's a man made system of things.
00:55:02
Where we find that rather than allowing God.
To have his way in the worship, in the ministry.
As outlined in his word.
Man, he sets God aside.
And he's got his own way, his own arrangement, and it's called the camp. But you know, it's our privilege to go forth unto Jesus and to be in a place where the Spirit of God has liberty, perfect liberty, to exalt no other name but the name of Jesus. It's a blessed place to be.
To be gathered simply unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's one way to be saved is through the name of Jesus. Neither is there salvation any other. There's another name under having must be saved. And there's only one way to gather too.
It's God's way, and it's unto that.
Worthy, blessed, precious name of God's dear Son Jesus.
Probably start time is up, so perhaps we'll.
Let's see him.
Maybe we could sing that one number.
17 #17.
May the grace of Christ.
And.
As long.
Where the Holy Spirit.
Rest upon us from.