Address—P. Wilson
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General Meetings sweetened August 1963, addressed by Paul Wilson.
Oh Lord, when we the past retrace, which thou on earth is strong.
To man thy wondrous love and grace, thy faithfulness. To God, thy love by man so sorely tried through stronger than the great.
The very spirit that Pierce thy side drew forth the blood to save.
Faithful amidst unfaithfulness amid darkness, only light now did thy Father's name confess, and in his will Delight #230.
Some brothers started fleeting.
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Before turning to my subject this afternoon, I want to read 2 verses in Psalm 14.
Psalm 14.
Verses 2:00 and 3:00.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God.
They are all gone aside. They are all together, become filthy.
There is none that doeth good.
No, not one.
Now this afternoon.
All of us assembled here.
Are convinced of one basic truth.
That God created this earth.
He created all things.
And he created man upon it.
And he had every right to expect.
That man upon it should glorify him.
But it's my purpose this afternoon.
To follow the course of man's failure.
And how God has come in and to his own glory, triumphed over the failure of man.
The work of the enemy.
Now God created man in.
Innocence.
He created man and placed him in a scene of perfection.
Where there was number death.
No sorrow, no crying.
All was in perfection before him.
He placed man upon the earth.
Gave him everything that he needed.
To enjoy.
He provided him with all kinds of fruit.
And he told him to eat.
He made one restriction in order that man might realize his responsibility to his creator.
He said there is one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And you shall you shall not eat of it.
But here, man, Adam and Eve in innocence, not estranged from their creator, not requiring anything that they didn't have.
Nothing that they should desire that they didn't have.
Bent their ear to the voice of the enemy of God.
And the enemy of God came calling in question, the word of God.
And that's an old tactic, and he's using it successfully today.
He's never discarded calling in question what God said.
It's an old tactic that worked in the Garden of Eden and is working in 19163.
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Man calls in question what God has said.
Saw the result of calling in question what God had said.
Listening to the voice of the enemy.
Desiring something that he didn't have.
That is the knowledge of good and evil.
He took of the forbidden fruit himself.
And great was before.
Man departed from God.
By a single act of disobedience.
What was the result?
He acquired the knowledge of good and evil.
Which is conscience.
You will not find the word conscience in the Old Testament. You'll find it in the New.
But you will find the thing there.
It's literally joint knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil.
But what the enemy did not tell him was.
That he would be powerless.
To do the good refrain from the evil.
And the conscience that he got was a bad one and made him a coward.
And he ran away from God.
Now after that God bless man to himself.
He left him with that conscience that he had acquired.
And man became utterly lawless.
So that the earth was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence.
No man's life or property was safe.
What was the result?
It finally reached such a stage, such a peak.
That God stepped in and cleansed the earth with a flood.
And began over again with Noah.
And his descendants, the eight that went into the Ark.
After the flood God put government into the hand of man, and said, whoso sheds man's blood, by man must his blood be shed.
I know there are many misguided Christians in the world and those who profess to be Christians.
Who are advocating the abolition of capital punishment.
But God instituted it in the days of Noah.
And it's flying in the face of God to do away with it.
Now God is wiser than men.
Well, after man went on.
After the flood, he introduced a new evil.
We read of that in the first chapter of Romans.
After the flood, he began to worship idols.
And we'll see retrogression in that.
In fact, the whole story of mankind on earth is not that of evolution, but of retrogression.
May I say to you, dear young people who are in college.
That evolution.
The theory of evolution is 100% fake.
I make no apologies for that broad statement, Ethan.
The Word of God is true.
And there is no place for evolution.
I believe what this book has said, and if they speak, not according to this book.
Is because there is no light in them.
Well, retrogression.
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They first made images like to themselves corruptible man.
Water come down.
And another has said that man is degraded by the thing that he worships.
Yes. And so if he makes an image to worship, an image of corruptible and fallen man, he's degraded thereby.
Next thing he made images like to birds.
Quadrupeds and finally the serpent. So we see.
Idolatry soon.
Reverting to its source.
From the enemy. From the great enemy, That old serpent, the devil.
Then what happened? God stepped in and they picked up one man.
He had a right to do that, you know.
He picked up one man by the name of Abraham Abram at that time.
And he made promises to him.
And he called him out from idolaters.
Abraham's family were idolaters. You get that in the last chapter.
Joshua your father's worshiped idols on the other side of the flood, meaning the Mesopotamia the.
