Glendale Conference: 1969
Table of Contents
Gospel
Gospel—E. Wakefield
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Thing #23.
The hall Behold the Lamb of God on the cross for us. He shared his precious blood on the cross.
Or hear the overwhelming cry Eli Lama Sabachthani draw near and see the Savior dying on the cross #23.
Might we turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 18?
The 18th chapter of Lukes Gospel, verse 9.
And he spake this parable unto certain.
Which trusted in themselves.
That they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray.
One of Pharisee and the other Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank Thee that I am not.
As other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.
I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.
But smote upon his breast, saying God.
Be merciful to me, a Sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.
Rather than the other.
For everyone that exalteth themselves shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself.
Shall be exalted.
I would like to bring before you tonight this parable plus.
One of the 16th chapter of Luke and also take you.
To the cross of Calvary.
My friends, we have come here tonight to proclaim the gospel. We have come here tonight to speak to those who are lost, those who may be in their sins still on the way to hell.
And I would like to ask this vast number of people here tonight, many of them are Christians. Many of them know the Lord Jesus personally as Savior. But there may be some here tonight who are on the way to eternal darkness.
And before we look at the cross and turn to the cross, I would like to point out in this parable of the Lord, Jesus told the fact that man is a Sinner.
You know the Lord Jesus said when he was here, they that are a whole need, not a position, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I wonder tonight how many in this audience are sick with sins?
Sick with sin? Maybe they don't know it.
How sometimes we are ill and people know they're ill, others are ill and don't know they're ill. And all my friends in need, the disease, the sickness drives us to the position. But tonight maybe there's somebody does not realize yet that they're sinners. And in these two men we find, I believe, an excellent illustration.
What we have before us, the first man, the Pharisee, he prayed with himself, he despised others, he looked down upon this publican as unworthy. And I know, my friends, there's people who come to these meetings who are despised. The poor man in the prison, they would despise the poor man who was drunk. They were, they were despised the wife beater or the children beater.
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But themselves.
Are without Christ. And tonight, my friends, are you trusting in yourself?
Are you trusting in your good life? Are you trusting in your religion? Are you trusting in the 10 commandments? Are you trusting in baptism or any anything else to do with religion? It will land you in hell, my friends. And tonight I stand here to preach Christ, to present to you a savior, a person, not a religion. God forbid that we preach religion. The world is fuller religion.
Way then I present the Lord Jesus as a Savior for sinners.
But my friend, you'll never come to that Savior. Say you'll find you're lost, so you find you're guilty. Say you find yourself sinking down into eternal darkness under the power of Satan. Then you will flee to Christ.
As in my own case, my friends, I heard that news, thank God, back in 1930 and in that old Gospel Hall Of Montreal, now taken down.
I heard that I was a Sinner. I heard that I was going to hell, and I bowed my head in that hole and said I know it's true. I'm a lost, guilty, hell deserving, hellbound Sinner on the way to eternal darkness.
I wonder, my friend tonight if there's any in this room that think they're pretty good.
Maybe you think you're good enough to get into heaven. Maybe you'll feel that you've done the very best you can. I tell you, on the authority of God's Word, that you are a Sinner.
That God has declared in this book, the word of God, that there is no difference.
For all have sinned.
And come short of the glory of God.
How blessed it is to find on this side of eternity.
That you're a Sinner. That you're guilty. Now I know.
That man measures man by himself, he measures man by his conduct. But God looks down into the heart, and God says that man is a Sinner from head to foot. He's born lost, he's born in sin, and he's shaping iniquity. That man is born with his face and his head and his back turned against God.
And his face looking down the broad road to destruction. And the Lord Jesus said, Accept a man be born all over again. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
My friend and I have solemn this is.
The Pharisee prayed with himself. He didn't even have respect for God. He addressed him only as God.
He had no respect. He had no idea about whose presence he was. He thought none of the fact of the holiness of God. He thought not of the power of God. He thought not of anything to do with God at all. He thought only of one person himself, his good life, his upbringing, the fun character that he was. I passed twice in the week, six times in these verses.
He mentions about himself.
Five times he says I, the personal pronoun I, he would heal with himself. And I believe in this country tonight, there's millions of people who are filled with themselves and all that they've done to what they call to appease an angry God.
My friend and my God loves you.
God loves the Sinner, and God has proved his love in the gift of his beloved Son. Now the other man, the publican. So beautiful to see this.
In verse 13, the publicans standing afar off, all my friends, he felt. He felt how unworthy he was. He felt what a Sinner he was. He felt how undeserved.
And how lost and how vile he was. He stood afar off and would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven. He didn't feel worthy. He would look up into the face of God. He put his head down. He bowed his head in the presence of God. My friends, I asked you tonight, have you ever found yourself in the presence of God? Have you ever found yourself in God's presence?
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All alone in your bedroom.
All alone in your home.
Alone with God, and found yourself there a poor trembling Sinner hanger that were over the very brink of hell. Have you ever found yourself yet in that position? This man did it says he smote upon his breast.
He seems to realize that inside that breast was a heart filled with sin, a heart that was against God.
A heart that had no use for God. And he put his hand, as it were, over that heart, and he said, God be merciful to me. The new translation says these sinners.
God be merciful to me, the sinners. My friend, I ask you, is it possible? In the last days of 1969 you came into this room tonight somebody has brought you.
Somebody has invited you to come here tonight, and you've come here tonight feeling pretty good, feeling you're a good character, that you're a fine person, that God looks down at you and says this person is a fine person, a good person, upright, moral. But you've never, never yet been in the presence of God and have your sins cleansed away in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Never, ever you found yourself there in the presence of Almighty God.
They are unworthy, undone, a Sinner. Oh, I cook that verse again. I want you to hear that verse, my friends. May the Spirit of God bring that verse to your soul, girls and boys.
For all have sinned. There is no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Well, this is a wonderful thing to know that you're a Sinner. And I just wonder if these young people who come to these conferences time after time.
As our brother said this afternoon that they were laughing at the back of the room, maybe writing notes, I wondered. I just wonder if you've come here tonight unsaved.
Lost in your sins, guilty, and on the way to hell.
What a solemn thing, my friends. I know this is not popular.
I know the modernist preacher doesn't preach hell. I know that hell is slurred over man, don't believe there's a hell. But the only man who never told a lie warned man again and again and again. If there was a hell, and I believe my friend tonight, I would not be faithful to the Lord I serve if I stood here.
And preached to you a heaven, and didn't warn you of solemn judgment.
It's going to fall on men and women.
Who reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. You know as well as I do whether you're saved or not. You know, my friend, tonight, if you were to die this very night, I would ask you this question. I'd like to ask this question because I believe it levels man down.
Where would you be tonight if you were dead?
Where would you be tonight if you were dead now?
I can answer that question only for myself. I would be with the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory. I know it positively on the authority of divine Holy Scripture, the word of God itself. Not because I'm better than you, but because I have a Savior and His name is Jesus.
I was visiting, We were visiting the other day in a nursing home and an old lady was lying there in the bed and she told her she used to be a nurse and she handled many, many sick people. And we said to her, did you ever handle a young baby? And she said, indeed, I did. I've handled many young babies. And I said, I want to tell you a story about a young baby that was born into this world, and there was no place for that baby.
But in a stable in a Manger. And she smiled, and I said that baby grew to the young man grew to be a man and preached and warned man of judgment and told his many, many parables and performed his wonderful miracles. And she said Jesus.
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Jesus And then we said this. That man died on the cross for my sins.
And that blessed man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is my Savior. And she said, And he's my Savior too. My friends, I asked you, that's the gospel.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior, having to put your trust in Him? Has His blood cleanse you from all sin? You may reply, dear friend.
That is that man's religion. That's what he thinks, no.
What I think isn't worth $0.05.
Unless my thoughts are formed by this precious book, the Word of God.
And the Lord Jesus said, when he is here, was here. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me, a person, a Savior. And so this man, the Lord Jesus said, went down to his house. Justified how? Blessed to be justified by God. This man took his place before God as a Sinner.
God be merciful to me, a Sinner. God be merciful to me, the Sinner. Is there a young man in this room tonight, or a young woman who will write now if I speak? Bow your head and close your eyes and say I am a Sinner.
You know you're a Sinner, and God knows you're a Sinner. What kind of a Sinner are you?
Are you a saved Sinner on the way to heaven, or are you a lost Sinner on the way to hell?
There's only two kinds of sinners in this world.
Save sinners who are heaven bound, lost sinners who are hell bound, What kind of a Sinner are you? Allah, let us go now to the cross.
In the 27th chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter 27.
Verse 26. Now I'd just like to point out these things to you. Notice, my friend, what it says. First of all, verse 26.
Then release he grabs unto them.
And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Who is this Speaking of? Pontius Pilate, a coward, a man who three times over said, I find no fault in this man. Why did he scourge him? Why did he scourge a man who he said, I find no fault in this man?
Pilot was a coward.
And Pilate has many followers tonight in this world.
Who know that Christ is the Son of God, and yet they are afraid to take a stand for him.
They're afraid of the laughs of the crowd, they're afraid of being thrown at a society. They're afraid of the laughs of the ungodly. And pilot with a coward. He scourge a man, he said. I find no fault in this man. Next we read the 29th verse.
Here it is the soldiers and when they had flattered a crown of thorns.
They put it upon his right, on his head, and a Reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail king of the Jews. The soldiers notice the soldiers did this.
Those men who were supposed to fight for those who are defenseless. These cowards placed upon the head of the Son of God a crown of thorns.
They placed on the head of God's beloved Son a crown of thorns, the symbol of the fall. For because of the fall of Adam, thorns came Genesis chapter 3.
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And these cowards placed upon that blessed head of that precious Savior a crown of thorns. Verse 30.
And they spit upon him.
How filthy man is?
Man is filthy. They spit upon that blessed man. They spit upon him. Think about what an insult to the human race, that man, like you and like me, spit upon the Son of God. What a crime, what a sin. What a shocking thing it is for God to look down into this world and see filthy man spit into the very face of his beloved Son.
And they spit upon him. Verse 31.
And after they had mocked him, think of that. They mocked this blessed man, this holy man. Never was there a man like this man. Never a man stakes like this man, the sinners friend, the most glorious person in this world ever saw. We sometimes said, and repeat tonight, the only man who was a man, the only real man, whoever lived in this world, they mocked him.
They spit upon him.
That crowned his head with a crown of thorns.
And they chose a robber, Barabbas, and his room instead.
Verse 35. And they crucified him all the Spirit of God tells us they crucified him. Who is this Him? The Lord Jesus himself. They crucified him. Verse 36.
And sitting down, they watched him there.
You can't imagine how cruel this is. See that, blessed man?
To see them there, hanging on that cross and wicked men like you and like me with the same kind of hearts exactly as you and I have.
They sat down and they watched that blessed man as he suffered on that cross. My friends, God's going to judge this world.
God is going to judge this world. They passed out. His darling, His beloved, His eternal Son was cast out by men like you and me, and God is going to judge this world. Indeed He is.
Do not believe the modernist preachers of this day that ahead of us is a rosy time of happiness and peace and joy. It's not true. God is going to judge this world.
He's going to judge this world. This world is lost. There is absolutely no hope for this world.
This world, like a sinking ship, is going down under judgment. But thank God there's a life quote, and that life quote is Christ himself. You must leave the scene, as it were, and flee to that lifeboat for Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, said the apostle Paul, of whom I am the chief.
All, thank God tonight the Sinner is chiefs in heaven. Thank God the Sinner is chief.
Is now in heaven. No matter who you are in this hall tonight, God can say of your precious soul. One look of faith to Christ, one look of faith to that blessed Savior will save your soul for eternal ages. Blessed be God.
First. Now we come to the 45th verse.
Now from the 6th hour there was darkness.
Over all the lands unto the 9th hour. Here we have now the noontime.
That is to say, when the sun reached the very top of the heavens, 12 noon till 3:00 in the afternoon darkness.
And the 46 first And about the 9th hour Jesus cried.
With a loud voice saying Eli Eli.
Lama Sabatoni.
That is to say, my God, my God.
Why hast thou forsaken me?
I suppose there's never been a question asked in the world's history like this question.
There's never been a question asked like this question, my friend. Have you found the answer to this question?
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Many of God's people are here and they could say with a loud voice, Amen. I found the answer to this question. He was forsaken on that cross as He bore my guilt and my sins, and God judged him there for me. And God turned His face away from His beloved Son as He bore my sins and my guilt.
Friends, I ask you reverently, I ask you in God's holy presence, if God turned his face away from his beloved Son on that cross in those three hours of darkness.
As he became the sin bearer, I ask you, what will God do?
What men and women, boys and girls, who reject that Savior, I ask you to answer that question. Have you found out yet? Did you ever kneel down on your knees by your bedside, look up into heaven and say, Oh God, I thank Thee that the Lord Jesus Christ bore my sins, bore my guilt and his own body on that cross.
He paid the price. He loved me and gave himself for me. I was reading the book a little while ago about a man who said.
In my first book, I suggested to my readers that they commit their lives to God. Use that expression.
But he said a few nights after, I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought to myself, I've never done the verdict that thing myself.
I never, never have ever been in the presence of God. And he said, I got out of my bed at 3:00 in the morning and I knelt down by my bed. So I looked up into heaven and said, Oh God, I thank thee, that on Calvary Cross the Lord Jesus bore my sins, and I receive him as my personal Savior. What a wonderful thing that is, my friend.
Oh, again, I say, I'm not preaching religion.
I am not preaching about churches, I am not preaching about meetings, or I am preaching Christ. Christ, a person, a saviour, a man, a man who's gone back into heaven, a man who was buried, a man who rose from the dead.
A man who ascended back into the glory of God. A man who sits at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. And all tonight of our eyes get pierced that heaven above. We would see that lovely man at God's right hand. In his hands are the nail prints.
And his side is the spear mark, and his feet are the nail prints that tell God.
And tell man, and tell the devil and tell the demons that Calvary's work is done.
That Christ died for the ungodly.
That Jesus loved me and gave himself for a poor hell deserving sinners like me. What a Savior. Is he your savior? What a living loving Savior. Friends, can he do more for you? Could he do more for you He loves?
4 Guilty sinners God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life.
And shall not come into judgment.
But has passed from death unto life. There's a savior tonight. There's a savior, my friends, if you go to hell.
I speak reverently. It won't be God's fault. There's a way of escape.
There's a way into the glory of God. The way of the cross leads home the blood of Jesus Christ. God's Son clanged with us from all sin. God commanded his love to us.
Sinners, Christ died for us. Oh how wonderful is the gospel message. Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day. According to the scriptures, we present a living Savior, a loving Savior, A Savior that's able to save you tonight if you'll only come to Him and own your guilt. My friends, God has declared you're guilty.
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That all the world may become guilty. That remote may be stopped.
And the whole world become guilty before God.
I ask you tonight, is there somebody, is there a boy here tonight, is there a girl here tonight who says I'm willing to take sides with God against myself and oh, I'm a Sinner, I'm guilty. I'm guilty in God's presence. Guilty. You're guilty, my friend, You're guilty. God says you're guilty. You know, God doesn't need witnesses. He doesn't need any witnesses In the courts in our land, we must have witnesses, but God doesn't need any witnesses.
He says you are a Sinner, you have sinned in his sight. He has seen you sin. You're guilty, you're guilty. And how solemn, my friends, that not even one lie.
A lie. One lie will ever enter into that heaven. Not one. You know each one of us have to confess with tall lies. We've told many, many lies. You know that.
Unless the blood of Christ.
Cleansing away those sins, we will land in hell. My friends, there's only one Savior. Thank God for every one of us in this room who can look up into heaven tonight and say that Savior is my Savior. He died for me. Strange is it not In America we have to preach this kind of a gospel, but Bibles all over the place. Gospel tracks all over the place.
All kinds of testaments, all kinds of bookstores. Why, even in the press, I've seen at the top of the paper a little verse of Scripture. And yet men don't understand. They say I'm doing the best I can. I'm religious.
You are, pardon me, saying these things. They say I'm a Protestant. Why? I'm religious. I've been baptized. My mother was a Christian. My father believed these things.
That'll never save your soul.
Have you been born again? Have you received Christ into your heart? Is the Lord Jesus your personal Savior? My friend, the Lord may come tonight, boys and girls, a Christian parents. Your mother may leave you tonight. Your father may be gone to night to glory. The Lord may come. You will be in hell forever, lost, guilty under the judgment of God's for eternity. Think of us. Where do you wait? What do you hope to get out of this poor world? What will this world give you?
It'll give you a piece of ground 6 feet long, a task, a funeral.
That's what this world is going to give you. You've got to leave this world, my friends. And God says after death.
The judgment.
The inferno says after death were dead like a dog. I don't believe what Insul say. I hope you don't either. But I believe what God says after death. The judgment you must. You have to meet God someday. You've got to stand in the presence of God. You've got to look for your eyes into the very face of Christ. He's going to judge those who reject him. How solemn.
For all judgment has been committed unto the Son, the Son of God.
He's going to judge this world, He's going to judge the guilty Sinner, He's going to judge the Christ rejector. Oh dear boys and girls tonight, have you ever confessed the Lord? If thou shalt confess with thy must the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. God says it, and that settles us. How blessed you can say by the grace of God.
God says it. I believe it.
And that settles us. How blessed. Now I turn to the third Scripture, which I know is not popular in this world. I turn to the 16th chapter of Luke Gospel, and I know that men don't like to hear these things.
But we must say it, and I trust that each one in this room.
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Will bear with us as we bring this sad, solemn case before you.
Very, very solemn. I want to remind you again.
That the only man who never told the lies. The only man we could really trust the 100%.
Told this incident, which is not a parable, which is not a parable, nor Luke chapter 16 verse 19.
There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fair sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed.
With the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores, and it came to pass that the beggar died.
And was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried.
And in hell.
He lifts up his eyes, being in torment.
And seeth Abraham are far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father.
Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus. He may dip.
The tip of his finger in water and cooled my tongue.
For I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in my lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between US and you there is a great gulf fixed.
So that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us. That would come from Vince.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that I would send unto my Father's house.
For I have 5 brethren, that he may testify unto them.
Lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham.
But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them unto him.
If they hear not Moses and the prophets now, they will be persuaded.
The one rose from the dead friends who told.
The account I've just read, I want to repeat it is very solemn. The only man who never told a lie, the only man who knew who could open the gate of eternity.
Let us look into eternity. There's nobody else could do that. There's no man ever living in this world could do that. But the Son of God opened eternity and allowed us to look in. The rich man didn't go to hell because he was rich, and the poor man didn't go to glory because he was poor.
The rich man did not believe the word of God.
The man at the gate full of sores with a Saint of God. He later the testimony, I believe to that rich man, he laid his gate full of sores.
We're not called here, but maybe he did testify to the rich man as he passed by his great gates and all. I suppose when he died there was a great funeral. Or I suppose the mayor of the town was there and all the elders and city councilors were all there at the great funeral.
I suppose there were many flower carriages lined up on the street, but.
As the rabbi spoke no doubt of this man being such a good man, a wonderful man in the community, kind and noble and upright, he was in hell. Who said so? Christ said so. Dare any man under heaven's face? Not true.
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Dare any man say it's a parable? No, my friend, it's a fact. These men live. Jesus knew about them.
He told about them. The rich man was in hell and he cried. He stood out of voice. He cried. He had eyes to see. He could see a fur off. He didn't need glasses. He could see a far off and he could cry. He could feel. He said I am tormented in this flame. I am tormented in this flame, friend. Hell is a reality.
There is no hell. There's no heaven.
Because the same Bible that tells us of heaven tells us of hell.
And the same God that warns us of hell tells us of the glories of heaven. And dare man say there's no hell? Dare the modernist preachers stand up and say there is no hell, and expect those who have any reference for the word of God to listen to them.
There is a hell. The cross of Christ proves that, my friends, The cross of Christ proves.
That God is going to judge this world for man is rejected. The Son of God, Man spit in the face of Jesus and cast them out. God's going to judge this world, he tells us. So he's appointed a day in which he will judge this world.
By that man, that blessed man whom he raised from the dead. It's a solemn thing, isn't it? Here's a man in hell. Oh, dear boys and girls, I warn you tonight. I stand here and warn you.
Your land and hell, if you reject Christ, you'll land in this awful place.
The Lake of Fire.
Where man will live forever.
And his sins away from God with no company alone.
Don't believe the devil's lies in hell. You'll play cards and you'll have a wild time and a good time in hell. It's not true. Man will be in darkness. He'll be alone, alone with himself. Alone and his remorse, his regret, Weeping and wailing and national teeth. There'll be no company in hell.
You'll be alone, my friends, alone, alone, returning away from God, He cried and said, Have mercy upon me.
All the other man in the 18th chapter of Luke said, God be merciful for me, to me a Sinner.
And he found mercy. He found he was justified. But here was a man who cried for mercy on the other side of eternity.
And I say tonight, my friends, according to this book, there is no purgatory.
There is no second chance if you die without Christ. You'll be buried without Christ. You'll be raised from the dead without Christ, and you'll stand in eternity that it were in space, suspended by the power of God in space. And you'll look into the very face of Christ. You'll hear him say, Depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
Not for man, but if young man today, and young women and older men and older women prefer the company of the devil and the damned.
Or I should say, prefer that awful place where they will be.
And is not God's fault. He asked the question in the second chapter of Hebrews verse 3, which I remember reading about.
Where a man said God asked the question that God himself can't answer.
How shall we escape if we neglect?
So great salvation.
This poor man cried. Have mercy on me, he was reminded. Son, remember. Oh dear boys and girls, dear men and women here tonight who are lost in their sins, what an awful thing to remember.
And I believe that December the 27th, 1969.
Will be stamped on your immortal soul. You will be reminded that you heard of a saviors love. You heard of a way of escape. You heard the power and the blood of Jesus Christ the Lord to cleanse you from all sins. You heard about us. You heard that God loves you. You heard that Christ died for you. You heard that there's salvation free.
A prayer and a gift for you to receive from the very hand of God-given to you out of this great part of love you've heard of. If you reject that my friend tonight, you may never hear again. This may be your last time, your last chance to ever get saved. Maybe tonight, God's last call. I remember when I was unsaved.
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Many a time I heard the gospel, many a time I left the room unsaved, and God Himself, and I thank and praise Him for it, hung between heaven and earth a verse of scripture. He hung up there in front of my very eyes, and I saw the verse. It hearted me there after day.
My spirit shall not always strive with man.
My spirit is God's Spirit tonight striving with you, young man. You maybe came to the last conference of Toledo a month or so ago and you heard the gospel and tonight you're sitting here an unsaved boy, an unsaved girl, an unsaved man or woman. Be careful that God spoken to you.
My spirit shall not always strive with man. The verse hung from the heavens. Thank God of this. It hearted my soul. It made me afraid. I trembled. My friend, my spirit shall not always strive with man. God calls tonight. Come under me, he says, and I will give you rest. You dear girls, here tonight.
Come unto me, he says, Jesus, and I will give you rest. See the Savior standing for those precious arms outstretched, that smile of love and welcome on his face. Come, he says unto me, and I will give you rest. You understand the devil. And he says, Young girl, young man, don't do it. Don't do it. Wait until tomorrow and you'll hear the gospel. Tomorrow night you may be dead. Tomorrow night the Lord may come to night. You'll be lost for eternity.
And saw this poor man here, he says in verse 27, So solemnism, all friends, I want to say this again. Who said these words? Jesus, he said it. Would we dare take away from it? Would we dare All, I ask you reverently, would we dare take away the pressure, the precious Savior's words?
I pray thee, just imagine, I pray thee, a man praying in hell.
I pray thee.
Therefore, father, that I would send to my father's house, for I have five brothers, five of them, five of these men going to hell too.
Sending to my father's house.
Lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham 29 said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. What is the Moses and the prophets? The word of God at that time, the Old Testament scriptures, they have Moses and the prophets. But you have the New Testament. You have the blazing sunshine of the love of God, the blazing sunshine of God. Wondrous truth. Are you going to reject it? They are Moses and the Proverbs. Hear his reply, his sad reply.
May father Abraham, What does he mean by that? He means that, my friends. He means this.
When I was in that world, I did not believe the Old Testament. I didn't believe it, and neither do they. They will not receive the word of God. They won't have it. I'm afraid. Tonight in America there's millions of followers of this man who says we will not have the word of God. We don't want the word of God.
They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.
Nay, Father Abraham, but.
If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto them, If they hear not, Moses and the prophets.
Neither will they be persuaded though. 1 rose from the dead, and in the 11Th chapter of John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Raised a man named Lazarus from the dead. Did they believe?
No, they said. We will. We will kill Lazarus.
Because by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus.
Even more 1 rose from the dead and later on.
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This glorious, blessed, precious, wonderful Savior rose from the dead triumphant, and appeared to his disciples, and held up his hands, and said, Behold my hands on my side, it is I myself.
Precious Savior, He rose from the dead, he burst the bronze of death, and Christ arose a mighty Savior.
A glorious Savior and praise God, He's my Savior. I stake my soul on the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
He's my savior.
I ask you boys and girls, I ask you men and women tonight, will you have my Savior now, right now on the chair? You sit there, will you bow your head and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a Sinner.
I'm guilty, I deserve to go to hell for eternity, but I fall into your arms of love. I come just as I am.
A poor guilty Sinner, and he will receive you, for he loves you, and he waits. Angel hosts her musing, or the sight so strangely sad, God beseeching.
Man refusing to be made forever glad.
Christ waits.
The devil stands and sneers and says don't believe it. Don't believe it, boys and girls.
You have got Christian mother and father, you in the back roads there. I ask you, are you saved tonight? Are you on the Lord side or are you on the devil side?
There are but 2 masters.
The Lord Jesus himself and the devil, and there's not three, my friends. There's No 3 masters, there's only two.
Christ and the Devil.
Heaven or hell?
Whose side are you on? Where will you spend eternity? God says prepare to meet thy God.
Now you must make your decision.
We cannot save you.
We do not contend the button. Are you at the door?
But we ask you and view of eternity, will you bow your head and pray? Will you say I'm guilty? I'm a Sinner, but I believe that Jesus died for my sins on the cross of Calvary.
Or I was so happy this past summer when we caught it before the close of the meeting. Romans 10 and 9. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in the heart that God hath raising from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. And a little boy, he was a little taller, but he was 13 years of age. He came to me after the meeting. I saw him walking back and forth at the back of the room. I suppose he was trying to get up courage, poor lad, he was trying to get up courage. And God gave him the courage and he took me by the sleeve and he said, Mr. Wakefield.
Jesus is my Lord, is my Lord. Wasn't it blessed that dear boy? I put my arm around them and I said, look, there were people standing all around us, but we didn't care. We were there in front of the Lord. And we just bowed our heads together and we said, Lord Jesus, thank you for giving this boy courage. And we phoned his mother and she said, oh, thank God. When my boy was about six years old, he told me.
He trusted Jesus, but he's never said it since. Thank God it is. Tonight, my dear friend, will you confess the Lord tonight? Will you meet me out in the hall and say Jesus is my Lord, He's my Savior. May God grant it to be so.
For the glory of His blessed name.
The Love of God's Heart
Address—A.C. Hayhoe
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243 Oh, Lord, we would delight in thee, and on thy care depend.
To thee in every trouble flee.
Our safe unveiling friends.
Oh Lord, we.
All day.
Far and.
The.
Hannah, everyone.
May we?
Wear. It's fine. Horrible.
Oh.
Great.
Maybe.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, first of all to the Second Epistle of Peter.
Chapter One.
Beginning at verse 8.
Two Peter, one.
Verse 8.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and have forgotten that he was once purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if he do these things.
He shall never fall.
Verse 12.
Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Though ye know them.
And be established in the present truth.
Verse 15.
Moreover, I will endeavor that she may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance.
It's not my intention to speak on these verses at all.
I simply read them as, shall I say, an apology for that which I feel laid on my heart this afternoon. I trust of the Lord.
For I assure you that you will find it nothing new whatever. You'll find it to be that which you have heard and read and meditated on before today. But as I read these Scriptures and see how the whole soul of God's servant Peter was involved in this solemn responsibility of putting before the Saints of God those things which were real to him.
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He warns them after that which they lack, if they are short in these things, of that which will be their blessed portion, this or in the enjoyment of these things. And he says, as long as I am among you, I want to remind you continually of these same things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth. You're not going to learn anything this afternoon. You're going to hear that which you know already.
But I take this as an encouragement, Beloved Saints of God, as we open this precious book and read that which we already may know and know quite well, we find it so helpful, so encouraging, so refreshing to our souls.
To go over those very things which we have known for many years.
Peter even made the the express desire that after he was gone.
These things, not something new, but these same things might continually be ministered to the Saints.
I'd like you to turn then, please, first of all, to one verse in Exodus.
Chapter 29.
Exodus Chapter.
29.
Verse 29.
And the holy garments of Aaron.
Shall be his.
Sons after him.
The holy garments of Aaron.
Shall be his sons after him.
That which I feel laid on my heart, I approach with embarrassment and with fear.
Because I believe, dear Saints of God, that this precious book that is open before me presents to us.
A wonderful desire in God's heart we have had brought before us in these meetings.
The love of God's own heart displayed to us so perfectly, so fully in the sending of His own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I hope you know as your saviors. But oh, can we ever fathom the love of God's heart. Over and over again, in the precious Word of God, that love is revealed.
And the purpose of God in love is made known to us, and I believe it we find it to be.
That the light of God to bless in families.
To bless in families and this is very, very often emphasized in the Word of God.
And when this scripture first came to my pension.
It searched my heart.
Deeply.
For I stand here as a son.
As well as a father.
And in Speaking of the relationship with son, I think I must say I do so with embarrassment because it will mean reference to the way in which I was brought up. And my dear parents are now with the Lord.
In Speaking of the responsibilities that are mine as a father.
I do so with fear and with trembling.
But I can speak with the authority of God's Word.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him. What else did he have to leave?
Aaron was a priest. Aaron was a Levite. Aaron had not one possession on the face of the earth. No flocks, no herds, no possession of any kind except the holy garments which he wore from day-to-day. And these?
