Children—John Bilisoly
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So we're going to have some things to look at this morning and I need your help and, uh, I'd like to have you help me answer some of the questions that we'll have. So if you'd like to come up even while we're singing, please do. Maybe one of you boys or girls has a song that we can start with.
I probably shouldn't hold it too close.
Anyone have a song? Alright, how about this young man?
Number three, number three. OK, Thank you.
Maybe so we can sing a few extras. Umm, we'll just sing the 1St and the last of these hymns. All right, number three, first and last, my hope on.
Our body itself.
I dare not drive somewhere with a friend of all the holy.
It is by name.
Of all the wrong kind of.
Sinking time.
All on their ground.
Thinking and last verse.
He turned away in Heaven's cross, and.
My name will pray to him on his hands.
And all are proud of mine, so it's great my last name's been.
Gone right and fall, never broadcast.
All right. Your ground is thinking that happened.
Uh.
OK, I think we're going to have one more from a girl, and there's some on the back that you might be familiar with if you'd like to look.
So if a girl has one to sing, that would be nice.
All right.
47 Thank you.
We'll sing all three of this one.
Right. Yeah. And so I'll start again and try on.
It goes to the.
Every day that it's around.
You also check on.
Are the juicer of all friendship.
Love and Islam.
00:05:12
Umm, very nice, and Lord willing, we'll do a little bit more singing later that goes along with our little subject this morning. But for right now, boys and girls, let's look to the Lord for His help in our time together. Our blessed God and our Father, we thank Thee for each one of the children that are in the room this morning. Precious jewels to Thee, and each of us are Thy jewels, but we just thank Thee for the value that Thou does place on us and the Word.
So much so that thou would send thy Son the Lord Jesus, to come into this world and to go to Calvary's cross.
And to lay down his life and shed his precious blood in order that lost sinners such as ourselves could be brought into favor with thee. To be called sons, to call the ABBA Father, to be thy children. Oh, we thank you for this relationship that is ours by sovereign grace. Now help us, we pray, as we open thy word together, and as we share a little bit. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen.
Now I know some of you boys and girls like to memorize.
Scripture, and that's a very good thing to do. So I want to give you an opportunity if you would like to say a verse that you've enjoyed or maybe it's the memory verse.
I have a paper here from last week. Romans 5/8 God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Who would like to say that verse or another verse? All right.
God commended his love towards us, that while we were yet sinners.
Christ died for us. Romans 5/8. Thank you very much. Anyone else? All right, Clive?
1158, thank you. All right. How about you? Would you like to stay at verse? OK, you understand nothing.
While we had sinners Christine for us. Number 5/8. Thank you.
OK, anyone else? How about you girls? Do you have a verse you'd like to say?
Would you like to say what? OK, how about this young man?
OK.
See if we can reach you here.
Want to step forward just a little bit? There we go.
Are you going to say the?
Go ahead and help.
Play. I don't know why.
But you mentioned laughter does.
It's not, Maria said. That for us.
5/8 very good thank you. I know exactly how you feel.
You want to stand up?
God committed his love toward us and lots of that. While we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. Burning 5/8 pretty good. See, I know your kids know that very well. And sometimes when you stand up here, it just you just forget. Funny how that happens. Who else you. How about down here? All right, Anybody else that's not up front here?
OK, All right. Very good. And that goes along, too, with what we're going to speak about this morning. Well, you know, boys and girls, what I wanted to talk about this morning is about symbols. Now, if I were to describe a symbol in my own words, I would say it's a little picture of something without any words. And you know, what's interesting about symbols is it doesn't matter what language you know, what country you're in.
A symbol can tell a story or it can give a message to wherever you're at. So it doesn't matter it it's, it's not bound by language. And that's what's interesting about symbols. You know, we have a lot of symbols in our lives. We're we're familiar with them. I'll give you a few examples.
Sometimes you're driving to the airport and you see a sign up ahead and it has a picture of an airplane on there and you say, oh, good, I'm on the right, right route. I'm going the right direction.
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That tells you that that little airplane on that plane tells you that you're on your way to the airport and it's directing you. It might have an arrow under it, or maybe you've seen a symbol that says.
Maybe you're in a museum and you see a symbol that shows a little picture of a camera and there's a circle around it and a line right down through the circle and the camera is right in the middle there. What does that tell you?
Exactly. See, so you can look at that sign and right away, you know what that means. And it doesn't matter if you speak Chinese or if you speak Italian or French, Spanish or English, you see that symbol and you say, oh, I know what that means. Well, what I thought I would like to do this morning with your help is.
