Hamer Bay Conference: 2015
Table of Contents
2 Timothy 3 and 4
The Righteous Scarcely Saved
Address—Steve Stewart
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If we start the meeting this afternoon with number 79 and the appendix.
Our great High Priestess.
He has lost my hands of all.
For us is going to live.
In everything.
Who? I'm here to go everything.
Bring down God's grace and bless me, I will take it round.
Me.
This word before us, and is thy word. We thank thee.
For God the Holy Spirit, who is alone able to open its pages to our understanding and make its impress upon our hearts to feed us and sustain us. And we thank thee for thy beloved Son, our Shepherd, our great High Priest, whoever lives for us on high. And we pray for thy blessing, our God and our Father, we know it's Thy delight to bless.
To feed thy children.
Encourage thy Saints.
To bring us into.
The enjoyment of thyself and my beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and to meet our needs in the wilderness path. And so we just commit this time to thee with Thanksgiving and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Like to turn to three New Testament verses and justice read them.
Starting with Romans chapter 5.
And then we'll look at a portion in the book of Numbers, Romans.
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Chapter 5.
Just to continue a thought that.
Was taken up in the reading.
On salvation.
Romans 5 and.
Verse 10.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
First, Peter.
And chapter.
4.
First Peter 4.
And verse 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved?
Where shall the ungodly and the Sinner appear?
Hebrews, Chapter 7.
Verse 24.
But this man, because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable.
Priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost.
I come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth, to make intercession for them. Verse 28. For the law maketh men, high priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which was, since the law maketh the sun.
Who is consecrated forevermore? Like to look back at?
Numbers and the 20th chapter.
Peter, we read, says And if the righteous.
Scarcely be saved, and when we think of salvation in the way that it was brought before us in the previous meeting, is not just the salvation of our souls.
But a salvation day by day, his deliverance is keeping a salvation that.
Is going to bring us safely all the way to heaven and we look at the forces arrayed against us.
And Satan's power and in this world around us and all its enticements. And if we look within.
Perhaps the worst of all.
How are we ever going to get through to the end if the righteous scarcely be saved, but he's able, he ever lives to make intercession for us? Our great High Priest is the one by whom alone our souls hold on their course. We're saved by his life, by the fact that he's living on high in his intercession and his advocacy.
At the right hand of God and we're passing through a wilderness scene and this chapter is going to bring before us a wilderness scene of the children of Israel in their journey to Canaan. Most of the history of Israel as to their wilderness journey really is given in the last few years.
Of that journey, most of it takes place right towards the end and this is one of those cases.
Just to share a little something with you. Keep my composure, alright?
Umm.
I guess it would be almost this time last year, low past probably, so not quite a year down in Vestal. We stood on a hillside up in Cherry Valley north of Vestal and a little cemetery and it was cold and windy, snowy I think on snow on the ground. And there we.
Buried the dear brother and the Lord. I didn't even know that little cemetery is there, just down the hill.
From his house, perhaps right on their family property where they'd raise their children and grown up. And there was that little cemetery and it seemed so cold and kind of forlorn and just bitter.
And at the beginning of the year, we've been at another cemetery.
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And a little graveside service and there were two little girls that.
Were buried there.
There.
And again it was, I remember, kind of rainy umbrellas out and cold seems so dreary.
And.
In the middle of the year, another dear brother.
Lord took him, and we buried him as well.
The wilderness is marked by death.
It's a scene of death. A year began with death. It ended with death.
There was death in the middle.
And justice looking to the Lord at the end of that year.
There were other trials, trials, you know, each one of us have in family, trials in our personal lives, and perhaps most difficult of all, trials in the assembly.
And look to the Lord for a little help apportioned something.
To sustain the soul. And this is where he directed. So what I want to share with you today is what the Lord gave me. You know, in those three events I mentioned there in that little cemetery in Cherry Valley, a brother opened the word of God.
When was blowing, he had to hold the pages and he read those wonderful scriptures in First Thessalonians 4 about the Lord Jesus coming descending from heaven.
With a shroud and we looked on to that moment we expect.
To take place at anytime when the Lord will come and raise all his own and will be caught up to be with them. We have the comfort of the Scriptures. And at that little cemetery at the beginning of the year we had Romans Chapter 11. All things are well. I'm just going to read it. Sorry, I'm not going to be able to quote it.
From him, and to him, and through him.
All things.
Verse 36 were of him, and through him, and to him are all.
Thanks to whom be glory forever. Amen. Those little ones were from Him. They went to Him and would get through all the trial.
Through him, through him, and we had the comfort of the scriptures again and in between.
We read together at that other funeral I mentioned of the Lord Jesus, the grave of Lazarus.
And of his sympathy of the.
The Lord's own thoughts is to the awfulness of sin and its impress on this world and its results in the life of His One, those He loved, and those tears that fell from human eyes and came down.
Human cheeks, but they came from the heart of God.
And we have not in high priests, which cannot be touched with a feeling.
Of our infirmities.
These lives for us, he's going to bring us all the way.
Through and safely home.
But it's a wilderness scene that we pass through.
And we're going to read this scene. It begins with death. It ends with death.
And I trust will see his provision for us through it.
Numbers 20 Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zen in the first month, and the people abode, and Kadish and Miriam died there, and was buried there, and there was no water for the congregation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, And the people ***** with Moses, and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our brethren had died before the Lord.
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And why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us into unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces.
And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod.
And gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock.
So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.
And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, And he said unto them, Here now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smoked the rock twice.
And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, Because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them.
Verse 22 And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadish, and came unto Mount Horan. The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, and Mount Hor by the coast of the land of Edom sang, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel.
Because he rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eliezer his son, and bring them up unto Mount Horror, and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son. And Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded, and they went up into Mount Horror in the sight of all the congregation in Moses stripped Aaron of his garments.
And put them upon Eleazar's son. And Aaron died there in the top of the mount.
And Moses and Eliezer came down from the mount.
There's a death at the beginning, death at the end.
Of this journey.
From this place called Kadish.
To horror.
The death of a prophetess.
And then the death of the priests, the high priest.
Aren't we glad our great High priest ever liveth to make intercession for us? He hath an unchangeable priesthood because he ever liveth, raised from the dead to die no more. But here, Miriam, she dies, and we remember her from the beginning of their journey, as they after they crossed the Red Sea, how she LED the praises.
Of the children of Israel, the sweet singer of Israel. And she led their praises, and she had her timbrel. And now here at the end those hands are folded in death, that timbrel is dropped, those lips are sealed, and no one can open them.
That song is gone and how is it sometimes?