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Were the heritage he left to his sons.
May I look solemnly into the faces of the dear fathers who are here today.
And permit a son to speak to you.
A son who was privileged.
To witness these holy garments.
I thank God to be able to say this.
Privilege to witness.
These holy garments.
Garments are those things that are very close to us, things that are very much in evidence to those around us. And it's an exceedingly searching thing that burdens my heart this afternoon. For as I look around upon this company, I know that there are burdened and sorrowful and weeping hearts here today. And my own is touched with fear as I approach this subject. But I believe it's a solemn and wonderful and precious statement we have here.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him.
As our beloved children look upon us, do they see us leave our Christianity at the meeting room?
And come home to live an entirely different life before them in the home. We're going to look at some other scriptures that may bear on this. But it, beloved brethren, is a very precious promise and a very searching and solemn responsibility that Aaron.
Had the responsibility to privilege the joy of leaving to his sons those priestly garments.
He himself had warned. Would you turn, please from this passage to Deuteronomy Chapter 11?
Deuteronomy Chapter 11.
Verse 18.
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul.
And bind them for a sign upon your hands, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house.
And when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon my gates, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children.
In the land which the Lord swear unto your Father to give them.
As the days of heaven upon the earth, doesn't that have a wonderful ring?
Just let me read it over again as the days of Heaven.
Upon the Earth isn't that grand? I think it's worth underlining.
The days of heaven upon the earth. I've been in and out of many homes.
And I have witnessed this in some of the homes that I have visited, the very days of heaven upon the earth. I know, and it's most evident to all of us that this is an earthly promise to an earthly people, promising them long life and the blessing of the Lord down here, but with that very happy description, the days of heaven.
Upon the earth. I want to emphasize that because the Lord. I believe as we go over these verses slowly, we need to be reminded that the purpose of God in the instruction given is.
Our happiness Oh dear Saints of God, He wants you to be happy when you take John's gospel and you turn page after page and read of His loving desire. That our joy.
Might be.
Over and over, the Lord Jesus presents that happy expression that your joy might be.
Full and we find ourselves, do we not, sitting down and thinking, well, if this circumstance and that were changed a bit, then my joy would rise much higher than it is now.
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Forgive plee the quotation that you'll immediately recognize, but I heard it more often than you did.
Happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances. Have you ever heard that before? I suppose there's a generation here that haven't heard these things that I heard since my boyhood days. But I know that's a true statement. And in going in and out among the homes of the Lord's village people, how I have seen it.
All the radiant joy and happiness that I have seen.
In the countenance and the home, and the life of some of those whose circumstances you and I would not envy for one moment, and yet they have the joy of the Lord in their souls, and it shows to all around. Let us remember that. I say again, as we go over these verses slowly, that the purpose of God in bringing it before us is because He wants you to have personal happiness.
And He wants you to have a happy home and family. Now let's go back, shall we do verse 18? Therefore shall you lay up.
These my words.
Beloved, forgive me again, I said. This would be embarrassing.
But this book was beloved, much beloved, in the home in which I grew up.
Greatly beloved continually referred to, it seemed to be woven into the topics of conversation day by day. And when I read this word, lay up. It's not something that happens suddenly. You don't wake up all of a sudden one morning.
With a good knowledge of God's precious Word laid up within your memory or your heart, and I'm going to look at everyone here who is able to read and recommend to you that you read God's precious Word regularly, daily, and in an orderly fashion.
I won't ask this for one moment, but if I did, I wonder what I would see.
How many could raise their Bible and say I have read God's word from the first word of Genesis to the last word of Revelation without missing anything?
I wonder what I would see if I asked for this to take place.
You and I cannot lay claim to laying up the Word of God in our heart and soul unless we read it. Read it with diligence, read it with prayer, and I can say you'll find yourself reading it with delight.
To lay up these my words in your heart, isn't that grand? The heart seems to me in God's word to speak of the affection and know how lovely it is to see someone who reads this precious, precious book because.
Affection of their heart yearns for more and more of a preciousness and the loveliness of Christ. And to discover in this book not the boundaries beyond which I will be transgressing, but rather those things which will please the One who loved me with a love that is stronger than death.
When young believers come to me and say, is there any scripture against this? Is there anything to condemn that? I am reminded of what our dear brother HF Clausen told us in Montreal quite a number of years ago. He had a large piece of construction paper and on one side.
He had.
A square drawn, and inside that square number of scattered dots. And he likened this to the people of God in the Old Testament, who were kept in by definite boundaries, laws beyond which they dare not go. And if they went off in this direction, they soon found a law which forbid them going any further. And he pictured this to us in some detail. Then he turned the card over and on the other side.
He had one prominent black dot in the middle, no boundaries to be seen, and clustered right near that black dot. Quite a few smaller dots, some farther, some farther, till somewhere dangerously near the edge of that piece of paper.
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And he reminded us that now it is our happy joy and privilege to remember that we have One who loved us and who gave himself for us.
Who has put into our hands His most precious book, which doesn't bind us in with the laws and the restrictions of the Old Testament, but presents to us One who loved us with a love that took Him to the Cross of Calvary to redeem us, and the motive implanted in your heart and mind by His grace.
To live to please Him. You do want to please the Lord Jesus, or you're not born again.
You do want to please the Lord Jesus or you have no new life within you.
All, my beloved friend, I believe it a solemn, solemn thing to realize that there are altogether too many who have this precious and this wonderful book and have had it since the days of their childhood. And they can perhaps quote a good many of its passages. But is there really any affection in their heart for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ?
As we listen to the conversations that take place between meetings, do we find an indication that there is a real love for the Lord Jesus Christ, all God granted? It may be more so that this precious word may be laid up in our hearts and that the reading of God's precious word may stir and quicken the affection of our heart. The next thing is the soul.
I believe it's generally considered that the soul is the seat of the appetites and the desires. Are you willing, and am I willing, that this also shall be under the authority and the control of God's precious words? Do I read it with that in mind? Then it may actually have its powerful and constraining influence upon my very heart and soul. I say it's a very, very searching passage to read, and yet it brings with it such wondrous blessings. And it was given to us because He.
Loved us.
So much and again, I would encourage each and everyone to make it your daily habit to read this precious word of God and allow it to reach into your very heart and soul so that your affections are governed by.
This precious book that in all things he.
Might have the preeminence.
In all things.
You know, I don't say this to make anyone smile, but I believe perhaps it's a practical consideration.
I was talking to a young man far from here who told me that he was never going to get married because he didn't feel it. Was it all right to take a measure of the love that belonged to the Lord Jesus and bestow it on his wife, and thereby have that much less to bestow on the Lord Jesus?
He was very, very sincere about this.
And I asked him what would become of a man who, having married a wife and perhaps finding four or five children to grace that home, now had to take the affection that belonged to his wife and divide it thinner and thinner still among the children who came to bless that family.
All he said it doesn't work that way, does it? And I said, no, indeed it doesn't. Nor does it mean that your affection for the Lord Jesus is in any degree lesson, nor that he has any less of preeminent place because he has given you by the grace of God, a partner who also loves the same precious Savior and wants to please him. I just passed this on to you dearly beloved young people, because I believe.
That these bonds that God in wondrous grace has put before us in this precious book, all the affections proper to them.
'Cause us, I believe, to look up with increasing gratitude.
To the one whoever put these affections within our hearts.
They're not natural to us. Naturally we were hateful and hating one another. Oh how beautiful to see the heart and the soul governed and controlled by the Word of God.
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Now notice it seems to become more practical. Bind them for a sign upon your hands. First of all, that which cannot be seen, that which is within, is controlled by God's Word, the heart and the soul.
And then we find it very word bound upon our hands that that which we do.
Is controlled by the direction and the wisdom of the Word of God. Is the Bible really that up to date? Surely you can't take a book written this long ago and use it to help you in making decisions concerning what your hands might do in 1969. Yes, thank God.
There is nothing that ever needs to be added to this precious book and it has impressed me very, very much. And visiting in other land where their language and culture and custom is so totally different from that which we are accustomed to.
To find that this same book.
Contains all the light and wisdom needed in order to live to please the Lord Jesus according to the pattern of this book.
In any nation under heaven.
Oh, let us just look at those hands of ours and realize that they have been, as we've just been told, redeemed.
You're not your own.
You're bought with a price, therefore.
Glorify God in your body.
I'm going to repeat what I may have mentioned before.
The occasion when a young man traveling over in England entered one of their trains. The trains over there are different a bit to our own here.
They're not made-up of 1 long continuous coach, but rather in each coach there are compartments in which there are usually about 6 passengers.
Well, when this young man entered the compartment, there were already three young men in that compartment.
And no sooner did he sit down and the train begin moved, and one of the three young men reached in his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards.
And he shuffled them and handed some to one, and handed some more to the second and offered some to the newcomer. And the newcomer sat there with a happy smile.
With his hands folded and he said no thank you, I don't have any hands.
Well, of course. The one who was offering the card looked at him in bewilderment. He could see what appeared to be a perfectly normal pair of hats. Well, he said, maybe I ought to explain. These hands don't belong to me.
Well, that didn't help the matter at all. It still sounded just as bewildering as before. So he went on to explain further. He said I am redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. I am not my own. I am, but with a price.
And I just don't believe it would please the one who redeemed me if I took these hands and used them for such a purpose. He didn't hunt all the way through the Bible to find a verse that condemned the use of those things. He knew that as redeemed with the freshest blood of Christ and in a desire to live to please that One who redeemed him at such infinite costs that he could well fold his hands, not with a frown of disappointment, but with a smile of real gratitude.
That he was redeemed with a precious blood of Christ.
Not only the hand, but the eyes, the affections, the very appetites that which we do. And our eyes perhaps would look outward to that which is even beyond the things that we can grasp. And in what direction are your eyes and mind turn, beloved friends?
Are your eyes and mine governed and controlled by this precious book, the Word of God? May I just remind you again that that which we have here in verse 18 is the preparation in a home.
For bringing up a family, isn't this pretty searching?
The heart, the soul, the hand, the eyes. And you can't hide these things from your family.
They'll know. It will show. They can tell, beloved, whether these things are real to you or not.
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And I believe, as this fourfold charge was laid upon the fathers in Israel, that it ought to be felt very, very, very solemnly by every one of us. Now the next verse says, And ye shall teach them your children. Isn't this a happy privilege, and isn't it a very continual responsibility to that which has brought joy and happiness to us?
By the grace of God.
Oh, do we not desire the same thing for our dear children.
But what can we expect if our heart is not controlled by the Word of God?
What can I expect?
If the appetites and the desires that are natural to me are not controlled by God's precious words, nor my hands engaged in those things.
Which redeemed hands are free to use to the glory of God?
And if my eyes turn away to those things which would only distract me from the loveliness which is in Christ Jesus.
And then to turn and teach them to our children.
All beloved, it's embarrassing and it's a serious matter, but here it is in God's Word, and I dare not shrink from what it says.
He shall teach them your children, Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine health. Are we so busy now?
Is our timetable so taken up that we don't have time to sit down in our house with our children and with the precious Word of God? And when we do so, do the children have the feeling that Dad's just trying to get this over with because he's got something else on his mind anyway?
And get this reading over with, because there are other responsibilities much more important than this quick little reading in the morning or in the evening. Oh, dear fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this precious book that He has given us, with all its unfolding of his loving heart, with all its wisdom, and with the glorious hope that it puts before our souls, surely should be worth more to us.
Than anything else that might intrude upon our timetable.
Speaking of them, when our Philistine 9 house and when our walkers, by the way.
Precious memories come back to me as I read this.
Speaking of them.
Forgive another quotation.
We ought to read the Word of God until we become so saturated with it that our very thoughts are formed in the wisdom of Scripture.
May I please just say this, There were many, many times when this rebellious son right here wanted his own way very, very much.
And I would present what I wanted very, very much.
To my father.
And he would answer me.
In the language of Scripture.
You can argue with your dad, but you can't seem to argue against the Word of God. At least I didn't have the heart to. And when the answer was interwoven with the wisdom of God's Word, it seemed to be just what this stubborn heart needed. Oh, I can remember. Yet on one particular occasion, there was something so educational and attractive.
To be coupled with something that we naturally felt was out of place for the believers. And so the easy conclusion was, well, we'll attend until that commences, which we wouldn't approve of, and then of course, we'll come right home.
The answer was he that trusteth his own heart is a fool.
That's a pretty straightforward answer. He to trust us, his own heart is a fool. Would I not be trusting my own heart to have the courage to pack up and leave when these things began, which would be quite a novelty to a boy brought up the way I was brought up? I would want to just stay around for a little while and see what this was all about. And then perhaps just a little while longer too, trusting my own heart, I would find out what a fool I was.
Oh, let me remind my own heart for these responsibilities.
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Still weigh heavily upon my own shoulders, and I say it with fear and inward tears.
That I mention what I speak up today.
I can mention my memory, but that which lies ahead the Lord alone knows.
But here is the wisdom, here is the promise from his own loving heart, who so earnestly desires your happiness and blessing.
Turn a moment from perhaps addressing parents to addressing children who are being brought up as by the grace of God, I was brought up.
May I remind you that someday I believe you'll thank God for it. You'll thank God for the many times you saw your father and your mother on their knees.
You knew they were praying for you. You heard your very name come from their lips in prayer. And when you so much wanted your own way, when you were the only one of a group that wasn't permitted to take part in this or that, you felt your parents just didn't understand you. They had forgotten all about their own youth. And all such thoughts went through your mind as they did through my own.
They love it. Young people, I stand here and thank God.
That I was preserved by his grace.
And through the firm hand of a praying father and mother.
From those things which would only have brought sorrow and disappointment to me.
Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, you know the Bible is the most wonderful book. As we walk by the way, and see the handiwork of God, the wisdom and the skill, and shall I say the thoughtfulness with which His hand has wrought it makes a never ending topic of conversation.
Can know when we were down in Oaxaca, every time we left one village to go to another, they would all gather together and they would sing so lovingly and so heartily. I will lift up mine eyes under the hills. From whence cometh my help, My help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth. They would sing that song through, if their tears would permit them to do so.
And oh, it made the hills of Oaxaca very precious to me.
Right, look around and see those hills, and I would think from whence come of my health from these hills, oh, my help cometh from the one that made heaven and earth, for the sight of those hills that existed so long before you and I were born. Dust turns our thoughts to the one who made them.
The little flowers that bloom, all the beauty, the majesty, the thoughtfulness that is behind it all.
I hope I'm not digressing too much in the practical things, but I can still hear the comment that would so often be made at the table as an exceptionally nice meal was set down in front of us. You know, children, we ought to be so thankful there's no nourishment either in the color or in the flavor of this food that you're eating. It all looked the same. It all tasted the same. It could nourish your body just as well.
But here are these nice mashed potatoes.
Here's this lovely roast beef. Here are these peas and these carrots, and they look so attractive and they each have their own taste and generally considered to be very pleasant. Why did God give us such variety and the ability to recognize these colors and flavors and to enjoy them? Why?
Just to sit down there and eat the way an animal would eat. Oh, I tell you, somehow or other.
Conversations such as this caused our hearts to look up in gratitude to the One who had been so kind and so thoughtful in everything that we saw all around us. When thou walkest, by the way.
To see the beauty of God's handiwork in creation and to be able, as we walk along, to realize that the loving eye of Him who put all His beauty around us is looking down upon us as we walk along the way. Oh, that's been a precious thing to me. And some hours that would otherwise be pretty lonely.
00:40:11
To think that the eye of him who created all things is looking down at me.
Wherever I may be and looking down at you, oh beloved, I tell you, it's a grand thing to be a Christian. And that doesn't mean simply to have your sin forgiven and know that there's a corner of heaven where you're going to find yourself at home. It means that there's a Savior who loved you enough to die for you.
It means that there's a Savior living in the glory at this very moment who wants your joy to be full.
Wants your home to be a happy home?
Wants your family to be a rejoicing family sheltered by the precious blood of Christ, and wants every one of us to look up day by day with the eager anticipations of soon hearing His voice.
When our service in Manhattan, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, it just doesn't seem to leave any time out at all, does it? It just seems as though the Word of God belongs in all the experiences of the believer, and so it ought to be.
Thank God, beloved brethren, if you and I are found at the Bible reading and at the prayer meeting and at the remembrance of the Lord and at the gospel meeting.
But what about the rest of the time?
I was in the office of a professional man a long, long way from here. Not one single person in this company knows who this is at all, so please don't try to even guess.
But he didn't know I was in the reception room, he was in his consultation room.
And he was really telling somebody off in pretty vigorous language, and his voice was rising in greater and greater heat of anger.
I didn't know whether I ought to walk out to save embarrassment or not, but presently the door opened and out he came with the other gentleman who had been with him, and he saw me sitting there.
And when he got this third party out the door, he turned to me. He said Christianity is one thing, in business is another.
I was very sorry to hear him say that.
Christianity is one thing.
Home life is another. Is that true? Christianity is one thing. School is another, is that true?
Oh, I believe that this precious book, with all its precept and wisdom can be taken by you into every area of your life. And if you perchance are in some occupation or situation that you cannot feel at home with this precious book, you're in the wrong place.
I say again, you're in the wrong place. Simply because I've traveled a bit. I get asked quite often to speak when I get back home in places that I personally just don't feel free to speak in.
And when they will ask me now, would you come and give us a talk on such and such a trip you've taken?
I usually say, well, I'd be glad to, on condition that I could bring along my Bible and hold it in my hand while I speak.
Well, I have to consult someone else about this too, so I'll let you know tomorrow. I've never heard back from any of them. They just don't seem to want someone standing up there with a Bible in his hand. And I do recommend this to you, dearly beloved brethren and sisters in Christ and dearly beloved young people, as we see in this little passage in Deuteronomy the place that God's Word ought to have in our life and our heart and our home.
Don't ever let yourself be found where you would not wish to bring this precious, precious living book.
And we don't live to ourselves.
We don't die to ourselves. The attitude that we take in these matters has a profound effect upon others.
I remember one time they came to our particular town in Canada to found a new branch of one of these well known.
Societies.
Service clubs as they call them, and they came to me and asked me if I would be interested. They said their particular activity was concerning young man and they knew that that was somewhat of an interest of mine.
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I didn't like to cut them off too promptly, so I asked for a little further information, all the while wondering what I might say.
And finally, I asked them the same thing. I said, what do you what day do you have your regular scheduled dinner meeting? Well, every Wednesday at noon.
I will have free Wednesday at noon.
One question, would I be free to bring my Bible with me to this dinner on Wednesdays at noon?
But you know, they made it quite plain to me that that Bible of mine would be totally out of place.
And unwanted. They didn't even wait till tomorrow to tell me that it just wasn't wanted.
So they went out again. And, you know, I didn't know the sequel to that story until we were having a Bible reading in the assembly at home a couple of weeks later. And one of the brothers in town who is a businessman said, oh, by the way, they're starting a new branch of such and such a service club in the town. And they have approached me to see if I would be interested in being an active member.
He said. I didn't know exactly what to say to get out of it, so I asked them who they already had among their members.
So they read off quite a list of names came to the end and said, and we think we're going to get hey, holy optometrist to sign to. He said, that's fine, I'll sign my name right under his.
But that's the way He lasted with us. You know, I just mentioned that, beloved brethren, to show you that we do not live to ourselves, that if the precious living Word of God is effectual, beloved Saints, in this heart of mine, as it ought to be.
As we had together with the dear young people.
Draw me.
We will run after thee. There is no heart that's ever drawn after the Lord Jesus, but what it has its happy effect on others. And we read the sad contrast where Peter says.
I go fishing.
And immediately the answer is, we also go with thee.
Oh, beloved friend, which is it? As we read this portion of God's word and see the claim of that word over us for our good, and for our happiness, and for our blessing, and for the welfare of our families, what shall we do? Shall we dare to suggest that these claims are too much, That this is going to restrict us in some way or another? Restrict us? I shudder when I hear that word, and yet I've heard it.
From the lips of those who are truly the Lords, there is something about.
The claims of Christ that they find restricting, and they shatter at the word separation as though it had a ring of legality about it.
We were at a very beautiful wedding the other day at which I heard the same words repeated that have so often been repeated before.
As the young lady stood waiting to slip her arm through that of her.
Expected bridegroom. She was asked a very challenging question. Do you promise that?
Forsaking all other, you will cleave to him only so long as he both shall live. Have you ever heard that question before?
I heard it addressed to a young lady 27 years ago, and she said yes, She said, I do. And you know, I don't believe that in any of these cases that I have witnessed, has there been any hesitation or thought of the legality involved in that, the privileges and whatnot that are going to be abandoned forever?
Forsaking all other cleave to him only so long as he boasts to live. I like the sound of that. May I put those words to you this afternoon? Here God has opened up his heart and said, I love you very much.
I want you to have fullness of joy.
And I want it to be in your families, too.
And here is what I am going to put before you.
The word of God.
With all its light and wisdom and blessed story of love revealed, hidden in the heart and the soul. Seen in the activity of the hand and in that which we seek after. Talk over with our dear children. Not just once or twice. Not just in order that they might know. A verse for Sunday school. A fine thing to do, but just a topic woven into the conversation of every day.
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What a memory.
Well now it says here in verse 20. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house. I like this.
It seems that the house itself is recognized and stands out from others as a home where the word of God.
Is love and reverence.
Would you like that to be the testimony of your home?
Dearly beloved parents, is it not true? And I speak with my own hand accusingly on my heart, is it not true?
That we have ambitions for our home and our children. That we need to judge before God.
I heard my father say to us.
Quite a good many times.
Sons.
I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city of Ottawa for a living.
And pleasing the Lord.
And making the biggest income in the province.
I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city and living to please the Lord.
And making the biggest income in the province. And you know, as God gave us a family. And the memory of those words came back to me.
They challenged me till I didn't know which way to turn.
I felt I couldn't honestly say such a thing. I felt that God knew the desires, the wretched, wrong desires that were in my heart. We like our children to be popular. We like them to be pointed out. We like them to excel in this or that.
By the only turret that has to make such a confession.
Is your desire, is my desire that they might live for the glory of God?
If this precious book might mean more to them than it's ever meant to us.
And that the precious claims of the Lord Jesus might lay hold of their hearts in a deeper way than it ever touched our own. Oh, if those ambitions of yours and mine are to see them advance in this world.
We'll live to regret it. We'll live to regret it. I've seen it happen again and again. Ambitions raise those children higher and higher in the esteem of their.
Fellow classmates at school until.
The charm of it all takes them completely away from the joy that has promised us here in these passages.
Thou shalt write them upon the doorpost of thine house. I was standing on the front porch of a home some time ago.
With a dear old man and a couple of little girls walked past and I saw them looking over the dear old man and he smiled and waved to them and they went past and he hung his head. He said maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but you know what I heard one of those girls say to the other when she passed this home a while ago?
She plucked her little playmates coat sleeve and poured into this house and said that's the home where they loved Jesus and talk about him.
Isn't that a nice testimony for our homes?
The Word of God found upon the doorpost of such a home. Is that your home? If the Lord leaves us here, will that be the memory your children will take forth from the doors of your home? A home where the Lord Jesus was loved?
Where his praises were sung continually.
Where his word was read.
With glad submission, I say again, beloved.
Will this be the memory that your children will take with them when they walk out one day from the front door of that home to set up a home of their own?
Bounds upon the doorpost of the house and upon my gates. I suppose that's a little farther out, perhaps a little more public testimony. But this comes last. It begins in the heart. It works its way through the soul, the hand, the eyes. It's given to the children in such a precious and continual and natural way. And then the whole house is characterized by it. And finally, the geeks.
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Public testimony and then the wondrous promise of the Lord. The days of heaven upon the earth. Oh, beloved, I told you at the beginning and it was an embarrassing and a very frightening thing that I had before me today.
It's the responsibility of parents.
And home today, it's a big responsibility.
And I don't think we realize.
A difficult world our dear children and young people are facing.
But if they're hedged about with the word of God.
They're well protected.
You know, the very last verse of the Old Testament.
I will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to their fathers, as I come and smite the earth with a curse. It just seems to me that last picture, when things are so dark and so indifferent and so evil, as though those fathers were just putting their arms around their children.
That there might be found for them a bulwark against the evil that was, in that day, so dark. Let me go back again, please, to that verse in Exodus 29.
The holy garments of errands shall be his sons.
After him.
Now mind you, there is no father here or on the face of the earth.
That would ever think for one moment.
Of pointing to his children as though God had rewarded his faithfulness.
Every father and every mother who would have to own in all honesty.
With their heads Bob lowered with the tears running down their cheeks.
But the blessings of the Lord upon our children.
His sovereign matchless.
Undeserved grace.
And I own it before you.
Sovereign. Matchless.
Undeserved grace. But do we have a promise or do we not? Yes, beloved, we have a promise of God.
From the day that little one was given to us, we have the promise of God. May God grant that we shall lay hold upon these promises and display before them in our own life and testimony the fear of the Lord.
And the joy of the Lord.
May I repeat that please? The fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord, for I believe they go together. I guess a lot of folks considered my dad to be a very legal man.
I don't think he was.
Prejudice, of course, but I don't think he was. I think I have observed this in.
Going in and out among the Lords people and there's quite a distinction between the fear of God and legality.
A legal man is not a happy man. Do I not speak the truth? A legal man is not a happy man. But a man who walks in the fear of the Lord is a happy man. He may have a conscience about the same thing that the other man abhors, but his conscience is governed by the joyful control of the fear of the Lord in his life.
And I truly believe, dear Saints of God, that that which our children will remember if we walk with God in this.
The fear of the Lord.
And the joy of the Lord.
Was the character of the home in which they grew up. And this we earnestly seek, with God's help, may be true of the homes and families represented here. Oh dear boys and girls and beloved young people, you and I only realize what a treasure we have in this book and how needful it is for you and for me to read this precious book prayerfully, earnestly, and I.
I hardly know whether to say this or not, but I sometimes recommend reading it on your knees. I was traveling with a young man some time ago, and each evening before we retired, this young man got his Bible, opened it with such loving reverence, and knelt down and read for a good long time on his knees. He didn't do it just to show off in front of me, either. I knew him well enough for that.
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He had formed the habit of reading God's Word on His name and it shows in his life.
The young man that walks in the fear of God and bears a testimony of real joy among those who know Him well.
Oh, May God grant that it shall be true, and that the holy garments of errands may, by the grace of God, be handed down from Father to son.
1 John 4:1-8
Reading
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And first, John.
First John, the 4th chapter.
Beloved is.
Believe not every spirit, the tribes of spirit, whether there be of God, because many false prophets are going out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in flash, is of God.
And every spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ come in places not of God. And this is the spirit of Antichrist, where we have heard that it should come even now already as in the world.
Ye are of God children and have overcome them because.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
They are of the world, and therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us.
He that is not of God heareth not us.
Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that is born that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at anytime. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfect. To Dennis hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He and us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and He and God.
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him here in his love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There's No Fear in law, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
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We love because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar.
For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we? Have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also?
First verse is certainly appropriate for the Dan Hutch who lives.
Never more so.
Believe not every spirit and try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are going out into the world.
This is bad enough in John's day, but what about now?
Would it be that if we were going on each day in prayer, reading the word and communion, that we would be able to detect these things? Absolutely. That's the that's what it's for. We can't stress too much personal communion, can we? Because that's the safeguard.
And John has been speaking in this epistle of just that, and now he goes aside for these few verses.
To assure us of that which is so vital, the confession of Jesus Christ coming down here is man giving his life and setting, establishing a basis for all of our blessings. Now that is a confession that's basic in Christianity. We cannot allow that to be set aside.
The other day.
Well, just two or three days ago.
My wife was handed two pamphlets, one of them about 100 pages and the other perhaps 25 pages.
And a tour by a very religious person, at least professionally so.
The Panthers were both.
Full of religion.
Supposedly Christian.
They were both on the subject of faith.
And beloved, believe it.
The name of the Lord Jesus didn't occur in either of them from start to finish, neither the name of Jesus or the name of Christ.
And yet being circulated around as appropriate for this time of year.
Because of the special interest in things religious.
I was shocked and astonished as I read both the Pampers very pious but nothing of Christ.
The Lord himself said in the gospel, Take heed what things he hear.
One was think that was large implied there was not only.
To be careful of what we hear about, to be diligent in the truth that we hear so that we will be, as our brother Lundin says, well founded, and that we will recognize when the trumpet gives an uncertain foul. Too often we are in inclined to be happy to hear the trumpet sounding at all, and not to measure that. Perhaps there is something false here. If I may speak of something personal, I recall it.
Occasion where I rode in a taxi cab and they got to the hotel. Cab driver handed me some tracks.
And I looked at the title of them, and they seem to be appropriate. And so I said, well, it's surely nice to meet another true child of God. And I trusted his soul with you. Yes, he assured me it was. And I shook his hand. And when I got to my room and looked at these papers, they were full of false doctrine. So we need to be very careful taking what things we hear and be established that we do not readily absorb.
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Which is going to weaken our joy and the truth that we know.
How is this thing in a home? And I picked up a book. The person professed to be a child of God.
And so I mentioned.
To her that there were some things in this book that were not very clear as to the person of Christ and her answer was well, you just don't understand the style of the writer. But brethren, the truth is clear. It's clear. It's stated in this chapter has been read to us. It's very clear. Notice what it says that.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now the emphasis is on Jesus Christ. I believe it's the person here and he's coming into the world, but it's his person that is before us. Now. There's nothing difficult about this. It's the person of Christ, his advent into the world.
And the the way that Christianity was brought to us, this is this is basic truth and there's no misunderstanding about this.
Now if we add things to it, we add works as the Galatians would attempt to do, or anything else. To be funnel this, we have to be careful.
The the truth is simple, it's clear, and if it doesn't come this way to us, we have to reject it.
The second verse is the profession of a person, not a fact. Is it now the King James was presented?
More that the thought would be perhaps conveyed in this translation. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, as if it were the confession of a fact. But it's really the confession of the person and.
While on that thought.