I have brought some symbols that I put together and I'd like to tell the story of God's salvation with symbols. Now, like I said, in the word of God too, we have lots of symbols used, especially when you get to a book like Revelation is full of symbols. Some of them are easy to understand, some of them are more difficult. Some of them we have to study and decide what is we're being told from these symbols. And so symbols are something important in our lives, aren't they? And we get used to them.
And we rely on them to give us information.
Well, this first one that I want to put up here is a little bit unpleasant, and I've tried to soften it a little. You'll see. But you'll see what it is. It's a symbol of something. And it's these, I might say too, about these symbols, that these, most of these, with maybe the exception of one of these, are what we would call universal symbols that are known the world over. And anyone could look at one of these and say, oh, I know what that means. So I have one here, the first one.
And our brother Don Ruhl kindly lent me this board and this is going to be helpful to put these up. Now, like I said, I this one is not very pleasant, but it conveys a message that we want to that's important in this story of God's salvation. What is this?
Good, very good. I was hoping somebody would mention danger. It certainly does mean danger. Umm, maybe you have seen this on a bottle? Has anyone seen this symbol on a bottle? OK, what does that mean?
Exactly. That's exactly what it means, and this has become a universal symbol to mean danger or poison or what else might it be a symbol of?
I'm going to tell you it's a skull and some bones under it, and this has become a universal symbol of something.
Yeah, that's right. You know, not that long ago, boys and girls in Spanish cemeteries, they used to actually put real skulls and crossbones under them to mark that it was a cemetery.
Umm, that's, uh, you know, like I said, it's not a pleasant symbol, is it? Now, let me ask you a question. So we're going to put this up for now.
Let me ask you a question. How did death come into this world?
Exactly. Let's read that. If you have a Bible and you want to follow along, we're going to look at a verse that's very emphatic, very clear.
About this, in Romans 5 and verse 12 it says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world.
And death by sin. So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Now is that clear? Do we understand that boys and girls, that death came into this world because of sin? And then if we were to look over in our Bibles, some of us not even having to turn a page to the 6th chapter of Romans, it says in verse 23, for the wages of sin is who can finish it?
You want to stand up and finish it for the wages and how does what's the rest of it? The gift of the gift of God is eternal is eternal through Jesus Christ. Very good. I knew you know it just takes a little while, doesn't it? OK the gift of God is eternal life, but the wages of sin is death. You know what tells us in the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel chapter 18 twice it says.
The soul that sinneth, who can finish that verse, The soul that sinneth it shall.
Die, that's what it says. The soul that sinneth, it shall die, you know.
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There, it's interesting, but if we were to take the time to look, that word death is mentioned 22 Times in this book. And I thought of it in this way, boys and girls, that this book of Romans, it's kind of like a trial.
And you and I are standing before a judge, and this is a judge that is infallible. He cannot make a mistake. This is God as a judge judging man. And you and I are standing before him, and he we hear all the evidence against us. And this is what God pronounces as a righteous judge. He says your penalty is death.
That's a solemn penalty, isn't it? It says here that the wages of sin is death, and you and I have sinned. And so our penalty is death. And oh, if we had to stop there, it would be a very unhappy story that we're telling here with symbols. If that's the only symbol that we had to dwell upon, that would be sad indeed. But boys and girls, we need to realize.
From the very start here, that you and I are sinners before God. And as sinners, it tells us earlier in this book that there is none righteous, no, not one. And it says that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God and as sinners we deserve to die. But oh, let's move on now. We don't want to dwell and leave the story there. So we've got another symbol here.
Who can tell me what this symbol means? You've seen this before. Got lots of hands here. OK, love. Love. And look at that. I see it right on your bear. On the chest of his bear. He's got that same symbol there. Love. Very good. All right, now, let me ask you this. This isn't hard either. If we took the letter I and put it right here and then we have this symbol here. And then we took the letter U.
When we put it over here, what would that sentence say?
I love you, thank you. I love you too.
That's exactly what it would say. I love you. You know, that's a wonderful message, isn't it, Boys and girls, you know God has created us to respond to love.
And I know that there's not a person in this room that doesn't respond to love.
Now, some of us were talking recently about those that have been in solitary confinement and, and the effect it has on them and how it makes them reclusive and not wanting to be around other people. You know, that's sad, isn't it? But what a story that we could spend the rest of our time this morning on love.
Well, let's look at a verse here that brings out what kind of love we're talking about. You know, I might want to just say something else about this that like I said, you know, our brother Buchanan mentioned yesterday when David was fleeing from his son Absalom and leaving that beloved city Jerusalem that he loved and leaving the ark there, it says he went weeping. And those that were with him, since they went weeping too, it says David wept.