With you and I, does the journey get long and weary? That song that we had when we were first saved. The joys that we knew.
Perhaps at one time seem evaporated and gone.
And it's replaced.
Instead of the praises of the Lord, the complaints of the heart.
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And so we see her death and then we see the complaints.
Of the people come out.
Oh, it's a place of no.
Water. No water in that place.
And.
These people of God.
The children of Israel, they gathered themselves together in their complaints against Moses and Aaron, and they showed with them. They rebelled. Their complaining, their discontent, their dissatisfied. There's death in their families, there's death in their circumstances.
Everything seems without resource and to natural eye the path of faith seems resourceless.
And they say and they add at the end, and there's no, neither is there any water to drink in verse 5. This is not the generation that came out of Egypt.
The generation that came out of Egypt looked back and said we remember the flesh pots, We remember the leeks and the onions and how we sat around the flesh pots and ate freely. They didn't do much setting. They were slaves. You know, it's amazing how our memories looking back at the good old days sort of changed, don't they? No, they were scrubbing, scrambling for straw to make brick. They weren't sitting around. But you know, that was their complaint they look back to.
Egypt. These had never known Egypt.
This is a generation that had grown up in the wilderness, and what had they heard from the time they were young?
They had heard of the promised blessings of the land that they were going to go to. They had heard of what portion was theirs and.
Trust and courage to look on to it. And so that's what they refer to in their complaint. This is no place of seed or figs or all these things you've been promising. Where's the joy? Where's the blessings? Where's all the things you're talking about?
This isn't any place of that.
All you know, our hearts can be the same. We can talk about the blessings.
That are ours in Christ and maybe there's no real enjoyment of them. The circumstances that we pass through become so burdensome, the trials and we just look around and it seems resourceless. It seems without blessing and the heart is deceitful above all things.
And desperately wicked. And it rose up in complaint really against God.
Well, Moses and Aaron, in the face of that, they go to the place where the Lord would meet with them, the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and they fall on their faces, a good place to be.
Fall on their faces before the Lord. And how is the Lord going to meet these circumstances? The glory of the Lord appeared unto them.
Well, what is the Lord going to do? Is he going to smite these rebels? Is he going to?
Do away with them. Just had enough. 38 years of this.
It's enough. The next generation comes up, they're no better than the first same old thing.
That's not how he's going to meet it.
His glory appears, but I say here to me it speaks of the glory of his grace, not a word of reproach, not a word of reproach as to this complaining, murmuring people. But he says, Take the rock, and gather thou the assembly together, and says, Go speak ye to the rock, and it would give its water.
Well, that rock. Let's look back at Exodus.
Where we.
First find it, think it's the 17th chapter.
Again we spine the same complaint, but again with that first generation.
And there was number water to drink in verse one. And they tried with Moses.
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And accuse him of.
Killing us and our children, you know the ones in our chapter, they said it would have been better if we died with our brethren before the Lord. Wish you ever heard anybody say that? Wish I was dead. Things are so bad. Just wish I was dead. Wish I was dead. I've heard that before.
We say no, you don't, but that comes out of the heart, doesn't it? And they're complaining in that same way.
And the Lord tells Moses to take in verse 5.
Um to go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, where with us modest the river, take in thine hand, and go, Behold, I will stand before thee thereupon the rock and horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it and the people, that the people may drink. And Moses did so on the side of the elders of Israel.
And the name of that place, and he called the name of that place Mastha and Mariba, because of the chiding of the children.
Of Israel because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not?
Just like to also read a scripture.
In Psalms I think it's 78th Psalm.
Psalm 70 and 78 and verse.
15.
He claved the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of.
The great depths he brought the streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to rundown like rivers. Verse 20 Behold, he smote the rock at the waters gushed out.
This is a beautiful picture.
And Moses taking his rod and smiting that rock, and the waters flowing out, it is a beautiful picture of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross to meet us in our deepest need. He went to that cross, and there the rod of Jehovah was lifted up upon him. And smote him there. And the judgment that you and I deserve.
Fell upon him stroke upon stroke.
As we sing that song, at times his bosom bore the storm for me.
That's what it took for God to bring you and I into blessing.
That his son would be made sin in Calvary's cross.
And he clave the rock in the wilderness, and out of the depths gushed forth those waters of streams of refreshment. And out of the depths of the heart of God came that blessing that flowed from Calvary's cross, and at what immense cost smitten.
And those hours of darkness, the blessing flowed forth, His precious blood shed upon that cross for you and me. All that was at the beginning, that rod that was taken was Moses rod, wherewith he smote the waters of the Red Sea, rod of judgment, a rod of power and a rod of authority. And it smoked that rock. He smote it once, oh the Lord Jesus.
Was smitten once at Calvary's cross.
He's never going to go through that again. It's over, It's past. The judgment's gone.
The wrath was exhausted upon him at Calvary's cross. There's nothing left, nothing but the free and for us unmerited favor of God that flows from that work. That was the rock, and you know that rock we read of again in First Corinthians chapter 10.
Let's look at that.
One Corinthians 10.
Speaking of the children of Israel and the wilderness in verse four. And it all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Can we mistake the type at all? Not at all. At rock was Christ. No, we find that that rock followed them through the wilderness and everywhere they went, just like the pillar of cloud.
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By day in the pillar of fire, by night, that rock followed them through the wilderness with its streams of refreshment and supply.
And the very death of Christ.
Is that which not only has saved us, but which is the basis on which we are continued to be fed and refreshed as we go through the wilderness way. Those streams of refreshing flow to us a day by day from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is that rock.
The other thing we might want to look at now too is the other.
Article that's mentioned by God to Moses and Aaron.
He says take the rod, take the rod. We'll have to look back a few pages.
To understand what that rod is, it's not the rod we read of in Exodus 17. That was Moses rod. This is a different rod.
And let's look back just briefly at Chapter 16 of Numbers.
We find there that.
Cora and his company, Dathan and Abiram as well, rise up against Moses and Aaron, and rebellion rise up against that high priest that God had set. And Hebrews tells us that no one takes that honor to themselves except he that is called of God. Aaron was called of God to that place, and chosen but.
Jason in a by room core and his company, they rise up and they seek to take it for themselves. Not called by God at all.
And we know what happened. The earth opened its mouth and it swallowed up. Those rebels and others were consumed with fire that came out from God.
They had taken and made censors and thought that they could take part of the priesthood. There was.
They exalted themselves to that place and there was nothing left but their sensors afterwards.
Well, having seen all that, you would think that the children of Israel would have taken in the solemn lesson that had been played out before them. They fled from the cry of those who went down into the earth.