Is not just the confession of the person of Christ doctrinally, I believe, as we have in John 14.
Well, in chapter 16, John 16, the work of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ and take the things of the Lord Jesus and make them long so that this is how we know it's the Spirit of God working and indicting. The ministry that is given, whether it's orally or written, is that it's Christ centered. Now we find that they are today.
And we've all come across them, various groups who have broken off from the established denominations, and they talk about dispensations and they talk about being Bible students, and they go into great detail as to prophecy. And they have a lot of things that sound very good. And some of these things may even be, from a doctrinal standpoint, correct.
But if you will examine their literature and listen to them, you find that the Lord Jesus is not the center of their ministry or the the the Lord Jesus is not the attraction. It's doctrine, it's dispensation. Now of course we know there are dispensations, but they make issues of these. It's not the person of Christ. So what we have here is that the Spirit of God would glorify Christ, that one come in the flesh.
Who came from God to be the Savior of the world?
I had an unusual encounter one time centered around this very verse.
A bit frightening, perhaps, to recount, but it just might be a word of warning. I had as a patient a young man whose name was Macomb, and each time he came in we'd have quite a little conversation together on the Scripture. He was a real child of God.
A very studious and sober young man and one day he came in to tell me that he was going away to study for the ministry.
He said, I know you won't approve of this, but I consider that every man in the church is a potential believer and I'd like to be able to get in there and preach the gospel to them. Well, I didn't see him again for about a year, and when I met him he said, do you have time to listen to what's happened to me since I saw you last? He said, I felt as I began my studies that there was something vital lacking in my Christian experience.
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I had met other believers who had something more alive than I felt I possessed. So I went around among the smaller denominational groups in the city where I was studying, and I fell in with a certain company which I won't identify, and they assured me that what I lacked was the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
So he set about to attain to this, and he told me the procedure, the fasting, the prayers, the earnest crying to God in which these others joined.
Until finally, if I can quote him as carefully as I can, he said. At last, one day, after much fasting and prayer, I was filled with a tremendous surge of power and ecstasy, Till from the crown of my head to the sole of my foot, I was totally carried outside myself by this extreme ecstasy. And I could preach and pray and prophecy in a power that was entirely beyond my own ability.
While of course he said, when this faded away, I looked down on everyone else. I had attained to it at last, and he continued on in this for some time. But he said, I noticed, as I and others were filled with this power, there was a great deal of mention of the baptism of the Spirit, healing tongues, and Oral Roberts, but very little mention of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he said it troubled me, although I couldn't believe that there was anything wrong with it. And he said first John 4 verse two came to my soul. And I thought, I'm going to test this by the authority of first John 4 verse two. So he said, the next time this power came upon me. Now, brethren, I find this hard to believe, and I think you will too.
A sober young man who really believed what this verse tells us as to the person of Christ.
He said on his knees before gone, he tried to confess the truth of Jesus Christ come in the flesh, and with great agony discovered that he couldn't do so. And he told me that he was so anxious to continue with this that he struggled for a long time trying to confess that which his own heart believed that he couldn't do so. And he said, when this power left me, I fled from the place.
And I'm telling you, brother, so that you may pass on this word of warning to any other to stay away from all that which would pretend to be supernatural, but which fails in the test of first John 4 verse two. I used to be greatly amazed when I would think and meet with those.
Who seem to me to be seeking for the truth and yet would fall into an error and a serious error.
It bothered me. I wondered why is this? But I'm very sure that my observation was lacking, for I'm sure that the scripture would remind us that there is first of all.
They will not endure sound doctrine. They turn away their ears from the truth. And if I may be permitted to say so, if there is with anyone here, just a little sense of boredom because you're hearing the same things you've heard.
Before the same old brothers trying to encourage us, the same voices and you wish for something new and something different. Beware, the scripture says they will not endure sound doctrine. It's a joy to my soul to listen to the same voices that I heard when I was a little boy. I wish I could hear some of them again. But I thank God for everyone that's spared to teach us.
Sound doctrine.
I know there are a lot of other newer voices all around us, and I know that many are equipped to listen to those voices, but I believe there is danger in it. I would sooner go to the Assembly Bible reading and hear three or four brothers try their best to stumble their way through a chapter than to sit and listen to the most eloquent preacher in Christendom that doesn't know what it means to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
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One thing that has.
Bothered me as I've come in contact with many real Christians.
Is that when they're talking about the things of the Lord?
They seldom ever say our Lord Jesus. Seldom ever. They'll talk about Christ. They may talk about Jesus. They may talk about Jesus Christ.
But how seldom do they say our Lord Jesus or our Lord Jesus Christ? Now that's serious, because you'll notice that in the Word itself.
What delight the Spirit of God has.
In bringing those titles together.
The apostle Paul just delights in saying our Lord Jesus Christ.
But yet so much of ministry. I've been listening to some ministry.
Not not because I went out to seek it, but it was there where I was. And I've I'm sure the man is a real Christian.
And he, he talks lovely.
But it's about Christ. It's about Jesus.
But I don't know whether I've ever heard him say our Lord Jesus Christ. So I believe that we should be exercised about this. Do you feel like way, Brother Hayhoe?
Brother Haywood, connection with your remarks, would you give us a word on these 32nd verse of the 14th chapter of First Corinthians, please?
1St Corinthians 14, verse 32.
Well, one who is led by an outside influence or power and is unable to control the.
Voice of that which moves him is very evidently not controlled by the Spirit of God. I believe the thought here is that when one is led by the Spirit of God, the individual himself is in complete control, and is not forced to speak, as they very, very often are. I suppose always are in these cases that.
Poor chap experienced because sometimes you'll find two or three or four all talking at the same time, and each one claiming that they're led to do so. They may well be led to do so, but not by the Spirit of God.
Mr. Darby, answering the question pertinent to this comments that if one ministers word minister the word to him, he had a right to inquire, Is this message from God?
And if the one who was ministering hesitated or said, well, I'm not certain that I have no obligation to receive that ministry. It should be of the Holy Spirit in the individual system. And so there is this qualification for judging that which is what for us and as well as assured God has given us this safeguard that we we are protected against false doctrine.
Could we apply that little further, Brother Gil, and bring it into the everyday life of each one of us, that the energies that are raised in man are raised either by the Spirit of God or Satan? And what a solemn thing it is to go on as a Christian without personal communion. I've spoken of this before, but I believe it's important.
We can. We can look afar off and we can see evil teachers.
We can see false doctrines and systems springing up, but let's remember that from among yourselves men arise Scripture, Paul says to the Saints. And we must be careful and exercise each one of us in the assembly that we leave a good example, but also that there's personal communion with us and simplicity in these things, because otherwise we find ourselves.
LED astray listening to this and that, getting involved in things that.
We ourselves perhaps don't understand. The first thing we know, we're in trouble.
Can we read a verse in Isaiah 30?
I refer to this some years ago a sister told me of her experience.
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That she had gotten into the.
Bad habit as our brother Aho was mentioning because of the meeting being small and she didn't didn't get too much she said from the reading. So she had turned to radio ministry and she said as she was reading one time this verse the Lord used to convict her. Now I'm not going to say this is the primary interpretation, but it's remarkable how the Lord can use words in Isaiah 30 verse 20.
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner anymore, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. She had been sitting with her radio in the corner, looking listening to radio ministry, and this struck her as she read it, that the Lord would have her to be where she could see her teachers rather than what she had been doing.
With one of your brothers, please tell us what is the difference between a false prophet and false teacher?
A prophet is one who professedly gives the mind of the Lord that what a prophet is.
He's he's not necessarily a foreteller. He may be just a fourth teller.
So we can't confine the word profit to somebody that tells you what's going to happen in the future.
Can I ask a question, Brother Lundin, and give us a word on the end of First Corinthians 12 and verse 3, please?
That no man can say that Jesus is the Lord.
But by the Holy Ghost, I'd like to hear something on that please.
I believe our brother Hajo gave us an illustration of it.
And.
We were just Speaking of the importance of being in the presence of God in communion, that the Spirit of God might be controlling us.
Now one who is under the control of another spirit cannot make this confession.
Usually one who is unsaved, although our brother Hale gave us mentioned one who he felt was child God who had been under this power.
But I believe that the importance is that we personally have to do with God continually and not allow communion to be interrupted. And if it is that we get back into the presence of God and humble ourselves because we want to make a confession of Christ in our lives and the power of it is in communion. And so I believe that we are prompted either by the Spirit of God or another spirit.
We know that there was a time when when Peter the Lord had to say to Peter, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as weak, and he could not make that confession of Jesus Christ until he was restored again because of the state of soul.
14th chapter. First Corinthians.
The 14th chapter First Corinthians follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophecy.
He that speaketh in a tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. But for no man understandeth him. How be it in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. Now the verse that I want is this one. He that prophesieth speaketh unto man to edification, to exhortation and comfort.
Now there's the voice of a prophet.
He's not in this verse, he's not telling about what's going to come tomorrow, but he's building up, he's stirring up and he's comforting.
He that prophecy speak of under manned edification, exhortation, and comfort.
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So prophecy isn't limited to telling what's going to happen tomorrow.
And I suppose in respect to our brother's question.
If I remember it, he asked the difference between false prophets and false teachers.
But when our brother Browns brought before us in connection with the prophets, we remember the gifts to the church include he gave some profits and some teachers. So there is a distinction.
When we say perhaps that one that is a prophet.
Who, who has a revelation from God in connection with the Word that he communicates to his brethren?
This might be a word of exhortation, as we have read.
A very short duration.
And the brother might be in that capacity following our Lord's Day morning meeting.
And not continue in that capacity. It's at the time that the Holy Spirit has been.
Free in his soul to communicate something of God to his fellow Saints. What we say of a teacher.
That God has been pleased to put in the church.
The church as a whole.
And we know it in our assembly, those who have.
A real devotedness to the word of God who are addicted to familiarizing themselves with the Scriptures and in the fear of the Lord they seek as a pattern to teach, to build up, to encourage All Saints with whom they meet. And in that capacity they are teachers to them. Perhaps that's the difference with your great brother Brown. Yes, I think so. You would say then that the designation of false prophet is a much more.
Serious charge than a false teacher, would you? I'm thinking in terms of such a one as Joseph Smith who boasts in the term prophet and of course a false one attacked. I have thought that the designation of false prophet indicates a much more serious position in a leader than that of a false teacher.
False apostles too. I believe that there was a day when the prophets had a special place.
At the interval before Paul's ministry was given.
There was the Old Testament before them in the early church.
And there were those who orally gave the mind of God, I believe prophets.
But in connection with the truth that had been revealed in the Old Testament and possibly giving the light of the New Testament upon it. But when Pauls ministry was given, the word of God was completed.
And we hold ourselves very definitely in connection with this ministry.
Of the New Testament. And so there I believe there was a special sense in which prophets were known in that time, that we may not think of them in the present in that way.
I was thinking of.
Of the chapter we have, it says is false prophets are going out into the world.
In second Peter chapter 2 verse one says.
There were false prophets also among the people, even as there would shall be false teachers among you.
The false prophets are in the world.
The false teachers, it says among you.
I would like to ask a question.
Just movement is so prevalent today and since God is the church on the ground of the supernatural.
Miracles and speaking in tongues. Why are we not looking for today?
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
There's the foundation of apostles and prophets too, weren't there?
That was the foundation.
00:35:02
I believe we have to read the Word of God carefully in the Spirit and not come to hasty conclusions. And we do well if we don't understand passages to wait upon God instead of rushing into conclusions. It's over years perhaps, that we get to understand these these precious truths.
In the way we should waiting upon God, But to run to hasty conclusions only leads us into error.
And the following of these spirits that we're warned against.
Dust.
Chapter 17.
Are part of a worse.
We have in our hands the word of God.
This is our only guide.
We have false prophets. We have false teachers.
We have all kinds of cults in the day we're living in.
And here's the verse.
In the latter part of the 11Th verse.
It says we might read the whole verse.
At 17, verse 11.
These are more honorable than those in the night.
They they received the word with all readiness of mind.
And they searched the scripture daily.
Whether these things were sold?
Here we have the word of God when one of those men come to you.
If you're established in the Word of God, I believe you can detect whether they are of God or not.
And the Spirit that's in every Christian will depict it. Go to the 10th chapter of John's Gospel.
The Gospel of John, chapter 10.
We might begin from the 22nd version of the 10th chapter.
And it was at Jerusalem, the priest of dedication, and it was winter.
And Jesus walked from the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews own about him, and said unto him, How long does thou make a spell? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them, I told you, and he believed not.
The works that I do.
The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me.
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
My sheep hear my voice.
And I know them and they follow me.
In 119th Psalm.
There are these words.
Thy words relent unto my feet, and the light to my pathway. This is the book.
You read it.
We can find out when one of those men approaches. This is our guide even today.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me in the fourth verse of our chapter.
Ye are of God.
Children.
And have overcome them.
This is this is normal Christianity.
Because greater is he that is in you. That's the Spirit of God.
Than he that is in the world that Satan.
And there is the battle.
Ye are of God's children and have overcome them.
Because greater is he that is in you than in he than he that is in the world. So there's no excuse for any of us falling down in defeat if we're going on in dependence upon the Word of God and in communion with the Spirit of God.
00:40:04
We're thoroughly equipped for victory over all the unbelief and the corruption of the truth.
That's abounding. And Christendom today.
Here's what will guard and keep us from being turned aside.
Then in contrast to that.
They are of the world.
Therefore speak they have the world, and the world heareth them.
You and I are not regarded as being of the world.
No, we've been taken out of it and we tread a separate pathway.
But there's those that want to go on.
With these various new religions that are coming up.
They're of the world. They speak of the world and the world here at them. Now some of these systems have become great, mighty, powerful organizations.
The at the time that Billy Graham was out here in California having his meetings.
The Jehovah Witnesses had their convention out here at the same time.
And Billy Graham was having thousands at his meetings, but the the the other group were having far more than he was twice as many at their convention as he was having. That's that's where we are in the world today.
There are two tests here and the 4th capital.
With the trial of these spirits, it seems to me in verse two, as we've been speaking on, we have.
The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and there the test is in connection with the person of Christ. And then in the sixth verse, the end of the verse, we have the Spirit of God spoken of as a spirit of truth.
And that's in connection with the Scriptures. He is the one who has led the holy men of God of old to write the Scriptures, the Spirit of God.
The object and the as the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ.
So that.
Ministry and the power of the Spirit will always be to that end, that the Saints of God, the people of God, will be brought more under the control of Christ his head. It is never the object of the Spirit of God in His ministry to merely make the Saints, Bible students and Bible scholars and knowledgeable in Scripture that we will read in the Fourth of Ephesians where we have the gifts given, we'll see that the gifts ultimately are that we might.
The Saints of God might grow up unto him in all things, even the head, to be brought practically under the control and direction of Christ and affection and submission and obedience. Not merely that one is knowledgeable in Scripture, it's the Christ, so that as the Spirit of God. And I believe these are the two tests we should apply to all that is going on, whether it's in the far out sphere of Jehovah's witness.
Or whether it's in the the sphere even of fundamentalism.
Is it ministry that is conducive to the glorifying of Christ?
And bringing Saints practically under the control and direction of Christ his head.
Or is it merely to fill their heads with knowledge and give them a certain understanding of doctrines, or to glorify a man? And then the second test is as the Spirit of truth. Are these things in accordance with what the Spirit of truth has indicted through the writings of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament? These are the tests we should apply to all that we encounter in Christendom today.
In the sixth verse we are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. I suppose he's speaking there as an apostle.
He that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. He's speaking officially there, isn't He?
He isn't a mouthpiece there for the whole Church of God, but rather for those who were the apostles, those that were giving the truth of the Church.
00:45:02
We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Well, there are many things going on in Christendom today, even among those that know the Lord.
That if you say to them, well, but what does the word say about that? You get an answer. Something like this. Well, that isn't the way we do it. That that isn't the way we do it.
And just dismiss it lightly. But if it's in the Word, if God has spoken, we're to listen, we're to submit.
He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know me the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
That's an important principle.
He had just said Year of God, didn't he? Yes, little children, Yes, I believe we have a distinct break here.
The The apostle has been taking up the subject.
That which characterized the family of God, but for the moment he is called attention to that spirit which is in the world. And I believe power also, as we have in rightly in the third verse, the power of Antichrist. It's a power that's working.
It's that which would oppose this precious truth that you and I this morning not only can know, but we can enjoy.
And rather than the truth has given us to enjoy. And so in the measure in which we enjoy it, then we have it. Now the apostle has.
Left off for the moment he says, beloved believe not every spirit, but then he goes on after he's through that subject goes back to the original subject of ye are of God, little children. He wants us occupied with what's good. There may have to be a warning.
But He wants us occupied with what's good and what is good, what God has done. We turn our eyes that direction. We find that which will set aside all of this, which is of the world and which is of man. And in this chapter I believe we will see.
Three ways in which the love of God.
Is manifested as we go on in the chapter.
3 definite ways in which the love of God is manifested here and is precious to see it.
A word of warning to our young people, we.
The publicity that attends many of the campaigns of questionable teaching.
Often is very persuasive and intriguing.
And one has observed some tendency of our young people to.
Be taken in by the invitations to be present where there's some great work going on.
And one would recommend that this is hazardous. How much better horse that Brother Landin has said to be occupied with that which is true with the Word of God?
To revel in the wonderful place that He has given to us, our company, beloved.
All apart we trust with sincerity of heart. This is true of all here, and it'll be that the world here, these others, we have no business.
Being present, hearing these things, they are.
They are hazardous to US1 doesn't say that all is is lacking in truth or sincerity, but there is mingled with it that which temporizes the fundamental truths of which we speak, and how much better for us to be occupied with these things. And the same is true written.
Propaganda.
Way, perhaps all who have homes know what it is to receive unsolicited pamphlets from various groups who claim to be Christian. And the best place for most of it is right in the waste basket. It does. It's no good to read these things.
I would commend to our young people a very good paper that is available at the Old Park Book Room, which is entitled The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error, and in that is given a very nice summary in chart form of the fundamental falseness and the comparison of truth in the variety of doctrines. And I believe this is ample for any of us to know what we cope with when we can counter these others.
00:50:27
And also in our own territory here there is a.
One of the headquarters of a large new religion of Herbert W Armstrong, the ambassadors and call it the plane Truth and such things.
It is.
Bad doctrine through and through, mixed with some truth.
But basically it is.
It is off on every fundamental.
Even as 7th Day Adventism, it's a it's a relative to 7th Day Adventism dolled up in a in a very gifted man. When I say gifted, he has ability and also persuasive in his literature and his many I think 70 radio stations.
And a great center in London.
And other places, well, that thing is growing and many Christians listen to it.
And many Christians ask questions about it. They ought to leave it alone.
We have the God of this world and these cemeteries, the false prophets, so we've got no business in the world.
Morals.
Mention was made in Detroit of the outstanding example of one of David's mighty men, whose name was Shama, who, in the days when the Philistines were oppressing Israel, stood in the midst of a field of lentils, and the people fled from him. But he stood there and defended that field of lentils, and his name is listed near the top of the list of David's mighty men.
But you know, I've always been much impressed by that.
A field of lentils is hardly worth risking your life for, but I believe that man looked upon it as part of his God-given heritage, and along came the enemy, determined to take away from him that God-given heritage, and everyone of his fellow Israelites fled.
From the face of the enemy and left Shama all alone, but he stood there with sword in hand and, the scripture says defended that field.
Well, I believe that what has been said is very, very needful, but if we're going to look upon what God has entrusted to us as merely a field of lentils, will hardly consider it to be worth defending, but that which God has entrusted to us, beloved fellow children of God.
Is a wonderful heritage of truth, a marvelous blessing to the soul, and little by little, in the most subtle ways, it is being attacked. And perhaps we have seen those who have turned and fled and felt that it wasn't worth the effort to defend the truth earnestly, to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. Well, I don't know anything at all about Hebrew, but I think we know that the term used in the end of Ezekiel.
Jehovah Shama means the Lord is there. So I would suppose that the word Shama means there. Well, that's not a very impressive name for a man to bear, simply the name bear. When the truth was being attacked, Shama was there. And though beloved, when I think of that man standing there with sword in hand and seeing his brethren flee in all directions from all around him.
And he stood with the sword, the word of God, in his hand, and defended that field. I think of that which we've just been hearing. We're surrounded by enemies that would try sometimes so openly and sometimes so subtly, to rob us of a truth that ought to mean so much to our hearts. The record of how much we value these things is going to be revealed in a coming day. David recorded Shama's name.
00:55:24
The name there among his mighty men, and someday up there in the glory when we find ourselves surrounded by all that which the heart of God has prepared for us. Someday we're going to look back and see the record reviewed. Dear Saints of God, of how much you and I thought of these things and valued them and were perhaps willing to defend them, even though the accusation of narrowness might be hurled at us because we would defend something that's considered of very little importance.
Emma had something to share with his brethren after that.
The lentils could be distributed. A young man complained to me some years ago as to.
The lack of ability in our little meeting where we were that it was a little dull for him and sad to say he eventually drifted away. But I questioned him. I said, well dear brother, true we lacked much gift energy, but what have you contributed to it?
We had to just follow his head because he's contributed nothing. It's nice for our young brethren to remember this that has been so very sweetly pointed out to us. Even if we're just there, they're in your seat, faithfully present. This is a great encouragement to all the Saints of your assembly, no matter how small your company may be from whom you now come say we just go on in that faithfulness, quietness, too.
The seventh verse encourages us in this.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
Now, it's true that every believer has that nature.
That loves every other believer. And so we have the cultivating of it here the Lord could say in the 13th of John to his disciples, when that company, which I suppose would represent in picture form the heavenly family down here, that John loves to set forth.
He says.
That by this shall all men know there's your testimony, that you're my disciples, in that you have love one for another. Now the cultivating of this leaves a testimony in this world.
It's a testimony that goes out to those around us. If there is that expression of love we were noticing yesterday, the subject of forgiveness.
And you know.
I just like to say this scripture does say that we should.
And all wise rebuke our brother, and not suffer sin upon him. But we should also not hold a grudge. There should be that love manifested. We we should seek by all means to manifest this one to another, and not allow the enemy to come in and separate the Saints of God.
Well, we've some of us have proved in a marvelous way.
The truth of that verse?
The love and let us love one another.
One has been overwhelmed at times by the love of the Saints. It's a real thing, it isn't.
Something academic that we talk about. It's a real living thing, the love among the Saints. And if any of us get grumpy and unhappy and begin to complain about our brethren, they don't care anything about us.
You wait, beloved, until you get into some trouble.
Whether it's physical or whatever it may be, the nature of it, some some difficulty comes into your life.
And then see how your brethren rally to your side to help you and cheer you, bury you through it. Oh, I don't see how anyone that's been through this could ever question the fact of the law among God's people. It's a real, real thing.
01:00:07
And I've noticed too.
In giving out of tracks.
And you give one to some person and they take a look at it. The first thing they do, of course, is turn it over to see where it comes from.
But if they have time to read a little of it and find out that it's magnifying Christ.
They just they just break forth into a beam of.
Of joy and all they say, oh this is lovely, I do enjoy this. What is that? Well, that's what we have here. It's that bond of love. And they feel they've met another Christian and I feel the same way toward that man or that woman, whoever it is, when I get this response, here's someone that possesses that same love.
Well, we are of God.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. This is divine love, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.
I heard Mr. Potter tell this story more than once.
He was talking about two well known old brothers over in the old country.
And.
Something came in among them and one of them said to the other, Well, I don't love you at all. I don't love you anymore. And the brother responded to him, Oh yes you do, and you can't help it.
Well, it's true, the Divine love was there in his heart, even though he'd allowed the flights to come in and mar it.
I believe we should notice the way this verse starts. It's very important. And we're told in Ephesians to speak the truth in love. And so John does here, beloved. Now this is the way that exhortations should begin because why would you exhort someone who was not beloved? What can they do if there's no power of grace in their lives? But so.
He says, beloved, you're already in this position and I'm exhorting you about, and the apostle himself is in the Spirit.
To introduce this to the Saints himself, practically, it isn't just a cold instruction, but it's that which he himself is enjoying and affection for the Saints as he introduces the subject.
Several years ago.
I had some dealings with the real estate man.
I didn't know the man before I had some dealings with him.
As we went along.
In the business that we dealt with one another.
We got talking about the word of God.
When we found out that when I found out that the man was a Christian, make a Long story short, the man said he was a born again Christian.
Immediately we were the two of us were drawn together.
There's something that has drawn us together. We loved one another because we were children of God.
And we had very happy fellowship, one with another.
That was because we were both born again, you said. These born again Christian fought with the precious blood of Christ.
John is very loving himself and the third epistle here. Just turning to it for the moment.
It's only an epistle of 14 verses.
But he says in that first verse, the elder under the well beloved, well beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
That isn't enough, he goes on. He says, beloved.
I wish that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in hell.
In the fifth verse he says, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren strangers.
The 11Th verse, beloved, follow not that much is evil, but that which is good.
01:05:04
Well, how? How John radiated that love, and how he could extend that term to these to whom he was writing beloved.
We don't want that to just become a farm, do we? How we deport one who may employ this word and then his action toward his Saints doesn't reflect the same quality. Haven't we all who recall our dear brother down in Florida?
We've just enjoyed his expression when he spoke to a company of large people. Beloved. Well, it was very personal with him, wasn't it? He think he had a heart of love for each one friend.
And we love the children of God as the children of God. I was thinking of the not to get ahead but over in the 5th chapter verse one.
In the latter part of the verse I had especially before me everyone that loveth Him, that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him.
When we love one another, it is not the love of special friendships or amiability, but we the love of one another is as the children of God, we love them because they're children of God and this should be the the ground of our care and concern for one another and I believe would lead us to.
Not formed, what should I say? Special cliques that are concerned only with their own interests of their friends. Sometimes this is a tendency to have.
Those with whom we are most friendly and amiable and we're only concerned with their welfare and we sell them, even inquire as to the others, but we should love one another as the children of God. That's the ground of it. For love is of God. It's should not be on the basis of mere friendship.
Our liberty to.
Yes, our liberty to display that love or to walk with those whom we truly love might be curtailed as our brother Gross just says it should go out and it's a shame if it doesn't go out to all the family of God. The scripture says see that he loved one another with a pure heart fervently. I think that little expression with a pure heart would.
Would introduce a little bit of a guard as to how free we are to.
Show that love as I trust we long to show it, and as we will be able, by the grace of God, to show it in a coming day. But May God grant that we shall be spared from ever lacking in the feeling of that love toward all the Lord's people. I think of dear Joseph, who loved his brethren so dearly and wanted so much to show that love to them, but there were circumstances that made it wiser for him.
To withhold the display of the love that he truly felt. He had to hide from him for a little time the fact that he loved them so much, but it was so hard on him to do it that he had to go off into a chamber and weep because he couldn't show his love. And brethren, if that's the way we feel about it, we're on safe ground. If there's ever an occasion when I can't show the love that I feel toward my brother or sister in Christ, and it's so hard on me.
That I have to get out by myself and weep about it. And I think I would if it were one very dear to me. That I had to act toward them in such a manner, in such a condition, is certainly possible. How I would feel it, How heartbroken I would be, How I would long for the day when I could show the love that my heart feels. Well, brethren, I feel that if we bore this in mind, the love that is displayed would be.
According to Truth.
And more deeply enjoyed among us. And again, as our brother Gross says, I feel it's so necessary. It ought to be toward all the family of God. My father often used to remind us at home, the gospel is for the whole world and the truth of God is for the whole family of God. We have to be careful as to the liberty we take in presenting that truth, but it is for the whole family of God.
01:10:07
Isn't there a difference between brotherly love and love?
Maybe someone could?
Make that distinction. I think Peter speaks about it, doesn't he? Help us, brother.
Well, I was thinking perhaps Brother Hayhoe was speaking along those lines, but there might be times when that brotherly love cannot be expressed.
But love should never be absent. But it might be that brotherly love would be absent.
That is, in as far as expressing it.
Could we say that brotherly love may arise from.
Something that kindness that brother has shown. And I may feel attached to that brother either because he's helped me in a material way or in my spiritual life, and I'm particularly attached to him in that respect.
But supposing now.
The brother has not been kind to me. Supposing he's been opposed to me in many things. What is my attitude toward him now? Well, our brother Brown has just expressed that thought a little while ago in connection with his brother who said I don't love you a bit. He did, because there's a nature there. And that's our eighth verse. There's a nature there.
It's divine love. Now if there isn't that there, he's not of God, because God is love and there is that nature and that is seen. And I can't help but love the Saints of God. It's a nature that I have. Now. Brotherly love springs from what I'm sure, but it's more connected with a personal attachment, I believe, to a brother who has done me.
A kindness.
And I I have a real, real warm.
Affection for that brother. So we have it in Hebrews. Let brotherly love it really should read, I think Abide, isn't it. Let it abide. Just let it rest there. And that's what should characterize the Saints of God in the assembly. Let it rest there.
To a response of a special kindness.
Don't we prove that that true brotherly love right in our assemblies in sharing together?
The wondrous truth of the word of God and walking in harmony with one another, I believe we there experienced a real measure of brotherly love that.
The world knows nothing about with all of its fraternities and laws and so on, but our hearts are bound together in love when there is a walk of harmony in the truth. Wouldn't you agree on that? Yes. It's nice to cultivate that which would encourage brotherly love, isn't it? Yeah.
But in Brotherly love, is there not a possibility of our going too far with those friends we think so much of?
Mention that one thing.
The word is our brother Clifford Brown or brother Paul Johnson here will agree the word for brotherly love is an entirely different word than is what is used in John's ministry.
Now in John's ministry.
This love that is of God.
It has to do with the very nature of God and that God is love, and it has to do with him as such, as the source of of this law, the nature and the source, that word that we have for love in John's ministry now, the very same word.
Is also used in a bad sense.
According to the source, when it says the love of the world, it's exactly the same word. It's not Brother Johnson.
Yes, the same word, so that you have to consider the source.