That's not just shutting a few tiers, that's shutting a lot of tiers. And he made this comment. He said sometimes it's good to let our feelings and emotions show. And I, I thought that was was good because that is true. Sometimes we bottle things up and you know, it's a good thing to say those words that this young man did to others. I love you. You know, it's such a simple thing. Sometimes it's a little hard to say. I hope my brother won't won't mind this, but I have a brother that.
Calls me from time to time or I'll call him and almost invariably his last words of the conversation before we hang up our he'll say love you.
And if I have it on speakerphone or if my wife Carmen is listening in, she'll look over and she'll smile at me because she knows that sometimes I'm a little bit stoic and maybe I hide my my feelings a little. And it's not as easy for me as as apparently for my brother to say that.
Well, each of us how good it is to be able to say to someone I love you, that's better. Husbands, did you tell your wife this morning that if you loved her.
Well, you still have time today.
It's a good thing for us men, you know, we, we might reason and say, well, she knows that. She knows that I love her. Yes, she does. But she likes to hear it anyway, as we each do. Anyway, let's look at this verse that I have for this one and let's go to John's Gospel.
00:20:18
Chapter.
5.
Three, John's Gospel, chapter 3. We can't leave this verse out. In fact, we don't even really need to turn to it. I'm going to have one of your boys or girls stand up and say John 316 for us. All right, there's a willing girl. You want to come forward a little bit so we don't have to stretch this too far and you just go ahead. And for guys who love the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that his, however believers in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. OK. What was your name? Hannah? Thank you, Anna. Anna, how much did God love this world or how much did he love us?
Enough to give his son. It's we can't measure it, can we? We can't measure God's love. It's so he says he's so loved the world and when it says he loved the world, it doesn't mean this globe that were standing on this spear, but it means the people in the world. He so loved them that he gave his only begotten son because remember, they were sinners and God gave us sent his son to love us. Now let's look at one more verse in first John chapter 4.
And verse 10 herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So let's just put this one up.
And this love of God.
Overwrite this one. So for right now I'm going to turn this one here because I'm I'm already tired of looking at it.
So we'll maybe look at it later at the end, but love, God's love, what a wonderful thing that is. OK, let's go to the next one here.
Now, this is a symbol that is very interesting. And I might mention too, that most of these symbols have histories. We don't have time to go into the histories of these. We'll say a little bit about this one. Who knows what this is. I'm sure you've seen it before. The Red Cross. That's right. Yeah. Well, there was a man named Henry Ducant, I think it is. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and he had a he was a businessman and he was traveling one time. He actually was traveling to.
Speak to Napoleon the 3rd and there was a battle that was going on when he arrived and he actually got there right after the battle.
Was finished. It was. It's a famous battle. I won't go into all the details of it, but there were close to 40,000 soldiers and this would have been in like 18.
Mid 1800s so 1830 something or maybe a little bit later than the 1850s anyway he he witnessed the aftermath of this battle and what so impressed him was that there were all these soldiers that were in various stages of dying because.
No one was tending to them. They were just left there to die. And he, he heard all this moaning and the groans and the cries of agony and pain and it so moved him that he completely forgot about doing his business and even meeting up with Napoleon. I don't know if he did or not, but he went out into the battlefield and he began to tend to those dying soldiers and he got some of the towns folks and all in this this town and they came out and helped him.
And then he went back and he wrote a book, which was published in 1862 about that experience. And that book was circulated. And it so moved the hearts of some men that were in authority that eventually there was a convention that was formed called the Geneva Convention, and a committee that was established called the International Committee of the Red Cross. And that was what prompted this symbol.
And what they wanted was a symbol that would be very vivid. Now why? Why would you if why would they want a symbol that could be seen from a long ways away? Anybody have an idea?
Where would this symbol be carried?
Why do you think?
I'll tell you why. They wanted to make sure that people could see this symbol, that that people that needed aid, that maybe were dying in the battlefield.
00:25:02
Could see this and they would know that there was help there also. It was a symbol of protection, protection for those that carried it. And part of this convention that was formed in the laws, the part of the Geneva Convention, was that it was not appropriate. In fact it was a crime.
That you would commit if you shot at anyone that bore this symbol on their arm or perhaps on their back.
Or maybe we're in a vehicle that had this symbol on. This symbol became worldwide known as a symbol of health, of care, those that were going to provide care. Interesting, isn't it? What they did was they took the colors of the the Swiss flag, which are a white cross on a red background, and they reversed them so that you wouldn't confuse it with the the Swiss flag, and it became a symbol of mercy.