Went down into the pit, but now they come. In verse 41, on the Morrow, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people.
Of the Lord.
And it came to pass, when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the Tabernacle of the congregation, and behold.
The cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses and Aaron came before the Tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them.
As in a moment, and they fell on their faces. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censor, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put it put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. And Aaron took his Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation. Behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put incense.
Put on incense and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.
God would have consumed them all in a moment all He would have been glorified in his justice.
In His Holiness.
But his name would not have been fully declared because he's not just a God of justice and holiness.
But he is the God of love and grace to and Moses without a command, but just with divine instinct. He tells Aaron quickly put incense on a sensor and get into the congregation and he obeys. And he runs in there, that cloud of incense, and it was put on the coals of fire from the altar where the burnt offering had gone up before God. And it speaks of a sweet incense, a sweet savour of Christ person ever ascending before the throne of God.
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As the result of his finished work on Calvary's cross and he made an atonement for the people, he stood between the living and the dead, and the living owed their lives to the fact that God's high priest stood between them and the dead.
You're here today, and I'm here today because our great High priest ever lives to make intercession for us. You and I could not take one step in the path of faith.
Except he is there.
Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us.
God showed that day they were indebted.
To that priesthood that they had rebelled against.
For their very lives.
Oh, how much the Lord bears with us.
I think murmuring, complaining is one of those weeds that gets in my heart so easily.
Well, the Lord says I'm going to settle this.
I'm going to settle this.
And in chapter 17, he says, Now you take all the heads of the people, Moses.
Take one man to represent every tribe, and Moses will represent.
Levi.
And every man brings a rod.
A stick.
And Aaron would bring one too. Take Aaron's rod and lay it up before the Lord.
And the Tabernacle of the congregation. And that was done. And in the morning, it says in verse 8, Moses went into the Tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron. For the House of Levi was butted, and brought forth buds and blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and they looked.
And took every man.
Is wrought.
There those sticks were brought out.
Dead, sapless, lifeless sticks. Except one.
And not only budded, it bloomed, and it bore fruit. Beautiful.
Oh, it speaks of that.
Changeless Priesthood of Christ founded on Calvary's work.
It's lifeout of death, and he alone can bring lifeout of this dead wilderness that we pass through.
And he ever lives to make intercession. It was a living rod, wasn't it? And a fruitful one too. Oh, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. What fruit has been brought forth in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and now ascended? There is high priestly work founded on his death and resurrection it bears.
Fruit and you know there was not another rod.
Before the eyes of God, Ever after this not one.
He had one rod alone that was before him, not even Moses rod.
Just one errands and he says bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token against the rebels. And thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me that they die. Nah, isn't that interesting? Thou shalt quite take away not the murmurs, but take away their murmurings. Oh, the rod of authority.
They're out of power, they're out of judgment, Can take away murmurs.
With a stroke.
But this budded rod alone could take away the murmurings.
Not the rod of judgment.
A rod of priestly grace. All rod speaks of authority, of power, emblematic of the office of the one who holds it. But this rod was clothed with priestly grace.
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Living.
And so it was laid up before the Lord.
And then we come to our chapter, the Lord says to Moses.
Says take the rod.
It's not a question of which rod. There wasn't another rod in front of him. There was not another rod before his eyes ever after, but the rod of Aaron. It's the only one it could be. He says take the rod and he says go speak to the rock.
Don't smite it. He doesn't say don't smite it. He just says go speak to it. Go speak to it. All that rod is Christ.
And priestly grace on high interceding for us. That rock is Christ at one who was smitten for us. And whoever refreshes us in Hebrews chapter 4, there's two things in the wilderness that are brought before us that we need at the end of that chapter. One is the Word of God, and the other is the high priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's prophet and He's priest. He's the one who ministers and feeds us and Christian ministry.
Just like the priesthood of all. Just like Aaron's rod is called by the Apostle Paul.
Grace several times over, in Ephesians and in Romans and in Colossians, and Peter calls it grace. Christian ministry is founded upon the same principle of grace. Why? Because it's His grace that would feed our souls.
It's His grace that would sustain his people and if He gives gifts to do that, it's grace and whatever ability gives its grace, His love and His grace towards us.
And so he says, take the rod and speak to the rock.
When the trials of the wilderness press in.
We have a resource.
And the Lord would say to us.
Take the rod.
They hold of that rod and mighty intercession. That's for us, which alone can keep us. And speak to the rock. Oh, you can go to the Lord any time, no matter how deep the distress, no matter how difficult the way the resource is there. Speak to the rock. Speak to Him. He wants to bless you. He wants your blessing. He'll sustain you through all that you might pass through here.
He can be touched, and is touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
And so they go. With that, Rod blossomed.
Almonds. Beautiful, tender.
And he goes to the rock.
And he gathers all the congregation.
But he doesn't speak to the rock.
He speaks to the congregation.
And he says, Here, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?
And he smote the rock.
Twice with his rock.
Moses took his rod of judgment.
And can you not?
And I know you've been there, pressed out of measure at times. And he took that rod and he did to that rock perhaps what he would have liked to have done to those rebels. And they were.
I smoke it twice.
Flesh profiteth nothing.
Turn back to little count earlier numbers.
Moses that day spoiled one of the most beautiful types of Christ in the Old Testament Scripture. That smitten rock smitten for us at Calvary's cross. He'll never die again. He'll never need to be smitten again for us. And he spoiled it when he smote that rock the second time.
I mean, the second time since Exodus, he smote it twice at that occasion. But the second occasion, there's another difficult time and perhaps these things may come into our lives earlier.
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In Book of Numbers.
Well.
Excuse me, it's Leviticus Chapter 9.
Leviticus 9 There are two Suns.
Of Aaron, Nadab and Abayu. Excuse me, Chapter 10.
Leviticus can.
And they put fire on.
In their sensors fire that wasn't from the altar and it's called strange fire which the Lord had commanded them not they put incense on it.
And they were off doing things, you might say in a religious way, but it wasn't according to the word of God. And it dishonored God and the freshness of the institution of that priesthood. And they were smitten of God. They went out of fire from the Lord and devoured them. They died before the Lord. Moses says unto Aaron in verse six, and to his other two sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend.
Your clothes, lest you die.
You know when difficulties come in.
The family, and often it can things can come in that involve the assembly to.
Things that are so trying. This man lost two sons in one moment.
Moses says don't uncover your head.
Don't rend your garment. You know the first thing we want to do.
When difficult things come in, want to try and figure out how we're going to handle this? Don't uncover your head. What's the covered head speak of all we know from First Corinthians. It speaks of subjection.
