Dorothy Conference: 1988
Table of Contents
Gospel
Gospel—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to look for your friends tonight at a few scriptures through the Word of God, where God asks questions, where men ask questions, and the last of all, a question that is asked by a man and a question that every one of us must answer, because whether we wish so or not, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
If you bow your knee to him now, there's salvation, there's pardon.
Full and free, but be assured of this, that there is no way of escape from having to meet the Lord Jesus. You remember when the Lord Jesus was on trial that Pilate's wife sent a message to him and said, have thou nothing to do with that? Just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. Friend, it's impossible not to have to do with Jesus.
You have to do with him. Happy for you if you meet him as a savior.
If you know Him as your Savior and find your all in Him, but one thing I want to assure you, you must meet Him. You must look into that old glorious face, and you must see perhaps the very nail prints in His hands, and yet know that you refuse to accept His pardon and His grace. We pray that the Spirit of God may speak to your heart tonight and that you might be brought to realize your need of Him.
Well, I'd like to turn first of all to.
So Genesis chapter 3 and the eighth verse. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice.
In the garden and I was afraid because I was naked.
And I hid myself.
Well, your friends, here is the first question, where art thou? Where do you stand in reference to God by not asking you whether you're sitting in this room. I know you are because I'm looking into your face, but I say, where are you in regard to God, in regard to the Lord Jesus, because he's looking down upon this room tonight and he's looking right into your heart. The Bible says, ma'am, look on the outward appearance, but the Lord look at upon the heart.
And here we know this story very well. Here we find God had made this wonderful creation. He had filled it with everything that would make for happiness and for the good and blessing of man. His own hands had planted a garden, and he had placed Adam and his wife there to enjoy all that God had provided. And you've often enjoyed the good things of nature.
You enjoy the nice weather you enjoy.
The good food you enjoy, a certain measure of friendship. Perhaps there are many good things that you have enjoyed at the hands of God. But have you shut him out of your life? Have you received the blessings and rejected the blesser? Have you said, I have no need of him, I can live my life without him? Well, here we find what came in to spoil that fair scene.
I often think how wonderful it was when God created this world. It says My delights for with the sons of men rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth.
You know, we like sometimes to get away and see the beauty of nature, But you know, God is interested in what is going on in big cities because it's there that there are souls, souls that he has formed, souls that he wants to bless, souls that he wants to receive the pardon and salvation that he has freely to offer. And how marvelous it is to think that God created these things in this world for our blessing and for.
Our happiness because he wanted the good of his creature. But he gave one simple command to Adam, he said there's one tree in the garden that's harmful to you. One tree.
Someone said How often does one forbidden thing hide from our view? 1000 blessings.
And Adam, as far as we know, didn't reach out to enjoy many of the good things in that garden, but he reached out for the forbidden thing. Is that what you were doing? Many of us have to acknowledge that that was the course that we once followed. The Bible says that we walked according to the course of this world. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. There they were in that garden.
And God came down. He wanted the company of his creature. How marvelous. He wanted the company of his creature because he wanted him to be happy.
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He had made it all for his good and for his happiness.
But man chose to go his own way. And so this first question is, Adam, where art thou? I think that's the most wonderful thing that the very first words that God spoke after sin entered this world are Adam, where art thou? That means that God became a seeking God and friend, He's been seeking you, boys and girls, He's been seeking you.
From the very time that you could understand and even the most simple way.
The message of his love and his salvation. He was seeking you because he wanted you to be happy not only in this world, but for all eternity. He didn't want to be your judge. He wanted to be your savior. And so he said, Adam, where art thou? What was he doing? Are you doing it tonight? Are you hiding from God? Are you trying to run away from him? Does it make you embarrassed when somebody comes up and puts his hand upon your shoulder and says, have you received?
The Lord Jesus.
Are you, are you upset and embarrassed when somebody says that somebody asked you if you had a good job and you had a good job, you'd be very glad to tell them. If they asked you if you liked the home that you were living in and you enjoyed it, you'd be glad to tell them. And why should you resent it when someone cares not just about your job, not just about the home you live in, but whether you're going to be in glory forever?
You resent it when God says, Where art thou?
Where is your soul in reference to God? Are you running away from Him? Are you hiding from Him like Adam and Eve did here behind the trees of the garden? What a sad picture. Here God had created everything, and here the people that He wanted to bless are hiding from Him, ashamed to be in His presence. And yet God was seeking them, and He didn't send them out of the garden until He had shown that there was a gracious provision for their sins.
Yes, even though they had sinned if he was going to have to drive them out of the garden. And He did. And we'll never see the Garden of Eden again. This world is full of sorrow and misery and death because of sin. But He sent them out clothed through the death of a substitute and friend. God wants to clothe you with the best robe of salvation. He wants you to know your sins forgiven. He wants you to have peace with God.
And a little bit we were having in the meeting.
Today He wants you to enjoy life, not just independent of him, but as from him. He forgives us all things richly to enjoy. And I ask you tonight, where are you? Are you running away from him? Are you hiding from him? Are you hiding from somebody that's going to speak to you about your soul? Oh, I plead with you tonight, don't keep running away from him. He wants to bless you even though Adam and sin so grievously.
And.
Violated that first command of God. Still, God wanted to bless him, and he didn't send them out. I say without that best robe clothed through the death of another, and what was more, the promise of the coming Redeemer, the one who would come to bruise the serpent's head.
So the first question was, where art thou? Now we turn to the 4th chapter.
I won't read it all, but I'll read say from the.
The ninth verse.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
God gave Adam and Eve two children, Cain and Abel. They both came to approach God. Cain brought the first fruits of the ground that had been cursed for when they sinned. God cursed the ground because of man.
But Cain brought the first fruits of the ground. Perhaps I could put it this way. He didn't recognize that he was a Sinner. He didn't recognize the judgment that had come because of sin. He felt perfectly fit and ready in his own person to come and offer the first fruits of the ground, quite a part from the death of a substitute.
And you know, there are many people in this world just exactly the same. You hear people say sometimes, well, we all believe in the same God.
Cain believed in the same God as Abel.
Came came into the presence of the same God as Abel, but what a difference there was in the way they came. And maybe you may say, well, I go to church, I, I sing in the choir. I, I do those kind of things. I believe in the same God that you do. But have you taken your place as a Sinner? That was the place that Abel took. Abel took the place of a Sinner and he put between himself and God.