Great river there the.
You afraid it. Thank you.
The flood there in the last chapter of Joshua is the Euphrates. That's where Abraham came across, but before he came out to God's call in the land of Canaan.
He'd been a part of an idolatrous family, but God called him and revealed himself to him. We read that the God of glory appeared unto our father, Abraham.
Recall.
Well, God chose the seed of Abraham.
Isaac and Jacob. And then he allowed Jacob's posterity to go down into Egypt.
And there to become enslaved.
And he brought them out of Egypt, into the land of Canaan, according to his promise and according to the time that he had promised.
For in the word Abram was than in the 4th generation they should come out.
Now let me turn, let's turn to Psalm 80.
Psalm 80.
And verse 8.
Psalm 80 and verse 8.
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt.
Thou has cast out the heathen and planted it.
Thou prepare its room before it, and it's caused it to take deep root, and it fills the land.
The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly Cedars.
She sent out her boughs under the sea, and her branches under the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all?
They which passed, by the way, to Plucker.
The bore out of the wood does waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
Now when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.
He brought them into a choice land.
And he cast out the heathen and planted them.
You know, that was his land and even had utterly corrupted it and polluted it.
He had a right to take it from them and he had a right to put others in possession of them.
And he put the children of Israel in that land, and he calls it a vine.
He calls them of iron, for God was looking for fruit.
He was looking for something down here in this earth that was his, that would bear fruit for him.
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Now he had a right to do that. He had a right to look for fruit.
But he didn't look for fruit from something that came of itself.
He brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it in a choice field.
But the object was that he might have fruit.
Turn to Isaiah 5.
We'll read a little more about this Bible.
I will sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.
My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.
God refers to the land of Canaan as the.
The best of all lads.
Here he calls it a very fruitful hill.
He fenced it. He separated the children of Israel from the nations. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine.
It was not only a choice land, but the choicest vine.
Abraham.
Was the beginning.
And when God chose Abraham and his seed, his posterity.
He chose the choicest family of the human race.
He put in it, planted in it. The choice is mine.
Now some here are farmers or who have been farmers.
And I believe you will bear this out.
That if you have some special seed that you want to try.
You want to experiment with.
You will find a choice plot in which to plant it.
It'll be choice seed.
Choice plot for an experiment. Now God was seeking to find out.
If man in the flesh could bring forth fruit for him.
And he gave it every culture.
And he planted, planted it with the choices vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
And now all inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah.
Judge, I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard, what could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it.
Wherefore, when I look that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes.
Now to now go to I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away the heads thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and breakdown the wall thereof.
And it shall be trodden down, and I will lay at waste, It shall not be pruned, nor dig, and there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also commend the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel.
See, I haven't been speculating by making these statements. Here it is.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plan.
And he looked for judgment, and behold, oppression for righteousness, and behold a crime.
God did not find fruit from this noble experiment with the choices vine, and the choices lack.
The enemy excluded.
Himself dwelling in their midst.
Having given me new directions for the building of the Tabernacle.
And yet they brought forth no fruit for God, he said. I look for grapes.
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But it was only wild grapes.
Now if you would turn to Matthew 21, we won't take time for it. You would find that the Lord Jesus.
Uses this as a parable.
To the leaders of Israel in that day.
And they perceive that he spoke about that.
And he sent Prophet after Prophet to them when the time of the fruit drew near.
He sent messengers asking for the fruit and instead of coming back with fruit.
To him who to whom the fruit belongs, they came back, abused. Some of them were killed and never returned.
And finally.
God says I have one thing only more than I could do.
I have my one son, my only son. I'll send him. Perhaps they will reverence my son. God sent Christ into the world with this thought. Perhaps they will reverence my son. And they saw him coming. And they said, no, we don't want him. This is the heir. Let's kill him and cast him out of the inheritance. Slew him.
Well, God allowed the Babylonian Kingdom to come over.
In fact, he sent them over.
Sent the Babylonian king with his army to destroy Jerusalem.
Destroy that magnificent temple that Solomon had built them with great directions and a tremendous expense.
Took all the things of value back to Babylon.
But he left the remnant of them in the land.
To Ezekiel 17 for a moment.
Ezekiel 17 and verse 2.
Son of Man. And that's the title of address to Ezekiel in this book.
Son of man, put forth original and speak a parable into the House of Israel, and say thus saith the Lord God, a great eagle with great wings.