Don't get out of the place of subjection to the Lord and His Word.
Don't uncover your head and try and handle it out of your own thoughts. Just bow to the word of God.
Be subject to the Word. Oh, we try and uncover our heads, handle it our own way, out of our own thoughts and not according to the word of God. When these difficulties come in and what happens, it doesn't work.
And then the flesh comes out. Rent, not your garment. The flesh comes out, the garment gets rent, and the ugliness of the flesh is exposed.
Things are said, things are done.
And you know, once the flesh has been exposed, our brethren don't forget the view and we can sew up the garment, but the scars still there, Christian character, the garment is spoiled. And maybe there's repentance and there's restoration with the scars there, and that character has been spoiled.
Let's not uncover our heads or rend our garments.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
Raw Moses.
38 years.
Or more a born with the children of Israel.
So I have to care for them 38 years and this rebellion was just more.
Than he could take.
Yee reebles.
Must we fetch you water out of this rock?
Instead of speaking to the rock and glorifying the Lord.
Because it was his purpose in grace to meet the need of that day, to take that rod by which alone the murmurings could be taken away, the grace of our great High Priest and speaking to him.
He took the rod of judgment, and he smelt that rock.
And he dishonored the Lord. He didn't sanctify the Lord and the glory of his grace in front of those people.
He didn't show the people what God's heart was towards them. He sanctified himself that those things that so vexed him. And nothing tries us, dear ones, I think more than when God's people go on in a wrong way, in a disobedient way, and difficulties come in the assembly and it just tries us, I think in a way.
00:50:07
Beyond almost anything else.
And unable to rise above that evil, he seeks to shield himself from it and exalt himself, and says, Ye rebels must weep at you. Water out of this rock. Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. The Lord said, My Father gave it to you. Must we fetch you water out of that rock? He takes a very gift of God, the water that God intended to give to refresh his people, and he exalted himself.
And he's a based.
Instead of exalting God.
It says in the 106 Psalm.
It didn't go well for Moses, for their sake, he spiked unadvisedly with his lips.
Brother, we need to go and take hold of that high priestly grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and speak to Him when those trials come in. He's for his people, Moses says in the 33rd chapter, Deuteronomy, after this incident is long past, he said yeah, he loved the people. He knew better. He knew the Lord loved the people. Moses loved them. But so tried and vexed in these circumstances.
He broke down under it, and you and I will too.
Unless we speak to the rock.
Unless we take hold of that High Priestly grace and lean on His intercession for us by that alone, our souls will hold on their course.
While the Lord tells them you can't take the children into the land, children of Israel.
No, Moses rod could never take them in anyway. They could never take them in one rod alone. And it's only our Lord Jesus, high priestly work that's going to bring us safely home to glory. Not only are we saved by His life, but we're saved all, as we often say, He's in all the way home, Savior to salvation. That's going to bring us right into the Father's house, and not one will be missing.
Not one.
He's going to bring us all there well.
Two things go hand in hand in our lives through the wilderness journey, God's grace and God's government.
He loves us too much.
To let us get away with things that are not good for us.
To be just passed over.
He's faithful in his discipline. There's grace mixed with it.
But they had not sanctified the Lord. He was sanctified, it says, in the eyes of the children of Israel. Why? Because the water gushed out in spite of Moses and Aaron's failure.
And so at the end of the chapter, we find that Aaron is taken up to the top of Mount Horror.
Oh, this was his brother.
This was his brother, his brother who had said those many years before to the Lord. I can't speak. I I can't talk to Pharaoh. I'll find somebody else. And Lord says no, you go. He says no, no, find somebody else. Lord finally says to him, OK, you can have Aaron and now with his own hands.
He has to take those garments off, Aaron.
The lessons in the government of God, and who teacheth like Him.
Can come home to us in such a way. They teach us lessons so deeply, so thoroughly.
In a way that none other could teach with his own hands, he has to take those garments off his brother and put them on Eliezer's son.
And Aaron died there before the Lord.
And Mount Hore.
I want to turn to another portion.
Connection with the government of God and the grace of God.
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I think it's Deuteronomy last chapter, yes.
Wonderful thing about the government of God and his discipline and our lives.
It's always mixed with grace. If we receive it from His hand, we'll enjoy the fact that it's mixed with His grace.
Not only Aaron, but Moses couldn't enter the land, bring the children of Israel in, and so on the 34th chapter of Deuteronomy, we find that the time comes that Moses is going to die as well.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab and to the top of Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh.
All the land of Judah unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, and the city of palm trees. Beautiful.
It's not the city of the curse here, it's the city of palm trees. Whenever it's Jericho spoken over to the city of palm trees, it's in connection with being part of Israel's inheritance, the city of palm trees.
Unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I swear unto Abram.
And unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Grace and government, I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes. That's his grace thou shalt not go over. That's his government.
So Moses the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.
Do you bury them in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth Fiore? But no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim. There's natural force abated.
And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, verse 10. And there rose not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses, and the Lord knew face to face.
Verse 12 And then all that mighty hand, and in all that great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel.
There on the top of that mountain, he had pleaded with the Lord, and the Lord finally said to him, Moses, don't speak to me anymore of this matter. He pleaded with the Lord to go in.
The Lord said don't speak to me anymore, it's settled.
But it is grace He took Moses and company with himself, and He got a view of that land and all its length and breadth and depth and height of you that none other of the children of Israel ever had of that promised land in all its detail. You know, time means nothing with the Lord. Perhaps it was a few moments of human time, but He showed them everything, every detail.
He got to see it, and who was his guide? I don't want to make it sound light and call it a tour guide because that would just seem kind of crass, but who is his guide to show him all those details? It was the Lord himself saying, see this, see that? I want to show you this, I want to show you that, and he took him through.
And who knew that land better than the Lord? And he shows him every detail of it. And company with the Lord, we count it a privilege to go on some place and the tour guide just takes me or you or a couple of us, sort of a big crowd and just personally shows personally showed every detail to him. And there he is hand in hand with the Lord, so to speak, viewing that land. And on the top of that mount, he was standing there in the presence of the Lord, and he died.
Before the Lord, according to the word of the Lord, His death was like his life. That the Lord leaves you here as your death going to be like your life. It was according to the word of the Lord, and He went right from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord.
Oh, he left the body behind, but there was no change in a certain sense in this state of soul. He went from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord. If the Lord should call us, and death will I go from the presence of the Lord into the presence of the Lord.
You did.
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There wasn't anyone, there was not a prophet since in Israel, like unto Moses.
Whom the Lord knew face to face.
He came.
To whom none can be compared.
For though Moses was a great man, yet he was but a man, and man is vanity.
