Talk—Bill Prost
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Let's have a quick word of prayer. Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for this happy time tonight.
And while we are not able to be at campus, we would like to have been. We thank thee for the technology that allows us to come together this way.
But now we pray for help as we open Thy word together and count on Thee to make it good to our souls.
We pray very specially for any who may be listening to night who are not saved, and we pray that thou wilt use thy word in blessing especially to them. So we ask this Lord Jesus in thy precious and worthy name.
Amen.
Well, what we're going to do is to have 220 minute talks with some music and some.
Videos as a kind of a break in between and for the 1St 20 minutes, I would like to talk about 5 things from the word of God that we know. Five things that we know.
It's an uncertain day in which we're living and there is much that we do not know.
A lot of people are concerned what's going to happen? Where's the world heading? Where will we be tomorrow? What is the world going to be like? And in human terms, well, they might think like that. But there are things that are solid bedrock in the Word of God about which we can say we know. The first one is in first John chapter 5.
First Epistle of John, chapter 5.
Now we'll have to go through these rather quickly to keep inside our 20 minutes.
But there will be a time, as I think Mark already said, for questions and answers later on if any are not clear on anything. First John 5 and verse 13.
Now, this is the King James Version, which I happen to be most familiar with, but it's not that different in other versions. First John 513, these things have I written unto you.
That believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may.
Know that she have eternal life and that she may believe on the name of the Son of God.
I've had a few conversations in the last three months with people who have been very concerned and willing to talk.
About where they will be when they have to leave this world. This verse answers the question and tells us that we can know where we are going. It doesn't have to be well. I hope I will go to heaven.
Or I'm not sure, or I've done my best and I hope God will take that into consideration.
Or anything like that.
Know that ye may know.
That she have eternal life and I am going to quote to you another verse that is so well known that we don't need to turn to it. John chapter 3 and verse 16 for God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life, you may say. Now how can I?
Know that for sure.
You and I can know this for sure.
Because God says it, and when God speaks.
We are dealing with a God who cannot lie and who always speaks the truth.
Now there are those who may, with all good intentions, say something.
But find that they don't have the power to do it. But the basis for eternal life is found.
In the work of Christ on Calvary's cross, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. I say this especially to any out there who may not be saved. It is possible to know that you have eternal life.
And that you will spend an eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ when you leave this world.
Second verse. John's Gospel. John's Gospel chapter.
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14.
Now this bears on the same subject.
Because when the Lord Jesus was about to go to the cross, his disciples were very sad because he told them he would be leaving them.
Meaning that after his resurrection he would ascend to heaven and he would not.
Personally and bodily be with them in the same way anymore.
And in verse four he says.
Pardon me, will I take a sip of water?
In verse four he says.
And whither or where I go?
Ye know and the way ye know.
Those disciples had been with the Lord Jesus for 3 1/2 years, but.
Dear Thomas, he has a question.
He evidently didn't get it.
And maybe he was expressing some of the doubts that the others had. And so he says in verse 5, Thomas Sethur says unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
You know, I'm glad Thomas asked that question because if he hadn't asked that question.
We wouldn't have verse 6.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh under the Father, but by me. Now there's both tremendous blessing.
But also a warning in that sixth verse.
That is.
If you and I want to have eternal life. If we want to know who God is.
If we want to enjoy the knowledge that our sins are all forgiven.
And that we will spend an eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.
But then there's a warning because to day, sometimes we hear people say, well, it doesn't matter how you come to God, you can have your way, I can have my way, somebody else can have his or her way. As long as you're sincere, that's what counts and it doesn't really matter.
How you come?
I had an experience some time ago.
And I won't say what I've often said because I get a little bit of criticism for saying, pardon a personal reference.
But this is a personal reference.
Two years ago.
I happened to be a retired medical doctor. My medical class had their 50th reunion of our year of graduation, and at the banquet I volunteered to give thanks for the meal because I knew that if I didn't give thanks, no one else would, sadly.
And when I said I only know how to give thanks one way to the woman in our class who was emceeing the whole thing?
Her comment privately to me was Bill. You can say anything you want when you give thanks.
As long as you don't mention that Jesus Christ.
Ouch.
Talk about being hamstrung and giving thanks.
The point is, this verse tells us very clearly that God has only one way to be saved, and you and I cannot take a if I could use an expression with all reverence. We can't take an end to run around the cross and expect to be saved.