Long wings full of feathers, which have diverse colors, came under Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar. He cropped off the top of the young of his young twigs and carried into it into a land of traffic.
He set it in a city of merchants. He also took of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field.
He placed it by great waters and fed it as a Willow tree.
Grew and became a shredding vine of low stature. That's what Israel might have been.
If they had submitted themselves to Nebuchadnezzar.
So it became a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth straight. There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers, and that's Egypt.
And behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water the Egyptians.
By the furrows of her plantation, it was planted in a good soil by great waters.
That it might bring forth branches, that it might bear fruit, That it might be a good design.
Say now thus says the Lord God, shall it prosper, shall he not pull up the roots thereof and cut off the fruit thereof, that it Withers, it shall wither, and in all the leaves of her spring.
Even without great power, and many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
I won't read any further there, but you see it might have remained a vine of low stature.
But they wouldn't submit to the Babylonians.
Jeremiah pleaded with them for God to stay in the land and submit themselves.
But they wouldn't do it. They went down into Egypt, made alliance with the king of Egypt and took Jeremiah long.
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The last we read of Jeremiah.
So that's the history of Israel is a mine.
Know who forgot?
Now let's turn to the 15th of John's Gospel.
And we shall find.
That God is never without a resource.
If man fails. If Israel fails.
The dirt sales were defined that God has an answer.
John 15 I am the true one.
My father is the husband.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit you take us away, and every branch that bear fruit, you purchase it, that it may bring boys moral food.
Forthwith abide in me, and I endure, As a branch cannot bear fruit of its itself, except to abide in the vine. No more can you accept You abide in me, I am divine. You are the branches. You that abided in me, and I and him the same bringeth forth much fruit. Well, without me you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is task force as other translation is vibrant.
For Judas, the apostate is before the mind of the spirit of God.
And then gather them and cast them into the fire, and they were burned.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father's glorified, that we bear much free.
Now God looks through from untruthful.
Everything now.
Even in spite of all the best hope.
The best choice?
Oh my goodness, for man in the flesh to bring forth truth to God. There was none.
So God has his beloved Son come down into this world and become a man.
And all the God had planned to this thing in my hand, that man was going to be made good in Christ.
They put growing them into the hands of Noah.
He put altars under Adam.
But what a failure Adam was. And they pulled down the whole creation with him. But it's all going to be made good in Christ the 2nd man the last time.
And now engaged in this place, we find the Lord Jesus said, I am divine, I am the true one.
At last, there's one on earth that can bring forth truth to God's goal.
Make me think about there are 53.
Barren land where no fruit grew for God's glory.
He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, a plant of his planting, a plant of his desire. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground, a ground that had brought forth no fruit to God. Now God looks down from heaven. He opens the heavens, and he says, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I have found.
All my delight.
At last one appeared on this earth, who fully pleased God at every step.
And now he says, I am the true God.
One that takes the place of untruthful is.
We are the branches who speak to his recitals and he said I am divine.
You can do some windshields to God.
Your hand with your Christ.
The time you were walking with him.
Or the fruit of the spirit fruit.
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Ruth, you've ever heard as well, No peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
The fruit of the Spirit.
Now you say, can I bear fruit for God? Yes.
Can I bear fruit for God, who am only a child, only a boy or girl?
Yes, if you know Christ as your Savior, you can bear fruit for God.
Can I bear fruit for God? You may say, if I'm sick?
I'm on a bed of pain and suffering. Yes, the fruit of the spirit is love.
That can be borne by a boy or a girl, a man or a woman in health or in sickness.
Love. Joy.
Peace.
Long-suffering.
I don't believe that there are any of us that are just naturally long-suffering.
But the fruit of the Spirit is long so.
Gentleman that isn't a part of Paul in human nature goodness.
Faith. Not the faith to believe, but faith that carries us through the circumstances to God's glory.
Meekness.
All he could say I am meek and lowly in heart.
Learn of Maine, and he shall find rest to your soul.
If we're walking in communion with God and we're walking in the enjoyment of Christ in our souls.
There will be a bringing forth fruit, but we are not independent minds.
Christ is the true vine. We are only branches. Now you know well enough that if you have a Grapevine and you cut a branch off of it, it will not bear fruit. It may have borne a lot of fruit in the past, but if you cut it off, if you as much as separated from the vine by the thickness of a piece of paper, that vine will not bear fruit. That branch will not bear fruit.