For the law came by Moses.
The grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
We sing, take time just to think.
From Him 76 Rise my soul, I God directly stranger hands no more impede pass so on His hand protects the strength that as the captive freed is the wilderness before thee, desert land where drought abides, heavenly springs shall there restore thee fresh from God's exhaustless tides. Start from verse 3.
I divine surrounds, I know.
In all, strange hill still rain.
Going.
To stand, go and win the rain.
Without God and broadly.
Stranger.
Strangers.
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On the ground.
Our God and our Father, we ask thy blessing on that.
2 Timothy 4
Reading
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.
I.
Really.
267 A fullness resides, Jesus, our head fullness survives.
Answer all needs. Whatever distress awaits us below, such plentiful grace and war will be stolen 267.
God lives here.
And when we are playing today.
And ready to prepare.
For this one dream, and it's really very well.
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Response.
And the Lord Jesus Christ.
Out of the season, your foods with youth absorb they're all alongside and often.
Time will come, and they will not endure some doctrine, but after their own lunch, themselves teachers, they shall turn away their ears from the truth.
But watch out in all things, in your afflictions.
You work in dangerous by mistake, for I am now ready the authority I find partially that hand. I apologize. I have finished my course. I attacked the base and is laid up for me from the crisis.
Right, that's it not to me only call them also that love disappearing. We got diligence come shortly. I'm seeing for the homosexual state and the gloves is present for and it's the party that's the best of the night destiny for Malaysia.
On the new position, take part and bring him with you that he is profitable to you for the ministry.
This is my sense episode.
For last harvest, I'm not coming spring with you and of course especially the departments.
Alexander is much evil. The Lord reward them.
Be that aware also, if you have greaterness to allow words at my first answer all membership. I pray God that may not be late to their charge. Notwithstanding the world's the goodness testing that by me approaching must be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might be delivered as it is. The lion and the Lord shall deliver you from every evil Lord, and you'll preserve this heavenly Kingdom.
Jesus Christ.
I guess in this chapter we have some some.
Very clear incentives to service in a day of ruin. There's about four areas here that the apostle touches upon, but we might summarize it by saying that Paul was going to depart, he was going to be taken. His service had come to an end. He had finished his course with joy.
And the ministry which the Lord had given him to fulfill.
And he's exhorting Timothy here to take this charge seriously and to make full use of his ministry. Timothy had a gift, undoubtedly.
But he's tended to be timid and.
Lacking perhaps in courage, but.
We have here an exhortation throughout the chapter I.
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Divine incentives for service for the Lord. And I think it's good for us to remember that in view of the ruin that has come into Christendom.
This is brought out in several parts of this chapter that the time will come when.
Those that are in the Christian profession that is viewed in this epistle, those that are in the Christian profession without reality are going to refuse. They're going to reject the truth and.
They're not going to continue in the path of the truth.
Paul Timothy would encounter this sort of thing. But there's also encouragement for Timothy and the fact that the Lord will reward faithful service.
He brings this before him, the crown of righteousness, that all is going to be revealed at the judgment seat of Christ.
Timothy would be assured not only Paul of that crown of righteousness, but it was for Timothy as well if he would continue on in that path of the service. And there was an urgency because all.
Apostasy. The apostasy had not begun, but there was the signs of apostasy beginning in the Christian profession. Is is brought out here.
In different parts of this chapter, turning away their ears from the truth.
Turned unto fables. This is apostasy beginning in the Christian profession. We see it now more and more developed even the day in which we are.
So in that context, that's really what we have in the beginning. I'm sorry, I interrupted.
Well, there's the fact that.
Judgment is soon to fall upon the Christian profession, that is, that brings up, that's brought out here.
In verse one.
I charge thee therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his Kingdom that is there there's going to be accountability. A day of accountability is coming for all men. That's the first incentive we we our lives are going to be reviewed at the judgment seat of Christ. The second one I suppose is the time is coming when.
In the Christian profession, they will not receive the truth.
They they refuse it.
It's in view of the apostasy that is coming. The third incentive would be the fact that the Lord will reward faithfulness. Those who continue on. The 4th incentive was the shortage of laborers. We see various ones who have failed here in this chapter.
Cited Dimas and there are others that have.
Turn from the apostle demos you know he walked with the apostle and labored with him and here the world had got into his heart doesn't say he went into immorality, but he no longer walked in that path of separation with the apostle so the shortage of laborers and faithful servants is another incentive that the.
Brings before us in the chapter.
Yes, I think it's good to keep it in the context in which we find it, because when he speaks of this judgment at the beginning of the chapter, well, it has no doubt a broad application. And it's true that judgment will come, eternal judgment will come to all those who have and do reject God's offer of mercy and salvation. Yet in the context here, this judgment is on professing Christendom.
It's solemn when you go to Revelation to realize that the most awful judgments that fall fall on those who've had the light of Christianity and those who have refused it. And they are they in Thessalonians, who are who of whom, we're told they receive. They're sent a strong delusion that they believe a lie, that they all may be damned. And so judgment begins at the House of God, so to speak. That is where there's been the most light. Then God comes in and there's the most severe judgment.
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And in light of that, then Timothy was told to not give up.
Not just to say, well, it's no use. Nobody's listening to me. Nobody wants the truth today. Nobody's going to heed what I'm saying. They've all given it up. No, what is he to do in light of the fact that there's judgment coming? He is to preach the word. He's to be instant in season, out of season. He's to reprove, to rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. And I'll just say this to any who seek to encourage or to teach the Saints of God.
Whether it's on a local, in a local sphere, in the local assembly, or wherever it might be, don't be discouraged. You say the years of the my brethren are close to what I have to say. They just don't want to listen to the truth. They don't want Pauls doctrine, but don't be discouraged.
Take heart from what Paul said to Timothy. He encouraged him to go ahead. You know, I often think of John the Baptist in this regard. You know, John the Baptist presented a wonderful message. He was presenting the coming of Christ, but he said on The Voice of one crying in the wilderness. You know, you get out in a wilderness place and you start talking. You might say, well, I'm not doing much good out of here. Out here. Nobody's out here. Nobody's listening to me. John felt that way. It's true. There were those that repented and came to John for baptism.
But generally speaking, the populace in Israel didn't have ears to hear what John had to say. He was the voice, the one crying in the wilderness. Maybe you feel sometimes like the voice, the one crying in the wilderness. Timothy might have felt that way. But he says, no, don't give up, Timothy. Keep preaching the truth. Keep presenting the truth of God. And that, brethren, is our responsibility. We're not responsible to open the ears of the Saints. We can't reach down in the hearts or consciences of our brethren.