Have to consider the source in the love that John speaks of, but we generally call it divine love because in most all cases it has to do with the source of God and we are the family of God being begotten of God.
01:15:15
Why that new nature?
Loves.
I have thought of the brotherly love in connection with that affection that we would show to our brothers, those who we might say are walking in a brotherly way. You couldn't express that brotherly love to one who is walking disorderly, could you? For instance, Paul says, in fact 2nd Thessalonians 314 if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. Love would always be there, and love might be expressed in not keeping company with him. But brotherly affection or love seems to me at least to be reserved for those who are walking in a brotherly way. That is an orderly fashion with whom we can express that in a practical way.
Brother Johnson, do you think you could also compare that scripture?
Romans chapter 16 verse 17 and 1St Corinthians chapter 5, probably verse 9 through the end of the chapter in the same way.
Well, of course, in First Corinthians 5 it is exclusion.
Of putting away in Romans 16. It hasn't gone to that point. It's not a matter of exclusion, it's a matter of of the attitude of the individual toward those that are causing.
Offenses and and divisions among the people of God, contrary to things they have learned. Certainly the IT would be love toward them to to avoid them.
Faithfulness.
It would be loved too, without the second for First Corinthians 5.
Where one is put away?
Uh, twice in the correct translation.
It says with such an one know not to mix MIX.
Now if we practice that, it would be better for the soul, which should be done in love and prayer, perhaps praying for Him ever but.
If he's a brother in the Lord, we must be faithful to the word of God and not think to be more gracious than God is. But with such an one know not to mix.
If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the assembly. But if he he will not listen to the Assembly, let him be unto thee as one of the nations.
There are times when we must be faithful to souls for their good, it may look.
Hard to be hard on our part.
And there's that in the 16th of Romans.
Where their activity is contrary to the ways of the Lord, what we've learned, and with those that thus would rally others around them cause division be creating division. Therefore we must avoid that.
We had a brother meeting in Des Moines that got away from the meeting.
And he and his wife got away.
And they wandered around here and there and I said to them one day, well, where, where are you going? We always said we're just known as the wife. That said, she said we're just religious tramps.
Just going here and there. So he came back, they came back into the meeting eventually.
I never forget what he said that morning.
He said, I want to say brethren, that it was not those that tried to treat us as though everything was lovely. He said it was those that were faithful with us and spoke to us strongly of our of our mistake in leaving the meeting. The result that we're faithful with us that helped us back, not those that just ignored our false position and and would shake hands and everything was fine.
01:20:18
So I think that's.
That has a point to it. Love, divine, all praise excelling, joy from heaven to earth come down.
Angel.
Hamster.
'S boy.
All season.
Glory.
Joy.
And my full.
Salvation.
More and more.
Come on.
Today.
1 John 4:9
Reading
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John and the 4th chapter.
About the ninth verse.
First Epistle of John, chapter 4, verse nine. In this was manifested the love of God toward us.
Because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we are also to love one another.
No man has seen God at anytime. If we love one another, God dwelleth in US, and his love is perfected in US. Hereby no way that we dwell in Him and He and us, because He hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God?
God dwelleth in him, and he in God, for we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world.
There is No Fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.
Sometimes helpful to see the order in which things are arranged in scripture because it helps us to keep these things in memory for our comfort and enjoyment.
In this particular portion of this chapter we have three ways, as was expressed this morning, in which the love of God is manifested.
This love that we were Speaking of this morning, and I will just point them out, but I'll say this, that in connection with them, there's a very definite reason given in connection with it.
And the purpose now the first one is the verse that we started with.
The ninth verse, The love of God toward us.
Oh, how precious this truth is as we think of the gospel and how we delight to hear the gospel go out, as we hope tonight, if the Lord could carry in this room the love of God toward us, that's reached out toward us.
And.
The next one is in the 12Th verse.
God dwelleth in US and His love is perfected in US.
Now the following one in the 17th verse.
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There's an alternate translation in the margin that's very helpful in most Bibles.
It's the love of God in the sense that with us or or hearing is love with us made perfect.
And as we said before, there are reasons that we can enjoy in connection with each of these three. The first one is the love of God towards us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.
Our hearts rejoice in this truth.
When we think of the love of God and how rich.
The riches of his grace to send his own Son. That's the reason he gives of the love of God toward us. And the measure here we see there never was a measure like this. We sing in that first hymn. You know about that precious blood Heaven knows no richer than the blood of Christ was shed, so that you and I each one.
Who believe might have a part in this love of God toward us? But then just briefly to mention the reason of in the 12Th verse.
No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in US. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and He and us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
Now the reason is that we know.
The love of God in us, because he has given us of His Spirit.
The other is that we might have in the 17th, 1St, that we might have boldness in the day of judgment. Now how precious it is that one who has trusted in that blood of Christ.
His work on Calvary's cross and then being sealed by the Spirit having believed.
He now has boldness in the day of judgment because he has that love of God.
With him. With him.
A precious this truth is, I thought it might be helpful to bring them together in this way.
Which judgment is this Speaking of in the 17th?
Just a general sense of judgment, I take it There's No Fear now, for instance, we'll give an example.
Turn to Revelation 4.
The fourth verse.
And round about the throne were four and 20 seats or Thrones. And upon the seats I saw 4 and 20 elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings.
And thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass.
Like on the crystal in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts or living creatures full of eyes before and behind. Now in the eighth verse.
No.
In the 10th verse. And the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast the crowns before him before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Now it doesn't look to me like there's much fear here on the part of the Saints who are seated on these.
These Thrones in the midst of the thunders and the lightnings and all that would speak of God's displeasure with the earth. What's going on in the earth? There's perfect calm and praise and worship around the throne. I believe that's what this verse refers to in John.
It's lovely, too, to think of the ground of that confidence. As he is, so are we in this world. There is a sense spoken of in the third chapter in which we anticipate being like him. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. But then, when we come to chapter four, we read as he is, so are we in this world.
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Death and judgment are just as completely behind.
Us as they were behind the Lord Jesus Christ, when he rose from among the dead.
And took his seat at the right hand of God. And that glorious little statement certainly presents to us a picture of the most perfect confidence. So that as we see those elders seated upon those Thrones, there is a picture of perfect, happy confidence. In fact, the lovely little thought in connection with that very picture I saw 4 and 20 seats, and on the seats 4 and 20 elders. That's not the way you or I would normally describe the experience of walking into a room and seeing 24 people seated there.
We wouldn't mention the seats first, as they as though they were of more interest or importance than the people sitting there. We'd surely mention the people first and the fact that each was seated. But the four and 20 seats are mentioned 1St, and those who occupied them are then mentioned to me. The lovely thought is suggested that there's a reserved seat there for you and for me that was there long before you and I were there to occupy that seat.
There will not be one seat leftover unoccupied, nor will there be anyone there.
Without a seat especially reserved for him. Lovely to know that all was settled and all was reserved before ever we were present to enter into it.
Because that person, Thessalonians one and seven, have any relationship to this.
Yes, I think so.
I think so.
With us on the larger.
Although I think it also carries the thought of the apostle encouraging the Saints at that moment that they might be at rest even then. But he was looking forward to the day when all these things would be accomplished, because the apostle was so thoroughly taken up with Christ in glory that he hardly, hardly realized the circumstances. In a certain sense. His mind and heart was so fixed on heavenly things that he was out of this world, as it were, in that sense.
And he was looking on to that day.
What a grand portion we have, do we not, beloved? And how?
Magnificent. The theme before us, God's love, or that's the theme of our chapter.
And radiating out to us.
That radiation of that lava and the knowledge of that lava is through a person.
The one that's mentioned in our ninth verse, the one whom God sent forth be the propitiation for our sins. I've enjoyed the use of the word manifested.
Because in my business some years back, we used to do a good deal of export shipping and preparation of goods overseas, and I recall how.
Our shipping department needed to prepare a detailed manifest of every shipment.
And this oftentimes was a lengthy paper.
And would recite on it in detail so many cartoons containing such and such, so many bundles. And all the way down the list it was described in detail. Well, that's what God has done for us. He's given us such a manifest in the person of the Lord Jesus. And we can explore that manifest the attributes of our blessed Savior.
We never come to the end of the manifest. It is inexhaustible for us. How grand the theme and should we not revel in it?
That's the point, brother, Is it not a reveling in it? It's lovely to see that this love is toward us.
That it is in US and with us.
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But you know, I don't think any married couple, after a few years of marriage, sit down to analyze the development of their love toward one another.
There are those present who haven't been married. It may be very long, and they love each other deeply, greatly. There are others who've been married a long time, and during those years, situations have occurred that has manifested the one to the other qualities of that love that couldn't otherwise be manifested. And now as the years have rolled by.
The marble of that love, the quality of it, the depth of it, the value of it.
Is deeply appreciated. It's not analyzed. It's appreciated. And so as we see in this chapter, the various aspects of that love and how it was toward us, in our need and in US and with us. It's a beautiful meditation.
On that wondrous love that was on our behalf and still is.
But the danger perhaps would exist with each of us, that we might be guilty perhaps of analyzing and not enjoying.
Speaking of.
Analyzing this portion.
One has.
Had much joy in meditating upon it and the thought, the thoughts have been brought out this way that here we have love in all its varied aspects and it seems to me we're all doing the violence to the scripture. We can take most all of these verses.
Love is mentioned and we'll find an answer in Christ to it. It's the the confidence of love or it's the the negative part of love where it's the fullness of love or the manifestation of love. But you can go through this whole portion from the seventh verse to the end of the third verse of the next chapter, which constitutes only 18 verses.
And you'll find the love mentioned 32 Times in that short place. Well, it isn't. It wasn't put there by accident. It was put there surely for our meditation upon. And it's a real blessing to the soul of anyone that wants to go through it and see what the Lord has brought and how love shines out in it all.
I like to connect these two verses 9 and 10.
First with John 316, where we have that declaration of God's love by the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then connecting that with Romans 5, God commendeth his love toward us.
Now realizing in measure the truth that God is light, and all that which our blessed Lord hath passed through on Calvary's cross.
And now I'm a recipient of God's love. Now I have the manifestation of it, the measure of it, and inexhaustible way. And we'll never, never throughout the ages of eternity in the Father's house ever be able to exhaust this subject.
That of this manifestation of God's love, and then the character of God's love which follows in the next verse, in the 10th verse.
We here and Christendom today, much of the truth that God has loved, well, that's only part of it. Beloved, before we can enter into that blessed truth of God is love. We have to know that we're dealing with the God of light and that sin must be judged. I don't bring that side up to enter into that.
Portion, but before we can enter into the fact that God is loved properly.
And dwell in it all. We have to know that we're dealing with a God, a God of light. Where you have God is light first in John three, and then God is love in the 16th verse. So I love the connection here with those four scriptures as well as others.
00:20:10
Would you say, Brother Righteous, that verse 10 tells us that the quality of the law of love?
Quality or character?
God is not only loved us, but He has proven.
His love by sending His only begotten Son. That's verse 9.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, Yes, but this verse points out that God has proven His love. He's shown His love, manifested His love. It the thought is to us, not merely toward us. That isn't the right word at all. It is the fact that He has manifested His love to us, His children.
By giving us life.
Good of Him to thus think of us that He might give us to share in His life, the life of God, the entire family. And so this is a declaration of how He has proven that to us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
Now, verse 10.
Gives us the righteous foundation for doing so.
Herein is love, not that we love God.
But that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God, the righteous God.
Has made a provision he's found a way to.
Satisfy himself.
Vindicate himself.
As to our sins.
And how he has done that? Is that his holy Son taking manhood?
Christ is coming flesh we've had at the beginning of our chapter. He's taken holy manhood and he has undertaken that great work of glorifying God.
Concerning sin and sins.
Propitiation. Now I know the prayers are that we don't get too deep and don't get over the heads of the young people, but here we have a truth. That'd be nice.
As one brother put it, for the lambs to stretch their necks, one brother says, don't put the hay too high in the crib, brother. But our brother Clifford Brown isn't here. He said, well, it's a good thing for the lambs to stretch their necks. Now here this truth is important to see that God has made a full and righteous provision.
To satisfy himself entirely concerning sins, our sins. And so the Lord Jesus Christ has done it to God's word.
I'm not talking about now what he's done for us in Leviticus 16. It's a very complicated line of truth there, but.
One simple thing that you might be able to get a hold of is that there are two goats. The two goats actually represent the work of Christ on the cross. The first goat is towards God, his holy throne, and that first goat is the goat of propitiation. As I say, propitiation is to God Word, and so the Lord Jesus has fully.
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Settled all that matter to God's glory.
That's the first goat. Now the second goat was the goat on which they laid the sins, as it were, of the people on the head of the second goat, and they sent it off into the wilderness.
Not inhabited, as it were, to send our sins off to never be remembered anymore.
As far as the east is from the West, behind God's back in the depths of the sea. So the second goat has to do with our sins, His bearing them in our stead. A substitute Savior, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
He was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for our justification. That's substitution. He suffered the just for the unjust. He was wounded for our transgression. That's all substitution now. That's the second goal. And you and I.
Of that household of faith are the ones that benefit by that second goat.
God is the one that benefited by that first goat by being fully satisfied concerning her sins. And so we have that in this verse 10, how God is as a righteous foundation here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
And I'm going to say it boldly, brethren.
That.
That truth is for our sins, for the household of faith.
And in the chapter one and verse two of our epistle, when it says we might read it.
In verse two that He is the propitiation for our sins.
And not for hours only, but also.
Now when it says for the whole world, by leading out the sins of the whole world, the point is that he has made satisfaction to God for the whole question, but he is not the sin bearer like the second goat for the sins of the whole world. Is that right, Brother Wakefield?
It's unto all.
And upon all them that believe the righteousness of God, Yes, yes. It's on the principle of faith, though to faith.
I'd like to point out in connection with what our brother says, that if we read carefully that second verse of the second chapter of First John.
We find that the expression the sins of is in italics.
And it should not be thought by any present that we are presumptuous in changing Scripture. I I fear that sometimes this may be thought, but we we observe frequently in the scriptures that the translators thought to improve the expression by adding words or phrases, and that was what took place here. But going back to the.
Original Greek we find that these words did not appear, and so the expression is correctly rendered that it is for the whole world. God so loved the world that He gave, and there is that available to all the world, but not effective to all the world. But we do not want any president to think that on the part of any one of our number at all there is a presumption.
In changing a scripture, we remember that the scriptures were inspired of God. They were written in perfection. But over the years, the copyists, those who have copied them, have occasionally allowed errors to come in in transcription. And so we in in the in those who have pursued the more accurate renditions, we.
00:30:12
Benefit by these corrections.
Is there something more intimate in the suggestion in the 14th verse of the Father sending the Son, whereas we had it here God sending his Son?
Caution John's epistle. We have the family relationship.
Fathers and children, behold what manner of love the Father hath stood upon us.
That we should be called the sons of God.
In the third verse or third chapter.
Father is more particularly Christianity, isn't it? And we have that brought out in the second chapter, that the denial of that would be the denial of Christianity.
The Antichrist. So we have the Father emphasized in connection with Christianity. It wasn't known in the Old Testament.
So I believe that we're brought into a richer place.
Uh, that's suggested in First Corinthians 15.
Where we see the.
The Lord Jesus.
Giving up the Kingdom.
To God, even the Father.
Because it's a new thing. It wasn't known in the Old Testament and.
It's the result of the work of Christ not only restoring that which He.
Took not away, but bringing God's creatures, shall we say, into a richer and a fuller relationship that was ever known before through his work on the cross.
Another spot for our brother Bell's remark might be this, that the very often in scripture when it's a question of using the term God.
It might frequently be.
In view of we might say man.
And it might be in view of.
Of sinful, sinful man. And in the verse nine, it seems a question of life. We didn't have life, but it's God. It's manifested his love towards us that we might have life. So in the next verse it has a question of the sins. So again, it's it's God.
They're not true that God has taken us according to Romans 8, the last part, into his love and grace as far as He can possibly take it. If you will notice the last part of Romans 8 tell this there in the 32nd verse. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered us, but delivered Him up for us all.
The 35th verse Who shall separate us from the love of God?
But from who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Christ loved the church, and gave Himself. For he loved me, and gave Himself for me. What shall separate that love me from that love? Nothing. Then the last verse, who shall be able to separate it from the love of God? God so loved this world that he gave His beloved Son. Who can separate us from that? Nothing. God has taken us into the depths of His grace.
And his love as far as he can possibly take.
When you say, too, that the name Father is the name that God takes in connection with the economy of grace.
And.
In verse 10 there is a question of satisfying.
His holy throne, God, the one whom against whom we had sinned. And you find, I believe that that in Scripture this is.
Followed out that it is God himself in his in that character of God that must be satisfied in respect to sin. It's not so much the thought of the father, well, the Father in connection with the.
00:35:05
With the grace that God would show to this poor, lost, perishing world.
We could scarcely preach the gospel.
To our lost souls and say the Father has loved you and given his Son for you. Because in spite of teaching otherwise in some circles, God is not the Father of all. He's only the Father of those who believe. And so when the gospel is preached, it's God who has loved us, loved you. But when we come to the circle of those who are.
Under the benefit of faith in Christ, as we've expressed, then it's the Father relationship. So the next verse, the love goes out on the same basis.
To the Saints too, but as you say, to the unsaved. It's rather striking, isn't it, how often we have this expression, beloved here?
John was the one who lay on Jesus bosom and.
We see here the effects of it in his ministry. I take it that John is probably quite old now. He's been in the enjoyment of this.
Loves for a long time and it's the very breathings of his being. He just revels in this and his affection for the Saints. And so he addresses remark after remark with beloved.
And we have it in this 11Th verse again, beloved, if God so loved us.
That is, he gave his son.
We ought also to love one another.
May I just read a verse in practical application of that in Ephesians?
In a way in which this love may be expressed.
In Ephesians 5.
Because after all, it's the practical application of it that we want as well. Ephesians 5. Or rather, Ephesians 4.
And.
31 Let all bitterness.
And wrath.
And anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
And be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God.
For Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now this is connected, brethren, with the Spirit, as we noticed in the first part of this chapter.
What we want to be careful of in these last days is the spirit with which we act.
We notice that in this chapter we're warned about the spirits and the increasing activity of them in the last days. Now we want to show the right spirit. That's the important thing, and it won't be unless we're in the enjoyment of this love that we have in this chapter. I believe the end of this chapter will give us that if we're attended to it, that will produce a right state of soul in relation to our brethren.
And it starts out with the love of God toward us, and now our application of it to our brethren.
We should be of a tender spirit. If we find someone in the assembly who has failed, we must remember that we might too be tempted.
We must remember that we too might act just as that person has acted, and we should be very careful in the the spirit in which we act towards these who have failed. Now there may be a difference with some who have been willful, but if there have been just the the not understanding and they have slipped away, we should show every kindness to seek to bring them back.
And in questions of discipline, remember that it's always toward restoration, always God's desire is that the sheep might be brought back. And so John stresses this. He's very careful to show us that there's a distinction between light and darkness, between that's which is of God and which isn't. But he also insists on this love for those who are the Lord.
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In every aspect of it.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one, doesn't say rebuke him or discipline him, although that might have its place. But the object is to restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
It's a spirit that one would stress because we have the two brought together in this chapter. The spirit with which we do a thing is most important.
There's a little verse in that connection in the 15th of Romans. I believe it is. I also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. I am very much afraid that there are occasions when we think someone needs a word of admonition and we take a shortcut right through the verse and administer the word of admonition, and it's not very well accepted.
But we never blame ourselves. We always say, well, you can't talk to that brother anyway.
But there is admonition toward us in that verse that perhaps we have neglected.
I also am persuaded of you, my brethren, the ye are full of goodness. Isn't that where the love comes in? Ought we not to show that love and that goodness in a practical and a hospitable way toward our dear brethren and sisters while we can, while there is no restraint whatever upon the free demonstration of our love? Persuaded of you that you are full of goodness filled with.
All knowledge.
Perhaps suggesting that there might even be a suited time and place and all for this word of admonition, as well as being sure that we have the word of God for it and really know that we are speaking on God's behalf. And then the last thing in the verse, Abel also to admonish one another. I remember dear brother Brown Speaking of this quite a few years ago. And he paused and looked around. He says the Scripture doesn't appoint certain brothers to do the admonishing.
Able also to admonish one another, Is there not the danger that we hang back and say, wait till brother so and so? Here's about this. He'll have something to say. Why wait till brother so and so hears about it, if this is a brother in Christ, a sister in Christ?
Why not, having preceded this by love and goodness and prayer? Why not?
Kind and faithful word of admonition instead of waiting, perhaps for someone who.
Is supposedly specially fitted in that direction.
This verse 11 two in connection with that brother beloved, if God so loved us, actually I believe the thought here is the manner in which he loved us. The love of God is not seen in his.
Passing over.
Just as it were winking in our sins, the love of God is manifested in His.
Doing something about our sins that is God wasn't God's love is not shown in just making us comfortable sinners, but was doing something about it. And it seems to me that what we have here here in his love, the love that the love of God which we are to express to our brethren is of this same character. It is not merely just to make our brethren.
Comfortable or at ease?
It's really to seek their good and their blessing spiritually first. What do you think? The thought that God had was that He had this great thought in His heart of eternal life for us.
It was the blessing that He had in store, you might say, in His purpose and counsel, and He would remove that which would hinder our being brought into it, by removing our sins, taking them away, cleansing us, and then bringing us into this wonderful blessing. Well, this is the manner of the love of God, and the love of God expressed in our own hearts toward our brethren would take the same character, not just to make them comfortable, but to seek their spiritual good and blessing.
00:45:17
In whatever form that may require.
If it's the love of God manifested to the Sinner, however.
We have a perfect example in the 4th chapter of John.
And there we see the Lord Jesus.
Manifesting His grace and His love to that Sinner.
And.
Gains.
Her attention first.
By affection. And then he says to her, go call my husband.
Now there cannot be blessing until the conscience is reached.
But, brethren, I believe that love is the way that the conscience is reached to be simply always calling attention to judgment, although that has its place and there's no faithfulness without it.
Is not always the way to reach a soul. Now God has used that. I know. Brother Martin told me it was chapter revelation that brought him to the Savior.
Still, the principle is there in John Four, that the heart is reached, and then the conscience and the Word will never stay in the heart unless the conscience is reached. And Mr. Darby say that aim at the conscience and hold the heart.
They should be a company each other when one seeks to help another one.
It's beautiful to see the way they go together in that one little verse. In the fourth of John, the Lord says go call thy husband and doesn't even finish the sentence until he brings in the love of his heart and come hit her. If he had simply said go call thy husband, that would have been the end of the matter. She would have gone away in shame. But he said and come hit her before ever finishing the sentence. So that a word to the conscience and the heart are combined. I believe in that one verse.
In the 8th chapter.
Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more.
This expression God so loved us in verse 11.
We've been speaking about the quality of it, but may we not also include the greatness of it?
Now in the third of John.
Verse 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Now, before finishing the verse, John's gospel is practically built.
On the principle of that son of man being lifted up and the finished work of Christ.
Build on that very principle, for those that believe well must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have.
Eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Now there's the greatness, that love, I believe. Now our more evangelical brethren, I think I would agree with that.
And so here it is, if God is so loved us.
We ought, we surely ought to be able to love one another.
How about verse 16 and the third chapter?
This is the extent of it that we should manifest also.
There should be that attitude, surely?
Yes.
Another thought is in John 316.
They go parallel, do they not? John, 316.
The God's love to a world of sinners so loved the world, and now in first John 316 we perceive the love of God because He laid down His life for us, and it's not a mistake that that's He there.
00:50:12
There was God in the person of Christ.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now he says in the.
Following up the 11Th verse, we also to love one another.
In the 12Th verse he says if we love one another, God dwelleth in US and his love is perfected in US. If this is true, if a man has this love, if he's one of the Lords, he has the Spirit of God dwelling in him.
This love is precious in him. Divine love is always self sacrifice. Human love is selfish.
Is the thought here His love is perfected in us as it were, in particular in our case in us we are the ones that His love is perfected in it. I think the point is it not?
It seems a strange thing to say with the love of God shining out from every verse on the page, that we would ever need to be reminded of God's love. And yet I greatly fear that even in Christendom there still is a lack of comprehension that this love originated in God's heart. I wonder if we're guilty of using faulty illustrations in the gospel sometimes that leave such a wrong impression. We'll tell a story, maybe of a school teacher who's about to administer punishment and.
Some unselfish friend will step forward and bear the punishment instead, and this is a marvelous illustration of the Gospel.
Well, it has its good points, but it surely doesn't reveal a love that was in God's heart. And I am astonished. I'm afraid I just must use my own thoughts as an example of how easy it is for us to overlook the marvelous fact that we can never get fully accustomed to even that it was God himself who looked down upon us in love.
And provided and sent.
His own beloved Son, of course, the love of his Son, the Lord Jesus toward us is.
Beautifully exalted in Scripture and beautifully demonstrated about how many there are who have thanked God. A love for the Lord Jesus, but standing on at a distance from God, forgetting the fact that it was God Himself who loved us in the 1St place when there was absolutely nothing about us to attract that love at all.
And we were accepted in the beloved is the is the high note of it all.
That's where we have been accepted in the very one that is the son of his love. We've been accepted there.
You mentioned the age of John, I believe a little while ago, brother.
When we stop to think of the aged John.
We sometimes say probably in the neighborhood of 90AD to 96AD for the writing of his ministry. 90 to 96 AD well for John.
To continue in being characterized by the enjoyment of the love of God and the love of Christ.
All through those years, in spite of everything, that faithfulness to still continue in the love of God and enjoyment of it is wonderful. It commenced back there somewhere, the time when He leaned upon the Lord's bosom before that, because that was at the end of the Lord's life on earth practically. But now we have here, no one has seen God at any time. Doesn't that remind us of John 118?
No man has seen God at anytime. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And surely we see in Christ that God is love.
00:55:03
Wouldn't, wouldn't this bring out then the thought in verse 12 That there is testimony here? No man had seen God at any time. Well, in the days of the Lord it says that the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. There was testimony.
And I have connected this with the thought that here, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in US.
So there is a testimony to God in the Saints here below who are walking in this truth of loving one another. That is, we speak often and we rightly apply a verse like in the book of Acts when it says being let go, they went under their own company.
And I'm sure that we all experience in our contacts with the persons roundabout that they take note of the fact that we go to a certain meeting and that we have interest among a certain group of people. And I wonder if we would realize that we could bear testimony that the reason we are with these.
People and the reason our interests are there is because they are the children of God. We love them as Saints. We are with them because they're children of God. We manifest that love one to another, not because we have necessarily.
Common personalities and likes and dislikes. But it is because as children of God, seeking to walk together as children of God and expressing that love. Now, of course I know.
We can't limit this to those. This goes out to all of the family of God. But still, I believe there is a sense in which we can bear testimony to this truth.
In showing that love to those with whom we do walk in a day of ruin and failure and confusion, walking with them as the children of God, loved of God and loving one another, then God is seen. There's a testimony in that.
And it's a responsibility placed upon us, is it not? With the young as well as the old?
If here is not provisional, it's as we have had before we if we are passed from death unto life, We do love the brethren, and so we love one another, and the if is merely since we love one another. But the practical display of it will let the light shine out, will it? That will display God in us. What a remarkable thing that we, for failing creatures that we are, do have God dwelling in US, in the person of the Spirit of God.
And we are privileged as the Lord commissioned us. When he left, He said, when while I am in the world, I am the light of the world. But he said, when he left, he said, ye are the lights of the world. What a responsibility to us who profess that blessed name, to let our light so shine before men. And this would be 1/1.
Exposition of it that the love that we have toward those who are, those who are.
Fellow believers with us, fellow heirs of the promises is so in our hearts that it is evident that those who look upon us.
In John 13.
Verse 34 I believe it is. We get this first expression of loving one another. The Lord Jesus says in the other translation. By this shall all men know.
Ye are disciples of mind if you have loved one to another. We get it in the next verse two there, but here in our verse loving one another. Verse 11 is the 12Th time and verse verse 12 is the 13th time in second John five I think is the 14th time that John uses this expression loving one another.
In this 13th verse.
The.
The fact that we dwell in him is put first. It's rather touching, isn't it?
And then he and us.
Precious truth we have here to assure our hearts. And I'd like to ask the question if.
01:00:04
The expression in the end of the verse.
Because he hath given us of his Spirit.
Is not only that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in US.
But also the sense possibly that.
It's you speak of a man. Well, he had that kind of a spirit.
And that's the character that we have manifested to us here. We have been given that to manifest it to others.
We've been given that same spirit. We have the Spirit of God indwelling. I asked the question the same as if any man have not the Spirit of Christ. Yes, he is not of his. The fact that it says of his Spirit seems to indicate that that it's more than simply the indwelling of the Spirit, but rather the evidence, the display of the Spirit. I quote Mr. Darby's translation of that.
Romans 8-9.
If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him. Now that really is what we have here.
Of his spirit now that verse means.
That it is only the Christian.
That who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.
It is only the Christian that exhibits.
The life of Christ. We are Christians, we are anointed ones. He was the anointed one. Now that he sent down his spirit in dwelling us, we believers that have the spirit of Christ.
I'll have that spirit which.
Manifests the life of Christ in some measure.
In every single Christian.
I think it's the finest definition of what a real Christian is. Put in the negative. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of him, the one in the glory who sent down the Spirit to indulge. I'm not of him, of his character. It's a spirit that gives me the character of Christ in any measure. That was the Spirit that Don himself was displaying even in his life and in this ministry. If not.
I think sometimes the impression is entertained that John was naturally a very gentle and loving man, and I've heard this reference quite often, as though we coveted the gentle, patient, loving disposition of John. Well, when the Lord picked John up, he called him Bowen urges, which means the son of Thunder. Well, I don't know what that might mean, but I can guess, and I quite expect that there was a little hint there of John's natural disposition.
But what we see displayed in Scripture is a reflection of the Spirit of Christ.
The loveliness of Christ and the love of Christ seen in this dear man.