We can't take an end to run around the Lord Jesus and say I'll come my way.
I've got my own ideas about how to be saved. Oh no. And there can be no compromise.
No possible objection to that. God has only one way. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
3rd reference.
Same book, John's Gospel, Chapter 7.
Now this is a little different.
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Averse, but we'll try and explain it because it's good for you.
If you're an unbeliever, but it's good for you if you are a believer.
John Chapter 7 and verse 17.
If any man will do his will.
He shall know of the doctrine or the teaching, whether it be of God.
Or whether I speak of myself.
What this verse is really saying is.
If your heart is willing, God will make sure.
You understand the way to come.
That is good for anyone out there who is an unbeliever.
Because why are people not saved? Is it because God isn't willing to save? He has done everything he possibly could. And if God hasn't won your heart and mind by sending His beloved Son into this world to die?
So that you and I could be saved, I ask you, what more could he do to win your heart?
But if you set your will against it, if I set my will against it, I can say no to the Lord.
And God is not going to force himself on you or me.
But suppose you read this as a believer. What then?
Probably one of the most common questions I get from believers everywhere is how can I know the will of God for my life?
How can I know what direction to go, what education to get, what job I should pursue, where I should live, and perhaps even more important, whom should I marry? Many other serious questions.
If any man will know, his will doesn't say that.
If any man will do his will. I have given this illustration before.
I have some very good friends.
Who if I were to go to them and say, would you do me a favor?
Their immediate reaction would be, by all means, Bill, just tell me what it is.
But I've got some other friends and I'm not being critical of them, but if I were to go to them and say, would you do me a favor, there would be a somewhat guarded what is it? Because what favor I wanted would determine their response.
I can understand that. I hope I don't abuse the privileges of having friends and impose on their good graces in the wrong way.
But there is a difference between one kind of friend and another.
God will not allow you to treat Him as a believer.
Like a distant friend, God does not say to you, I want you to do this with the option that you can say, Let me think about that.
If you go to the Lord, If I go to the Lord.
And say, Lord, I want to know your will.
While in the back of my mind I entertain the thought, when I know his will, I'll decide whether I'll do it or not. The Lord isn't going to tell you his will. But if I say Lord, just tell me your will.
And I know you'll give me whatever grace I need to do it. That's the kind of person to whom the Lord reveals himself.
#4.
Same book, next chapter, chapter 8.
And verse 32, but we'll read verse 31 as well.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him.
So this is a word mainly to believers, if you continue in my word.
Then are ye my disciples indeed, And notice this, and ye shall know the truth.
And the truth shall make you free.
Now the Lord Jesus said back in John 14 and six, to which we referred a few minutes ago.
I am the way, the truth and the life. And there he is talking about, although not.
Limited to it, but mainly about the gospel. How to be saved, but for you and me as believers.
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There's much more than simply being saved. There is the whole truth of God which sets us free. And it reminds me of a poem that a man wrote probably well over 150 years ago.
And one verse goes like this. Free from myself, Lord Jesus.
Free from the weight? Well, I'll start at the beginning. Low at thy feet, Lord Jesus.
That is the place for me. There I have learned deep lessons, Truth that has set me free. Free from myself, Lord Jesus, free from the ways of men, chains of thought that have bound me.
Never can bind again.
Only thy love, Lord Jesus, conquered my stubborn will.
But for thy love constraining, I had been wayward still.
Many of you, under the sound of my voice, will recognize the author of that poem.
The point is, the truth of God sets us free, because the truth of God gives us the truth.
About everything. And the believer who knows the truth is the only one in this world.
Who can look at everything with the right perspective, where the world is, what's happening, why it's happening, where it's going, what he can expect to happen. He knows where it's all going to end. The word of God tells us, but also.
Even more precious, he knows the One who is the truth.
And that's the most precious thing. And because we know the one who is the truth.
As we get in Peter's epistle, First Peter we get.
All things that pertain unto life and godliness that is found in Christ and how wonderful and how precious that is because He is the truth about everything. Sorry, did I say first Peter? I meant second Peter. Beg your pardon?
Second Peter, chapter one.
OK.
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
And the final one.
Romans, chapter 8.
And this one, again, is for believers.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.
And we know.