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The death of a sacrifice, he said. I can't approach.
God apart from a sacrifice and dear friends, neither can you and neither can I.
We cannot approach God apart from a sacrifice. God requires something that will put away sin, and there's nothing else but the precious blood of Christ. Are you trying to approach God in your own merits? Oh, you say I'm bringing my best to him. I think Cain probably brought his very best, the first fruits of the ground, but he was rejected and he was so angry that he slew his brother.
And I've seen people get angry the same way.
When you tell them that the thing that they're doing religiously is not acceptable to God, they get angry too.
They say I'm just as good as you are, but we're all sinners. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You say I wouldn't commit murder, but are you part of the crowd that was standing around there saying away with him, crucify him?
Are you part of that crowd? Oh, God holds you accountable. When Peter stood up, he said he killed the Holy One and the just.
They might have said, well, we didn't do it. That was Pilate that did that. And the soldiers, we didn't do it. But they were part of the crowd. They were the ones that set away with him. And what are you saying in your heart?
So I ask you again, not only where are you in reference to God, but what have you done?
Well, you've sinned against God and so have I were guilty before him, The Bible says. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us are guilty. The law was given too to only convince man of that, it says.
That that every mouth might be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. It's a good thing to take your place as guilty. That was the position that Abel took. And he offered an acceptable sacrifice. And he was accepted not because he was better than Cain, but because of the sacrifice he brought. And friends, I don't stand before you to say I'm better than you.
But I stand before you to say that I have found one who has.
Glorified God, who's met the question of my sin and guilt, and I have the precious word of God to say that his blood cleanses from all sin.
So tonight there's two questions asked of God. Where are you tonight? Are you running away from God? Are you rejecting Him and rejecting His Son? And what have you done? Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Every idle word that man shall speak, he shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, and unless your sins have been blotted out.
In the precious blood of Christ, they're still on God's record, and you'll face them.
Someday the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the book according to their works. Why are they judged according to their works? Because they refuse to have them blotted out in the precious blood of Christ. You know what'll happen tonight if you receive the Lord Jesus. Listen to these lovely words. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy.
Thy sins return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. That's what God wants to do for you. He wants to blot out those sins. Well, I'd like to turn to another one in Job now.
The 9th chapter of Job.
Verse one Then Job answered and said I know it is so of a truth, but how should man be just with God?
Now Job is asking a question. These first two we've looked at. God is asking the question. He's asking Adam, where art thou? He's saying to Cain. He is saying to Cain, what hast thou done? Those are two very, very solemn questions. Where are you and what have you done? But then Job says.
I know it's so of a truth, but how should man be just with God? How can, in other words, the record be cleaned? How can all those things be taken off and removed forever from the sight of God? Who says their sins and iniquities will I remember no more? Will Job ask that question? I hope you're asking that question too. I hope you're really concerned about this because it's very important.
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It's very important about that record. Remember that woman in the 4th chapter of John that we read about?
He didn't think the Lord Jesus knew all about her.
She just came and talked to the Lord as if he was another man, but he was the Lord of glory. He is the Lord of glory. And there she came to the point where she wanted a drink of that living water. Perhaps you say, I'd love to have the peace and the joy that Christians have.
When she came to that point of saying, Give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hit her to draw. Then the Lord said, Go call thy husband and come hit her. She was tested. Now was she going to be real, or was she going to hide her sin? Was she going to pretend that everything was right in her life? She didn't know that she was in the presence of 1. And it says, All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him we with whom we have to do.
And if I can put it this way, God opened the record of her life, just as He's going to do with the great white throne for every Sinner who hasn't been cleansed in the blood of Christ. He opened her record that day, and he started to read off what was down on the record. She didn't think he knew about it. She didn't know that she was in the presence of the Lord of glory, the judge of all the earth.
Then she felt uneasy. Then she became religious. She said, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Is that the way you act when it's brought out to you that you're a Sinner? Then you start to turn religious and say, well, I better clean up and join a church or something like this.
Call friends. That's not what you need. You need to have those sins cleansed. Certainly if you love the Lord Jesus, you'll want to be in the company of those that love Him, but that's not the way of salvation.
The way of salvation is only to have your sins put away. And that's the question here that Job asks. He said how should man be just with God? I just like to quote the verse. We don't have time to turn to them all, but that beautiful verse as Paul stood up in Antioch, that city in Greece long ago, it says here that.
In Acts chapter 13, be it known unto you, therefore.
Men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from the which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.
And so that's the message that God has for you. This is the answer to Job's question. How can a man be just with God? Not by keeping the law.
It says it couldn't be justified by the law of Moses that only condemns, but he could be justified by the one who came to take the sinner's place and die, that we might live. And so if you want to be justified, will you take God at his word? Will you just believe that lovely verse? Let me say it again. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord Jesus.
Is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him all that believe are justified from all things from the which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. You can go to this room with not only your record clean, but justified carries us further than forgiveness, friends.
You know, to be forgiven is wonderful, but to stand before God in a life that never sinned and cannot sin, that's marvelous, but it's true. It's true if you take the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you are before God in Christ.
2nd Corinthians 521 Says God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's where the believer stands. I've often said by way of illustration, that if I stole from you and you forgave me, I think I'd be grateful that you forgave me, but you wouldn't set my mind thoroughly at ease about this. I don't know whether I'd feel just entirely relaxed in your.
Presence. I'd always wonder what you really thought of me underneath it all You say, Oh yeah, I forgave him. But he's just a thief to me. I forgave him, that's true. But God says all. I do more than that. I don't let me forgive.
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But if you could say to me when you forgave me. Now listen, Gordon, I have something good to tell you. Every time I look at you, I'm going to look at you as though you never did and could not do that. I'm always going to look at you with the same affection that I have for my dearest friend. And the cloud of what you have done is so entirely gone that I'm going to see as though you never did it or could do it. That's where you stand when you receive Christ.
Just how should man be? Just with God, you say? That's too good to be true. No it isn't, dear friend. Holy and without blame before Him in love.
How should man be just with God? Job didn't know the answer, but you can know the answer tonight.
You can go out of this room justified from all things. The law will never justify, it will only condemn you but God's grace and has found a way that you could be pardoned.
Another question here in the fourth verse. Well, I'll read the third also. If he will contend with him, He cannot answer him. One of 1000. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
Many people who are hardening themselves against God.