It was John who said, Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
A little of the bow energies that broke through on that occasion, I suppose. But it's to me very, very lovely that not only as an old man is he privileged to write this kind of heartwarming reminder of the wonderful love of God which he had enjoyed so much himself, but he was actually privileged to witness and to record the culmination of that love in the marriage of the Lamb in the 19th of Revelation.
What a wonderful privilege granted to that dear man. And if you'll excuse a little digression, I remember a number of years ago I flew over the Isle of Patmos, and naturally my thoughts were upon this dear man of God as I looked down, and I had a beautiful view. Got a good picture of it too, of the Isle of Patmos, and I pictured the loneliness of the soul of that dear man as he was expelled from the coast where he had so long served the Lord.
And stood there on the Isle of Patmos, and my thoughts went to Revelation chapter one.
I got a little glimpse there that I'd like to pass on, It said. I heard behind me a great voice, as if a trumpet saying and being turned. I saw, and I thought, well, now I rather expect that John was facing the wrong direction. Not that we would point the accusing finger at him, but I think he may have been feeling just a little bit downcast that having been exiled, and he may have been looking back to the shores from which he had been exiled, and feeling pretty blue about it.
01:05:28
And he heard behind him, and he had to turn around to hear and to see this wonderful revelation. Beloved Saints of God, perhaps the reason why we don't get a view of these things is because we haven't turned around yet. We're facing the wrong direction. Perhaps by the grace of God in these meetings, we'll hear a voice behind us. And if it means turning around to get a sight of what God has for us, I tell you, it's worth turning around to get it.
And this next verse then says what he has seen, how precious this is. We referred to that in the first. He refers to it in the first verse of this book. What he had seen, his hands had handled. He's going to tell us in the 5th chapter that we're not to have idols. We don't need idols. We've seen him now. We've seen him by faith. John saw him, literally saw him. And it's precious this verse, I think.
In this 14th verse, in this way, we have seen Undue testify. What else could He do but testify of this one He had seen? We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. It's sad that the world hasn't all received him, but He sent Him for that.
I suggest that.
There's a thought, and we had talked about the Father sending the Son before, but there's a thought for the Saints here in a very special way.
It was said before that to the Sinner we tell that God sent his only begotten Son, but here the Father sent the Son. Who is telling us this.
The one that they had his bosom that had learned something of that wonderful relationship of his father to the son.
I was struck by reading over again in Genesis 22 what we read so often, the time when we think of what took place.
There we read that when Abraham and Isaac walked together.
The 7th person said Isaac, speak unto Abraham his father, and said, My father.
And he said, here am I my son.
There's something that goes much deeper into the secrets of the heart of God, the heart of the Father towards his Son. Are we not let into a secret here? There was that blessed relationship between the Lord Jesus and his Father. Only thus can understand when He said when they had taken him captive and he told the one who took the sword, He said, put up thy sword, He said the cup.
Which my Father has given me. Shall I not drink it? Hope you love it. It's something for worship, isn't that?
I wonder if that isn't the emphasis of this first.
When John says, and we have seen and do testify, where must he make this emphasis? It was mentioned that it was perhaps when John was a real old man.
But he is still testifying of that which took place 60 years ago. Perhaps we have seen and do testify. Alan Marie, the 10th chapter of John. The Lord Jesus tells us what is in His heart towards His Father. This commandment have I received of my Father, of my God here, but of my Father.
It's just as precious to her heart.
I believe that's very important and it's a special application to the believer here, is it not, as you say?
There's another very important thing for us to notice in this verse, and that is the word sent.
There are those who.
Would teach us that Jesus was God's Son, but only after he was brought into the world.
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But here was one who was sent from the glory, one of whom we read in the Psalms, that long before the world was made, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, Oh my God.
Now here is something that we wish to cherish and to yield not one point whatsoever, that the Son who was sent was the eternal Son of God.
And brethren, we need to guard it. There are some present with us today who would tell us otherwise. And we would say most seriously, this is a fundamental truth. We cherish it.
And we're not, so we would have no hope of life eternally. But the Son who came was the eternal Son, is the eternal Son.
My memory serves me correctly that in John's gospel you will find that expression the sent 1 or its equivalent over 40 times.
John emphasizing that fact over and over again in his Gospel and then in this letter.
So it's of utmost importance. And that was a stumbling block to the Jews.
In connection with John and his age, I'd like to read that verse in the second chapter of John the Epistle.
In the.
14th verse I have written unto you, Fathers, because you have known him from the beginning. Now that little word, that is.
Could either be left in or not. It's an italics, but I believe we have a lovely thought either way.
You have known him from the beginning was the experience of John and this is what produced.
In John this real sense in his ministry of love to the Saints.
The going on with inconstancy.
In communion, and we have spoken of communion here, but I wonder if we understand what it means. It isn't simply the reading of the Word of God and prayer, which is very important and precious, but real Communion, brethren, is to be in the enjoyment of God's thoughts with Himself. It's more than simply reading something.
And it's more than simply praying. It's to be in tune. It's to be in the enjoyment of what God himself enjoys in the fellowship with Himself.
And so one might even be in fellowship at the Lord's table and still not be in communion. That is in the sense of a formal way to be in communion. Really in communion, is to be in the enjoyment of what God thinks of His Son. And John was expressing that here in this verse, I believe.
It's a thing that I am very much afraid is little known. I remember getting a very real joke when I was a boy hearing dear old brother Dunlop say one time in meeting. He said there's nothing can Get Me Out of communion more quickly than the sound of a military band. Well, I was one that had run, run blocks to hear a military band or any other and I thought get the old brother out of Communion. I certainly don't know what communion is then.
And I tell you, brethren, it's a serious and real thing to talk about what it means to be in communion. I don't believe we're ever entitled to claim such for ourselves, although God knows that we trust there's some taste to the reality of it. But oh, how quickly the threat of communion can be snapped in little things that same dear old brother told us one time.
And I cherish the memory of a man of God who just seemed to live for the joy of this. He told us that one day when he got to meeting, he was very conscious of the fact that there was a cloud upon his spirit, and he sat there searching his soul as to what it was that had robbed him of the joy of communion he cherished so much. And he went back in his thoughts until he came to the point of having received a letter that morning. And as he read the letter, a sense of irritation came over him at the content of the letter.
01:15:14
He hadn't said anything to anyone, he hadn't given vent to his feelings. He had felt irritated and hadn't judged it, and he felt the cloud of it as he came to meet him. Oh, I wonder if we really know what these things mean. Just one thing more. My father told me one time that his father had told him that on a Lord's Day morning meeting there was an evidence sense of a lack of the leading of the Spirit of God.
And when that meeting was ended, every brother got down on his knees and remained there in silent prayer before the Lord that it might be made known to them.
We're in the troubled lake. And finally one brother rose up and bowed his head and he said, brethren, I have been the Jonah in this company this morning. I transacted a business deal during the week that left me with a troubled conscience, and I've never owned it to the Lord and said it right. And I know that it's on my account that the assembly has felt the weight this morning. And when my father told me, he said son would to God, We were as conscious of such a condition among us.
Today. So, brother, when you speak of communion, I can only hang my head and say that May God grant that we shall know a little more of what it means and be aware of how easily it snapped.
We have one more thought in this chapter and our time is about up. If some brother would help us now on on the 17th verse a little before the time is over.
We've already had some nice expressions.
You're going there to the 4th of Revelation, our brother Hey ho, speaking about judgment is passed for us and that the Lord Jesus has borne it all, and as He is beyond judgment, so are we. Now that's one thought I trust.
That I'll give the correct thoughts and otherwise I want to be corrected.
The very fact that this epistle gives us to me the of the family of God. By virtue of being born again, we too have been begotten of God. We have the nature of God, and so as He is.
So.
So as to ourselves.
Now one of the outstanding characteristics of John's epistle, these five chapters, is that the nature of God has been conveyed, imparted to us, his children. That's one of the outstanding characteristics of this epistle, the nature of God. So as he is, so are we in this world.
Now then, you have this lovely, lovely thoughts we've just had before us as to communion. It is our proper.
State to be in communion.
And we?
Thus, or as he is, if it is so practically, another thought is.
That we too are indwelt by the Holy Spirit even now here on earth, even as He.
But if we're going to be.
Controlled by the character of John's ministry as compared to Paul's ministry. We do not have here our standing in Christ as we have it in Paul's ministry. We have it there. We all. It belongs to us. We do have our standing in Christ, but in this verse, as He is, so are we in this world.
Is in keeping with John's ministry, I suppose.
The nature that we have, and it's as He is because that's what gives us boldness in the Day of Judgment.
01:20:03
We have a bird here on the second bird, John.
Verse 28.
And now they're children providing him. There's still up here we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him.
I.
I think #57.
#67.
Lord.
Ye Lord.
Gospel
Gospel—P. Glading
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Seoul has had a heavy sense of responsibility all day long.
We've come to the hour of the gospel.
Shall we sing #15?
Oh, blessed gospel.
So there is no.
Alarm in my home.
Call Neil.
Movie.
#18
and.
The last words.
Are eternal life for all.
That is the offer that is to be made here tonight.
Eternal life.
Shall we sing together standing?
Please #18.
You'll recognize this verse.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
John's Gospel, Chapter One.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God.
And the word was gone.
The same was in the beginning with God.
00:05:00
John's first epistle.
Chapter One.
And verse one.
That which was from the beginning.
Which we have heard.
Which we have seen with our eyes.
Which we have looked upon.
And our hands have handled.
All the word of life.
In this hour, together, we will take these passages as a basis.
For the discussion or the proclamation of the gospel.
Basic Bible facts abide.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
We should believe it because it is His eternal word.
And every person present here tonight is responsible.
To set to his seal that God is true.
The opening statement of the Bible.
So Sublime.
And with its grand sweep.
Tells us of the creation of the universe.
That's the statement that Mortgage makes.
As he first moved the pen of inspiration.
In the beginning.
Go back as you wish.
Beyond imagination.
God created.
The heaven and the earth.
Have you young people ever thank God for gasoline?
You like to use it.
And many years we heated our houses with coal.
And it's still a major item in industry.
There was a time when God was filling this earth of ours.
With those precious things.
That we now need in our day.
For a time came.
When God put man upon this world.
He brought order.
That was contributed.
To man's well-being and the position that he would give him as head.
Over his creation.
There was need of light.
And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
Now there was light before this.
But this was the light that this physical world needed.
God brought it about.
By divine statement.
And God said, Let there be a firmament.
In the midst of the waters.
And God said, Let the waters under heaven be gathered together.
Under one place.
That's important.
You know our world is.
75% water and 25% land.
00:10:00
Suppose it had been 5050.
Our climate would have been so altered that we could not endure it.
And in the firmament that he has arranged to expense the atmosphere, suppose it had been doubled.
Our winds would be so strong and so fierce.
That we could not stand.
God has made everything according to design.
And finished it in a way that would be suitable for us.
And the very vegetation that is provided at this time is the kind that we need.
As a support to our existence here.
And the animals too.
And everything else. And on the 4th day we get the appointment of the sun and the moon.
In their respective positions.
They were there before.
But now they are assigned specific duties.
And these have been performing their duties.
From that day till this.
As would be contributed to man's.
Well-being.
And His habitation of this earth.
God said.
Let there be light.
Let there be a firmament.
Let the waters be gathered together in one place.
And so on.
But coming down toward the end of that chapter.
There is something distinctly different.
For God was about to make man.
And there was a pause, a consideration.
Consultation among the members of the Godhead.
And this is so different.
God said not let there be light or let the earth bring forth.
But let us make man in our image.
After our likeness.
And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God created He, Him.
Male and female created he them.
Let us believe the record.
Let us look back to our origin.
For the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and men became a living soul.
Responsible to his maker.
Moses was not confused and he didn't copy from various accounts. In the first chapter we have God, in the second, the Lord God, because there is a matter of God's relationship with his creature.
He made them.
Male and female.
God has a purpose in your being a boy.
God has a purpose in you being a girl.
And let us be thankful.
And think of the distinction.
It's a little embarrassing when a three-year old boy.
00:15:02
Inquired of his mother, having been on a little drive through the park.
And having observed.
Some individuals of a radical sort.
Mommy.
Did you see the man girl?
This is not a voice of criticism.
This is a remark for your concern and exercise before God that gave you being.
We know the sequel. We know what happened.
When all was arranged in so beautiful away the garden to keep.
Adam and Eve There she his compliment.
For he was incomplete without her.
But all that serpent attractive, perhaps?
But subtle in his nature.
Came into that garden.
And in a subtle way, deceived the woman.
And the pair sailed.
And sin came into this world through their disobedience.
And let us accept the fact of sin.
It's here. It has been here a long time.
And will continue.
As the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
That is not yet fully accomplished, but it will be.
And the question tonight for you as an individual is to gain acquaintance with God's son.
And receive the removal and forgiveness of your sins now.
Romans 5 tells us.
That by one man's sin entered into the world.
And death by sin.
And so death passed upon all men.
That all have sinned.
This is a statement by divine inspiration.
It came.
From Paul, the chief of Sinners.
He records the history, the fact concerning sin that came into this world and mourned the human race.
We come down to our day and death is still with us.
And the practice of sin to all have sinned.
Let's face that fact tonight.
That all of sin.
That you're a Sinner before God.
And responsible to him.
Oh, there was failure.
On a part of Adam and Eve.
But right away God, in the midst of the pronouncements of His judgment on the various ones concerned.
Indicated.
That the seed of the woman would bruise the servant's head.
And we are in the knowledge of that tonight.
We know that God's son has been here and that he went to Calvary's cross.
And defeated the four and set aside or annulled his power of death over us.
The Scripture says that marriage is honorable in all.
And the bed undefiled.
But ************ and adulterers?
00:20:03
Will God judge?
The morals of this world are being corrupted.
Poison is being fed into the veins or the channels of society.
We live in a day of disregard to God and his standards.
And the morality that we learn from this book is not established according to man's norms.
For society is not an evolutionary force.
Neither is government.
God ordained the government.
But man, in his unbelief today, regards society as being an evolutionary process.
And also government and even the origin of man himself.
Oh, what a false philosophy.
What density of darkness that enthrones the human race?
Because of the God of this world that has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
And you know, we can hardly.
Be accepted from these evil influences.
The world crows in with all of its pressures.
Let us notice God's standard.
That is suggested.
Here we read.
We write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols.
And from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
This came out of the council in Jerusalem in the days of the early church.
The law was not imposed upon the Gentiles.
But these were basic, necessary regulations that God brought out of that conference there.
And these letters were sent.
And that they should abstain from pollutions of idols.
This is of a religious nature.
And there's that wrong in this world today that bears the name of Christ.
Christendom is a false sort of thing.
And because of its falsity.
Rebellion has been set up against it. God has resisted. His word is denied.
The Church is not regarded. Christ is ignored.
And man plunges ahead in the density of his darkness.
Going back?
To that state of things from which the message of the gospel in a large measure delivered the human race.
But my friend, tonight.
If you reject Christ, if you set aside the Christian faith.
If you turn away from the Bible.
Accepting man's philosophy instead, you will suffer the consequences.
There's nothing left but judgment.
For God has nothing further to offer.
Christianity came in.
Where two ways met Judaism and Christianity.
And relief was gained and blessing was realized as never before.
For we gained the knowledge of God.
And of Jesus our Lord.
00:25:03
Through the light of this word.
And you're in a very favorite place if you've never received the gospel, if you've never confessed Christ, but you ought to confess him tonight.
And don't judge.
By the failure of those who profess the name of Christ.
You wouldn't refuse a $20 bill just because they are counterfeited $20 bills.
And there wouldn't be any counterfeit $20 bills if they weren't good $20 bills, genuine bills.
Through US currency.
You can't excuse yourself on that ground.
That they abstain from pollutions of idols.
And from fornication.
So we have.
Separation from religious evil recommended.
And also the purity of man expected.
And further.
That due respect.
Of life that we should entertain.
For man is made in the image of God.
And we should respect life.
And blood, the power of the life that we have as belonging to the human race.
But oh, today there's an effort to strangle.
The precious truths that have come to us by God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By the power of the Spirit of God.
Oh, let us value this word.
Let us believe it.
Accept it. Receive the one that it brings to our attention.
God's beloved Son.
And walk in the light.
Of what has been given.
Now, looking again at John's Gospel, in the beginning was the Word.
This is past tense.
In the beginning was the word.
And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
We have here.
A title.
A name.
For that blessed one that came into our world.
This brings before us His eternal being.
His distinct personality and his proper deity.
This goes back beyond Genesis 11.
We do not come to Genesis 11 until we reach verse three in this chapter.
All things were made by him.
Creation is attributed to that one.
God has spoken unto us by his Son.
We are here.
We should take heed.
Think of the greatness of the one that is brought to our attention.
As drawn under the pin and the power of inspiration.
Records these facts.
00:30:01
The scene was in the beginning with God. Oh, it wasn't a subsequent thing or matter or existence.
For he was the eternal 1.
In him was life.
And the life was the light of men.
Do you have life in Christ tonight?
Likely, no doubt you have the light of men.
You have been benefited by the light of God's Word, that light that shone from heaven.
That light that came out in that Blessed One knows the light of the world.
But all the darkness.
The Light, chain of Darkness, and the Darkness comprehendeth it not.
We have received a dark heart through the fall.
And by nature were the children of rock.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the nature of every one of us.
A mother sheep wandered away.
She was lost.
And couldn't come back.
She gave birth to two little lambs.
These little lambs are lost too.
We came into this world with a lost, fallen nature, and we need the Savior.
We need a new life.
We need this life that comes to us in God's beloved Son.
This one knows all about us.
He knew that Nathaniel was under the fig tree hidden in the lathe.
He graced a wedding with his presence and brought brightness and gladness to that occasion in the second chapter of John.
In the third chapter he told a man and he knew who he was and he said Nicodemus.
Ye must be born again.
He was a religious man.
But he needed a new life.
He needed acquaintance with the Son of God.
And in that same chapter we read that as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
The work of Christ was necessary.
That work that only he could do? God's Son.
And he did it.
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.
In John 4.
The Savior, the son of God, had been up to Jerusalem in the land of Judea, the place of expected righteousness, and had found none.
And he was returning to Galilee.
And he must need to go through Samaria.
And there he rested on Psycho as well, and a woman came to draw water.
And the subject was water.
And next the subject was saying he knew who she was.
And he said go call your husband.
She was overwhelmed by the grace.
All this one that offered her the well of water springing up into everlasting life.
She left her water pod and she ran away into the city and said to the men, come and see a man that told me all things that ever I did.
00:35:08
Is not this the Christ?
He knew Nicodemus, He knew Nathaniel. He knew the woman at the well. He knows you tonight.
He knew me.
He has known everyone of us. He knows us through and through.
That's the reason he came.
In John Five we have that blessed One brought before us.
As the power of life, he is the quickener and also the judger.
For God has committed all judgment unto the Son. The Father judgeth no man.
He's committed that unto the Son.
What about you?
God judged this world by flood.
God selected certain cities because of their wickedness and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
In his judgment.
On one occasion, about 250 individuals were swallowed up by the earth that opened its mouth.
God must judge sin.
And God will judge this world again.
It's reserved under fire and the elements will melt with fervent heat.
You know, man is making a mess of things. We are.
We are concerned about the population explosion.
And the morals?
Or set aside.
Proper conduct.
And we are concerned about pollution.
The chemical poisons that are belched out day by day and then spoiling the very atmosphere that we're in.
And we are concerned about ecology.
That intricate balance that exists throughout the entire field of nature.
That's being tipped.
And it's bringing its voices of warning to the human race.
For they see not God as the creator and sustainer of the universe.
The one in whom we live and move and have our being, but these things are becoming so bad and they were worsened.
And it will be necessary for God to wipe the whole sleigh clean.
And begin over.
Yes, God will judge the world again by fire.
He'll judge cities, too, for the cities of the nations fail. He'll judge individuals.
For we read of the beast and the false prophet being cast into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone.
Do you want to go on with that pattern of things, my dear young boy?
A young girl.
Are you going to fit in with this world's program?
Are you going to take up this false view of life?
And lose your life.
Oh, if you save your life for the present order of things, you will be an eternal loser.
You need Christ tonight.
You need to know God's son in the 6th chapter. He's the bread from heaven.
And if you eat of him, you will never hunger. If you drink of the water of life that he gives, you'll never thirst.
In Chapter 7 there is blessing soul, large and so liberal.
In chapter 8.
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The religious promoters, Reformers.
And insisted upon the Law of Moses, and the traditions that they had received boasting of connection with Abraham.
Tried to tangle the Lord in his talk.
And they complained.
They resisted.
They were rebellious.
They revolted and sought revenge, the determined men that were against Christ.
But Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Before Abraham was I am.
This verse brings before us again something of that wonderful one.
He said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was or began to be.
I am without beginning.
That's God's Son, the Savior of the world, in John 4.
The one that has told us heavenly things.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
The only begotten son which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him.
He's there. He never left the bosom of the father.
Man has been a stranger in this world and in alienation from God at a distance from him.
But there is one bin down here who never left the Father's bosom, Divine Person.
And he.
Offers himself to you tonight.
All these precious things continue all the way through this wonderful.
Gospel of John.
A man in the 9th chapter says Lord, I believe.
Yes, a man called Jesus, made clear and anointed my eyes, is a prophet. Who is he, Lord?
Yes, dost thou believe on the Son of God? He says, Who is the Lord? That I might believe on him? And right there he was gazing into the eyes of the Incarnate Son of God.
And he was hearing the words.
From that blessed One, he said. Lord, I believe, Will you say it now?
In the 10th of John, he's the Good Shepherd that gives his life for the sheep, and he had power to lay his life down, power to take it up again.
And the Father rejoiced in him, delighted in him, because he would lay his life down, that he might take it up again. Oh, that's resurrection.
Yes, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures.
Oh dear soul to night. Think upon these things. Don't delay.
Except Christ now.
Thy blessed savior.
That one that the apostles handled.
That had been with them from the beginning of Christianity.
A real person.
That's what you need tonight. Not a philosophy of life, but a real person. You need Christ. You need the Savior, the Son of God.
Or they began to see that he didn't have a real body, John wrote when he's almost 100 years old.
It handled him. They had seen him, They had contemplated upon him.
That one that was manifested among them and that brought eternal life.
Down South that they could receive it by faith in that blessed One.
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Oh, why not tonight?
Turn to that blessed precious Savior.
Alive, forevermore, risen from the dead. A God's right hand looking this way.
And warning you to choose him, and you're responsible to do so.
You're responsible to believe God's word. You're responsible to accept his Son.
The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
He wants your joyful, and you cannot have a full joy without Christ, without God's Son.
He wants you to sin no more, and you can't have power over sin without knowledge of God and reception of his dear Son.
And he wants you to know that you have eternal life. These things right there are under you that you may know that you have eternal life.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why not receive that gift now?
Salvation is free. Eternal life is a gift. How can it be sold?
It is because of that Blessed One.
God's eternal Son and his work at the cross. And he said it's finished.
And his blood was shed for the remission of our sins.
And these things were written that we might believe on the name of the Son of God and have everlasting life. Oh, tonight can you delay?
Will you refuse? You cannot afford to.
So why not make the decision now? This is the year 1969.
This is the month of December.
And this is the 26th day.
And this is the 8:00 hour.
And it's the 59th minute, and this is the minute that you ought to confess Christ.
That you ought to receive that savior.
Don't wait longer.
And be outside.
Come now he now thy faith I claim him mine. There isn't Son of God.
Redemption by his death I find.
And cleansing through the blood.
#7
The first and last verses.
God loved the world.
Dilation.
A little.
The friend go.
Out of the world.
Gospel
Gospel—P.L. Johnson
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In mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone Jesus Christ was crucified twice for sinners. Jesus died all the glory of the grace shining in the Saviors face telling centers from above. God is light and God is love. Hymn #6.
God and mercy sent his Son.
To the world.
And Jesus Christ was crucified.
Was Voices.
Of boy all the glory.
Of the.
Grace shininess.
Healing. Say hello.
From above.
Road to life when everybody's long.
Salman and death, and no more shall reign.
In the.
Highest height. See him go to Grindelwald.
Letters from above.
God is life.
I love.
Let us read in Luke's Gospel chapter 20.
The Gospel of Luke, chapter 20.
Verse 9.
Then began he to speak to the people this parable.
A certain man planted a vineyard and let it forth to husbandman and went into a far country for a long time.
And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandman, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard. But the husband must be him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant. And they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third. And they wounded him also, and cast him out.
Then said the Lord of the vineyard, what shall I do?
I will send my beloved Son. It may be they will reverence him when they see him.
But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying.
This is the air. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
But therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them.
He shall come and destroy these husbandmen.
And she shall give the vineyard to others, and when they heard it, they said.
God forbid.
Matthew 27.
Gospel of Matthew, chapter 27, verse 19.
When he was set down on the judgment seat, that is, Pilot, his wife said unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
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The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain, will ye that I release unto you?
They said Barabbas.
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
And the governor said, Why? What evil hath he done that? They cried out the more saying, let him be crucified.
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see to it.
Then answered all the people, and said his blood be on us and on our children.
One other passage in Luke's Gospel again, this time chapter 16.
Luke, Chapter 16.
1.
And he said also unto his disciples.
There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayst be no longer steward.
Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship.
Stop in the middle of the verse here.
In these three passages that we have read.
We have a question raised in each one of them an identical question.
In the first portion in Luke 20, when that householder says What shall I do?
And then a pilot there, when the Lord was before him, and before the multitude.
He raises the question also, what then shall I do?
And here we have the question raised the third time by this unjust steward, unfaithful steward, what shall I do? And I had it upon my heart this evening to bring before us.
The fact that each one needs to raise a question.
In his own heart as to his relationship with God.
We know, of course, that we're living in a day when everything is being questioned.
And young people are being told that they should question everything.
Well, perhaps in a sense this might be all right as far as man's philosophy and man's ways and wisdom is concerned.
But I was thinking of raising a question in this respect as to our relationship with God.
And I trust that everyone in the room here this evening will take seriously this question as to how you stand in your relationship with God.
We have that verse, a very solemn verse, that tells us that what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Now I don't know what.
Are the ambitions and hopes.
Our aspirations and desires of the heart of all in this room this evening.
But I suppose in the hearts of all there are some thoughts of what you would like to attain to, or to be, or to accomplish.
But supposing one were to accomplish all that he had set out to do in this world.
Whether it be to attain a position of power, or prestige, or comfort, or just an easy life, are to be popular or just to have a good time. Whatever your aspirations might be, suppose one were to realize them fully and to lose his own soul in the process. What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul?
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This question that I would like to bring before each and everyone of this evening is of the most vital importance and I would especially urge our young friends who are in the meeting this evening.
That we consider this in a very serious way.
And I trust that there are none in the room so careless and so indifferent that the salvation of your soul, your own relationship with God, is of no consequence. Or how sad it would be if one were found in such a state, where perhaps in the going through of these passages of Scripture, there might be found by the help of God that which would give us each one to know our relationship with God as to whether we are saved or whether we're not.
And I trust that if there be those in the room this evening who cannot, with an honest and true heart, look up into heaven and say that God is my Father, and I know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, and I belong to that happy company of souls who are on their way to the glory.
If you cannot say that you are saved, your sins forgiven, and you know you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you give heed to the word words of God that would be found in this precious book that we would desire to bring out this evening for your souls blessing.
Well, now let us turn first back to that passage in Luke 20.
Where we have the first question raised and here it is a question that I would like to apply.
In relation to God Himself, this first question found in Luke 20, we might say, was a question that God had to settle.
I trust that we would be allowed the liberty and preaching the gospel to apply.
These things, perhaps in a way that one would not want to speak of as strict interpretation, but that the Lord would bring before us something to exercise our heart and conscience in regard to these things we know in this parable of the householder we have brought before us.
In parabolic form, the way God has been dealing with man.
Man put to the test, Man tried before God.
Just as this householder here had a vineyard, and he let it out, the husbandman with the object, of course, of receiving fruit in due season. And when the time of the fruit came, and he sent his servants to gather the fruits of his vineyard, we read how that the servants were shamefully entreated and cast out and sent away empty. All that a frustrating experience, we might say, on the part of this householder.
After having done all that he could do.
To have a vineyard that would bring forth fruit for his delight and pleasure.
To find that there was number fruit at all and those who had the responsibility of bringing forth the fruit.
Would treat his servants in such a shameful and disgraceful way and finally.
We come to that question that is raised in verse 13 after he had sent servant after servant.
And no fruit was gleaned. He raises the question in verse 13 then said the Lord of the vineyard.
What shall I do? What shall I do?
As I say, I'd like to apply this question.
As a question that God himself, you might say, had to answer and solve.
God has been dealing with man through the years.
Man has been in this scene for many millenniums.
And God has been dealing with man. Man was put to the test. Man has been had, various revelations given to him.
And man has failed in all of the tests that God has put him to. You know we are not living at the present time.
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When man is in a period of probation, God is not now raising the question as to whether or not man is a Sinner. That question has already been raised and settled. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
The question as to whether or not man is a Sinner, and I'll go farther and say the question as to whether or not man is an irretrievable center has already been settled. There is no means.
In man at all to redeem himself.
He is irretrievable center as far as any resources in himself at all. God has proved this in his testings over the years.
Well, I am thinking here in relation to this question what shall I do? And I would apply to God in this way.
That as God had been dealing with man over the years, testing man blessing man, making himself known to man in various ways.
And there was no response in the heart of man, man going on as a Sinner going on in rebellion.
God would raise the question then, what shall I do?
Well, now there are some alternatives that we might consider in connection with this.
Question being raised.
There was a time.
When God said in the 6th chapter of Genesis.
That the end of all flesh has come before me.
Now you know.
Things have not always continued from the beginning of the creation as they are at the present time. There was a world before the flood.
And that world was filled with violence and corruption. All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And so God had to say the end of all flesh is come before me. It was so bad violence and corruption, it repented God that he had made man. And God resolved in that day that he would sweep away everything in judgment except.
Noah and his family, who were preserved.