That all things work together for good to them, that love God to them who are the called according to His purpose.
Maybe you and I say what this coronavirus working for good?
When it's cost already?
Thousands and thousands of lives in this world.
And.
Caused countries and individuals to have untold heartache and sorrow and has cost billions of dollars.
Interrupted the world's economy? Put thousands and maybe millions of people out of work? Caused economic hardship everywhere? You mean to tell me that that works for good for the believer?
Says all things here all things Why?
Because God knows what to send into your life and mine in order to work things.
Which, although they're not always pleasant right now, will pay the richest dividends for all eternity.
The all things doesn't mean that it's all bad things. It says all things good things too.
But if you're anything like me.
I've had to admit that I've learned more from bad things so-called than good things. Excuse me?
I've learned far more from things that at the time I did not particularly enjoy.
But later on, I could thank the Lord for them.
Suffering in this world is not easy.
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But the sufferings bring out the richness of all that Christ is.
And I can learn him through suffering down here in a way that I'll never learn him when I get to heaven. Why? Because there'll be no suffering up there. I've had some very, very good friends.
And I've learned their heart and their love for me when I was in serious difficulties in a way that I could not have learned if I'd never had those difficulties because the difficulty I was in.
Brought out what was in the heart of that very good friend that I would never have learned otherwise. If everything had been going smoothly for me, they would have felt no need to jump in and respond. But when something happened where I really needed someone.
To find that they were there for me, it was a wonderful experience.
Which I have never forgotten.
But there is only one friend that sticketh closer than a brother. There is only one friend. And you were singing about it. Some of you, at least maybe some of you are on tonight.
What a friend we have in Jesus. I won't stop to tell the story because my 20 minutes is up, but that was written by a man. He was actually a Canadian, although he was born in England, who went through untold sorrow in his life. And if you're interested in the story you can Google Joseph.
Scriven, Joseph Scriven, Scriven. And you can read his story. It's on the Internet. Anyway, we won't enter into it now, but the result of that sorrow and suffering.
Was to write that hymn which has been blessed, I would venture to millions. He learned through the suffering what Christ could be to him in spite of it all. Well, let's leave it there now and take a break.
And when we resume, we'll talk about 5 things from Scripture.
That we do not know.
So let's go ahead. Let's go ahead then. The first one that I'd like to refer to is in First Corinthians chapter 2.
First Corinthians, chapter 2.
And verse 14.
One Corinthians 2 and verse 14.
Very important verse in the Word of God.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the.
Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them.
Because they are spiritually discerned.
Now, before we enter into what this verse means, I want to tell us what it does not mean. It does not mean that someone who doesn't know the Lord should say, well, in that case I won't read the Bible.
Because obviously it's not going to make any sense to me. So why read it? Absolutely not. The Bible is addressed to each one of us with full authority from God.
But what this verse is saying, I believe, is that if you and I.
Either as believers or unbelievers, try to make sense out of the Word of God.
With our natural minds and human energy, we are always going to go wrong.
And especially if you are not saved, then you are not indwelt with the Spirit of God.
And the Spirit of God is the interpreter of Scripture.
Again I say.
Should the unbeliever read the word of God? Indeed so, because God is able to make it clear to you by His Spirit.
The Spirit of God can work to show you what it means in order to bring you to the point where you accept Christ as your Savior.
Where trouble starts is when we go at the Word of God like a secular book.
And somehow think that the human mind can make sense out of it. And that's where men go very much astray, end up in a hopeless muddle and a quagmire of all kinds of difficulties.
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And it's just unbelievable. I'll tell you a quick story to illustrate that. I must confess I had a bit of a laugh over it when it was called to my attention. Here was a man on the Internet who was.
Taking up the book of Daniel as an unbeliever, not with an idea of getting any good out of it, but making a mockery of it and saying that the man that wrote the book of Daniel, that is Daniel, must have written it as history, not as prophecy. But he said something went haywire when he wrote the 11Th chapter.
Because up to verse 35, everything makes perfect sense and everything that he says there, it's perfect history. And it all happened that way. Of course, the fact of the matter is Daniel wrote at his prophecy, not history, wrote it long before it happened.
But it's so accurate that men who don't believe the Bible try and persuade themselves and others.
That Daniel must have lived after the events, not before them. But then he said.