They're hardening themselves. It's a solemn thing to harden yourself. Say I'm just not interested in those kind of things. They're not for me. And you harden your heart.
You said unto the gospel, or maybe somebody in this meeting tonight, some young person, some boy or girl brought up in a Christian home, and you're hardening your heart.
You're saying, oh, I don't want to listen.
Like one girl who was asked to come to the gospel meeting, she said no thanks. It makes me feel too miserable.
Is that what you're doing? You're hardening yourself against God when he's offering you a pardon. Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered all friends, There's no true prosperity. I don't mean earthly prosperity. The rich man died. He was prosperous in this world that the Bible says, and the rich man died and was buried.
And in hell? He lifted up his eyes, being in torment. Do you call that prosperity? I don't.
I don't, I don't care how much money he amassed in life, he wasn't really prosperous in God's sight. Oh I beseech you, don't harden your heart against God. The little song says. Poor Sinner, harden not thine heart. Thou wouldst be saved. Why not to night? This is the time. Who can tell what tomorrow may bring? But this is your opportunity.
Well, I like to turn also to 14th chapter. There's some questions there that the Lord asks.
Brother, Job asked. Pardon me that Job asked Job Chapter 14.
And verse 3.
And dost thou harden thine eyes upon thy pardon me? Dost thou open thine eyes upon such a 1 and bringest me into judgment with thee?
You know, you may say, well, I don't think the Lord notices me. There's billions of people in this world and I'm just one individual. I don't think he's concerned about me, but he is, dear friend, He opens his eyes upon you.
He looks down in this room tonight and I certainly couldn't start in the back row and name all the names, but he could.
He knows all about you. He knows everything that you've ever done and said and thought. All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He opens His eyes upon you. He's seeing you sitting there, and He's trying to woo your heart with His love. He wants you to be in heaven. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Then he asks another question.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Then he answers that. Not one. Well, that's the way human understanding might say, well, it's impossible. There's no way that a person can know in this life that all his sins are gone. You have to wait till the judgment day. Many people think that way. They answer the question. They don't wait to see what God's answer is. They have their own answer.
But God can give you an answer right now that you can be sure that everything is well, and you don't have to wonder what's going to happen when you meet Him, because that's all settled before. Listen to these lovely words in First Epistle of John. It says that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world.
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You have to wait to find out. No, you don't have to.
You can know it right now, here in this world.
And just consider those lovely words as he is, where is the Lord Jesus? He's up there. He bore my sins on the cross. He said it is finished. He bore them all. And as he is there at the right hand of God, my precious Savior, who bore my sins with judgment behind him, He said, you can know that right here in this world. You don't have to wait till the coming day. You can know it right now. You can have that peace right now. And so.
Job asked the question.
Here.
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Says in Isaiah. But we are all as an unclean thing, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. But, old friends, God can take a poor Sinner and make him whiter than snow.
Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. So your sins be a scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. What a marvelous place you can be brought into, and you can know it right now. You can know it right now, the place that grace has brought us into.
That was another question in this same chapter. Job 14 and verse 10.
But man dieth and wasteth away. Yeah, man giveth up the ghost. And where is he?
He asked. He asked a question. Does God leave that question unanswered in His Word?
Someone said to Doctor Wilson, a Christian doctor of years gone by, said to him, well, he said he was on a sick bed in the hospital. He said, well, doctor, it's just a leap in the dark.
Doctor Wilson said. Wouldn't you like it to be a leap in the light?
You can, you can know Some of us have witnessed the closing scenes of lives of those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus. Was it a leaf in the dark for them? Oh no, indeed it wasn't. It was a blessed assurance that at death for them was to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Where is he? But that's only true of believers.
You read of this man the 16th chapter of Luke, this man who was rich in this world's goods, Was it all right with him?
Sometimes you do feel kind of sad when you go into a Funeral Home and the person who has gone has perhaps gone through a measure of suffering and now they're gone and hear the people saying, well, at last his suffering is over. Is it, friend? Is it?
If you have Christ in being, but what if you don't? What about that man? Was his suffering over when he died? I don't know what kind of a death he died. Maybe he had a very painful death too. Was it all over when he passed the portal of death?
Oh how solemn the rich man died and was buried and in hell. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment.
Is it true that there's something serious beyond? Who was it that said it? One man said. Oh, but nobody ever came back from the grave to tell us.
But another brother replied, He said the only person who never told a lie came back from the grave and he told us, yes, the Lord Jesus rose again. There he is at the right hand of God, someone said, But if you're more Christ like, you wouldn't be talking about hell. But the most solemn words in the Bible about hell are spoken by the Lord Jesus himself.
Friends, don't be indifferent about this. There are two destinies. There are two ways to be born, to be born naturally into this world, and to be born again. There are two ways to live, to live unto yourself or unto Him. There are two ways to die, and that is to die in your sins or to die in Christ. And there are two places to spend eternity.
Boy, plead with your friends, these questions that Job asked are not unanswered questions. God has given us the answers. The Lord Jesus has brushed aside the curtain and told us plainly what is ahead. And so if you're asking that question, if a man dies, shall he live again? Thy God has given you the answer. And first of all, this tenth verse, I should say, and where is he?
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Where is he? Yes.
Well, how needful and have this question settled here. No prayers that are said over your dead body can do anything toward fitting you for heaven or taking you there. Friends, it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this, the judgment, it must be settled in this life, says in Peter, They will be judged according to men in the flesh. That is, you'll be judged for what decision you made while you were still here in the body. That's what's important.
It'll be too late forever once you've passed the portal of death.
So he said, where is he? Well, God gives us the answer. Let me say again, the rich man who died in his sins.
He was in hell.
But what what about the believer? It says We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. We don't look for death, but if it comes, we can face it with absolute confidence, knowing that the future has been taken care of. The Lord Jesus has settled the question of our sins.
That you remember visiting a dear brother in the Lord in the hospital.
And last time I visited him, before the Lord took him home, I can still remember how he looked up. His voice was very, very weak. But he said, Gordon, isn't it lovely to know that judgments behind you are not ahead of you?
Isn't it lovely to know the judgments behind you? That is, the judgment of my sins was at Calvary. Was that the place where your sins were mapped?
If your sins were not laid there upon Jesus, then you'll have to bear them.
So this question is answered by God, Job asked it, and then in the 14th verse is the other question.