And those that bore the symbol were protected under this international law from being shot at or being attacked because they were those that were providing service. And it didn't matter who they were providing service to, whether they were enemy or friend or foe, they were to be left alone. So a symbol of protection, Interesting, isn't it, that it's a cross and it's red? And I don't know for sure, but you can't help but wonder that if those that didn't devise this symbol.
And come up with this didn't have some biblical background and thought about the cross of the Lord Jesus. That's how I'd like to think about it. The cross of the Lord Jesus on which his precious blood was shed. What a wonderful story that is Well, let's look at a verse in.
In First Corinthians chapter one.
OK in First Corinthians chapter one and verse 18.
Says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Our brother Jim mentioned how that that organization looked at all those different monuments throughout the world, but they didn't look at the cross. It didn't have value. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of God. And then in Colossians chapter one, we've been reading this recently and at home in our reading.
It says in verse.
20 and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.
By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
OK, let's have the next one here.
Who can tell us what this is?
All right, what is that? It's a symbol.
Yeah, very good. It's a bird with a leaf in his mouth. What kind of bird do you think it might be?
Yes, you're right, it's a dove. What kind of leaf do you think it might be? Or a branch?
Exactly where did that come from? A dog with an olive branch.
The Bible. And I also know what that means. What does it mean exactly? Good. OK, where in the Bible did it come from?
Umm.
With Noah.
When the water went down, Noah sent a dove to see if there was a place that they could still get out on dry land and was there at first.
No, not at first. When he sent it the second time, what did it come back with?
An olive branch.
Very good. That's in Genesis 8. I was going to read it, but he told us, so I'm not going to read it.
He sent the dove out the second time, and it came back with an olive branch or an olive leaf, it says in its mouth. And no one knew from that that the water had flowed away from the earth abated, and that it was safe now. But he still waited, but it that it was soon going to be safe to come out.
Come out onto the land. So wonderful story and this has become a universal symbol of peace.
And uh, this olive branch in smell very biblical. It came right from the Bible, didn't it? So wonderful subject to talk about. We could talk a lot about peace, but let's look at John 14 and read a verse there about peace.
00:30:17
And.
OK and John 14 and verse 27, the words of the Lord Jesus Himself. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
You know, just think of hearing those words from the Lord himself. Peace, I leave with you. He was going to be leading his own. And they were sad at the thought of him leaving, but he assures them that he's going to give them a piece to fill their hearts. You know, there's a lot of boys and girls in this world that don't have peace.
There's a lot of men and women in this world that are troubled and they don't have peace. And that's because sin is such a, an awful thing. You know, there's a verse, I didn't quote it, but I'll quote it now, that's in James. It says lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And you know, I thought about that, boys and girls. And to me that is a very solemn thought that is brought before us in Scripture. It's almost like this. It's almost like sin goes out.
And it just makes havoc in the lives of boys and girls and men and women. It tears families apart. It tears marriages apart. It tears it makes people do awful things. It makes people voice other young men take guns and kill students, their fellow students and things like that. It just, it makes people rob banks. It makes people want to climb to the top of the ladder and they don't care who they step on to get there.
It's an awful thing. It's almost like sin just goes in and it does all it can and then it's it's like when it's finished, it just leaves them to die. Just like those men on the battlefield that that man saw that prompted him to write that book about having some means to help them, if that's what sin is like. But God has come in and his love and now he wants to not only save you, but he wants to fill your heart with peace, OK.
One more verse about peace in Romans 5 again. So Romans 5 and I'll read verse one.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope each boy and girl here has peace that settle peace in their hearts. OK, we're going to move around on to the last one here. This one may not be quite as familiar to you, but maybe to some of the older ones here.
Wow, I see some hands.
All right. I would be surprised, but we'll see. What do you think this might mean?
OK, I know exactly what you're talking about and why you would think that. But no, that's not what this symbol means. Now, I'll tell you a little bit. I'll give you a little bit of background real quick. When I was young, your age, I would see this in people's houses now, in their windows of their house. Like if you have a big window in your house, they would put these up in the window of the house. It would be a black piece of paper with a white hand on it. What do you think that might? Let me ask this question. It has anyone else here in the room?
Seeing this or or when they seen this in their neighborhood or OK.
Good.
Exactly. A safe home. Umm, we called it a helping hand.
And this was if, if this was displayed in your window, that mean that that meant that if someone was coming along and maybe even a child, if they were playing and they fell and skinned their knee and they needed help and they saw that house with the hand in the window, they could go up and knock on the door and and they could say I skinned my knee and those people would help them. Or perhaps someone was lost and didn't know where to find their way or had some other kind of a problem. They could go to a house like this, knock on the door and that, that this was the symbol.