By the mercy of God and that Ark to be brought over into a new world, a new and fresh beginning.
We might say that God resolved the state of things in that world before the flood by judgment. He cleaned it all away in judgment and started afresh with Noah. And we find that God in his dealings with man.
From Noah's time down to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we find that again.
Man was showed himself to be a Sinner, filling the earth with violence and corruption.
So that this question what shall I do? God had been He had come in in judgment at the time of the flood. He had been gracious in bringing a family through to make a fresh beginning, and he had been dealing with man through those years. Now what shall he do?
Turn over to the 9th chapter of the Epistle to Hebrews.
Here we have a very startling and unusual expression.
We might say that the end of that world before Noah's time, before the flood, the end of that, came about by judgment. Now we read here about another end of the world.
Verse 26 of Hebrews 9 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world?
But now, once in the end of the world, had he appeared to put away sin.
By the sacrifice of himself.
Here God.
Resolve the question as to what he should do not with judgment.
Not with judgment, but he resolved that question by sending his beloved son into the world.
Sending his beloved Son into the world as a sacrifice for sin, just as we had in the parable.
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What shall I do? I will send unto them my son. This is the way God has resolved the question as to what he would do.
As viewing man as sinful and lost and helpless, and even in opposition and rebellion to himself.
Oh, how thankful we can be tonight. And how thankful I am that I can stand up here and proclaim to everyone in this room tonight.
That God has not resolved this question of what he should do in regard to sinful man by means of judgment. Had he done so, it would have been no blessing for man and no satisfaction for the heart of God, just as this householder.
When those husbandmen who were responsible to render the fruits in due season.
This householder could have gone out and destroyed them immediately without sending his son at all.
He could have done that. That was 1 alternative. Another alternative could have been just to let them go on and pay no heed nor attention to them.
And say they're just naughty husbandmen and I'm just going to let them go on and forget about the vineyard and the husbandman.
Or God would not take such an attitude toward man. God would not allow it that man should go on in his sins and in his rebellion and opposition. God does not want you this evening send a friend to go on in your sins.
Perhaps.
There arises in the heart of individuals.
Maybe one in the room here this evening who would feel I just as soon God leave me alone.
I wonder if anyone has ever felt like that, that you would just like to go on your merry way.
Go on just as you are, and for God just to leave you alone.
Oh, but a terrible thing, though. God will not leave the center alone.
Even though these husbandmen, and you and I, of whom these husbandmen are a picture, were worthy, unworthy of the least of his mercies, and were worthy only of his judgment and condemnation, and it would have been their just dessert just to let them go on.
And their opposition and rebellion. And it would be, you might say, deserving for us that God would let us go on, or any Sinner go on in his sins, but it would never satisfy the heart of God.
For a man to go on in his guilty sins apart from God, in the blessing that he has for him.
Now God is not going to let you go on, and God has brought you to this meeting here tonight.
In order that you might hear once again the gospel of His grace.
God is pursuing you in His love and grace.
In order that He might bring you into eternal blessing through His beloved Son. For God knows that there is only blessing found in His presence. You know there has been a world before the flood that we've been speaking about. There is the world that exists at the present time.
That is already morally under the judgment of God, but there is going to be a new world.
The world to come, where Christ is going to be All in all, and where God is the center.
And it's a world of blessedness, a world of joy.
A world where there are those who will be in the enjoyment of God himself.
And a world in which God himself can take delight in creatures whom he is blessed.
To be before Him in love. And God knows that it's only in that eternal glory and blessedness with Himself that true joy and happiness will ever be found. And He knows the eternal doom of those who go on in their sins. And This is why He brings you out to gospel meetings. This is why he turns your feet to come into a place where you might hear the gospel. He would pursue you with His love. Because He has resolved this question of what shall I do?
In this blessed way of sending his beloved Son to be the propitiation for our sins, he has given himself a ransom for all.
We're just in this parable. What happens when he sent his son? Look again in that Luke 20.
What happened when he sent his son to these husbandmen? We read that they took him and they put him to death.
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They said this is the air.
Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.
You know, I have often thought of this.
Man thinks that he has secured this world for himself apart from God. He's turned the Lord Jesus out.
The Lord Jesus has come into this world and he's been turned out by man, and man thinks he secured it for himself, but it isn't true.
It isn't true. God is not only going to have heaven for himself, but this world too.
There's going to be a new heavens and a new earth, and they're going to be souls.
Inhabiting those enjoying his blessedness. But it's not going to be those who are rejecters of Christ.
It's not going to be those who are not lovers of God and lovers of Christ. He's going to fill that new world with lovers of himself and lovers of Christ. Those who are clean every whit through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have been turned to God from idols, those who are converting, those who have life. Well, here we read that they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Well, this is what the world has done to the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we had before us last evening in the gospel, there they crucified him. There they crucified him. That's what man did. Man crucified the Lord Jesus Christ.
But oh, it's wonderful to think.
That the most wicked act that man has ever perpetrated in crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ.
Becomes the ground of man's greatest blessing, because thereupon the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself a ransom for all.
On the part of man he was crucified. There they crucified him, but he offered himself without spot to God a sacrifice for sins and all. God is saying to you tonight that he having given himself a ransom for all that you can by faith, look back to Calvary's cross and say.
That even though I know it was man who crucified the Savior, I know that He was there offering himself.
As a sacrifice for my sins on Calvary's cross, that he was suffering for sins, that just for the unjust that this very.
Occasion of the Lord Jesus being put upon that cross becomes the very way in which God can remove all of our sins and cleanse us in His sight and bring us to Himself and make us fit to be in that eternal day with Himself.
Oh, what a wonderful way in which God has resolved this question as it came up before him, as it were. What shall I do?
Oh hell, we are glad we are this evening. And are you not glad? And can you not say with joy that the Lord Jesus is the answer to this question? That God has resolved it by sending his beloved Son into the world that we might live through Him, And yet the world crucified him. There they crucified Him. Well, now then, that brings us to the second question, the second time this question is raised.
They said there and when the Lord Jesus was brought before the multitudes.
That they desired Barabbas to be released unto them.
And then Pilate says, What then shall I do with Jesus?
Now I'd like to make this question very personal to each one of us here this evening. We've been Speaking of God, resolving the question of what he should do. And he sent his beloved Son, and the world rejected him. There they crucified Him. That's what the world has done. But the question is, what have you done with Jesus? Pilate raises that question. What, then shall I do with Jesus?
For a moment, forget what the world has done with the Lord Jesus Christ. What have you done?
There might be one in the room this evening that might say I haven't done anything.
I have neither rejected him nor have I accepted him. I would never say.
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Barabbas rather than Jesus. I would never reject the Lord Jesus Christ. I haven't done anything. Well, you know, that's what Pilate thought he was doing when he raised the question, What then shall I do with Jesus?
And they said, let him be crucified.
Pilate, we read, took water and he washed his hands and he says now I am free from the blood of this just person. See you to it.
He thought he could take a stand there, you might say, in the middle of the road.
Neither accepting nor rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. The multitude were rejecting him. But he says I will not take a stand either way.
And he thought he was innocent then of the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to read to you a passage in the 4th chapter of Acts that shows that.
This man pilot though, he thought he was neutral.
He is found in the camp of those who are against the Lord Jesus.
I seriously doubt that there is anyone in the room this evening.
Who would want to say you are against the Lord Jesus Christ?
I don't believe if we were to question personally any of the young persons here and say, are you against the Lord Jesus?
That they would want to say that they are against him, but oh, I'm wondering if there are any in the room this evening who have the attitude of Pilate.
That while you do not want to be against him, you have never taken your stand for him, You have never owned him to be your savior. You just want to go on neither far nor against. Now in the 4th chapter of Acts, I want to read there how that the Spirit of God brings before us that great company that were gathered together against the Lord Jesus.
Verse 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David has said?
Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
For over truth against thy holy child, Jesus.
Whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate. Now notice.
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together, and where they were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ, Yes, Pilate was against the Lord.
The washing of his hands with that water did not constitute him an innocent person.
He is found here in company that with those who were against the Lord.
And we can say to you here this evening if you go on as one.
Not taking a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're going on.
Your own way and indifference and carelessness, even though you have never said that you're against the Lord Jesus.
You are found in company with those who are against him.
There is no neutral stand today.
Since God has resolved his question, you might say.
Of what he should do in the way that he has done it by sending his Son. Now this question, what then shall I do with Jesus? Is a question that every individual has to answer.
Every individual has to answer this question. Now what then shall I do with Jesus?
God has brought him forth.
And he has gone to the cross of Calvary and one cannot sidestep this question in any way.
Earlier in the Gospel of Luke, when there were those who blasphemy against the Lord.
His person was attacked. The Lord Jesus could say he.
That is not with me, is against me.
All when the question of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ has been raised.
One who is not with him is against him, and we see that in the case of Pilate.
So I would like to ask you this evening, what then have you done with Jesus, who is called the Christ?
What have you done with him? Have you received Him as God's answer for all of your sins? As your substitute, have you received Him? And your heart is the one who suffered for sins on Calvary's cross? Have you owned him as the one who bore in his own body our sins on the tree? What have you done then with Jesus?
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Is it that you have just done nothing and going on carelessly, perhaps thinking that some time along the way you might do something later?
Oh, that brings us to the third passage in the 16th chapter of Lukes Gospel. We have a very solemn consideration brought before us here, A third question, a third time this question is raised.
Miss Steward is being called to give an account of his stewardship.
And more than that, it has already been demonstrated that he has been unfaithful in this stewardship.
And so he is to be removed from that place of trust.
And he says the question is raised again. Then what shall I do?
You know, we read in the word of God that everyone.
Shall give an account of himself to God.
Now, there are certain things that are inescapable for every person in this room. Tonight we know the world speaks about certain things as being.
Certain.
They say there are only two things that are certain, death and taxes.
We know, of course, that death is not a certainty for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, as we shall see later on.
But there is one thing that is certain. Everyone must give an account of himself to God.
And all, what a terrible thing, if one is called into the presence of God to give an account of all of his sins.
I wonder what you would feel like if you were called into the presence of God this very night to give an account of your conduct today.
If you had to come into the Holy Presence of God this very night and give an account of all that you have said and done this day.
Everyone must give an account of himself to God.
Where we can rejoice with those wonderful words in John's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 24.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me.
Hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.
All the wonderful message of God tells us that those of us who are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ.
He, as it were, has already given account of our sins to God. God, who knew them, laid them on him.
Though that wonderful witness of the Holy Spirit in the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews is this their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
And I thank God for those words no more.
It is not only that God will not remember our sins, but He will not remember them no more. There was a time when God took an account of the sins of those of us who are believers.
God took an account of our sins and they were all charged to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ has given account of them to God, and so I shall never come into judgment.
Oh God holds this forth to you this evening by faith, I wonder.
If everyone in this room this evening has boldness.
In view of that day of judgment, when you think of giving an account to God in view of judgment, what are your thoughts? You know, we read in the word of God that the judgment of God is according to truth.
And it's without respect of persons, God's judgment will be not according to appearance but according to truth.
And it will make no difference as to 1 station in life it without respective persons. And here we see that one is being called to give an account.
And he did not have an answer. He had been unfaithful, and he's fearful. And he says, what shall I do?
00:40:03
What shall I do? But we can thank God tonight that it's not too late to do something.
Here, as far as this man was concerned, it was too late. He was going to be removed from that stewardship. And there's coming a time when every Sinner in this world is going to stand before God.
To be judged of his sins. To be judged for his sins.
And then to raise that question, what shall I do? Will be too late. It will be too late. But we can thank God that this evening there is still time. This is still the day of salvation. This is still the time of the offer of God's grace. And you can come to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved to know that your sins are washed away and forgiven.
You can resolve that second question. What then shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?
By receiving him into your heart, so that you might never stand in the terrible plight of this third example of the question. When one is called to give an account of himself, and he is, he is, as it were, caught chart, and he cannot give an account. And he says, What shall I do?
What shall I do? Well, I'd like to turn again to that portion in Hebrews 9.
That we read earlier.
The 9th chapter of Hebrews.
And verse 26 I will read again. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world.
Has he appeared?
To put away sin by the sacrificing of himself, and as it is appointed unto man wants to die. But after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, or apart from sin, unto salvation.
Here we see that we stand in between these two appearings.
We look back to see that God has resolved that question of what shall I do?
By sending his beloved Son into the world and as a sacrifice for sin.
He becomes available to every guilty Sinner in this world, But we read here that he's coming again. He's coming again, but he's not coming again to deal with the question of sin. He's not coming to offer himself as a sacrifice to God for sins. He's coming for the deliverance of all of those who have answered that second question in a positive way by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior in your heart, you know him as your Savior.
Then you will be among that company who will be taken up when he comes. Again, we're in between these appearings.
Those that look for him.
Well, I would like to just say this in closing.
We are coming to the end not only of these meetings, but we are coming to the end of another year.
And I know that perhaps all in this room have heard it over and over again.
That we do not know how much longer we will be left in this scene. Those of us who are believers, we have no assurance that the gospel will ever be preached again. We do not know that what this may be the last evening that the gospel is preached, we know it's being preached not only here, but in many places.
We are coming to the end of another year and very often.
Among men in this world.
In the beginning of a new year, they they speak of the prospects of the new year and they like to assess their prospects for the new year. Well, as I say, we don't know whether we'll even be here to see if it were another year in this scene coming to the close of this, but I would like to just bring before each and every.
Heart and conscience this evening, what are your prospects for the future?
00:45:05
What are your prospects for the future? Here in the 9th chapter, we see a wonderful prospect for those who know the Lord Jesus, his Savior. We're looking for something. We have a prospect, and you might say the prospects for the new year for us is that we're looking for his coming.
To receive us unto himself, That's what we're looking for. I wonder if everyone in this room this evening has that same prospect. Are you looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to come and take you out of this scene, to be with himself?
Would you God that it were so?
I doubt not that with most of us here this evening, it is true that this is our prospect.
Of the Lord's coming to take us to be with himself, perhaps the majority, one would like to think it true of all of us.
But now read in the 10th chapter of Hebrews.
We have another lookout, another looking for.
A very sad one. Verse 26.
Hebrews 10 For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
They will sinning willfully here is.
Those who having heard the gospel, the truth of God, God's remedy for sin. Those who have had the knowledge.
Of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners on Calvary's cross.
And there is a deliberate, willful turning from that. What is the prospect?
Verse 27.
But a certain fearful looking far of judgment.
And fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. What a terrible prosper.
This is the outlook for everyone who leaves this room tonight. Without the Savior, there is no more sacrifice for sins. I'd like to say this to the young people.
If what God has done in sending his beloved Son into this world and suffering on Calvary's cross for sins.
Is not sufficient for the salvation of your souls. Then there is nothing that God has to offer.
That's the only thing that God offers to you tonight. That's the only thing God could ever offer unto you.
And I would like to ask you, why is it if you're unsaved that you're unsaved tonight?
Why is it that you have heard of this wonderful glad tidings and of the way of salvation through the Lord Jesus, and you're still going on without the Savior? Oh, this is the outlook. What a terrible prospect and outlook to be a willful Sinner, rejector of God's grace, God's truth, God's gospel. There is no more sacrifice for sins. They'll never be anything else offered to you.
If you reject this.
No more offering for sin, but a certain fearful looking father of judgment. Oh, what a contrast for those of us who are looking for the Savior. That's our outlook. Unto those that look for him shall he appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation.
But for those who reject, and I remind you again, to reject is just to go on without the Savior.
Just as it were, to try to be neutral and to put this question aside and seek to go on as if God had no concern for you. And with you there's nothing but this fearful looking far of judgment and fiery indignation, Well would to God.
That none would leave this room this evening. It would be a real tragedy.
To think that with all of the prayers and with all of the.
Desires not only on the part in the heart of God himself, but on the part of the Lord's people.
That there should be those who would come to the close of these meetings and leave this room.
And go out of this place tonight, still in their sins, with nothing but the prospect of fiery indignation and judgment before them, rather than that wonderful prospect of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to take us to be with himself forever in that home of glory with him.
Shall we sing him enclosing?
00:50:03
#21
decide for Christ today and God's salvation, seed, heal, soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee him #21.
Decided for Christ today.
And.
Celebration.
To see.
You so, anybody.
I had a will.
Go ahead.
For him.
Aside for Christ today.
Him as a thy Lord.
Who's the worst?
No Fear.
And his word.
Christ alone can say.
Grade the heart of sin.
Days of Heaven upon the Earth
Address—A.C. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Beginning at verse eight, Second Peter one verse 8.
For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind.
And cannot see afar off. And hath forgotten that he was once purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and elections sure.
For if he do these things, he shall never fall.
Verse 12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things.
Though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Verse 15. Moreover, I will endeavor that he may be able after my decease.
Who have these things always in remembrance?
Not my intention to speak on these verses at all. I simply read them, as, shall I say, an apology for that which I feel laid on my heart this afternoon. I trust of the Lord, for I assure you that you will find it nothing new whatever. You will find it to be that which you have heard and read and meditated on before today.
But as I read these scriptures and see how the whole soul of God's servant Peter.
Was involved in this solemn responsibility of putting before the Saints of God those things which were real to Him.
He warned them as to that which they lack, if they are short in these things, of that which will be their blessed portion, if they're in the enjoyment of these things. And he says, As long as I am among you, I want to remind you continually of these same things, though ye know them and be established in the present truth.
You're not going to learn anything this afternoon.
You're going to hear that which you know already, but I take this as an encouragement, Beloved Saints of God, as we open this precious book and read that which we already may know and know quite well, we find it so helpful, so encouraging, so refreshing to our souls to go over those very things which we have known for many years.
Peter even made the expressed desire that after he was gone, these things, not something new, but these same things might continually be ministered to the Saints. I'd like you to turn then, please, first of all, to one verse in Exodus chapter 29.
Exodus chapter 29.
Verse 29.
And the holy garments.
Of Aaron, thou be his sons.
After him the holy garments of Aaron.
Shall be his sons after him.
That which I feel laid on my heart, I approach with embarrassment and with fear.
Because I believe, dear Saints of God, that this precious book that is open before me presents to us.
A wonderful desire in God's heart we have had brought before us in these meetings the love of God's own heart displayed to us so perfectly, so fully in the sending of His own beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I hope you know as your Savior.
But all can we ever fathom the love of God's heart?
Over and over again in the precious Word of God that love is revealed and the purpose of God in law is made known to us. And I believe it, we we find it to be the delight of God to bless in families, to bless in families, and this is very, very often emphasized in the Word of God.
00:05:17
And when this scripture first came to my attention.
It searched my heart.
Deeply.
For I stand here as a son as well as a father.
And in Speaking of the relationship of son, I think I must say I do so with embarrassment because it will mean.
Reference to the way in which I was brought up and my dear parents are now with the Lord.
In Speaking of the responsibilities that are mine as a father.
I do so with fear and with trembling, but I can speak with the authority of God's Word.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be his son after him. What else did he have to leave? Aaron was a priest. Aaron was a Levite. Aaron had not one possession on the face of the earth. No flocks, no herds, no possession of any kind except.
The holy garments which he wore from day-to-day, and these were.
Were the heritage he left to his son.
May I look solemnly into the faces of the dear fathers who were here today.
And permit a son to speak to you.
A son who was privileged.
To witness these holy garments.
I thank God to be able to say this privilege to witness.
These holy garments, garments are those things that are very close to us, things that are very much in evidence to those around us. And it's an exceedingly searching thing that burdens my heart this afternoon.
For as I look around upon his company, I know that there are burden and sorrowful and weeping heart here today, and my own is touched with fear as I approach this subject.
But I believe it's a solemn and wonderful and precious statement we have here.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him.
As our beloved children look upon us, do they see us leave our Christianity at the meeting room and come home to live an entirely different life before them? In the whole, we're going to look at some other scriptures that may bear on this.
But its beloved brethren, is a very precious promise, and a very searching and solemn responsibility that Aaron.
Had the responsibility to privilege the joy of leaving to His Son those priestly garments which He himself had worn? Would you turn, please from this passage to Deuteronomy Chapter 11?
Deuteronomy Chapter 11.
Verse 18.
Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes, And ye shall teach them your children, Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house.
And when thou walkest.
By the way, when all lies down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house, and upon my gate, that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children in the land which the Lord swear unto your Father to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth. Doesn't that have a wonderful ring?
00:10:04
Just let me read it over again as the days of Heaven.
Upon the Earth isn't that grand? I think it's worth underlining.
The days of heaven upon the earth. I have been in and out of many homes, and I have witnessed this in some of the homes that I have visited. The very days of heaven upon the earth. I know, and it's most evident to all of us, that this is an earthly promise.
To an earthly people, promising them long life and the blessing of the Lord.
Down here, but with that very happy description, the days of heaven upon the earth, I want to emphasize that because the Lord. I believe as we go over these verses slowly, we need to be reminded that the purpose of God in the instruction given is.
Our happiness. Oh dear Saints of God, He wants you to be happy.
When you take John's gospel and you turn page after page and read of his loving desire that our joy might be full.
Over and over the Lord Jesus presents that happy expression that your joy might be full. And we find ourselves, do we not, sitting down and thinking, well, if this circumstance and that were changed a bit, then my joy would rise much higher than it is now.
Forgive plea the quotation that you'll immediately recognize, but I heard it more often than you did.
Happiness is a state of soul, not a question of circumstances. Have you ever heard that before? I suppose there's a generation here that haven't heard these things that I heard since my boyhood days, but I know that's a true statement. And in going in and out among the homes of the Lord's beloved people, how I have seen it.
All the radiant joy and happiness that I have seen.
In the countenance and the home, and the life of some of those whose circumstances you and I would not envy for one moment.
And yet they have the joy of the Lord in their souls, and it shows.
To all around. Let us remember then I say again as we go over these verses slowly, that the purpose of God in bringing it before us is because he wants you to have personal happiness, that He wants you to have a happy home and family. Now let's go back, shall we, to verse 18. Therefore shall He lay up.
These.
My words.
Beloved, forgive me again, I said. This would be embarrassing.
But this book was beloved, much beloved in the home in which I grew up, greatly beloved, continually referred to. It seemed to be woven into the topics of conversation day by day. And when I read this word lay up, it's not something that happens suddenly. You don't wake up all of a sudden one morning.
With a good knowledge of God's precious word, laid up with in your memory or your heart.
And I'm going to look at everyone here who is able to read and recommend to you that you read God's precious Word regularly, daily, and in an orderly fashion.
I won't ask this for one moment, but if I did, I wonder what I would see.
How many could raise their Bible and say I have read God's word from the first word of Genesis to the last word of Revelation without missing anything? I wonder what I would see if I asked for this to take place.
You and I cannot lay claim to laying up the word of God in our heart and soul.
Unless we read it, read it with diligence, read it with prayer, and I can say you'll find yourself reading it with delight. To lay up these my words in your heart. Isn't that grand? The heart seems to me in God's word to speak of the affection and know how lovely it is to see someone who reads this precious, precious book because.
00:15:19
The affection of their heart yearns for more and more of a preciousness.
And the loveliness of Christ and to discover in this book.
Not the boundaries beyond which I will be transgressing, but rather those things which will plead the one who loved me with a love that is stronger than death. When young believers come to me and say, is there any scripture against this? Is there anything to condemn that I am reminded of what our dear brother HF Clawson told us in Montreal.
Quite a number of years ago.
He had a large piece of construction paper and on one side he had.
A square drawn, and inside that square number of scattered dots. And he likened this to the people of God in the Old Testament, who were kept in by definite boundaries, laws beyond which they dare not go. And if they went off in this direction, they soon found a law which forbid them going any further. And he pictured this to us in some detail.
Then he turned the card over and on the other side.
He had won.
Prominent Flagstaff in the middle, no boundaries to be seen, and clustered right near that black dot. Quite a few smaller dots, some farther, some farther, till some were dangerously near the edge of that piece of paper.
And he reminded us that now it is our happy joy and privilege to remember that we have one who loved us and who gave himself for us, who has put into our hands his most precious book, which doesn't bind us in with the laws of the restrictions of the Old Testament. That presents to us one who loved us with a love that took him to the cross of Calvary to redeem us. And the.
Planted in your heart and mind by His grace to live to please Him. You do want to please the Lord Jesus, or you're not born again.
You do want to please the Lord Jesus, or you have no new life within you all. My beloved friend, I believe it's a solemn, solemn thing to realize that there are altogether too many who have this precious and this wonderful book and have had it since the days of their childhood.
And they can perhaps quote a good many of its passages, but is there really any affection in their heart for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? As we listen to the conversations that take place between meetings, do we find an indication?
That there is a real love for the Lord Jesus Christ. All God grants. That it may be more so. That this precious word may be laid up in our heart, and that the reading of God's precious word may stir and quicken the affection of our heart. The next thing is the soul. I believe it's generally considered that the soul is the seed of the appetite.
The desires Are you willing, and am I willing, that this also shall be under the authority and the control of God's precious words? Do I read it with that in mind, that it may actually have its powerful and constraining influence upon my very heart and soul? I say it's a very, very searching passage to read, and yet it brings with it such.
Blessings and it was given to us because he loved us so much. And again, I would encourage each and everyone to make it your daily habit to read this precious word of God and allow it to reach into your very heart and soul. Those are your affections are governed by.
This precious book that is all things he.
00:20:01
Might have the preeminence in all things.
You know, I don't say this to make anyone smile, but I believe perhaps it's a practical consideration.
I was talking to a young man far from here who told me that he was never going to get married because he didn't feel it was at all right to take a measure of the love that belonged to the Lord Jesus and bestow it.
On his wife and thereby have that much less who bestow on the Lord's visa. He was very, very sincere about this.
And I asked him what would become of a man who, having married a wife and perhaps finding four or five children to grace that home, now had to take the affection that belonged to his wife and divide it thinner and thinner still among the children who came to bless that family.
All he said, it doesn't work that way, does it? And I said, no, indeed it doesn't. Nor does it mean that your affection for the Lord Jesus is in any degree lesson, nor that he has any less the preeminent place, because he has given you by the grace of God, a partner who also loves the same precious Savior and wants to please him. I just passed this on to you, dearly beloved young.
Because I believe that these bonds that God in wondrous grace has put before us in this precious book, all the affections proffered to them.
Cause us, I believe, to look up with increasing gratitude to the one whoever put these affection within our hearts. They're not natural to us. Naturally we were hateful and hating one another.
For how beautiful to see the heart and the soul governed and controlled by the Word of God.
You'll notice it seems to become more practical. Bind them for a sign upon your hands.
First of all, that which cannot be seen, that which is within.
Is controlled by God's word, the heart and the soul, and then we find it very word bound upon our hands that that which we do is controlled by the direction and the wisdom of the word of God. Is the Bible really that up to date surely you can't take a book written this long ago and use it to help you in making decisions concerning what your.
Two in 1969, yes, thank God. There is nothing that ever needs to be added to this precious book. And it has impressed me very, very much in visiting in other lands where their language and culture and custom is so totally different from that which we are accustomed to.
To find that this same book contains all the light and wisdom needed.
In order to live to please the Lord Jesus, according to the pattern of this book, in any nation under heaven, all let us just look at those hands of ours and realize that they have been, as we've just been told, redeemed.
You're lost your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
I'm going to repeat what I may have mentioned before.
The occasion when a young man traveling over in England entered one of their trains. The trains over there are different a bit to our own here. They're not made-up of 1 long continuous coach, but rather in each coach there are compartments in which there are usually about 6 passengers. Well, when this young man entered the compartment, there were already three young men in that compartment.
And no sooner did he sit down and the train begin to move than one of the three young men reached in his pocket and pulled out.
Of cards, and he shuffled them and handed some to one and handed some more to the second and offered some to the newcomers. And the newcomer sat there with a happy smile with his hands folded, and he said no thank you, I don't have any hands.
00:25:05
Well, of course. The one who was offering the card looked at him in bewilderment. He could see what appeared to be a perfectly normal pair of hands.
Well, he said, maybe I ought to explain these hands don't belong to me. That didn't help the matter at all. It still sounded just as bewildering as before. So he went on to explain further. He said I am redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. I am not my own. I am but with a price. And I just don't believe it would please the one who redeemed me if I took these hands and used them for such a purpose.
He didn't hunt all the way through the Bible to find a verse that condemned the use of those things.
He knew that redeemed with the freshest blood of Christ, and in a desire to live to please that One who redeemed him at such infinite cost that he could well fold his hands, not with a frown of disappointment, with a smile of real gratitude, that he was redeemed with a precious blood of Christ. Not only the hands, but the eyes.
The affection, the very appetite, that which we do, and our eyes perhaps would look outward to that which is even beyond the things that we can grasp.
And in what direction are your eyes and mind turn, beloved friends?
Are your eyes and mind.
Governed and controlled by this precious book, the Word of God. May I just remind you again that that which we have here in verse 18 is the preparation.
In a home or bringing up a family, isn't this pretty searching?
The heart, the soul, the hand, the eyes. And you can't hide these things from your family.
They'll know. It will show. They can tell, beloved, whether these things are real to you or not. And I believe as this fourfold charge was laid upon the fathers in Israel.
That it ought to be felt very, very, very solemnly by everyone of us.
Now the next verse says, And ye shall teach them.
Your children, isn't this a happy privilege? And isn't it a very continual responsibility to that which has brought joy and happiness to us for the grace of God? Oh, do we not desire the same thing for our dear children?
But what can we expect if our heart is not controlled by the Word of God?
What can I expect if the appetites and the desires that are natural to me are not controlled by God's precious Word, nor my hands engaged in those things which redeemed hands are free to use to the glory of God?
And if my eyes turn away to those things which would only distract me from the loveliness which is in Christ Jesus.
And then to turn and teach them to our children, all beloved. It's embarrassing and it's.
A serious matter, but here it is in God's Word, and I dare not shrink from what it says.
He shall teach them your children, Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house. Are we so busy now, is our timetable so taken up, that we don't have time to sit down in our house with our children and with the precious word of God?