If a man die, shall he live again all the days of my appointed time? Will I wait till my change come?
Will he live again? Is that? In other words, is there a resurrection?
We hear a great deal today about a general resurrection, as if all were going to be raised at the same time. But that isn't what the Bible says. The Bible shows us that there is a resurrection of the just and of the unjust, a resurrection of judgment, and a resurrection to glory. And so, friends, these resurrections.
Not even close together says in Revelation chapter 20.
And the rest of the dead live not again until 1000 years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. So there is a resurrection. Some people get their bodies cremated, take them out and sprinkle them over the ocean.
Does that have anything to do with whether they're going to be raised again? Not a bit. The sea gave up the dead which were in it.
Yes, everyone is going to be raised, but if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, even if your body had gone back to dust, we had a little of that in our reading. When the Lord comes, he's going to call those who are living trusting in Him to meet Him in the air. But it says the dead in Christ shall rise first. There is going to be those who've gone before.
Those who perhaps many, many years ago have been.
Called home to be with the Lord, enjoying his presence up there, but waiting, waiting for the resurrection day when they'll receive bodies of glory fashioned like unto Christ. Glorious body. But oh, I plead with you, God hasn't told us what kind of a body the unsaved will have when they come forth, but He has made it very clear that they're going to be raised. They're going to be raised.
He doesn't tell us because it isn't so important what kind of a body you have. One thing is very certain, and that is you'll remember.
Son remember. Son remember.
It says where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. While I plead with you in the face of these realities, friends, don't harden yourself against him. Don't refuse the pardon he so freely offers.
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There's another question here that I think is very precious. The 16th verse.
For now thou numberest my steps. Dost thou not watch over my sin?
I'd like to apply that in a practical way to the believer.
I say this because there was a.
Lady who came to the gospel meeting many years ago and she accepted the Lord Jesus as her Savior and was very happy to know that her sins were gone.
But she hadn't laid hold of the whole truth of God, and a few weeks afterwards she came back to the brother who was holding these meetings out in a farmhouse many years ago.
And she said I had the wonderful assurance that all my sins were gone when I.
Except that the Lord is my Savior. But I have to say, I'm afraid I've sinned since What about those sins? What about those sins?
Well the brother said do I just want to ask you 2 questions?
How many of your sins were future when the Lord Jesus died?
Well, she said. I guess they were all future because I hadn't been born.
And she said he said, well, I have another question. Is the Lord Jesus going to die again?
And she said, Oh no, I don't think so. Well, you don't have to have any doubts about that. The Bible says in that he died, He died unto sin once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God, or another verse 4 by 1 offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Yes, isn't it a marvelous thing to know that when God is at work, cleans that sheet and marks blotted out in the precious blood of Christ, Why, It's a once for all thing. It's once for all. You can have the blessed assurance about this, we say. What does happen then when a believer sins? Isn't it true that sometimes a believer sins? Now it isn't characteristic, if I can put it this way.
A pig lives in the mud, a sheep might fall into it, but that isn't its life.
And so for a man is saved, he has nothing but a fallen sinful nature that loves sin.
And as my father used to say, some of the modern preaching, telling people to clean up their lives is like telling a flock of ducks not to get their feet wet. And if the flock, if the ducks could answer, they'd say, oh, but we love to get our feet wet. That's our life.
And so when you tell unsaved people they better clean up their lives, you're doing exactly the same thing because they have, just as I had and just as you had, a nature that love to go in the course of this world.
Was speaking to us back in Ottawa and he said.
Was telling a man about salvation and he said to him, well it seems to me that everything I want to do, you're telling me it's sin. What a confession, dear friends. That man loves to live his own way and go on without Christ. But when you get saved and there's a new guest comes to indwell your body.
You receive the life of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the power now that is given to you, the Holy Spirit, to shed abroad the love of God in your heart and to give in new desires. You might say, well, I don't see how I could enjoy reading the Bible and how I could enjoy attending meetings like this. That's not my line. That's because you haven't been born again, if you were born again.
You would enjoy these things. You would. You would find great joy.
Most of us have thoroughly enjoyed this day over the precious word of God. Why? Because God gave us a new life created in righteousness and true holiness. But now to answer this question that Job asked, Does God watch over your sin even as a believer? Yes, it's all blotted off the divine record. But.
What sin does in the believer's life is to interrupt his fellowship with God.
It doesn't change his standing before God, but it interrupts fellowship.
And so God has made provision. I'm glad that he's made provision for my failure as a believer. He's made two wonderful provisions.
First of all, he has told me that my precious Savior who died for me ever lives at the right hand of God, making intercession for me. And it says, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I have many times of need. Perhaps you do.
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Maybe you're having real problems in your life. Maybe you're having lots of hard questions in your life, things you don't understand.
Isn't it wonderful that you can look up and say, Lord, I know that Thou understandest all about this situation. I need a great deal of help to meet it. I can't meet it in my own strength. And the Lord says, I'll give you all the strength that you need. That's what I'm living here for. I died to put away your sins, and I'm living up there to supply grace to help in time of need. You don't have to come timidly. You can come boldly.
They can come boldly. I like that word. I think of a child coming home to its own house and when it comes to the door, it doesn't ring. The doorbell, doesn't knock on the door comes in with confidence. It knows that there are people inside that love him or her. And isn't that wonderful? When you are saved, God is no longer your judged. God is your Father.
God is your Father, and you can come to Him, and you can seek help from the Lord Jesus for every time of need. And how many of us know only too well that we never could have come along the Christian Rd. this far if it hadn't been that we found help from the Lord?
He'll help you in all those difficulties, those insurmountable situations in life that the world just throws up its hands. You have one, whoever lives. Oh, but you say, what if I slip?
Well, God never gives, shall I say. He never gives excuse for failure in the life of a believer, but he makes provision for it.
He makes provision for it and so it doesn't say when any man sinned, but it says if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And what happens when you come and confess it while you're restored? You know something of that feeling, perhaps with.
Somebody that you have done a wrong thing to them and you go to them and tell them how sorry you are.
And you feel immediately that there's a restoration. You feel happy with them again because that has been settled. And isn't it lovely that you and I, in the family of God, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. There may be a Christian here. And you become careless. You've lost the joy.
Joy of your salvation.