We have to go on with him, and the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in us, for he, the Spirit of God will occupy us with Christ. And so we have the answer to God's thinking fruit down here.
It's possible in you and in me.
It's possible for the youngest and the oldest.
Now I want to go on to.
Revelation 14 For justice a verse and then back.
Revelation 14 and verse 17.
And another Angel came out of the temple which is in heaven. How he also having a sharp sickle. And another Angel came out from the altar which had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that sat, that had the sharp sickle saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, the vine of the earth.
Warhead grapes are fully ripe, and the Angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. The winepress was trodden without the city.
And blood came out of the winepress unto the horse bridles by the space of 1600 furlongs.
That, incidentally, is the length of the land of Canaan.
Israel is back in their land as a nation.
Israel is back in their land under the title of Israel.
They're they have reinstituted the law.
All the ceremonies except they don't have the temple yet. They're going to get that when the beast let them have it.
But they're going back there in unbelief. They're going back there hating Christ.
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And after the church has taken home to heaven.
Apartheid, empty Christianism that is left behind.
An apostate Judaism.
Will join hands and the head of that nation over there.
Will have power and signs and lying wonders that if it were possible it would deceive. He would deceive the very elect.
But what's going to be the end of that effort?
It's going to be taken and passed into the winepress of the wrath of God.
Blood comes out, not great Blood comes out of the wine breast, and the extent of it is the whole length of Canaan.
Rather than God is not mocked.
God has long patience with this world.
His long-suffering but judgments come.
And that which pretends to be the people of God.
But that which will be in the end be energized by Satan.
Law, power, and signs and lying wonders.
To saving the whole world.
Will be cast into the widened Press of the wrath of God.
Judgment is on its way.
Now let's go back to Isaiah again, Isaiah 41.
In the 41St chapter of Isaiah, we have Israel accused of idolatry.
Much description is given to how they go about making an idol.
I was looking for a verse in it I thought was there.
Concerning them as a servant.
Thank you.
But thou, Israel, art my servant.
Jacob, whom I have chosen.
The seed of Abraham, my friend.
Israel was not only the.
A vine to bring forth fruit for God, which they did not do, but Israel was God's servant.
And as God's servant their testimony to the nations wise, there is one God.
All the rest are false. Gods are idols, and here we find this Israel called the servant of God the seed of Abraham his friend, worshipping idols.
What an unfaithful servant Israel turned out to be.
Well, is God not going to have servants? Isn't he going to have service? 42nd chapter in first verse.
Behold my servant, whom I have uphold.
My mine elected, whom my soul delighteth, I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
All we get a transition here from Israel is an unfaithful servant to the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant to please God.
In whom my soul delighted his soul delighted in him, as the one that bore fruit for him.
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I like the words that Mister Billet used to use frequently, quoting from the prop from the poet Gamble. There has one object been disclosed on Earth that might commend the place.
Only one object that has been disclosed on Earth that might commend the place, but now it is gone.
Jesus is with the Father.
Yes, there was one object on Earth.
Jesus is with the Father.
Yes, there was one object on earth that God could look down upon with full delight.
And so we find him as the perfect servant here.
Well, is there any way in which we?
Fellow Christians young and old may serve God here.
We know that all that the Lord Jesus was the perfect servant. How about us turn to that verse we had yesterday afternoon in the reading Romans 14?
Romans 14.
Verse 17.
For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink.
But righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
For he that in these things serve as Christ.
Is acceptable to God and approved of men. There is such a thing as serving Christ.
Down here.
And the same thing that the same things that produce fruit for goth are service too.
What righteousness?
Peace, joy, and the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God and approved of men. Would you like to have your service approved?
There is a way that a boy or a girl knows Christ, a young man or a young woman.
Who knows? Christ can live down here to please God.
Don't think that servants is the word. Servants is confined to a special class.
Every Christian is to be a servant. Every Christian is here to serve.
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May we be able to serve after this man. May we desire to bring forth fruit.
According to John 15. And you know what it says there that we read here, it is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.
Would you like their young Christian to bear much fruit?
What are we here for? Do you think God just saved us and left us down here to have a good time?
Do you think God just saved us and left us down here so we wouldn't go to hell when we had to leave it?
Oh, no. He's left us down here to bear fruit. He's left us down here to serve.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.
Oh dear young Christian, here this afternoon. Can you get down on your knees each day and say, Lord, help me to please thee?