That these people were displaying to say I want to help you. And you know, I thought of our Lord Jesus this morning as I was thinking about this.
And his helping hand. So let's turn to Isaiah 59.
Isaiah 59 and verse one. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened.
00:35:04
That it cannot save neither his ear heavy. That it cannot hear. One more verse in the 119th Psalm.
Psalm 119 and verse.
173.
And that says.
Let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy precepts.
Boys and girls, can we say that? Is that our desire? You know, if you're the Lords, and I trust each one of you know the Lord is your Savior. I hope you can say like the psalmist here, let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy precepts. And one more verse. I said that was the last one, but one more in Hebrews chapter 13.
You know what it says in the end of verse 5?
For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And then this wonderful verse in verse six, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. OK, so we've had these five symbols here and there's many, many more, but we, we had to limit them. I'm going to put this other one back up for a minute. And then what I'm going to do is I want to just quickly go through these again.
Giving this story of God's wonderful salvation for lost man.
And then what I would like to do is I'd like to see if there would be a boy or a girl that would be willing and have the courage to come up and in their own words, go through them like I'm doing and tell us the story one more time. So here we go. Man is a Sinner, a Sinner by practice, by nature, by practice. And the soul that sinneth it shall die. So that's our condition before God, boys and girls.
We deserve to die. We're guilty of death, but God and his great love for us sent his Son, the Lord Jesus to die on the cross. God has as if it were saying, I love you and I have a remedy for your sin and I want to save you and I want you to be my own child. And so he, how did he do that? He sent the Lord Jesus who died on the cross. His precious blood was shed. His precious blood cleanses us white as snow. We can think of the background like that.
What comes into our hearts as a result of that, we have peace with God being justified by faith that says we have peace with God. That's peace of conscience.
Our conscience doesn't condemn us like that little hymn says. Conscience now no more condemns me for his own most precious blood once for all has washed and cleansed me, cleanse me in the eyes of God. Beautiful hymn. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he wants to be our helper and he wants us to lean on him. He wants us to be able to to view him as our helper. And he's told us he will never leave us.
Nor forsake us and we can boldly say the Lord is my helper. OK, who would like to? We have a few minutes here. Who would like to come up here and step through those with us again and tell us the story?
I know there's somebody that would like to or would be willing.
I might even have a little incentive behind here for you if you're willing to do that.
Little bag with something in it for someone that's willing to do that.
Somebody do it for us. You can just say it in your own words. I want to see if you're able to understand what we're talking about this morning. Okay, All right, I'm going to give you the mic and you just step through those and maybe not too long a couple minutes. All right.
What does that remind you of the skull and crossbones?
Means either.
Danger. Death.
Or stay away, it's dangerous.
00:40:03
When the Lord comes.
This will happen.
To most people, to the people who do not know the Lord.
What does this one remind us of?
This one tells that the Lord loves us and wants us not to be, not to come to this the 1St.
Time.
This will tell you that.
This.
Is it's the Red Cross. It's.
The Lord.
We'll help you when your need is help.
Yes, he died for us on.
The bird was always, it tells.
Of peace and.
Please this.
Umm, this also is kind of like the Red Cross, but this tells you the Lord.
It can help you.
He's there and he.
If you see this sometimes.
You may remember this.
Of this symbol and it'll remind you to.
Ask for help, Luke, Luke. OK, thank you. Thank you very much, Luke. That was very nice. I'll have something for you after. OK. In the last couple of minutes, uh, what I wanted to do here, I said we're going to sing a little, umm, what I did was I went through and I thought of a, a stanza or a line, one verse of, of a hymn for each of these that we're all familiar with. So we can sing them from memory. But the first one that we're going to sing is death and judgment are behind us.
Grace and glory are before all the billows rolled over Jesus. There they spent their utmost power. So let's sing that together.
Death and judgment.
Are behind.
Glory.
OK, for God so loved the world he gave his only son to die on Calvary's tree from sin to set us free. Some days coming back, but glory, that will be wonderful.
His love to me.
Forgot.
It is always done. It is I am country tree from the same to set me free.
Someday.
Quite watering that will be.
The cross, the cross. So that's our game.
What there's a Lord was bringing the same time?
There comes to my heart a sweet strain there.
00:45:11
Great rain.
I think in the light and I can't swell again.
Oh one 34134 days.
We need to try again, but on the cloud.
Our times are in thy hand, Jesus the crucified, the hand are many sins had pierced, is now our guard and guide.
Our God.
And our land.
We'll get close in prayer. Our blessed God and our Father, we just thank thee for the wonderful message of I salvation through the Lord Jesus and his.
Shed blood at Calvary's cross.