You didn't ask the Lord for the help you needed, and now the enemy may be whispering it's no use, it's all over. No, it isn't all over. You're in the family of God to stay. The record is off as far as your sins are concerned. They're all blotted out in the precious blood of Christ.
But it's a sad thing for a Christian to try to walk through this world and not have fellowship with the one who died for him, the one who lives for him.
You know, I just love that verse and it says.
It says we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That is those little words, Jesus Christ the righteous. You know, if I were to break one of the laws of this land and I get a lawyer to get me off, how could he? How could he do it righteously? If I'm guilty, he might find some loophole in the law or something and he might be able to get me off, but he really couldn't do it properly because I'm guilty. But I love.
To think of it this way, that when the believer sins, the Lord Jesus is up there. He says I paid for that sin.
I paid for.
That's what happens, friends. The Lord paid for it, and when you confess it, he takes his place before the Father on our behalf. That's what an advocate is, a person who takes up your cause. But he wants you and I to be restored. And so he says, if we confess our sins, don't, don't ask for forgiveness, just confess it. You say, what's the difference?
Well, you know, if I did something mean to you and I come and say, will you forgive me? I'm raising the question about whether you're going to say yes or no.
But if you say.
Gordon, all I wants to hear you say you're sorry. I've forgiven you in my heart long ago. That's what God has done. He's forgiven you long ago, but you'll never enjoy that until you have confessed it. And I say to any believer, any young believer that's unhappy in his soul, don't let unconfessed sin go on in your life. The one who died for you, who bore your sins upon the cross, He's watching over your sin because it's going to spoil communion with him.
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And that's another question that Job asked, he said.
Dost thou, dost thou not watch over my sin, while all these wonderful things are brought before us consequent upon redemption? It was finished, friends, at Calvary, and I like to look at another verse in later on at 40th chapter of Job. I believe it is.
40th chapter.
And the.
Seventh verse.
This is the Lord speaking now. This is one of the Lord's questions that we have here.
Gird up thy loins now.
Like a man 7 verse.
I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Want you to notice this question or two questions that God asks in this eighth verse.
Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
So there are many people doing that.
They're condemning God. They're saying if God's really a God of love, why does he do things like that? They're condemning God in order that they can justify themselves for their attitude that they're taking. That's very solemn, friend, every time you condemn God.
Even heard a man say what he was going to say to God when he met him all he'll be speechless. He'll have nothing to say then. He's got plenty to say. Down here, people say some horrible things about the way God allows tragedies and things to happen in this world. They're constantly condemning God and trying to make out that they're righteous, that they wouldn't do a thing like that. All friends don't condemn God.
What is repentance? It's taking sides with God.
God against yourself.
It says the Lord Jesus said to the proud Pharisees that they rejected the counsel of God against themselves.
God was bringing before them their guilt, and they rejected what God said, and they justified themselves, as it says in another place.
That they justify themselves.
And they, they turn around and blame God for the things that God does. Well, how solemn it is, dear friends, to condemn God, to justify yourself. Ye are they which justify yourselves, The Bible says, But God knoweth our hearts.
So Mrs. Salem isn't and I ask, is there anybody here tonight that you've been blaming God? You say, why is all the trouble in the world? Why is there so much sickness? Why do tragedies come in some families like they do? Are you condemning God? Are you blaming him? Oh, I beseech you to take your place like the job finally did. He pointed his fingers at other people, and he said he wouldn't put some people with the dogs of his flocks.
Their fathers with the dogs of his flock. But at last his finger got turned around and he said, I am vile.
I am vile, I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes.
Friends, that's repentance.
It's pointing the finger at yourself and say find the guilty one, I'm the guilty one and there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner that repenteth. As soon as you start pointing the finger at yourself in the presence of God and says I'm the guilty one, I'm the one that's wrong, Heaven rejoices because that's the very beginning.
Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ is salvation.
And so I plead with you tonight to not condemn God, not to justify yourself, but to take your place as guilty before Him and receive the great salvation that He offers. Just one more.
And that's in John chapter rather Matthew, I should say chapter 27 I think it is.
Matthew, Chapter 27.
Verse 21.
The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye thy release unto you?
They said parabens.
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
That was a more solemn question asked by Pontius Pilate in front of the whole company there that were assembled to condemn the Lord Jesus. What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
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It's personal. He didn't say what will we do, but what shall I then do with Jesus? And friends, I want to close with that personal note, What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ? God recorded the answer of the people that day. It says here they cried out, let him be crucified.
That was their answer. What is your answer? I ask you friends, what is your answer?
Answer. It's personal. You have to answer for yourself. Everyone shall give account of himself to God. What are you going to do with Jesus?
Are you going to say tonight I take my place as guilty before him? I claim Him as my savior?
I trust in His precious blood that cleanses from all sin, and I believe His word that says by Him all that believe are justified from all things.
By which he, from the which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. O friend, will you take your place tonight as guilty before God, if you do your salvation full and free?
O May God grant that you will not be indifferent to this question.
Someone wrote a little poem or hymn that says.
What shall I do with Jesus?
What shall the answer be?
Someday your heart will be asking, what will he do with me?
It'll be too late for you to decide what you're going to do with Jesus. He'll be the one that's deciding and he'll decide what to do to you. Oh, friend, tonight it's in your hands. If I can put it in that way. You are responsible before God. There's a decision to be made. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision to the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
What is going to be your decision? God records the.
Answer of these people, the decision they made, let him be crucified. We want Barabbas, but not Jesus. And are you going to leave this room and say, I want the company of this world? I don't want Jesus as my savior? Well, I can't tell you how solemn such a decision is. You say, well, I'm going to think about it, But you know, there are three ways that you can treat the message.
You can. You can neglect it, you can reject it, or you can accept Him as your savior.
Many years ago I was speaking to some of the children in the Sunday school and I mentioned those three things.
How shall we escape if we neglect?
So great salvation. It's just putting it off.
And then it says, He that rejected me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the same that shall judge him in the last day. The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. And then there's that verse that says.
That as many as received him to them, gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation and you're making a decision tonight.
You're either making a decision to neglect this matter, or you're making a decision to reject the Lord Jesus, or you're making the decision to accept Him, to accept Him into your heart, to accept the pardon that freely is offered to you by the Lord Himself. If you receive Him as your Savior, you'll pass from death unto life. You'll be able to say like that, dear man.
At the portal of death, you could say judgment was behind.
And not ahead.