Help me that my walking ways will be to thy glory.
We can't do it in our own strength.
We need his help and his strength.
May we have that desire that we bear much fruit. May we have that desire that we serve him well.
For he that in these things serveth Christ, is approved of God.
You want God to approve?
All man will offer you all kinds of inducements.
To do those things that will please men.
Men will praise you when you do well for yourself.
Young person here, young man here today.
If you had your choice, had it offered to you?
To live a life of no consequence as the world names it.
But one that would please God down here, Or one where you could do a mass of fortune, have everything that money could buy or wish.
Which would you choose?
Would you rather have great wealth?
Social prominence, the independence that wealth gives, or walking of dependence and obedience in a pathway to God's glory.
God has a right to expect it.
He has a right to expect that we should bear much fruit. That's what he desires from you. He desires it from me. And the youngest believer in Christ can bear fruit.
Remember the fruit of the Spirit.
Remember he that in these things, Sir, with Christ is approved of God.
Now I want to bring another point before us.
Turn to Revelation 1.
And verse 5.
We've seen that Israel was an unfaithful servant.
There was an unfruitful vibe, but God remedies the whole thing in Christ.
And as we abide in Him, we can bear fruit, we can serve him now revelation 1/5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness.
Now in the Book of Revelation we begin with.
The second and third chapters.
Those seven churches.
Found in the Province of Asia in Asia Minor that represent the seven different stages of the Church history on Earth.
We've gone now from we've passed over from Israel's experience to the fact that God has placed on Earth.
Of people to bear witness.
That is, the Church of God on earth is Christ's witness.
And we have those hairdressers to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And in the end.
That which began so brightly.
But soon lost their first love, or rather left it. I shouldn't use the word lost. It's left that which began so brightly in the beginning.
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Ends up as that which is knocked nauseous to Christ.
Spewed out of his mouth.
Something distasteful. Something hateful. God the Lord Jesus is coming one of these days and shouters shout and take every Christian home. Then what's going to be left behind?
You say nothing.
Oh yes, there will be something left.
It will be similar to what was here when the Lord Jesus went out and left the temple. He went out and they left the temple. And he says, your house is left unto you deathly.
When he lifted this form and the ceremony went on, but it was empty. And when the Spirit of God leaves this world with all the Saints of God, Christendom will remain. In fact, it'll get bigger and better as man views it. For everything is shaping up today for ecumenicalism. What is ecumenicalism? You hear it on every hand. They call this the ecumenical century.
Ecumenicalism is the amalgamating of all churches.
Under one big tent to have a grand one church world.
It's on its way.
Just had a meeting.
In Helsinki.
Of a great denomination in all its branches.
I'll mention the name name for Martin Luther, the Great Reformer.
And in the closing session, what do you think they did? They appointed the Commission?
To work on how to.
Get together with the Church of Rome.
All yes, for all things going back to Rome.
It's all going to be under one big tent, but it will be empty.
The Christians will be gone. The Spirit of God will be gone.
But what will happen then? Christ will spew the whole empty thing out of his mouth, something hateful to it.
Brethren, what we see about us under the name of Christendom is going on to doom.
I am persuaded that it's not far off either. Everything tells me that the coming of the Lord is imminent. It's right at the door.
The Church of God on earth, which was to be the witness for Christ down here, has become an unfaithful witness.
But here we find the Lord Jesus who is judging of this supposed witness. Honor. We find this one saying, I am the faithful witness. Turn to the third chapter.
14th verse we find the spirits addressed to that last noxious state of Christendom.
And under the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, right, these things sat the Amen, the one who's going to end everything.
The Amen, the faithful and true witness.
Oh, just at the time when Christena is to be rejected.
To be spewed out of his mouth.
The Lord comes forth and says, I'm the faithful and true witness.
Brother, what are we witnessing to down here?
Do those who see us?
Recognize that we belong to Christ.
Are you a little afraid, dear young man, here today to tell your companions at work?
But you don't go to their drinking parties.
You don't go to their card parties. You belong to Christ.
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Young lady, young sister here.
What kind of a testimony do they have of you?
I was talking with a brother in California the other day. He occupied a very responsible position.
He said he came into his office one day and the men were all huddled together having a great time.
And they didn't stop when he came in, although he was over there.
One of the men.
Sidled over to him and he says Jim, it isn't that we don't like him, it isn't that we don't like your company, but you wouldn't be interested in the things we're talking about.