Thank God that's not our responsibility or it's a burden we couldn't carry around, but we are responsible to not only walk in the truth ourselves, but we are responsible to present it as God gives us opportunity.
Here by inspiration speaks to Timothy and he says I charge you therefore before God.
And So what was going to be done is going to be done in the sight of the Lord. And I often think of this in connection with Josiah and different ones in the Old Testament in chapter 34, Second Chronicles 34, I'll just read it, verse one. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. He reigned in Jerusalem one in 30 years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And so every one of us has the responsibility as we walk in the sight of the Lord.
To walk according to the wisdom of God's Word and the charge that we have been given to maintain the truth and to.
Really that the positive truth to pass it on uncorrupted to another generation. And so this was something that would encourage Timothy because he would be doing what he was doing and responsibility before the Lord and there was going to be judgment in the future and there so there was an urgency really he was going to judge the quicking or the living.
And the dead that is appearing in his Kingdom, SO2 separate occasions really at his appearing, he was going to judge the living. And that's really his appearing in connection with Christendom. He's going to judge and bring Brother Jim's already brought that out. But then at his Kingdom, it's really going to be at the end of that Kingdom period. Why Revelation chapter 20, you have him. I'm just going to quote it here. I'm going to read it because I don't want to misquote it, he says.
In connection with the 2nd resurrection.
They inverse 4 Acts or Revelation chapter 20 and verse four. I saw Thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ.
1000 years. So those are the ones that were faithful to the Lord. And then it says in verse five, but the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years were finished. And so God is going to judge those that have died in unbelief and rebellion against him, but those that are raised among the dead from from the dead and stand before the great white throne are going to stand before the great white throne after.
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The millennial Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. So Paul in a sense just says in a very quick nutshell, he's going to judge the ones that are living and he's going to judge the ones that are dead. All rebellion is going to be brought down. And so then he encourages him just to preach the word, preach the word. How often have we been at a gospel meeting? And often times the word of God isn't read, isn't open, and isn't spoken from.
Really in a sense sometimes versus the Scripture or quoted stories are told, but the Word of God isn't read for maybe 15 minutes. It's wonderful to have those stories told and so on, but we need the Word. It says preach the Word. Paul was or Timothy was to preach the Word. That's what has power.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Experience or his own ideas. He was to preach the word and that applied by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Is the.
The way in which God saved souls. So in view of this these judgments seems to me we have a an evangelical dimension here. Preach the word the instant in season out of season.
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
Motivation must be love for souls.
But we need to be faithful in presenting the truth.
Sometimes people will say, this is I've had it said to me a number of occasions. This is not the place to to talk about these things. Well, I'd like to know where. Where is the place where we cannot present the gospel? I know we need wisdom, but.
In season and out of season.
We should be ready to redeem every opportunity that presents itself, even though it may not be.
At a time when people would be receptive.
We're dealing with eternal souls and we are to warn them, preach the Word, bring Christ before them, and be urgent because there's a judgment coming as we have here the day of accountability coming for the unsaved. But also there's a there's a review of our lives too.
At the judgment seat of Christ.
I mentioned this preach the Word instant in season and other season. I was thinking of it and evangelical outreach, which is the gospel whether you're witnessing to somebody.
That work at your office is what you just say. How do you think the word and that is only by the Word of God and the word of God is.
Memory of the scriptures. If you bring the scriptures before them, not your own thoughts, not your own ideas, what you think, the own thing about the place, then it just creates the word if you present.
Message to someone if you just preach the word only the groceries for dogs would you know that they will not return under his voice?
So.
Don't reason on your own thoughts to get them. And if you preach the Word in season and overseas, that means that you should be prepared. That way you're witness to somebody or talk to someone about the Lord that you're ready in season and overseas.
And that I feel is very important, especially with the younger ones where the children had healing. If you had the word of God within you, then you're going to read it to preach.
You want to clarify, though, that the gospel preacher has liberty to give illustrations, and the Lord Jesus taught by two ways. One is that he taught with his words. He spoke the Word. He preached the Word.
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But then he also spoke and used illustrations, he used parables. He also, we might say a third way is he used.
Examples He took a little child and set him in their in their midst, and he used it as an object lesson. So the Lord taught by his words, he taught by parables or little stories, examples and then he taught by.
A really by object lesson and so those three ways the Lord himself taught. So it's necessary. I was just seeking to reinforce.
Here in verse two, that is the word of God that has power and so that's why Paul was telling Timothy.
Use what has power, use the word of God, but he doesn't negate the other use. So there is plenty of room for explanation and exposition of the scripture. Another way the Lord taught was by current events too. The tower of Siloam fell on those ones, those who had been slain by by Herod I believe it was, and so he even used the current events of the day. But my telling a story in the gospel about somebody who almost drowned isn't going to save a soul.
It may make a point, but we want to stress that it is the word of God that's living and powerful. But I want to take it a little step further too, because it's not only true in the Gospel, that's that's true, but it is also true in presenting the truth to those who are the are already the Lords.
Or those who make a profession, we can't always tell who they are. And let me just read this verse in Mr. Darby's translation, this second verse of our chapter, he says proclaim the word, be urgent in season, out of season, convict.
Rebuke, encourage, with all long-suffering and doctrine.
So it's true, as we've been saying, in an evangelical sense, and Timothy is told later on in this chapter to do the work of an evangelist. But I believe it also goes back to what we were saying this morning, that the gospel and salvation is more than just the truth of our sins forgiven.
And knowing that we're on our way to heaven. And so Timothy, in presenting the truth to those who were giving it up, he was to be urgent in season, out of season. And really that expression is really telling us, take up whatever opportunities there are. Don't miss an opportunity, whether it's for the gospel to the lost, whether it's in presenting the truth to the Saints of God.
This venue that has been provided for us this weekend might be what we think of as in season.
And so there's been a venue provided by our local brethren and meeting schedule. And so there's opportunity, according to the character of the meetings that our brethren have been exercised to list on our schedule to present the truth and to present the gospel this evening if the Lord tarries. But there's opportunities out of season. You meet somebody on the on the plane, you meet somebody at the airport, you meet another, not just in the gospel, you meet another Christian and they have some question about the truth of God.
And you're able to speak a little word and give a little explanation of something that's out of season as well. So I just say, well, it begins with the work of the evangelist. It doesn't end there. It's for all of us in presenting the truth, whether it's to the loss or whether it's to one another. And again, in regard to the context of this portion, there was a giving up, a turning away from the truth.