Oh, friends, a gospel meeting is a tremendously important thing. People consider some business meetings and political meetings very important. They're all for time. But this meeting has to do with eternity. Eternity.
Eternity where it floats in the air.
It's it's a question that you must answer. Oh, may the Lord grant that this question. We've seen the question asked by the Lord to Adam, asked by the Lord to Cain.
Questions that Job asked that God has answered for us.
Question that, God said. Are you going to set aside what he says to justify yourself? And then last of all, what are you going to say to this wonderful Savior who wants to be your savior tonight?
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What shall I then do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
Receive him this moment, and peace shall be thine.
Practical Lessons For Our Pathway
Laying up Treasures
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, and the 44th verse again. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath buyeth that field.
Then in Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us who are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
And we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
And last of all, in Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter 6 and verse 19.
Lay that up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves breakthrough and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, For neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and for thieves do not breakthrough nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I'm sure you have noticed in these three scriptures we have a little word about treasures. In the first one we have a picture.
Of the Lord, and there was a treasure hid in the field and he was seeking. He bought that field in order that he might have that treasure. I believe it's what He has in His people, the treasure that He has found in His people. He was willing to sell everything for that. In the second one, we have a treasure in earthen vessels. He's put a treasure in us and that is the new life that has been given to us.
And the Holy Spirit of God, who indwells us so that we might be able to go through a world.
Like this. And then last of all, there's something that speaks to our hearts. Where is our treasure? We know that He.
Spoke of us as a treasure that was worth selling all that he had to have. We think of what he has given to us and how richly we've been blessed. And then we think of how much our lives respond to this. That sometimes been said, we can have as much of Christ as we want. Our lives show how much we want.
And so in this one that we looked at in Matthew 13, I'm sure we're all acquainted with these similitudes of the Kingdom of heaven. I believe the Kingdom of heaven, just to say briefly, in a general sense refers to what is known as the Christian world professing Christendom. And in this chapter, the Lord was telling about what character things would take during His absence. I believe He gave a little outline of how things would go on in the sphere of profession in this world.
While He was away. And so we find these different things. But when we come to the passage that we read here in the 44th verse, the Lord had gone into the house and now He's speaking specially to His disciples. The others were spoken more publicly. But here He goes into the house and then He speaks about the treasure hid in a field. I believe this refers to His people here in this world.
Isn't it a marvelous thing?
When we think of ourselves and what poor, failing things we are, at very best a little, we have responded to His love. How marvelous that He should speak of us as a treasure. When we think of a treasure, we always think of something that's specially valuable, something that means a great deal to us. But brethren, isn't as true about the Lord Jesus, we'll never fully realize what we mean to Him.
I think of that lovely verse in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. He shall see.
Of the trival of His soul, and shall be satisfied. Doesn't that sound wonderful to you when you read it? As we look at ourselves, we think of how far short we have come in responding to His love. But what we think that He's going to view that whole vast company up there in the glory, and He's going to see each one there. There's not one that He will say. I'm sorry I brought that one here.
No, everyone you'll see of the travail of his soul.
And shall be satisfied. His heart will be eternally satisfied. He wants us to be satisfied too. But remember that verse. I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness. But this seems to me overwhelming when we stop to think of it. That He could speak of His own as treasure. And we know here, we're told in this chapter that the field is the world. We think of this world, how far it had departed from God. How far.
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It had gone and it's.
Giving up of God at last of all, God had sent his Son.
But then we find that the Lord bought the field. We know that He had a Creator's right. Perhaps you remember in the 4th and 5th of Revelation we have His two claims to this world celebrated by the redeemed in heaven. The first one is, thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they were, are, and were created. And then in the 5th chapter we have redemptions, right? And there is the whole company of the redeemed up there around the throne in.
Glory and they're singing, Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. That is His right as Redeemer. So he had a right to this world as Creator. But into that fair garden we know how Satan came and got the ear of man, and they turned away. They shut out the Creator, so to speak, from their thoughts and from their lives.
And yet the Lord loved His own so much that he saw in all his corruption and ruin that we see in the world those who are precious and dear to him, those He considered that it was worthwhile that He should give himself, as we often sing Himself, He gave our poor hearts to win. Was ever love Lord like thine from the paths of folly and shame and sin?
And fill them with joy as divine. And what?
Marvelous expression as is, He sold all that He had there. He was up there in that glory above, forever the delight of his Father. But there was a necessity if he was going to have his own. There was a price to be paid. And how much must He give up? When we think of doing something, we say, well, how much do I have to give up for this? Well, the Lord gave up everything.
He left the Father's glory and came down into this world a homeless stranger.
The only person who could choose where he would be born, he was born in a Manger, the only person who could choose where he'd be brought up. And he was brought up in a community that apparently had a poor reputation, for he remembered, Nathanael said. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Oh, how marvelous. Then in this pathway here foxes have holes and the birds of the air hath have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
As the little song says, to only a cross did they give to our Lord only a borrowed tomb. Just think of what he gave up. And that makes a response in our hearts, doesn't it? Somebody gave up a great deal for us. Somebody did something that really cost them a great deal. We appreciate it in proportion to what we see behind it and the love and the sacrifice they made in order to do it for us. And so if you and I would only realize.
What it meant that the Lord Jesus sold all that he had and bought this world, He has now a Redeemer's right over it, but he has a company, and though that company have been washed in his blood, and they'll surround the throne and sing, Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And so I say again, isn't this?
That he's going to be satisfied. Another thing that I've enjoyed, especially of late is that the Lord calls us friends. We sing the little song, what a friend we have in Jesus. And that is wonderful that I can say that I have a friend in the Lord Jesus. But isn't it much more that he should say, well, I have a friend in you. He said, Abraham, my friend.
And why does he say that He said All things that I have heard of my father have made known unto you?
Yes, He's told us what's going on. You pick up the Daily News and they're concerned about things that are going on in this world. And the Lord says, but I have told you everything.
You're not surprised by things that happen because I've set out the whole panorama of what's going to happen and you can just look on as an observer because you're my friend and I want you to understand what's happening. And it's all leading up to that glorious event when the Lord gives the shout and gathers his own to himself. And then, as we know later on, brings in blessing to Israel. And then he'll bid the whole creation smile and hush its groan. Well.