Oh, what a good testimony. They knew it. They knew he wouldn't be interested in the filth and corruption they were talking about.
Oh dear young person, do you close your ears to these filthy stories that are going around?
We are down here to witness for Christ.
I met a young man one day in tears, a young Christian, and he said, I am, I said, What are you weeping about?
He said I am weeping because I'm a poor testimony. He says I'm in a new neighborhood and I can't. I haven't the courage to speak to them about Christ.
I said, well, you can live Christ in that new neighborhood. Try that.
All. I'd rather have them live Christ than have them say to you what you do speak so loud I can't hear what you say.
I'd rather have them reverse it and say I hear what you do.
I see what you do. I don't need to hear you say anything.
Or that they may recognize that we belong to Christ.
Want to read a verse in First Timothy 6?
Might read from the 11Th verse, First Timothy 6, verse 11, but thou all man of God.
Who is he speaking to? A man of God is one who stands out for God amidst A bounding roar.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things.
One brother told me one time that plea meant to run being scared.
Flee these things.
Where I lay hold on it.
When I miss my birthday.
Plea these things and follow after righteousness, godliness.
Faith, love, patience, or endurance?
Meekness. See how many times these things come up.
Whether it's in fruit bearing or service Oregon testimony.
Fight the good fight of faith. The whole Christian pathways of fight. It's a combat. It's not one conflict, and then it's all over. We're always in it. If you think that living a Christian is an easy path, you're mistaken. That is, if you want to live for God, you're going to find obstacles.
You're going to have to surmount them.
The Christian path is an obstacle course.
God hasn't promised this easy time down here an easy sailing. You can rest on your oars and you'll arrive at the same destiny. No?
You rest on your oars and you'll go downstream, surely?
Like the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, which not whereunto thou art called an astral fest, a good profession before many witnesses, I give thee charge in the sight of God.
01:05:02
Paul, writing by inspiration, writes to a young man by the name of Timothy. He says, I give thee charge.
Young man.
Suppose Paul wrote these words to you.
I give the charge.
In the sight of God.
Who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus.
Who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession?
The good confession?
Pilots that are your Kingdom.
He says, Thou sayest, or what you say is true. To this end was I born for this 'cause I came into this world.
He witnessed a good confession. He's a faithful and true witness.
What an example.
We're followers of him who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate.
All dear fellow Christians, we're at the end. Everything shaping up for it.
I could quote for an hour some of the things that are taking place in Christendom that indicate that we're at the very end. The thing that I'm horrible at is that we're still here. Before the day's over, we may hear that shout and like John and the 4th of Revelation, hear those words come up, hit her.
Will they gone?
And all we've worked for down here.
Left behind.
Oh, it's what we've done for Christ.
That's going to matter.
Are we living for him? Are we witnessing for him? Are we serving him? Are we bearing fruit?
Remember, there are qualifications for these things, and they're all to be found in Christ.
He is the faithful and true witness. He is the one that witnessed a good confession.
He is the true mind. He is the perfect servant.
I saw a title of a book one time when the book of Mark. You know Mark. The Gospel of Mark presents the Lord Jesus as the servant. I saw a title one time for a book on Mark. I've never been able to find it sin.
HH, now an old author, was the Was the author entitled Oh my Servant.
I thought what a suitable title for the book of Mark.
If you ever find it, anybody I like to borrow, it's an old book below my servant.
Well.
I see our times getting away.
I'd like to deviate.
For just a few minutes in closing, turn with me to Mark.
11.
This more the rest more for our instruction as to where we are.
Mark 11.
It was the barren fig tree that I was looking for.
Thank you.
But on the mark 11 verse 12 on the Morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry.
And seeing a fig tree a far off, having leaves he came if happily might find.
Anything. They're on. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leave.
For the time of pigs, was not.
And Jesus answered and answered, and said unto it, No man eat fruit of the hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it.
20th verse and in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
Now Israel is also here likened to a fig tree.
But he doesn't say I am the fig tree.
No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't be the fig tree. The fig tree isn't. Israel is a nation.
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And when the Lord Jesus came here, he was looking for fruit from that nation.
Turn to the 13th of Luke.
Luke 13 and verse 6. And he spake also this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and saw fruit there on, and found none. Then said he, to the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree.
And find none. Cut it down. Why cumbers at the ground.
And the answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I dig about it, and tongue it. And if it bear fruit, well, if not after that thou shalt cut it down.