And when we do so to the children, have the feeling that Dad's just trying to get this over with because he's got something else on his mind anyway, and get this reading over with because there are other responsibilities much more important than this quick little reading in the morning or in the evening. Oh, dear fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, this precious book that he has given us.
With all its unfolding of His loving heart, with all its wisdom, and with the glorious hope that it puts before our souls.
Surely should be worth more to us than anything else that might intrude upon our timetable.
00:30:00
Speaking of them, when thou fittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way.
Precious memories come back to me as I read this.
Speaking of them.
Forgive another quotation. We ought to read the Word of God until we become so saturated with it that our very thoughts are formed in the wisdom of Scripture.
May I please just say this, that there were many many times?
When this rebellious sun right here wanted his own way very, very much.
And I would present what I wanted very, very much to my father.
And he would answer me in the language of scripture.
You can argue with your dad, but you can't seem to argue against the word of God.
At least I didn't have the heart to. And when the answer was interwoven with the wisdom of God's Word, it seemed to be just what this stubborn heart needed. All I can remember. Yet on one particular occasion, there was something so educational and attractive to be coupled with something that we naturally felt was out of place for the believers.
And so the easy conclusion was, well, we'll attend until that commences, which we wouldn't approve of. And then of course.
We'll come right home.
The answer was he that trusteth his own heart is a fool.
That's a pretty straightforward answer. He to trust us, his own heart is a fool. Would I not be trusting my own heart to have the courage to pack up and leave when these things began, which would be quite a novelty to a boy brought up the way I was brought up?
I wouldn't want to just stay around for a little while and see what this was all about. And then perhaps just a little while longer too, trusting my own heart, I would find out what a fool I was.
Oh, let me remind my own heart, for these responsibilities still weigh heavily upon my own shoulders. And I say it with fear and inward tears.
But I mention what I speak up today I can mention my memory.
But that which lies ahead the Lord alone knows. But here is the wisdom, here is the promise from His own loving heart, who so earnestly desires your happiness and blessing. May I turn a moment from perhaps addressing parents to addressing children who are being brought up as.
By the grace of God, I was brought up.
May I remind you that someday I believe you will thank God for it. You will thank God for the many times you saw your father and your mother on their knees.
You knew they were praying for you, you heard your very name come from their lips in prayer. And when you so much flaunted your own way, when you were the only one of a group that wasn't permitted to take part in this or that, you felt your parents just didn't understand you. They had forgotten all about their own youth. And all such thoughts went through.
Your mind, as they did through my own.
Beloved young people, I stand here and thank God.
That I was preserved by His grace and through the firm hand of a praying father and mother.
From those things which would only have brought sorrow and disappointment to me.
Speaking of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, you know the Bible is the most wonderful book as we walk by the way and see the handiwork of golf, the wisdom and the skills, and shall I say, the thoughtfulness with which his hand has wrought it makes.
A never ending topic of conversation.
00:35:02
You know, when we were down in Oaxaca, every time we left one village to go to another.
They would all gather together, and they would sing so lovingly and so heartily. I will lift up mine eyes under the hills, from whence cometh my health, my help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth. They would sing that song through, if their tears would permit them to do so.
And oh, it made the hills of Oaxaca very precious to me, for I'd look around and see those hills, and I would think, from whence cometh my health from these hills all my help cometh from the one that made heaven and earth. Why, the sight of those hills that existed so long before you and I were born just turned our thoughts to the one who made them.
The little flowers that bloom.
All the feuding, the majesty, the thoughtfulness that is behind it all.
I hope I'm not digressing too much in these practical things, but I can still hear the comment that would so often be made at the table of an exceptionally nice meal was set down in front of us. You know, children, we ought to be so thankful there's no nourishment either in the color or in the flavor of this food that you're eating.
If it all looked the same, it all tasted the same, it could nourish her body just as well.
But here are these nice mashed potatoes, here's this lovely roast beef, here are these peas and these carrots. And they look so attractive and they each have their own taste and generally considered to be very pleasant. Why did God give us such variety and the ability to recognize these colors and flavors and to enjoy them? Why?
Just to sit down there and eat the way an animal would eat.
Oh, I tell you, somehow or other conversations such as this caused our hearts to look up in gratitude to the one who had been so kind and so thoughtful in everything that we saw all around us. When thou walkest, by the way.
To see the beauty of God's handiwork in creation and to be able, as we walk along, to realize that the loving eye of Him.
Who put all this beauty around us is looking down upon us as we walk along the way.
Oh, that's been a precious thing to me. And some hours that would otherwise be pretty lonely, to think that the eye of him who created all things is looking down at me, wherever I may be, and looking down at you. Oh, beloved, I tell you, it's a grand thing to be a Christian, and that doesn't mean simply to have your sins forgiven.
And now that there's a corner of heaven where you're going to find yourself at home, it means that there's a failure who loves you enough to die for you. It means that there's a Savior living in the glory at this very moment who wants your joy to be.
Whoa. Once you are home to be a happy home, once your family to be a rejoicing family sheltered by the freshest blood of Christ, and once every one of us to look up day by day with the eager anticipation of soon hearing His voice when our citizen man host. When thou walkest by the way, when thou last down, and when thou rightest up. It just doesn't seem.
Anytime out at all does it. It just seems as though the word of God belongs in.
All the experiences of the believer. And so it ought to be.
Thank God, beloved brethren, if you and I are found at the Bible reading, and at the prayer meeting, and at the remembrance of the Lord and at the gospel meeting. But what about the rest of the time?
I was in the office of a professional man a long, long way from here. Not one single person in this company knows who this is at all, so please don't try to even get. But he didn't know I was in the reception room.
He was in his consultation room, and he was really telling somebody off in pretty vigorous language, and his voice was rising in greater and greater heat of anger. I didn't know whether I ought to walk out to save embarrassment or not, but presently the door opened and out he came with the other gentleman who'd been with him, and he saw me sitting there.
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And when he got this third party out the door, he turned to me. He said Christianity's one thing in business is another.
I was very sorry to hear him say that.
Christianity is one thing.
Home life is another. Is that true? Christianity is one thing.
School is another. Is that true?
Oh, I believe that there's precious book with all its precept and wisdom can be taken by you into every area of your life. And if you perchance are in some occupation or situation that you cannot feel at home with this precious book, you're in the wrong place. I say again, you're in the wrong place simply because I've traveled a bit. I get asked quite often to speak when I get back home and.
Places that I personally just don't feel free to speak in.
And when they will ask me now, would you come and give us a talk on such and such a trip you've taken?
I usually say, well, I'd be glad to uncondition that I could bring along my Bible and hold it in my hand while I speak.
Well, I have to consult someone else about this too, so I'll let you know tomorrow.
I've never heard back from any of them. They just don't seem to want someone standing up there with a Bible in his hands. And I do recommend this to you, dearly beloved brethren and sisters in Christ and dearly beloved young people, as we see in this little passage in Deuteronomy, the place that God's Word up to have in our life and our heart and our home.
Don't ever let yourself be found where you would not wish to bring this precious, precious living book.
And we don't live to ourselves. We don't die to ourselves. The attitude that we take in these matters has a profound effect upon others. I remember one time they came to our particular town in Canada. They found a new branch of one of these well known.
Societies.
Service clubs, as they call them, and they came to me and asked me if I would be interested. They said their particular activity was concerning young men and they knew that that was somewhat of an interest of mine.
Well, I didn't like to cut them off too promptly, so I asked for a little further information, all the while wondering what I might say.
And finally, I asked them the same thing. I said, what do you what day do you have your regular scheduled dinner meeting? Well, every Wednesday at noon. Well, every Wednesday at noon.
One question, would I be free to bring my Bible with me to this?
Dinner on Wednesdays at noon. And you know, they made it quite plain to me that that Bible of mine would be.
Totally out of place and unwanted. They didn't even wait till tomorrow to tell me that it just wasn't wanted.
So they went out again and you know, I didn't know the sequel to that story until we were having a Bible reading in the assembly at home a couple of weeks later. And one of the brothers in town who is a businessman said, oh, by the way, they're starting a new branch of such and such a service club in the town and they.
Have approached me to see if I would be interested in being an active member.
He said. I didn't know exactly what to say to get out of it, so I asked them who they already had among their members.
So they read off quite a list of names came to the end and said, and we think we're going to get Hejo the optometrist to sign two. He said, that's fine, I'll sign my name right under his.
But that's the way he lasted with it. You know, I just mentioned that, beloved brethren, to show you that we do not live to ourselves, that if the precious living Word of God is effectual, beloved Saints, in this heart of mine, as it ought to be.
00:45:03
As we had together with the dear young people.
Draw me.
We will run after thee. There is no heart that is ever drawn after the Lord Jesus, but what it has its happy effect on others.
And we read the sad contrast where Peter says I go a fishing.
And immediately the answer is, we also go with thee.
All, beloved friend, which is it, as we read this portion of God's word and see the claim of that word over us for our good, and for our happiness, and for our blessing, and for the welfare of our families.
What shall we do? Shall we dare to suggest that these claims are too much? That this is going to restrict us in some way or another? Restrict us? I shudder when I hear that word, and yet I've heard it from the lips of those who are truly the Lord.
There is something about the claims of Christ that they find restricting, and they shatter at the word separation as though it had a ring of legality about it.
We were at a very beautiful wedding the other day at which I heard the same words repeated that have so often been repeated before as the young lady stood.
Waiting to slip her arm through that of her expected bridegroom, she was asked a very talented question. Do you promise that forsaking all other, you will plead to him only so long as he both shall live? Have you ever heard that question before?
I heard it addressed to a young lady 27 years ago and she said yes, she said I do.
And you know, I don't believe that in any of these cases that I have witnessed.
Has there been any hesitation or thought of the legality involved in that?
The privileges and whatnot that are going to be abandoned forever, forsaking all other cleave to Him only so long as he boasts shall live. I like the sound of that. May I put those words to you this afternoon here? God has opened up his heart and said, I love you very much. I want you to have fullness of joy.
And I want it to be in your families, too.
And here is what I am going to put before you, the word of God.
With all its light and wisdom and blessed story of love revealed.
Hidden in the heart and the soul, seen in the activity of the hands and in that which we seek after. Talked over with our dear children. Not just once or twice, not just in order that they might know a verse for Sunday school. A fine thing to do, but just a topic woven into the conversation of.
Every day. What a memory. Well, now it says here in verse 20. And thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of thine house. I like this.
It seems that the house itself is recognized and stands out from others as a home where the word of God.
Is love and reverence. Would you like that to be the testimony of your home?
Dearly beloved parents, is it not true? And I speak with my own hand accusingly on my heart, is it not true?
That we have ambitions for our home and our children. That we need to judge before God.
I heard my father say to us.
Quite a good many times.
Sons, I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city of Ottawa for a living and pleading the Lord and making the biggest income in the province.
I would sooner see you sweeping the streets of the city and living to please the Lord and making the biggest income in the province. And you know, as God gave us a family and the memory of those words came back to me.
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They challenged me till I didn't know which way to turn.
I felt I couldn't honestly say such a thing. I felt that God knew the desires, the wretched, wrong desires that were in my heart. We like our children to be popular. We like them to be pointed out. We like them to excel in this or that. Am I the only parent that has to make such a confession?
Is your desire, is my desire that they might live for the glory of God?
That this precious book might mean more to them than it's ever meant to us.
And that the precious claims of the Lord Jesus might lay hold of their hearts in a deeper way than had ever touched our own. Oh, if those ambitions of yours and mine are to see them advance in this world, will live to regret it. Will live to regret it. I've seen it happen again and again. Ambitions raise those children higher and higher in the esteem of their.
Fellow classmates at school until.
The charm of it all takes them completely away from the joy that has promised us here in these passages.
Thou shalt write them upon the doorposts of fine house. I was standing on the front porch of a home some time ago.
With a dear old man and a couple of little girls walked past.
And I saw them looking up at the dear old man, and he smiled and waved to them and they went past and he hung his head, he said.
Maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but you know what I heard one of those girls say to the other when she passed this home a while ago?
She plucked her little Playmates coat sleeve and pointed to this house and said that's the home where they loved Jesus and talk about him.
Isn't that a nice testimony for a home? The word of God found upon the doorpost of such a home. Is that your home?
If the Lord leaves us here, will that be the memory or children will take forth from the doors of your home, a home where the Lord Jesus was loved, where his praises were sung continually?
Where His word was read with glad submission. I say again, beloved, will this be the memory that your children will take with them when they walk out one day from the front door of that home to set up a home of their own?
Bound upon the doorpost of the house and upon my gates. I suppose that's a little farther out, perhaps a little more public testimony. But this comes last. It begins in the heart. It works its way through the soul, the hand, the eye. It's given to the children in such a precious and continual and natural way.
And then the whole house is characterized by it. And finally the gates, public testimony, and then the wondrous promise of the Lord, the days of heaven upon the earth. Oh, beloved, I told you at the beginning, and it was an embarrassing and a very frightening thing that I had before me today.
It's the responsibility of parents and homes today. It's a big responsibility.
And I I don't think we realize what a difficult world our dear children and young people are facing, but if they're hedged about with the word of God.
They're well protected.
You know the very last verse of the Old Testament. I will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite thee first with a curse. It just seems to me that last picture.
When things are so dark and so indifferent and so evil, as though those fathers were just putting their arms around their children, that there might be found for them a bulwark against the evil that was, in that day so dark.
Let me go back again, please, to that verse in Exodus 29. The holy garments of Aaron shall be his son after him.
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Now, mind you, there's no father.
Here or on the face of the earth?
That would ever think for one moment.
Of pointing to his children.
As though God had rewarded his faithfulness every Father.
And every mother would have to own in all honesty.
With their heads bowed lowered, with the tears running down their cheeks. That thou blessing of the Lord upon our children.
Is sovereign, matchless, undeserved grace, and I own it before you.
Sovereign. Matchless.
Undeserved grace. But do we have a promise or do we not? Yes, beloved, we have the promise of God. From the day that little one was given to us, we have the promise of God. May God grant that we shall lay hold upon these promises and display before them in our own life and testimony, the fear of the Lord.
And the joy of the Lord.
May I repeat that please? The fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord, for I believe they go together. I guess a lot of folks considered my dad to be a very legal man.
I don't think he was.
I'm prejudice, of course, but I don't think he was. I think I have observed this in going in and out among the Lord's people.
There is quite a distinction between the fear of God and legality.
A legal man is not a happy man. Do I not speak the truth? A legal man is not a happy man. But a man who walks in the fear of the Lord is a happy man. He may have a conscience about the same thing that the other man abhors, but his conscience is governed by the joyful control of the fear of the Lord in his life.
And I truly believe, dear Saints of God, that that which our children will remember if we walk with God in this.
The fear of the Lord and the joy of the Lord was the character of the home in which they grew up. And this we earnestly seek, with God's help, may be true of the homes and families represented here. Oh dear boys and girls and beloved young people, you and I only realize what a treasure we have in this book and how needful it is for you and for me to read this precious book.
Prayerfully, earnestly, and.
I hardly know whether to say this or not, but I sometimes recommend reading it on your knees.
I was traveling with a young man some time ago, and each evening before we retired, this young man got his Bible, opened it with such loving reverence, and knelt down and read for a good long time on his knees. He didn't do it just to show off in front of me either. I knew him well enough for that. He had formed the habit of reading God's Word on his knees, and it shows in his life.
The young man that walks in the fear of God and bears a testimony of real joy among those who know him well. Oh, May God grant that it shall be true, and that the holy garments of Aaron may, by the grace of God, be handed down.
From father to son.
The Pharisee and the Publican
Address—E. Wakefield
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Might we turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 18?
The 18th chapter of Luke's Gospel, verse 9.
And he spake this parable unto certain, which trusted in themselves.
That they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one of Pharisee and the other Republican. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this Republican.
I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a Sinner, I tell you, this man went down to his house.
Justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased.
And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
I would like to bring before you tonight this parable plus one of the 16th chapter of Luke, and also take you to the cross of Calvary. My friends, we have come here tonight to proclaim the gospel. We have come here tonight to speak to those who are lost, those who are maybe in their sins still on the way to hell.
And I would like to ask this vast number of people here tonight, many of them are Christians.
Many of them know the Lord Jesus personally as Savior, but there may be some here tonight.
Who are on the way to eternal darkness. And before we look at the cross and turn to the cross, I would like to point out in this parable that the Lord Jesus told the fact that man is a Sinner.
You know the Lord Jesus said when he was here, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I wonder tonight how many in this audience.
Are sick with sin. Sick with sin. Maybe they don't know it.
Oh, sometimes we are ill and people know they're ill, others are ill and don't know they're ill. And all my friends in need, the disease, the sickness drives us to the position. But tonight maybe there's somebody does not realize yet that they're sinners. And in these two men we find.
I believe an excellent illustration what we have before us, the 1St man, the Pharisees, he prayed with himself, he despised others, He looked down upon this publican as unworthy. And I know, my friends, there's people who come to these meetings who would despise the poor man in the prison, they would despise the poor man who was drunk.
They were, they were despised, the white beater.
Or the children, beaters but themselves are without Christ. And tonight, my friends, are you trusting in yourself?
Are you trusting in your good life? Are you trusting in your religion? Are you trusting in the 10 commandments? Are you trusting in baptism or anything else to do with religion? It will land you at hell, my friends. And tonight I stand here to preach Christ, to present to you a savior, a person, not a religion. God forbid that we preach religion. The world is full of religion.
Wait, and I present the Lord Jesus.
As a savior for sinners. But my friend, you'll never come to that Savior. So you'll find you're lost. So you'll find you're guilty. So you find yourself thinking down into the eternal darkness under the power of Satan. Then you will flee to Christ. As in my own case, my friends, I heard that news. Thank God.
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Back in 1930 and in that old Gospel hall in Montreal, now taken down.
I heard that I was a Sinner, I heard that I was going to hell, and I bowed my head in that hole and said I know it's true. I'm a lost, guilty, hell deserving, hell bound Sinner on the way to eternal darkness.
I wonder, my friend tonight if there's any in this room that think they're pretty good.
Maybe you think you're good enough to get into heaven. Maybe you'll feel that you've done the very best you can. I tell you on the authority of God's Word, that you are a Sinner, that God has declared in this book, the Word of God, that there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
How blessed it is to find on this side of eternity that you're a Sinner, that you're guilty. Now I know that man measures man by himself. He measures, he measures man by his conduct. But God looks down into the heart, and God says that man is a Sinner from head to foot.
He's born lost. He's born in sin.
Any shape and iniquity that man is born with his face and his head and his back turned against God, and his face looking down the broad road to destruction. And the Lord Jesus said, except the man be born all over again.
Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
My friend and I have solemn this is.
The Pharisee prayed with himself. He didn't even have respect for God. He addressed him only as God. He had no respect. He had no idea about whose presence he was. He thought not of the fact of the holiness of God. He thought not of the power of God. He thought not of anything to do with with God at all.
He thought only of one person, himself, his good life, his upbringing, the fine character that he was. I passed twice in the week, six times. In these verses he mentions about himself. Five times he says I, the personal pronoun I. He was filled with himself. And I believe in this country tonight there's millions of people.
Who are filled with themselves.
And all that they have done to what they call to appease an angry God.
My friend and I, God loves you, God loves the Sinner, and God has proved his love and the gift of his beloved son. Now the other man, the publican. So beautiful to see this.
In verse 13, the publican standing up far off all my friends, he felt. He felt how unworthy he was. He felt what a Sinner he was. He felt how undeserving he was.
And how lost and how vile he was. He stood afar off and would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven. He didn't feel worthy to look up into the face of God. He put his head down. He bowed his head in the presence of God. My friends, I asked you tonight, have you ever found yourself in the presence of God?
Have you ever found yourself in God's presence?
All alone in your bedroom, all alone in your home, alone with God, and found yourself there, a poor trembling Sinner, hanging, as it were over the very brink of hell. Have you ever found yourself yet in that position this man did?
It says he smote upon his breast. He seems to realize that inside that breast was a heart filled with sin.
A heart that was against God, a heart that had no use for God. And he put his hand, as it were over that heart, and he said, God be merciful to me. The new translation says, these sinners, God be merciful to me. These sinners, my friend, I ask you, is it possible?
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In the last days of 1969, you come into this room tonight.
Somebody has brought you.
Somebody has invited you to come here tonight, and you've come here tonight feeling pretty good, feeling you're a good character, that you're a fine person, that God looks down at you and says this person is a fine person, a good person, upright, moral. But you've never, never yet been in the presence of God and had your sins cleansed away in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Never have you found yourself.
There in the presence of Almighty God.
Their unworthy, undone a Sinner. Oh, I cook that verse again. I want you to hear that verse my friends. May the Spirit of God bring that verse to your soul, girls and boys. For all have sinned. There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Well, this is a wonderful thing to know that you're a Sinner. And I just wonder if these young people who have come to these conferences time after time, as our brothers said this afternoon, and they were laughing at the back of the room, maybe writing notes, I wonder. I just wonder if you've come here tonight unsaved, lost in your sins, guilty, and on the way to hell.
What a solemn thing, my friends. I know this is not popular.
I know the modernist preacher doesn't preach hell. I know that hell is slurred over man, don't believe there's a hell. But the only man who never told a lie warned man again and again and again. If there was a hell, and I believe my friend tonight, I would not be faithful to the Lord I serve if I stood here.
And preached to you a heaven.
And didn't warn you of solemn judgment that is going to fall on men and women.
For reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. You know as well as I do whether you're saved or not. You know, my friend, tonight, if you were to die this very night, I would ask you this question. I'd like to ask this question because I believe it levels man down.
Where would you be tonight if you were dead? Where would you be tonight if you were dead now?
I can answer that question only for myself. I would be with the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory. I know it positively on the authority of divine Holy scriptures, the word of God itself. Not because I'm better than you, but because I have a Savior and His name is Jesus. I was visiting.
We were visiting the other day in a nursing home and an old lady was lying there in the bed and she told her she used to be a nurse.
And she handled many, many sick people. And we said to her, did you ever handle a young baby? And she said, indeed, I did. I've handled many young babies. And I said, I want to tell you a story about a young baby that was born into this world. And there was no place for that baby but in a stable, in a Manger. And she smiled.
And I said that baby grew to be a young man, grew to be a man.
And preached and warned men of judgment, and told his many, many parables and performed his wonderful miracles. And she said, Jesus, Jesus. And then we said this, that man died on the cross for my sins. And that blessed man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is my savior, and she said. And he's my savior, too.
My friends, I ask you, that's the gospel.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior? Have you put your trust in him? Has his blood cleanse you from all sins? You may reply, Dear friend, that is that man's religion. That's what he thinks. No, what I think isn't worth $0.05 unless my thoughts are formed by this precious book, the Word of God.
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And the Lord Jesus said, when he is here, was here. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me, a person, a Savior. So this man, the Lord Jesus said, went down to his house. Justified. How blessed.
To be justified by God. This man took his place before God as a Sinner.
God be merciful to me, a Sinner. God be merciful to me, the Sinner. Is there a young man in this room tonight, or a young woman who will reach now as I speak, bow your head and close your eyes and say I am a Sinner. You know you're a Sinner and God knows you're a Sinner. What kind of a Sinner are you?
Are you a saved Sinner?
On the way to heaven? Or are you a lost Sinner on the way to hell?
There's only two kinds of sinners in this world, save sinners who are heaven bound, lost sinners who are hell bound. What kind of a Sinner are you?
Let us go now to the cross in the 27th chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter 27.
Verse 26 Now I just like to point out these things to you. Notice my friend would have said first of all, verse 26 then.
Release he breathless unto them.
And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Who is this Speaking of? Pontius Pilate, A coward, a man who three times over said, I find.
No fault in this man. Why did he scourge him? Why did he scourge a man who he said?
I find no fault in this man, while it was a coward and Pilot had many followers tonight in this world.
Who know that Christ is the Son of God, and yet they're afraid to take a stand for him. They're afraid of the laughs of the crowd. They're afraid of being thrown at a society. They're afraid of the laughs of the ungodly. And Pilate was a coward. He scourge a man, he said. I find no fault in this man.
Next we read the 29th verse.
Here it is the soldiers, And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his right on his head, and a Reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail King of the Jews. The soldiers noticed. The soldiers did this.
Those men who are supposed to fight for those who are defenseless. These cowards placed upon the head of the Son of God a crown of thorns. They placed on the head of God's beloved Son a crown of thorns, the symbol of the fall. For because of the fall of Adam, thorns came Genesis chapter 3.
And these cowards placed upon that blessed head of that precious Savior.
A crown of thorns. Verse 30 And they spit upon him. How filthy man is. Man is filthy. They spit upon that blessed man. They spit upon him ever. What an insult to the human race, that man, like you and like me, spit upon the Son of God.
What a crime, what a sin, what a shocking thing it is for God to look down into this world.
And see, filthy man slipped into the very face of his beloved son, and they spit upon him. Verse 31.
And after they had mocked him, think of that. They mocked this blessed man, this holy man. Never was it a man like this man. Never a man speaks like this man, the sinner's friend, the most glorious person in this world ever saw.
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We sometimes sat and repeat tonight, the only man who was a man, the only real man, whoever lived in this world. They mocked him, they spit upon him, they crowned his head with a crown of thorns, and they chose a robber, Barabbas, in his room instead.
Verse 35 And they crucified him all the Spirit of God tells us they crucified Him. Who is this? Him, the Lord Jesus himself. They crucified him. Verse 36 And sitting down, they watched him there. You can't imagine how cruel this is.
See that blessed man?
To see him there.
Hanging on that cross and wicked man like you and like me with the same kind of hearts exactly as you and I have. They sat down and they watched that blessed man as he suffered on that cross. My friends, God's going to judge this world.
God is going to judge this world. They cast out His darling, his beloved, His eternal Son was cast out by men.
Like you and me. And God is going to judge this world. Indeed He is. Do not believe the modernist preachers of this day that ahead of us is a rosy time of happiness and peace and joy. It's not true. God is going to judge this world. He's going to judge this world. This world is lost. There's absolutely no hope for this world.
This world, like a sinking ship, is going down under judgment.
But thank God there is a lifeboat, and that lifeboat is Christ himself. You must leave the scene as it were, and fleeing in that light bulb. For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, said the apostle Paul, of whom I am the chief. Oh, thank God, tonight the center is chiefs in heaven. Thank God the center is chief.
Is now in heaven. No matter who you are in this fall, tonight God can say it. You're a precious soul.
One lack of faith to Christ, one look of faith to that blessed Savior will save your soul for eternal ages. Blessed be God.
First. Now we come to the 45th verse.
Now from the 6th hour there was darkness over all the land. Under the 9th hour here we have now the noon time, that is to say, when the sun reached the very top of the heavens, 12 noon.
In the afternoon darkness and the 46th verse and about the 9th hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli Lama Sabathami.
That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I suppose there's never been a question asked in the world's history like this question. There's never been a question asked like this question, my friend, have you found the answer?
To this question, many of God's people are here and they could say with a loud voice, Amen. I found the answer to this question. He was forsaken on that cross as he bore my guilt and my sins, and God judged him there for me. And God turned his face away from His beloved Son.
As he bore my sins and my guilt.
Friends, I ask you reverently, I ask you in God's holy presence, if God turned his face away from his beloved Son on that cross in those three hours of darkness.
As He became the sin bearer, I ask you, what will God do with men and women, boys and girls, who reject that Savior?
I asked you to answer that question. Have you found out yet? Did you ever kneel down on your knees by your bedside, look up into heaven and say, Oh God, I thank thee to the Lord Jesus Christ, bore my sins, bore my guilt and his own body on that cross.
00:25:14
He paid the price. He loved me and gave himself for me. I was reading the book a little while ago about a man who said.
In my first book, I suggested to my readers that they commit their lives to God to use that expression. But he said, a few nights after, I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought to myself, I've never done the very best that thing myself. I never, never have ever been in the presence of God. And he said, I got out of my bed at 3:00 in the morning.
And I knelt down by my bed. So I looked up on the heavens and said, Oh God, I thank thee.
Very strong. The Lord Jesus bore my sins and I received him as my personal Savior. What a wonderful thing that is, my friends, again I said I'm not preaching religion. I'm not preaching about churches. I'm not preaching about meetings. I'm preaching Christ. Christ, a person, a Savior, a man.
A man who's gone back into heaven.
A man who was buried. A man who rose from the dead.
A man who ascended back into the glory of God. A man who sits at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. And all the night of our eyes get pierced at heaven above we would see that lovely man at God's right hand. In his hands are the nail prints.
In his side is the spear mark.
And his feet are the nail friends that tell God and tell man, and tell the devil, and tell the demons. The children's work is done. That Christ died for the ungodly. That Jesus loved me and gave him so.
For a poor health deserving Sinner like me, what a Savior? Is He your Savior? What a living loving Savior. Friends, can they do more for you? Could He do more for you He loved?
Poor, guilty sinners, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. There's a Savior tonight. There's a Savior, my friends, if you go to hell.
I speak reverently. It won't be God's fault. There's a way of escape.
There is a way into the glory of God. The way of the cross leads home the blood of Jesus Christ. God's Son claimed to us from all sins. God commanded His love to us. Why? We were yet sinners. Christ died for us all. How wonderful is the gospel message. Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures. He was buried, and he rose again the third day.
As a scriptures, we present a living Savior, a loving Savior, a savior that's able to Savior tonight if you'll only come to him and own your guilt. My friends, God has declared your guilty that all the world may become guilty, every most may be stopped and the whole world become guilty before God.
I ask you tonight, is there somebody?
Is there a boy here tonight? Is there a girl here tonight who says I'm willing to take sides with God against myself and all? I'm a Sinner. I'm guilty. I'm guilty in God's presence. Guilty. You're guilty, my friend, You're guilty. God says you're guilty. You know, God doesn't need witnesses. He doesn't need any witnesses In the courts in our land, we must have witnesses, but God doesn't need any witnesses.
He says you are a Sinner.
You have sent his sight, He has seen you sin. You are guilty. You are guilty. And how solemn, my friends, but not even one lie.