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Just think of this a little bit, brethren. I need it for myself as well As for you, that the Lord has looked down in this world, with all its trouble and turmoil and strife. And he says, I have a treasure there. I gave everything in order to possess that treasure so dear to me. And from the ruin and wreck of humanity He picks us up and counts us his treasure. Then too, he says.
And then shall every man have praise of God, just to think when we get.
Get there. He's going to value the slightest little response there was in our hearts to His love and His claims over us.
But then in the next one, in Second Corinthians chapter 4, Second Corinthians chapter 4, and verse 6. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God.
And not of us.
Well, there's a treasure that's been placed in this earthen vessel. That is, before we were saved, we saw no beauty in the Lord Jesus. We had no interest in him or in his love or in his claims. But then he brought us to himself, and he put a treasure inside. Every believer in this room has within him the very life of Christ, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
Then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
He also sealed us with the Holy Spirit, and our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Are we conscious of this, brethren? Don't we often forget it? This treasure in the earthen vessel, Wherever you go, wherever I go, this treasure is with us. He asked The very life of Jesus in US. And as we think of that, certainly it concerns us that our conduct would be such as would show to this world that the treasure is there.
As the Lord said, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify not you, but glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
So God wants the world to look on and say, here are people who are different. What is it that's different about them? Oh, it isn't just a change of ways. There's a treasure in the earthen vessel. Just think of it, the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God. And so that we can look up and see that Blessed One is read to us this morning about on the Mount of Transfiguration, how the disciples saw no man anymore.
Say Jesus only.
With themselves, that is, they saw Him, and God has given to you and I a life that is created in righteousness and true holiness, a life that delights to please Him, a life that finds all its satisfaction and all its joy in Him. And so it tells us here to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
All that God is has come out in him, so the Lord Jesus could say.
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. A perfect display here in this world of what God is like. People say, what is God like? There was a perfect display in this world of what God is like. And I see the Lord Jesus standing still at the cry of a blind man. That's what God is like. When I see the Lord Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus, I see what God is like.
I see his heart told out in a man down here in this world.
In the circumstances of life sin apart and how perfectly he displayed that and he's given us the very life of Christ. We say I can't respond that way to situations. Well, maybe we don't, but we can. We have the life and we have the power. Every believer has the same new life. Every believer has the same power. Sad to say, we're not always using it. We're not always allowing the life of Jesus to.
Seen in our bodies, but it's there. There's a treasure in the earthen vessel. Well, as it tells us then at the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. That is, he puts the treasure and some of us have bodies that have aches and pains and that are wearing out, have many deficiencies. We realize that.
He's he's put it in an earthen vessel. He doesn't want a lot of attraction. The world is all built up in the idea of the idea of a traction that tension to.
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The body. What God wants to do is to attract attention to the treasure that's inside.
Just like what we were talking about yesterday. What does God value in a woman? He says the hidden man of the heart, that which is not corruptible, that's what He values. That is really what is of importance to him in our lives. Brethren, whether brothers or sisters, is not how well we're dressed or how well we appear, but the treasure. Do others look on like they did with the early disciples as they took knowledge of them that they had been with?
Jesus, what did they say? They saw the life of Jesus. Oh, but we might say, I have so many unpleasant experiences and it's hard, but that's the very purpose that God is accomplishing in these things. Notice this eighth verse. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are persecuted. We are perplexed, but not in despair.
Did you ever feel like that? Trouble on every side.
Something that you wanted to make a decision about and you were just perplexed. You didn't know which way to turn. The Lord put you in that situation that you would realize, and I would realize how totally unable we are to meet the situations of life in our own strength. But He put the treasure there so that we would feel a need of Him, and so that when these situations arose, we would see His hand. That He was teaching us the hard lesson for all of us.
Dependence and confidence.
That's what he wants to teach us, repentance and confidence. Cast not away there for your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. And so he passes us through these things.
Possibly even persecution in the goodness of God. We have great liberty in this land, but there are lands where they really are being persecuted for the name of the Lord Jesus. Has it robbed them of the treasure? No. As we read accounts of it, we see the treasure shining a little more brightly.
Sometimes I have wondered if there isn't a reference here to Gideon's men. Do you remember when Gideon's men went out against the Midianites? It tells us that in one hand they had an earthen vessel with a light in it, and in the other hand they had a trumpet and they blew with a trumpet. I believe that refers to our spoken testimony. A trumpet makes a noise and we speak. We we let it be known as, or at least we should, that we are believers in the Lord.
Jesus, we confess his name before men, and then they begin to watch us. And what do they see? Well, when they heard that trumpet blown, and they looked over, there was 300 shining torches. But how was it?
Everyone of those vessels had to be broken. Everyone.
Gideon said When when you hear that trumpet, I'll blow, and then you all blow with your trumpet. And then he said the vessel has to be broken so the light can shine.
And it's not how we act when everything goes well, it's how we act when everything goes wrong that displays the treasure within the vessel. In the time of trouble, He will hide me in his pavilion. And how often we find that we're overcome when bad situations arise. But God is saying it's just an opportunity that others would see that there is a treasure in the earthen vessel. There's something inside.
And how lovely it is when you see and sometimes.
Even the world will say, what is it that you have? You have something we don't have. It's all right when everything's going well, but you've faced a very bad situation and yet you, you seem to have something. Yes, we have. We have a treasure in the earthen vessel. The Excellency of the power is not of us. It isn't. We have such wonderful characters, but we have the life of Jesus in the vessel.
And so he speaks of the situations of life cast down, but not.
Destroyed. I guess we've all experienced that. We get cast down because situations seem so hard to understand. Why has the Lord allowed this or that to come in our lives when He has all power? Why doesn't He correct that situation?
Well, it's in order that the light would shine out. The brighter people in the office or the neighbors will never know what we have when we're prosperous and everything's going well, because they can be.
Happy when everything's going well, but they will see something when things go the other way. And the Lord intentionally, shall I say, passes us through these things so that that treasure would be seen.
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I believe there are two thoughts in the 10th and 11TH verse here.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, for we would live, or always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also that that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. You notice how similar these verses are?
One speaks about bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus and the other one speaks of delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
Well, if I could illustrate it by speaking about Gideon's man, let us suppose that when the trumpet is blown, there's one man and immediately breaks down the vessel so the light can shine out. But there's another man there, and he he thinks his vessel's pretty nice. He's picked out one that's very nice and pretty, and he's hesitating. He just doesn't like to see that nice vessel broken down. And so Gideon slashes it down.