The Lord Jesus came looking for fruit on the fig tree. Israel is a nation down here.
And he found none. And as he was just to leave now in Mark 11 you'll find his last entry into Jerusalem.
He's received it as writing on the app. He's going in there now.
As a Messiah.
And he sees the parent fig tree in the same chat.
What about it? Oh, he says. Let no man eat fruit of the henceforth forever.
And immediately the fig tree withered away.
Israel, as that nation under that covenant, is never going to bear fruit for God.
That is the only miracle that the Lord Jesus ever performed. That wasn't a miracle of grace and goodness.
And there have not been lacking or wanting ungodly men.
Who will dare to say that it was an act of petulance?
On the part of the Lord of Glory, they misunderstand all things, not having the Spirit, for it's the Spirit of God here that gives us this, because it's Israel.
Finally rejected. Immediately the victory withered away.
And to peak.
Now turn to Luke 21 in connection with the fig tree. A little more, for Israel is likened to a fig tree as that nation.
Luke 21.
Verse 29 And he spoke to them a parable. Behold the fig tree and all the trees.
Now if you return to Matthew 24, I think it is, you would find that it says the fig tree.
Luke 21 as the fig tree and all the trees. For if Israel now is a nation, and all the nations, when they now shoot forth EC and know of your own selves, that summer is now nigh at half.
The fig trees budding for almost 2000 years. The land was barren.
There was number nation of Israel. They had no unity, they had no politics.
And now they're back. In their land is a nation called Israel.
When you see the fig tree and all the trees shooting budding, you know that summer is not brethren. We see the fig tree in all the trees. All the nations are getting ready for their final acts as given to us in the prophetic scriptures. The moment is at hand.
The Western powers are ready.
Russia and her words, Her satellites are ready.
The Middle Eastern nations are ready.
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Africa is in a foreman.
The whole world isn't an upheaval.
When you see the big tree and all the trees budding, you know that summer is not.
You know that the coming of the Lord is near. We see it in Christendom.
We see it in the nations, we see it all about us, that we're just at the end.
Just a few more moments.
And God, that God lingers over this poor, doomed world. Maybe this is the last general meeting.
I hope so.
I'd be thankful to hear that shout be caught up to me, to the Lord in the air.
But all breath.
May we be exercised as to the lost.
We're on our way.
But there are 1,000,000 about us that are doomed.
Rejecters of Christ.
There was one more that I could have turned to. That's the olive tree. And the Lord doesn't say I am the olive tree.
That's the 11Th of Romans. For the Holy Tree, Abraham was the root and fatness of it.
It was Israel in a privileged place on earth and they were cut off out of the olive tree.
The Gentiles, the wild olive tree branches graft into the place of privilege and blessing honor.
And then he warns them. He says. I speak to you, Gentiles.
In as much as I magnify mine office.
If God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. Now he's speaking to Gentiles as Gentiles, not believers, now Gentiles as Gentiles for the Gentiles that had the privilege place for almost 2000 years.
It's no longer true. What advantage has to do much every way.
It's true today. What advantage has the Jew much every way?
With the Gentile much every way now.
Dana was the Jew today at the Gentile. But the Gentiles have not continued in God, God's goodness, he says. Thou also shall be cut off.
God is going to change this whole picture, the Gentiles that have heard the gospel on every air.
A Bible is free for the asking.
They're going to lose the whole privilege place.
After the judgment of God.
On Jew and Gentile.
The remnant of Israel will be brought back and grabbed into their own olive tree. I'm quoting from the 11Th of Rome.
The place of privilege on Earth.
Well, may the Lord help us.
To realize that everything is at hand, whether we look at the church or at the world.
The moment of our departures here, perhaps before we ever reach home.
Down here.
We'll reach our eternal hope.
We ushered into the Father's house.
There are only to adore.
Praise him for His grace that saves brought us to himself. May we seek grace to bear fruit to his glory, to bear much fruit to serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear. That's another verse we might have read in the 12Th of Hebrews.
Serve him with reverence and godly fear.
For our God is a consuming fire.
And then to be that a witness to him and his grace be down here is a testimony for Christ until he takes it home.
We also sing.
151.
01:20:06
Lord Jesus, when we think of Thee, of all thy love and grace.
Our spirits, Long and Fain, would see thy beauty face to face.
#151.
01:25:38
What a prospect.
It's pretty.