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A lie, one lie, will ever enter into that heaven. Not one. You know, each one of us have to confess with tall lies. We've told many, many lies in all that. And unless the blood of Christ cleanses away those sins.
Land in hell, my friends. There's only one Savior. Thank God for everyone of us in this room who can look up into heaven tonight and say that Savior is my Savior. He died for me. Strange, is it not? In America we have to preach this kind of a gospel with Bibles all over the place. Gospel tracks all over the place.
All kinds of testaments, all kinds of bookstores.
Why, even in the press I have seen at the top of the paper a little verse of Scripture, and yet man don't understand. They say I'm doing the best I can, I'm religious.
You will pardon me saying these things. They say I am a Protestant. Why? I am religious. I have been baptized. My mother was a Christian. My father believed these things.
That will never save your soul. Have you been born again? Have you received Christ into your heart? Is the Lord Jesus your personal Savior? My friend, the Lord may come tonight, boys and girls, a Christian parents, your mother may leave you tonight. Your father may be gone. To might the glory, the Lord may come.
You will be in hell forever, lost, guilty under the judgment of God for eternity. Think of it. Where do you wait? What do you hope to get out of this poor world? What will this world give you? It'll give you a piece of ground six feet long, a casket, a funeral. That's what this world is going to give you. You've got to leave this world, my friends. And God says after death.
The judgment.
The inferno says after death we're dead like a dog. I don't believe what infills say. I hope you don't either. But I believe what God says after death. The judgment you must. You have to meet God someday. You've got to stand in the presence of God. You've got to look for your eyes into the very face of Christ. He's going to judge those who reject him. How solemn.
For all judgment has been committed unto the Son, the Son of God, He's going to judge this world, He's going to judge the guilty sinners, He's going to judge the Christ rejecter. Oh dear boys and girls, tonight, have you ever confessed the Lord? If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
God says it.
And that settles them. How blessed? You can say, by the grace of God, God says it, I believe it. And that settles them. How blessed. Now I turn to the third Scripture, which I know is not popular in this world. I turn to the 16th chapter of Luke's gospel. And I know that men don't like to hear these things.
But we must say it, and I trust that.
Each one in this room.
Will bear with us as we bring this sad, solemn case before you. It's very, very solemn. I want to remind you again.
That the only man who never told a lie. The only man we can really trust 100%.
Told this incident, which is not a parable, which is not a parable. Earth Luke chapter 16, verse 19.
There was a certain rich man which was clawed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came.
And licked his swords.
And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried and in hell.
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He lifts up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off.
And Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried.
And said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.
And send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son remembered that thou and thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between US and you.
There is a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to. You cannot.
Neither can they pass to us that would come from vents. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that I would send unto my Father's house, for I have 5 brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them. And he said nay.
Father Abraham. But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto them, unto him, If they hear not, Moses.
And the prophets and neither they persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead friends who told.
The account I've just read, I want to repeat it. It's very solemn. The only man who never told a lie, the only man who knew who could open the gate of eternity.
Now let us look into eternity. There's nobody else could do that.
There's no man ever living in this world could do that. But the Son of God opened eternity.
And allowed us to look in The rich man didn't go to hell because he was rich, and the poor man didn't go to glory because he was poor.
The rich man did not believe the word of God. The man at the gate full of sores with a Saint of God, he lay. There is a testimony, I believe, to that rich man. He laid his gate full of swords.
Were not tall here, but maybe he did testify to the rich man.
As he passed by his great gate and all, I suppose when he died there was a great funeral.
Or I suppose the mayor of the town was there, and all the elders and city councilors were all there. At the great funeral. I suppose there were many flower carriages lined up on the street. But as the rabbi spoke no doubt of this man being such a good man, a wonderful man in the community, kind and noble and upright, he was in hell. Who said so? Christ said so.
Dare any man under heaven say it is not true? Dare any man say it's a parable? No, my friends, it's a fact. These men live. Jesus knew about them. He told about them. The rich man was in hell and he cried. He still had a voice. He cried. He had eyes to see. He could see a fur off. He didn't need glasses. He could see a fur off.
And he could cry. He could feel.
He said I am tormented in this flame. I am tormented in this flame, friend. Hell is a reality.
If there is no hell, there is no heaven, because the same Bible that tells us of heaven tells us of hell.
And the same God that warns us of hell tells us of the glories of heaven.
And dare men say there is no hell? Dare the modernist preacher stand up and say there is no hell?
And expect those who have any reference from the Word of God to listen to them. There is a hell. The cross of Christ proves that, my friends, The cross of Christ proves that God is going to judge this world. For man has rejected the Son of God. Man spit in the face of Jesus and cast them out. God is going to judge this world, He tells us. So He's a point of the day in which He will judge this world.
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By that man, that blessed man whom he raised from the dead. It's a solemn thing, isn't it? Here's a man in hell.
Oh dear, boys and girls, I warn you tonight. I stand here and warn you.
You'll land in hell if you reject Christ. You'll land in this awful place, the lake of fire.
Where man will live forever.
And he spins away from God with no company alone. Don't believe the devil's lies in hell. You'll play cards.
You'll have a wild time and a good time on hell. It's not true. Man will be in darkness. He'll be alone, Alone with himself, Alone in his remorse, his regrets, weeping and wailing and national seats. There will be no company in hell. You'll be alone, my friends, alone. A long returning away from God, He cried and said.
Have mercy upon me, all the other man in the 18th chapter of Luke.
Said God, be merciful for me to me a Sinner, and he found mercy. He found he was justified. But here was a man who cried for mercy on the other side of eternity. And I say tonight, my friends, according to this book, there is no purgatory, there is no second chance if you die without Christ.
You will be buried without Christ. You'll be raised from the dead without Christ.
And you will stand in eternity, as it were, in space, suspended by the power of God in space.
And you will look into the very face of Christ, You will hear him say, Depart from me.
And to everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, not for man, but if young man today, and young women and older men and older women prefer the company of the devil and the damned.
Or I should say, prefer that awful place where they will be and is not God's fault. He asked the question in the second chapter of Hebrews verse 3, which I remember reading about.
Where a man said God asked the question that God himself can answer.
How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
This poor man cried. Have mercy on me, he was reminded, Son remembered. Oh dear boys and girls, dear men and women here tonight who are lost in their sins, what an awful thing to remember.
And I believe that December the 27th, 1969 will be stamped on your immortal soul. You will be reminded that you heard of a Savior's love.
You heard of a way of escaping. You heard the power in the blood of Jesus Christ the Lord to cleanse you from all sins. You heard about it. You heard that God loved you. You heard that Christ died for you. You heard that there is salvation free, a pardon, a gift for you to receive from the very hand of God-given to you out of this great part of love. You've heard of it.
If you reject that my friend tonight, you may never hear it again.
This may be your last time, your last chance to ever get saved. Maybe tonight. God's last call. I remember when I was unsaved.
Plenty of time I heard the gospel many a time when I left the room unsaved and God himself, and I thank and praise Him for it, hung between heaven and earth, a verse and scripture. He hung up there in front of my very eyes. I saw the verse at Heart of Maine, day after day.
My spirit shall not always strive with man. My spirit is God's Spirit tonight striving with you, young man. You maybe came to the last conference in Toledo a month or so ago and you heard the gospel and tonight you're sitting here an unsaved boy, an unsaved girl, an unsaved man or woman.
Be careful that God spoken to you.
My spirit shall not always strive with man.
00:45:05
The verse hung from the heavens. Thank God of this, that heart of my soul that made me afraid. I trembled. My friend, my spirit shall not always strive with man. God calls tonight. Come unto me, he says, and I will give you rest.
You dear girls here tonight, come on to me, says Jesus, and I will give you rest. See the Savior standing.
For those precious arms outstretched, that smile of love and welcome on his face, Calm, he says unto me, and I will give you rest. You understands the devil. And he says, young girl, young man, don't do it. Don't do it. Wait until tomorrow night you'll hear the gospel. Tomorrow night you may be dead. Tomorrow night the Lord may come. Tonight you'll be lost for eternity.
And saw this poor man here, he says.
And verse 27, So solemnism, all friends, I want to say this again.
Who said these words? Jesus, He said it. Would we dare take away from it? Would we dare? Oh, I ask you reverently, would we dare take away the pressure, the precious Savior's words?
I pray thee, just imagine, I pray thee, a man praying in hell. I pray thee, therefore, Father, that I would send to my Father's house. For I have five brothers, five of them. Five of these men go to hell too. Send them to my Father's house.
Lest they also come into this place of torment.
Abraham verse 29 said unto him, They have more of us in the prophets, let them hear them. What is the Moses and the prophets? The word of God at that time.
The Old Testament scriptures, they have Moses and the prophets, but you have the New Testament. You have the blazing sunshine of the love of God, the blazing sunshine of God's wondrous truth. Are you going to reject it? They are Moses and the Proverbs. Here is reply his sad reply.
May Father Abraham, what does he mean by that? He means this, my friends. He means this. When I was in that world, I did not believe the Old Testament. I didn't believe it.
Neither do they. They will not receive the word of God. They won't have it.
I'm afraid tonight in America there's millions of followers of this man who says we will not have the word of God. We don't want the word of God. They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.
Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose from the dead. And in the 11Th chapter of John's gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Raised a man named Lazarus from the dead that they believed.
No, they said we will we will kill Nazareth because by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. So even though 1 rose from the dead and later on.
This glorious, blessed, precious, wonderful Savior rose from the dead triumphant, and appeared to his disciples, and held up his hands, and said, Behold my hands of my side, it is I myself, precious Savior. He rose from the dead, He burst the bonds of death, and Christ arose.
A mighty Savior, a glorious Savior and praise God.
He's my savior. I stake my soul on the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. He's my savior. I ask you boys and girls, I ask you men and women tonight, will you have my savior now, right now, on the chair, you sit there, will you bow your head and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a Sinner.
I'm guilty. I deserve to go to hell for eternity.
But I fall into your arms of love. I come just as I am a poor guilty Sinner. And he will receive you, for he loves you, and he waits. Angel host their musing or this like so strangely sad God beseeching man, refusing to be made forever glad.
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Christ waits, the devil stands and sneers and says don't believe it. Don't believe it, boys and girls.
You have got Christian mothers and fathers, you in the back rows and I ask you, are you saved tonight? Are you on the Lords side or are you on the devil's side?
There are but 2 masters, the Lord Jesus himself and the Devil, and there's not three of my friends. There's No 3 masters, there's only two, Christ and the devil, Heaven or hell.
Whose side are you on? Where will you spend eternity? God says prepare to meet thy God. Now you must make your decision.
We cannot save you. We do not intend to button all you at the door, but we ask you and you of eternity. Will you bow your head and pray? Will you say I'm guilty? I'm a Sinner, but I believe that Jesus died for my sins.
On the cross of Calvary.
Oh, I was so happy this past summer when we caught it before the clause of the meeting. Romans 10:00 and 9:00 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in thy heart that God has raising in the dead. Thou shalt be saved. And a little boy, He was a little taller, but he was 13 years of age. He came to me after the meetings. I saw him walking back and forth in the back of the room. I suppose he's trying to get up college.
Poor lad, he was trying to get up courage and God gave him the courage and he took me by the sleeve and he said Mr. Wakefield.
Jesus is my Lord, is my Lord. But in the blessed that dear boy, I put my arm around them and I said, look, there were people standing all around us, but we didn't care. We were there in front of the Lord, and we just bowed our heads together and we said, Lord Jesus, thank you for giving this boy courage.
And we phoned his mother and she said, oh, thank God. When my boy was about six years old, he told me he trusted Jesus, but he's never said it since. Thank God he didn't. Tonight, my dear friend, will you confess the Lord tonight? Will you meet me out in the hall and say Jesus is my Lord? He's my stages. May God grant it to be so.
For the glory of His blessed man shall we pray together.
Esther
Address—C.E. Lunden
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Would you turn with me, please, to the second chapter of Esther, the book of Esther?
If you'll be patient with me, I'm going to read from several chapters just a little bit.
Altogether won't be much more than one chapter so we can get the connections.
Starting with the fifth verse of the second chapter of Esther.
Now in Shushan, the palace, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai.
The son of Jerry, The son of Shamia, The son of Kish of Benjamin.
Seventh Verse. And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncles daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, who Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So it came to pass when the King's commandment and his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together unto Shushan, the palace.
To the custody of Haggai that.
Esther was brought also unto the King's King's house, to the custody of Hegei, keeper of the women.
Verse 17.
And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins.
So that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Ashti. Verse 21.
In those days, while Mordecai sat in the King's gate, two of the King's chamberlain's big fan and Tyrish of those which kept the door were wroth, and sought to lay hands on the king of Ajueras. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen.
And Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name.
Chapter 3.
After these things did King Hazueras promote Haman the son of Amadetta the aggregate or a malachite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the Princess that were with him. And all the King's servants that were in the King's gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him.
But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Verse 8. And Haman said unto king of Hazueras, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people of all the provinces of thy Kingdom, and their laws are diverse from all people. Neither keep they the King's laws. Therefore it is not for the King's prophet to suffer them.
If it pleased the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed.
Chapter 4. Verse 13.
Then Mordecai.
Commanded to answer Esther.
Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the King's house more than all the Jews.
For thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time. Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy Father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this?
Then Esther Badham returned Mordecai this answer. Go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink 3 days, night or day.
I also, and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the King, which is not according to the law.
And if I perish, I perish.
So Mordecai went his way and did according to all the Estrad commanded him.
Now it came to pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner court of the King's house.
Over against the King's house. And the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house. Over against the gate of the house. And it was so, when the king saw us to the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter.
Then said the king unto her, What wilt thou, Queen Esther?
And what is thy request? It shall be even given thee to the half of the Kingdom.
00:05:03
And Esther answered, If it seemed good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day under the banquet that I prepared for him. Then the king said, Cause Haman to make haste, that he may do as Esther has said. So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
And the king said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? And it shall be granted thee, And what is thy request? Even to the half of the Kingdom it shall be performed.
Then answered Esther and said, my petition and my request is.
I have found favor in the sight of the King, and if it pleased the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the King and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow, as the King has said.
Chapter 6 On that night, could not the king sleep?
And he commanded to bring the Book of Records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king.
And it was found written that Mordecai had told a big fan and teraged two of the King's chamberlains, the keepers of the door, who sought to lay hand on the king of Hazueras. And the king said, What honor and dignity have been done to Mordecai for this? Then said the King's servants administered unto him, There is nothing done for him.
Verse 11.
Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city. He proclaimed before him. Thus shall be done of the man whom the king delighteth to honor. Chapter 7.
So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther.
The queen and the king said unto Esther on the second day of the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, Queen Esther? And it shall be granted thee. And what is thy request? And it shall be performed even to the half of the Kingdom.
Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I found favor in the sight, thy sight, O king.
And if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we are sold, I and my people to be destroyed, be slain, to perish. But if we had been sold for bondsman and bond women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the King's damage.
Then the king of Hazueras answered, and said unto Esther the queen.
Who is he, and where is he that durst presume in his heart to do so? And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen, Verse 10.
So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the King's wrath pacified.
Now, you may think it's strange to take up a passage like this in the Old Testament at a young people's meeting, but I believe it has a very special message, not only for the dear young people here this afternoon, but for each one of us.
You know this is the last of the historical books of the Old Testament.
In fact, it's sort of like a little postscript at the end.
Sometimes I remember receiving a letter from a brother not long ago, and beside the communication he added little postscript in which he spoke of his affections for my wife and I from his wife and himself. And you know, these things are very touching, very touching, very precious.
You know God at the end of all the history of God's people down here.
He as much as says I want to add a little post script. What is it?
The people of God were going on badly, and the ones to whom this was written.
We're not even with Ezra back in the land.
They had been carried away captive, but the time had come for them to return.
00:10:02
Ezra is back building the temple and walls. Nehemiah.
But they weren't back.
Now we don't know why Esther wasn't back, except that possibly being born in this land, in captivity, she may not have had the opportunity. We don't know.
But Mordecai perhaps could have gone back. But he wasn't back.
And there may be some of you dear young people here this afternoon, I'm sure there are, who've never yet risen to your privileges.
You know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and he's very precious to you, I'm sure.
And you know too, that you and I are not always doing the things that we should do.
You know too, that you and I make mistakes.
Now what I want to call your attention to, particularly in this portion, is.
That the love of our God will never change. Never.
I don't want for a minute for you to understand that God will condone, will, will smile at evil, Never. Never.
But the affections of his heart are such that he says, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
Never.
The gifts and callings of God are without repentance, and that's what I'd like to stress.
We don't have the name of God in this book, nor we do we have the faults of his people.
We just see a condition where everything is, as it were, at the very bottom, the last communication, perhaps almost before Christ comes.
And in this passage we find that God is working behind the scenes. And here we have Mordecai in the palace of the king Hasuerus.
In the first chapter, we find this king was over 120 provinces from India to Ethiopia.
And yet his Queen absolutely dared to refuse to come in to a bank that he had prepared.
And so he set his queen aside.
And he chooses another queen who was behind that if it wasn't God.
Yes.
He chooses another queen. Now I'd like to call your attention to the name.
Of Esther, her name was Hadassah, but you know Esther.
I believe means Myrtle.
Now, I'm not an expert on plants, but I understand that Myrtle.
Is a tree perhaps 6 to 20 feet tall?
And it has.
A glossy leaves. It's an Evergreen.
And it in its own season it bears fragrant blossoms, either white or pink, as the case may be.
Have you ever gone out in the country in the winter time and the snow and you've seen an Evergreen standing out by itself?
And all refreshing to see those glossy leaves.
Ah, dear young people, I wonder if there are any esters anymore. Decis here this afternoon.
In the days of darkness.
Even though you're not up to the full privileges that God has given you, perhaps you hadn't realized them yet.
I wonder if you're going to stand firm for Christ in the measure of the light to have.
Here we see Esther, a little babe, shall we say, a child chosen to be queen over 120 provinces. Perhaps a greater glory in the sense that even Solomon knew. But here she was.
What caused all this? God's love for his people.
We see in the later chapters there was an enemy arising, Haman.
And his purpose was to destroy all of God's people, and that would have met Jerusalem too.
It had been the complete destruction of the Jews.
But here were their two cousins, Mordecai and his cousin Esther.
In the palace, God had put them there.
And I'd like to call especially to one verse here.
That.
Has impressed itself on my heart in the 4th chapter that we've read.
00:15:08
In the 14th verse the last part. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom?
For such a time as this.
Now, dear young people, were closing the year 1969. We don't know what another year will bring forth, but we know the character of the day.
All such a time as this.
What kind of a time is it? It's a time when the foundations are being destroyed.
The truth is being set aside.
When it calls for individual faithfulness and the part of God's people.
Now you have been placed in the place in the.
Under privilege, Most of you here have been brought up in Christian homes. We're living in a world that doesn't know God.
Had you ever thought why you were where you were?
You know there is a time when God had to say to Elijah, What doest thou hear, Elijah?
He was in the wrong place.
And where are you this afternoon, dear young people? Are you in the place of privilege?
Do you realize what a privilege it is to stand out like like Esther?
Like a.
A symbol, as it were, a blessing for God's people.
Yes, we see here.
Devotedness on the part of Esther and on the part of Mordecai.
We find, however, that.
When Mordecai finds.
This message of ruin for his people he falls upon his face in sackcloth.
Andrew, Esther, Esther herself with her maidens, they fall on their faces, and they call for all the Jews of the city to fall on their faces. Now, brethren, this is a principle.
If you and I expect blessing, if we expect to be used of God, we'll have to be on our faces. We will.
We see here how simple all these precious things are. God is working behind the scenes. He's ordering everything. He's setting aside a queen, He's setting aside Haman, the chief Prince of the Kingdom, so he can bring in those that will be for the blessing of his people. But this calls for individual exercise and faith and humbling on the part of his people.
I know how precious it is and we have seen it and do see it.
Young people determine that they're going to follow the Lord.
I heard just recently of two young people that were getting up real early to read their Bibles.
Oh, how good to hear that.
But also to be on our faces before God.
That's the only way of blessing. And here we see in all our simplicity these two dear ones in the midst of all the ruin is truly weren't in Jerusalem, where they belonged.
But still there was purpose and heart to serve the Lord where they were.
And so we find them on their faces before God. Now it's in this state of soul that Esther goes in before the king.
I.
You know there was a law in that land.
That no one could come into the presence of the King unless he himself appointed him.
And unless he held out the golden scepter to them.
He had the power of life and death in his hands.
Now Esther had reminded Mordecai of this. She says, How can I go into the king?
If I go in to intercede for my people.
I'll be slain possibly. I have no right there unless he calls.
Well, Mordecai said. You're bound up with the rest of them. Don't think you'll escape. You won't escape. If the decree goes forth to slay all the Jews, you will be one of them.
00:20:13
You know, it's a good thing, dear young people, to discover where we belong.
A member of a young man I heard of a young man who was.
Talking with someone who was an atheist and he himself had not definite convictions as to the truth.
He wasn't saved.
But when the atheist began speaking against Christ, he decided he'd better defend.
And the result was that he was converted converted himself.
Possibly through scriptures he learned as a child. We don't know. And it's a good thing to decide right now where you and I stand. Where do we stand?
Esther had to come to that place. Where do we stand? Do we stand with God's people or do we stand with the enemy?
What a decision for Esther to make. Here she was in the in the very place of prominence in that Kingdom, the queen.
Was she going to take her place with that man who lay in sackcloth at the King's gate, Mordecai?
Make up your mind, dear young people.
It's a day of rejection.
With the day's coming glory blessing.
Today is a day of rejection.
Are you going to identify yourself with the rejected 1?
Or are you going to go on and use that which God has given you outwardly?
Just to adorn yourself and to make it easy for yourself down here are you? Am I?
Estimator choice. She made her choice in the presence of God on her face.
And she goes in and stands before the king, And she says, if I perish, I perish.
You know in the Song of Solomon it says love is as strong as death. How strong is yours?
I'm sure it refers to the Lord Jesus, but how strong is your loving mind? It says jealousy is cruel as the grave.
What does the grave do?
Takes old and young. It doesn't spare any.
Oh dear young people, is Christ first in your life and mine?
What a decision for Esther to make.
She made it.
You know, man, when a man's ways please the Lord, it maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
And we learn here from this book that the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turned with it whithersoever he will. I may not have quoted that quite right.
Yes, he turneth it whithersoever he will.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, he says to his people.
Is he from my dear son?
What was Ephraim doing? Going after his idols? Yes.
Is he my dear son?
Is he a pleasant child? Oh, brethren, that breaks our hearts.
Breaks our hearts.
God is always true to what He is, never varies one moment.
You and I do. God doesn't change. If He took you up for blessing, He's going to see you blessed.
Come what night?
Oh, we're not speaking this afternoon of his government. It's bitter sometimes, you know, but that's not the subject.
Because you know, dear brethren, as we were singing that little hymn, if you and I could only get a glimpse of that love of our God for us, how different it would be in our ways.
No, brethren, the answer is not the whip, it's the heart. It's affections drawn to Christ.
The heart's affection is drawn to Christ to know that love of God for you and for me.
That never varies one moment.
00:25:08
What wilt thou, Queen Esther? What is thy petition?
That's the answer.
Why? Because the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Can't be otherwise. You know, there's nothing like faith that pleases God. Without faith, that's impossible to please him. You want to please him? Well, that's the way.
And if there was ever a day when there was that simple childlike faith needed that's just simply trusted and clung to God, it's today.
A day like this.
Well, Esther says I want you to come to a banquet tomorrow. Why didn't she give her petition? No. Oh, I think there's a lovely type here, and I'm not going to say much about it, but just a little.
More decay. I has to be exalted first.
And who is he? He's a type of Christ.
He is the man that God delights to honor. And there is only one it is Jesus.
Oh, how precious, Esther hesitates. She will not make her petition yet. There's never going to be any blessing for Israel till Christ is exalted.
Now let's apply it. There never be any blessing in your life spiritually until Christ is exalted.
Never.
Christ must have, shall I say, the first place someone corrected me and they said he has to have it all.
Has to have it all.
Oh how good this is.
That we might get broken down, dear young people, to where we belong. Discover our position. Discover that state of soul that brings us into God's presence, where we have that confidence that Esther received here.
You know he that believeth shall not make haste.
I love to remember what our dear brother Jackson has said. If in doubt, don't. Don't just wait upon God.
We have that in the 27th Psalm. I wait, I say on the Lord, wait.
How many times we've made mistakes to be in a hurry, especially in serious matters like this? And so Esther waits.
Oh, how good it is. She waits. How beautiful the picture here. And the king can't sleep that night.
Something is bothering him. What is it?
Why? Way back, Mordechai, who sat in the gate, had discovered that there were two who were seeking the life of the king.
And they were found out and they were hanging.
And the king had it inscribed in the Chronicles of the Kings of Media in Persia.
And this night he couldn't sleep. There was something wrong. Something bothered him. God was working in his secret ways in the heart of that king.
And he calls for the chronicles, the records to be brought out. And he discovers more decay. I have saved his life.
He says, has any dignity and honor been done? And say this is the man whom the King delights to honor. Oh what a lovely picture of Jesus.
Of the one that God delights to honor and will honor publicly in the coming day. And there will be no blessing for man.
On earth, in the Kingdom of Israel, until the Lord Jesus Himself is publicly honored.
Yes.
This is the man whom the King delights to honor.
And now we find the banquet is called a second banquet that Esther requested.
Oh, how solemn occasion this was.
Here was a little girl, shall we say?
Just a little girl, she's queen, and she's going to stand face to face with the enemy of God's people.
Oh how this speaks of days of weakness and it touches my heart, dear young people.
00:30:03
That in days of weakness God picks up and uses what he pleases. A left-handed man if you please, as we have in the book of Judges.
Don't be discouraged if you don't have the abilities that you see others might have.
Don't be discouraged, it's a day of weakness. And here's Dear Esther without anything except what God would supply.
Faith, Faith that rests upon God. And there she stands, face to face and accuses that wicked Haman.
Mordecai wouldn't bow to him because he was an Amalekite. God had told the Jews that they were to have war with Hamlet from generation to generation.
Mordecai wouldn't bow to him. He didn't have to. God had already provided that he was in the King's favor. God had provided this.
Oh, how thankful we should be for God's order in our ways.
How we should appreciate this?
He does. He orders at every step for us. If we only knew it. We do well to wait up on him.
And now Esther turns, says this wicked Haman to his face. Isn't that the boldness of faith?
She accuses the chief Prince in the Kingdom to the king.
Is in doubt a pretty serious matter?
These are the ways of God's deliverance for His people.
Now I know this is an outstanding account.
But it gives us the principles of the workings of God in the last days, when everything is in ruins.
And when you and I, dear young people, may not be exactly in the right position that we should be, we may be unintelligent as to all of God's ways, but there's one thing sure, we have a precious Savior.
Our God loves us, and He has power over all of our circumstances.
And if you and I just trust Him, and we do, like Esther and Mordecai, get on our faces before him.
We will discover what they discovered that you'll never forsake you nor leave you.
And you know.
There's no temptation beset you but what is common to man.
And God has provided a way of escape that you might be able to bear it.
You never put you in a position.
But what you'll be able to meet it. Isn't that precious? Isn't that a comfort, dear young people in the last days?
Don't go away and get discouraged. Don't say well everything is is in ruins.
No it isn't.
God is working.
He has his hand underneath it all. Outwardly it's in ruins, but you know God's time clock is right on time.
He is ordering his ways for the glory of the Lord Jesus and for the blessing.
Of God's people.
Oh, you see how he's working for the deliverance of all of these, his people that he loves. He's going to move kingdoms, but he's going to use an Esther.
And a Mordecai. I take them to be both young people. They were cousins, one perhaps older than the other, but perhaps young people. Esther surely was.
Who God was using them?
Yes, it's a day when God uses young people today. Are you one of them?
Are you going to say, well I'm going to wait till I get older and I know a lot, then maybe God can use me. Be too late.
Be too late so in this.
7th chapter then.
Third verse Then as to the queen answered, and said, If I found favor in thy sight.
O King and replace the King, let my life be given me in my petition and my people at my request.
For we are sold. Notice that we we.
Are sold.
I and my people.
00:35:02
I and my people, oh how good this is.
How Esther could have been different. How she could have said, well, I'm going to shy away from this. I'm going to take my place in the palace and let come what may. I'm safe.
Oh no, she wasn't. I and my people.
To be destroyed, and to be slain, and to perish.
But if we had been sold for Bond men and Bond women, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail.
The King's damage.
Then the king as you whereas answered Esther the queen. Who is he? Where is he that does for zoom in his heart to do so?
And Esther said the adversarial enemy is this wicked Haman.
In the 10 verses hanged.
Now what happens following this?
In the following chapters we see the full deliverance of God's people by the decree of the King.
And we see at the very last chapter Mordecai.
The one who lay in sackcloth at the King's gate.
The one who?
In his devotedness to the interests of God's people and to God.
Would defy that wicked Haman.
And would direct Esther as to what she should do on behalf of God's people.
In the last chapter, notice it in the last chapter. These there are 10 chapters in this book.
And the king has whereas laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the Isles of the sea, and all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, where under the king advanced him, Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto the king Hazueras, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren.
Seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all His seed.
If there any of you dear young people this afternoon?
That do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Remember that you cannot start with God without having your sins forgiven.
You must at the start know the Lord Jesus as your own personal Savior.
But then once you have, remember God loves you and you're going to begin discovering what's in your own heart a little bit.
As the people of God did.
And you're going to discover two as you do so, the marvelous love of God that will meet you.
And where there is this state of Mordecai and Esther to be on our faces before God? Oh, what a blessing. And then to think that God would take up any of us, and He will.
To use us in blessing to others. It might be in the gospel, it might be in blessing for his people, might be for the deliverance of his people. But I say the pattern we have here.
To be on our faces before God, to recognize His secret ways in days like this, and to wait upon Him. To not be in haste, but to wait upon Him for His blessing, and then to stand out in simple faith, in boldness.
Having the consciousness of having been in His presence to act for Him in a day and such a time as this.