So the light can't shine unless it's smashed down. We ought to do this voluntarily. But the Lord in his wisdom and in his love brings circumstances in our life. We would deliver all the way. It's always happening. Isn't that what it says here? All the way delivered unto death for Jesus sake, because we're so slow to put the flesh in its right place, the place of death.
Reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive.
God and God seeing it necessary, then he has to allow these things over and over again. Brethren, we never graduate from God's school. We're in it as long as we're down here. And some of us require more than others in order to break down that. And so if you could only accept those situations that arise, the times of trouble, the times of distress and perplexity and persecution times.
When were cast down, they're all allowed of God for this definite purpose because he didn't intend people to be just attracted to us, we'll say for our nice personalities or good looks or something. But he wanted them to see the life of Jesus in the vessel. And he passes us through these things. So again I say he found a treasure in US and he put a treasure in us and he wants that treasure to be manifested.
And in his wisdom and love, perhaps the reason it says here you notice in the end of the tenth verse in our body, and then in the 11TH verse in our mortal flesh.
That is when we do it in communion with the Lord. Maybe He doesn't have to put us through some of the trials that really humble us, But if we don't, then in his wisdom and in his love, he says, well, I'll just remind you that it's mortal flesh. It's that which is going to wear out and breakdown. It's that which is weak in itself. And so troubles come, physical troubles perhaps, and we realize it's mortal flesh.
We have mortal that is dying, We die, so to speak, and so He sees in his wisdom and his love. But again I say, he's put the treasure there, and he wants others around to see it. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify. Again I say, not you, but your Father, which is in heaven.
What does God want to see displayed in this world? He looked down as it was brought before.
This was such infinite delight on a person in this world that always pleased him, did everything, thought everything to please him, was willing to go even to Calvary in order to tell her at the heart of God. And now that precious 1 is up there in the glory that he put the life of Jesus in US and he's looking down and what does he want to see? He wants to see the life of Jesus manifested in US. That's the treasure in the earthen vessel and it's.
The Excellency of the power would be of God and not of us. And so these things are necessary, brethren, in our lives, because otherwise we might boast and say, well, I did it. But the Lord brings us into situations where we have to say, it was all of the Lord.
And the time came for David to get the Kingdom. Where was he?
Down in the country of the Philistines, offering his services to the king of Gath, he could never boast and say, I was so faithful that when the time came to get the Kingdom, the Lord gave it to me. He'd have to hang his head and say.
00:25:08
Right at the time when the Lord was going to come in and give me what He had promised, I broke down. Oh, how weak we are at best. And He teaches us our nothing. Is our weakness to teach us to lean hard upon Him? And so we have that treasure in earthen vessels now in Matthew that we looked at in the 6th chapter. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
Where Moth and Rust doth corrupt and where thieves breakthrough and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
Or in either moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not breakthrough nor steal. For where your treasure is there for your heart be also.
Well, we've spoken about the Lord Jesus counting his own a treasure. We've seen how he's put the treasure in earthen vessels. But then there's one that we can look up to. There's one up there in the glory. And He wants us to have our treasures, not down here, but up there. Now it's amazing how much effort we go to in order to have treasures down here.
And when we have perhaps worked hard and got a nice car or something.
That we had particularly wanted by. We're so pleased that at last we've got what we wanted here. But the Lord wants us to be looking up and saying, well, everything that's abiding, everything that's worthwhile, it's not here, it's up there. And someday, brethren, there's going to be a manifestation of our lives. And when that manifestation takes place, it won't be how well we succeeded in getting along down here, but it'll be how much in our lives was according.
His well and pleasing to Him, how much we truly found our treasure up there. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If I could think of that treasure as the Lord Jesus up there, everything that I have for time and eternities in Him, everything I say, there's nothing that you and I could possess apart from Him that can bring any kind of lasting happiness.
Remember when the children of Israel entered, Jerry called. There was a special.
Charge made that all the silver and gold were the Lords. One man thought, oh, I'd just like some for myself. And so he took it and hid it in his tent. Brought a lot of sorrow on himself and on his family. We often do that, brethren. We get an eye that says the wedge of gold and silver and a goodly Babylonish garment. And he said, I'm just going to have this for myself.
But what a loss it was before the one who searches all.
Things out. Why would the silver and the gold be brought into the treasury of the Lord? Does he mean that when you get saved, you're to just take every bit that you possess and give it to be distributed? No, not necessarily. But you sell out, so to speak. And you say before I was saved, everything was my own. It was my car, it was my house, it was my.
Possessions, clothes and everything but after we are saved.
If we really recognize the Lord's claims, we sell out. This car belongs to the Lord, This house belongs to the Lord. These clothes that I have, they belong to the Lord. And so there's a new ownership, shall I say? They belong to him. And he makes us his stewards. And then he says, I'm going to reward you if you carry out that stewardship in a way that's pleasing to me.
And that's our privilege here in this world. We're stewards at each one of us can.
I'm not going to ask you where you've got a nice color or not or whether you have a nice home, but the great the important thing is are we acknowledging the Lord's claims over what we possess and that we are willing to say it's really not mine, it's his and I just want to use it for him brethren is a real joy in that it says where your treasure is there with your heartbeat also and if our treasure is up there in the glory they.
Our hearts will be there, our hearts will be there, and the thing that we'll seek after in life is that we might recognize that Blessed One now crowned with glory and honor, that everything we have for time and eternity is in Him. And if He has left us here to be stewards for Him, that it's only that we might use what really doesn't belong to us, but belongs to Him in a way.
That would have his approval. What a blessed thing it is.
So we see what He has done for us, brethren. He sold everything to have us as His treasure. He put a treasure in the earthen vessel. But now he's looking for a response from our hearts, from his love. That's what he wants. My son, give me thine heart. He's asking us how much do we value what he has done for us? And if we value what he has done for us, we'll say, as the words of the little hymn say, love that.
00:30:28
Our highest power demands our soul, our life, our all. The enemy may tell us all, but that's a hard path. You may have to make a lot of sacrifices, but very, very small. When we think of the sacrifice that he made for us and all, how how wonderful it would be if in any little measure he says well done. That's the only thing that will count when we get there, to have his approval on what we've done.
He wants us. As Paul said, we labor that whether present or absent, we may be agreeable to him.
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3rd Reading