And Paul says, Timothy, you be consistent in your presentation of the truth, whether people receive it or not. And also in Timothy you have the context of public ministry. I want to stress that for a moment. Just go back to, I think it's the first epistle, yes, a verse. We don't always take in its proper context and it no doubt has a broad application, but.
Timothy, Chapter 4.
Till I'm verse 13, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbyterian. So on what he's really talking about here is public reading of the word of God.
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Public reading and exposition of the Word of God in the assembly. I say that because in the early days of the church there were few people who could read. Everybody didn't have a copy of the parts of the word of God that had even been written at that time. Certainly was nobody. I don't think with a masters they're APHD. Paul came about as close, but Timothy then was to take up the word of God. He evidently had education. He could read.
And he was to take up the word of God and read it publicly and explain, give exposition of it, which I think was part of his gift. He was to give exposition and explanation of it. And again, when we come to the second epistle, Timothy might have been discouraged. Well, yeah, in first Timothy.
There were days when there were ears for the for the truth of God by many. Now Timothy says, but Paul, should I still give attendance to reading, to exhortation? Should I still stand up and give exposition of doctrine they don't want to hear? Paul says, don't give up. Is it the last days? Yes.
Timothy, be consistent, Continue thou I really believe is the key phrase of this whole portion.
Four, you're you're right, Jim. The whole chapter deals with the exercise of gift in first Timothy 4. It's office in first Timothy 3 and the the underlying teaching of the of the chapter is output, not input. And meditate upon these things. How does the how does the new translation read there? Yeah, I think the thought is that Timothy was to be exercised.
To present the truth. I know it's often taken another way and I wouldn't detract from that, but I think the thought is that he was to present the truth publicly.
Give, give thyself wholly to them. Thy profiting may appear unto all.
Certainly in the give attendance to reading, that's certainly the public reading there.
What I was thinking in in our chat coming back to our chapter that.
The apostle saw that.
There was a lot of departure coming into the Church of God. It was in a Laodicean condition, and although the apostasy per se has not yet begun, that will be so when the man of sin is revealed. After the Church has been taken to glory, a man of sin will be revealed. There you will have the full development of the apostasy, but the signs of it were beginning to.
Show themselves now, verses three. Time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
They don't want sound doctrine, they want something that will tickle their ears.
Some sort of spectacular.
Interpretation of.
Prophecy or love and marriage, always.
Topics that draw people. But this is not what the apostle says here. That they don't want to endure sound doctrine. They don't want to tolerate the teachings of the apostle Paul and and follow those teachings.
And so it's misunderstood or it's misinterpreted.
Paul's doctrine I'm Speaking of now misunderstood or misinterpreted or discarded.
We don't want that today. We want to have something that appeals to the natural man, some something.
Spectacular. Or it says here, it speaks of the itching ears. You know the audience is controlling their teachers.
And this is happening in Christendom today.
After their own loss, they will heat to themselves, teachers, those that want to give them what they like.
Not what is faithful to the Word of God, but what we want to hear and.
And so it's just a departure from the truth of God. It's a giving up.
And it's a it's a Laodicean condition.
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And we're going if you present the whole truth of God, you're, you're going to be unpopular.
Go back to Isaiah 30 in that regard and you get something very similar in the days of Isaiah.
I'll just read it here in Isaiah chapter 30 because I think you'll see the parallel very quickly.
Isaiah 30 and verse 9.
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, see not and to and to the prophets prophecy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things.
Prophesied deceits, you can hardly imagine such a thing. But as John said, the people were controlling what was being presented to them. And I think you find that even today, if a man gets up and preaches the truth of God, he may lose his position amongst his his congregation. They may vote him out or something like that. And we hear of these things in many circles today, but that's what they wanted in the days of Isaiah. In other words, they didn't want to hear things that stirred up their conscience.
Just as John said, nice smooth things that God loves us and how to get along in our relationships one with another and that kind of thing, but nothing to stir up the conscience. Another reason I believe that Pauls ministry was turned away from so quickly and is being turned away from today is because Paul's line of teaching detaches us from this earth in every sense of the word.
Paul's ministry teaches us that our goals and aspirations as believers are not connected with this world. The only thing that connects us with this world, brethren, is that we're still physically in it, but we are seeing seated already positionally in heavenly places in Christ.
We have goals and hopes beyond this world. We're not connected with it.
And so man would like to think, even the believer would like to think that there's some connection here with this world and that he's a moral force to change things and for the betterment of this world and so on. And what has happened, why they become all confused about who's going to go through the tribulation and who isn't, whether the Lord is going to come before the tribulation, during the tribulation, after it, during the Millennium, post Millennium, premillennium, whatever you want you want to talk about.
And man likes that because it places some onus on man. It makes man feel that he's contributing something to the plans and purposes of God. And the natural man likes that feeling. And so I think all these things are combined in the exhortation. And it's interesting that he's going to take up the subject of the Kingdom here and what is the head in the Kingdom for us and how we ought to live in view of it. But.
He wants us to understand that, well, we are to love his appearing. We're to look for that coming day. Yet we are not connected with this world. And brethren, we are not a moral force to usher in the Kingdom. And don't you think, Brett, Christians who really believe that must be pretty discouraged today. You think that? I mean, if we're honest with ourselves, are things getting better in this world today with global terrorism and all this kind of thing, if we're a moral force to usher in the Kingdom?
Rather than the Kingdom is a long way off, but I believe the Lord is coming. Perhaps this afternoon and very few years thereafter the Kingdom will be established.
Jeremiah chapter 14 verse 14, that the prophets, the prophets prophecy lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them. They prophecy unto you a false vision and divination and a thing of not, and the deceit of their heart. So you know Timothy was sent. The apostle Paul had really laid his hands upon Timothy and he had the fellowship of his brethren, if we could put it that way.
And he really had gained the confidence of his brother even from the very first as a young man in Acts chapter 16, when were introduced to him. And it appears that he he was sent, he had a message. And you and I are really.
Empowered if I could use that word to because we know the truth, we're responsible to deliver it to communicate that truth and so.
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Here he was sent and he was sent with a message to preach the word and he's.
Warned that there was going to be an indifference to that message that they will not endure. There's going to be a time that will not endure. Sound doctrine. But he was still to keep on ministering the truth. He wasn't to modify the message. So these ones that preach for money and they have a church and they are making their living by.
Raising up their own organization, as it were.
Why, oftentimes they're just serving themselves and they don't have the message of the truth of God that He's going to judge the unrighteous and what Timothy was to preach. So it's a responsibility that we have that we are sent and we ought to speak the truth.
He was to be vigilant and on his guard because the enemy.