I don't know what happened to him when he got to verse 36, because nothing after verse 36 makes any sense at all. It's just all nonsense. There's nothing in history that bears any relationship to it. He just lost it and I don't know where he got it all from.
Well, anyone that knows his or her Bible well will get quite a chuckle out of that because if you understand prophecy, you realize that up to verse 35.
Is all history, but from verse 36 on is all future and between verse 35 and 36.
Is what you and I would call the church period. The day in which you and I are now living, beginning with the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. And it will end when the Lord comes and calls every true believer home to be with himself.
But because prophecy concerns the earth and the church is a heavenly company, the church period isn't reckoned in prophetic time. The unbeliever doesn't know that, and so he thinks he's so smart and all he does is make a fool out of himself.
I say that not to throw dirt at anyone, but simply to point out where the natural mind takes us if we think we're going to go at the things of God with our human minds without the guidance of the Spirit of God.
Well, in point number one we were talking about what the natural man cannot possibly know about the things of the Lord.
Point #2 about things which we do not know is found in the book of James chapter 4 and verse 14. So let's turn to that James chapter 4 and verse 14.
We'll read it together.
Go to now ye that say to day, this is verse 13. Sorry, let's just read verse 14 because we don't need to have verse 13, verse 14. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the Morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time.
And then vanisheth away.
We all have to agree that we do not know what is going to happen to Morrow. This is a warning, first of all for those who are not believers.
We may be young, we may be older, we may be in good health, we may have every expectation of doing something tomorrow.
But equally true, we do not know what the moral holds.
How many things can happen? How many things have happened to people who had big plans for the future?
And it reminds us a little of the man in the 12Th chapter of Luke, who was all set to retire and be comfortable because he had what we would say in English was a good nest egg of crops that he had stored in his barns. He thought, as he put it, that he would relax, eat, drink and be merry. But the Lord had to say to him.
Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
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But it's a warning to us as believers too, because sometimes we are tempted to make plans for the future without bringing the Lord into the picture. And James reminds us in the next verse, verse 15, ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.
Now let's go on to #3.
This verse is found in Matthew's Gospel chapter 25.
Matthew, Chapter 25.
And verse 13.
Matthew 25 and verse 13.
Watch therefore.
For ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.
The proper interpretation of this particular verse we know.
Is an application to Israel in a coming day, but.
The principle has a good warning and a good reminder for all of us.
The Lord Jesus came down to earth once.
Walked through this world doing good.
And then eventually went to Calvary's cross and there suffered, died and shed his precious blood so that you and I could be saved.
But he's coming back again.
On two separate occasions, the first time will be to take every true believer.
Home to be with himself.
We aren't going to go into the details of that today.
But only to point out that that is, or at least ought to be the proper.
Living hope of every true believer, and that should have been true and was true.
At anytime during the whole time of the Church's history, the Lord Jesus said clearly to his disciples before he went back to heaven. If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
But the Lord is also coming back in judgment.
That will be at least seven years after he comes back to take believers home to be with himself.
And at that time, it will not be as a savior, but it will be as a judge.
And those who have not believed on the Lord Jesus will find out in that day.
That having rejected Christ as Savior, they must meet Him as a judge.
And so this verse is a good reminder, as we said a few minutes ago.
Not only to us who are believers, but also to unbelievers, because we do not know when the Lord may come back.
When he comes back to take every true believer home to be with himself.
That will end what we might call the day of God's grace.
And that's why the Bible says, behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation God doesn't promise you and me.
That we will have tomorrow or next week or next month in order to be saved.
God's time is now. We don't know when the Lord may come.
Either to take believers home, to be with himself or ultimately.
Incoming judgment.
Now let's go on to #4 Second Thessalonians chapter one and verse 8.
The Thessalonians hadn't been saved a very long time.
When Paul wrote this epistle to them, he had gone to preach the gospel in their city.
And had been driven away by persecution after having been there only about 3 weeks or so.
But Paul had, if we could use the expression, use those three weeks to full advantage.
And not only had those dear people, many of them, been saved out of paganism.
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To know Christ as their savior. But they had learned a lot about.
God's plans for the future and the blessings He has for believers.
Excuse me?
But here in Second Thessalonians chapter one and verse 8.
We find a very serious expression.
Going back a couple of verses it refers to God and then in verse seven it refers to the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
And to what purpose?
Notice verse 8, the coming we have spoken of in judgment.
In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them, that.
No, not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord? And so on.
Excuse me?
It's a solemn thing to end up in that serious position of not knowing God.
It doesn't say.
Taking vengeance on them that don't believe there is a God.
It doesn't say taking vengeance on them that know something about God.
No, there are many there who believe there is a God that tells us in the Bible that the demons also believe.
And tremble, but there's no relationship with God, no repentance.
No, shall we say desire to get to know him in order to know God.
I have to come through Christ. And today there are many people who are saying I want to come to God in my own way. I think I can know God by coming any way I want. And there are those to day who would say there are many ways to come to God. You come in your way, I come in my way, it doesn't matter.
It does matter because God has only one way to come.
And we already talked about that considering things we know.
In John 14 and six it says I am the way, referring to the Lord Jesus, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
And if there are those who think that they can come in another way or can pretend to know God.
Any other way than through Christ. It will be an awful awakening in a coming day.
To realize that you are among those that do not know God and who end up.
Under this awful judgment which the Lord is talking about here through the apostle Paul.
Well, finally, let us go on to #5. And this is found in Romans chapter 8.
A chapter to which we have already referred concerning things that we know.
We have seen that. We know that all things work together for good.
To them who know not God.
Or to them, sorry.
We have seen that all things work together for good to them that no God to them who are the called according to his purpose. That's verse 28 then that love God.
All those that love God and are called according to His purpose. We know that things work together for good.
But back a couple of verses in verse 26.
There's something we don't know. Let's read it together.
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.
But the spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And going on to verse 27. And he that searcheth the hearts.
Knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he that is the Spirit.
Make a thinner session for the Saints according to the will of God.
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It's a wonderful privilege to pray.
And it's a wonderful privilege to be able to come into God's presence without any hindrance. First of all, to give thanks for all that He has done for us, and then secondly, to bring our requests before Him. But do we always know how to pray intelligently and what our real needs are?
I am afraid we don't. If we walked perfectly with the Lord, yes.
We would be intelligent in prayer and we would pray according to his mind.
But I don't believe any of us would stand up and say and I've arrived.
I always pray according to the mind of God. No, that doesn't happen.
What the verse 26 says here is very true of most of us.
And all of us, some of the time we know not what we should pray for as we ought.
But has the Lord made provision for that?
Yes, he has. What happens?
When that prayer goes up to the Lord.
The Spirit of God.
With His perfect intelligence as to what you and I need, takes that prayer and, shall we say, edits it over so that it comes to the Lord perfectly as it ought to and as it relates to what I really need, according not to my limited understanding, but God's understanding.
Isn't that beautiful?
It's a little bit perhaps.
Like a little child.
Who is invited to come before someone in power and authority, and perhaps who doesn't really know fully what he needs, sometimes has trouble expressing it clearly and in making those needs known?
Stumbles a little bit, or perhaps says things that someone older and wiser realizes would not be good for that child if the request were granted.
Isn't it a wonderful thing if there were someone standing by there who then, after listening to the child, says, let me rephrase what this child is saying?
And give you the benefit of my knowledge and understanding of this child.
So that you can know what you really ought to be doing with this request.
Well, the child might not at first appreciate that, but later on we'll realize that some one older and wiser who has the child's best interests at heart is really doing them a great service by editing those requests. That's what the Spirit of God does for you and for me.
And so it says in verse 27.
He that searcheth the hearts, that's the Lord, knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit makes intercession for us according to the will of God.
That's a wonderful relief because sometimes when I pray.
I ask for things that aren't right. I ask for things that wouldn't be good for me. Or maybe they're good for me, but the timing is wrong.
Even the great Apostle Paul three times asked the Lord to take away what He calls a thorn in the flesh in Second Corinthians chapter 12, and three times the Lord's answer came back Paul no.
I'm going to leave you with that thorn, but here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to give you the grace to bear it and Paul eventually.
Got the point and was content with that. So that is a very great comfort to us as Christians. And I pass it on as something which all of us need to remember when we pray, that that prayer, although it may not be just what it ought to be, always goes up to the Lord in the perfection of what His mind is, not in the limited understanding. And perhaps.
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In some cases the wrong understanding.
Of what my needs really are.
Well, May God bless His word to each one of us.