Will seek to lead us away from the truth of God. We it's been recovered and we can thank God that we've been LED into that path. Not that we are any better than those who are still in the systems of men. Let us not get that idea that we are in some superior position.
Spiritually, we're in a place of privilege, but we need to walk humbly and watch in all things because is the danger of us losing it.
How many that I walked with when I was a young man in Ottawa, no longer at the Lords Table, mentioned many names. Ernest preached the Gospel with them. They've departed from the ground of the truth.
Perhaps we could say Dimas did that and didn't go into immorality, but he no longer walked with the Apostle Paul. So the the apostle says here, endure afflictions, there's going to be suffering. The when the truth is attacked, there's going to be suffering persecution. Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Well, that's a good exhortation. I know that this is often applied.
In the way that we all can do the work of an evangelist, I'm sure that is that is very good. You don't have to be a member of the Paris Sound Fire Department in order to warn someone whose house is on fire and the smoke is pouring out and they are asleep in the house. You can knock at the door and and awaken them. You, you may have to smash windows and so on to do it, but at least you're going to get them out.
And we don't all have the gift of an evangelist. It's a, it's a rare gift today, but I think that Timothy had the gift of an evangelist and we just tend to be timid in the use of it in the apostle encourages him to do the work of an evangelist. Well, that's a good exhortation for every one of us because we tend to be speaking for myself, we tend to be negligent in that regard.
We are here to be a testimony. We're surrounded by thousands who are on the road to a lost eternity without hope, without God. We were among them. Infidelity is rampant in the world today.
Education system. We are being flooded with those who are in false religions. Well, we have a field. The fields are white already to harvest. Laborers are few.
We didn't mention it, but at the end of verse four it says their ears are turned from the truth.
And shall be turned unto fables. So man needs to be occupied. God has made man in such a way that he needs an object for his heart. And you and I need an object for our hearts. It's Christ himself. And we need to have the truth of God before us in connection with the Savior and the truth of the person of Christ, his deity, and all those things. But we know that we live in an age that people are turning from the truth of God to fables.
A good story, but not the truth of God. You know, Mr. Kelly made an interesting statement. He said the spirit of error not to hear is the spirit of error.
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Not to hear, not to want to hear. The truth is the spirit of error. And so if we find ourselves anytime not wanting to listen to that brother because he speaks a little too closely to the conscience, it's really the spirit of air coming in.
And so we need to be very clear in our consciences as to what the truth is and how it's connected with the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. And that's really what the enemy desires to attack today.
Timothy was to be as already mentioned, watchful or Mr. Darby's translation sober. And if you notice Mr. Darbys footnote on that, he says the word there has the thrust of being awake and having clearness of mind. You know what characterizes the last days is lethargy and spiritual sleep and we're told that is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. That's not physical sleep he's talking about there.
It's the spiritual lethargy that has crept in amongst the people of God in the last days, and Timothy was to be careful that he didn't let that spiritual lethargy come in. You know it doesn't happen all at once. You know yourself that if you're sleepy and meeting, you're never wide awake one minute and sound asleep the next. I often think of Utick as you know, Utica sat under the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
As Paul preached there in the third loft, But you know, he did two things that were dangerous. He sat in a window. First of all. In other words, he wanted to keep one eye on what was going out on on the street below and one eye on what was going on in the assembly. One year tuned to the ministry of Paul and one year tuned to the world outside. And you might say, well, wasn't there a 5050 chance he'd fall either in or out of the window? Brethren, it doesn't work that way if we leave ourselves open for the world in any way.
It is what is going to drag us down. But then he began to doze off.
And I don't think Eudicus was wide awake one minute and sound asleep the next. I suggest it was like you and me in meeting. It's a process of things. Our eyes get heavy, our head nods, and it comes back up. Then it happens again. And if it's allowed to happen long enough, we may eventually find ourselves sound asleep and meeting. And brethren, we need to be careful that it doesn't happen that way in spiritual things because Satan is so clever.
He doesn't come along and pull the rug out from under us, so to speak. It's a little by little. It's just giving up a little here, giving up a little there. Sometimes said. The compromise is really letting the barrier down slowly. And when it's gone, you don't even realize perhaps it's gone. It was removed so slowly.
And so Paul gives Timothy this warning. He said there's those who have already fallen into this state.
Now you be careful, Timothy, that you don't fall into this state have be awake to these things, have clearness of mind. You know, he's given us a sound mind.
That interesting. It's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind.
Someone comes along and says, well, that person is crazy. The stuff they talk about though, they used to talk about that, but they're no, you're talking, speaking the truth. God says he's giving you a sound mind. And so he's given us that ability to take in the truth, but we need to be awake to it and have that clear, that clearness of mind.
The Church of God.
Is here in this world as a light. The Lord Jesus was here as the light of the world, and he's gone.
Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God being sent down, united those believers in one body. And there was a collective testimony here in this world. There was a light in this world. It was the body of Christ to reflect, just like your body does everything that's in your head, and Christ is that head in heaven.
And so Christ was here again. Satan thought he got rid of him at the cross. No, he raised him good. Well, then he went back there. All finally got rid of him there. Day of Pentecost, there he is again, the members of his body. The Church is called the Christ, Christ and the Church. And so she was here as a vessel of testimony in this world, a light bearer in this world, like those candlesticks and revelation in the seven assemblies.
And Paul's doctrine is vital.
To that.
Testimony in this world.
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Paul's doctrine was vital to that, and so the charge to Timothy in the first book is.
I want you to stay at Ephesus and make sure that doctrines maintained what was given to the Ephesians. Will you read the book, The Epistle to the Ephesians? Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, the truth, truth of the Church as His body and His bride.
Those things that have to do with corporate testimony in this world, the church here.
As the light and he said I need you to maintain that later in this chapter there's different ones that depart and go here and go there, but there's one in verse 12 and Titicus have I sent to Ephesus. Why it's vital that that doctrines maintain I it's not that he just went here and there of his own accord. I sent him there just like he sent Timothy there. It must be maintained if there's going to be a collective testimony.
And that is why he says be instant or urgent in season. Why because of that doctrine is not maintained and walked in, there will not be a corporate testimony in this world.
It will be done urgent, it's needed, it's right at the closing day and he's exhorting him to maintain those things that would.
Support that testimony in this world.
You know that in Israel's history they finally went into captivity.
And there was, as it were, no more testimony in the land of Israel, but God in his grace he restores a little remnant company after the 70 years of captivity, and they come back to the land, and they build the temple again, and the wall around the city, and so on. Why?
Because the scripture said that unto us a child is born.
Unto us the Son is given, and he was going to be born in Bethlehem, and He was going to be born of the tribe of Judah. And God intended that there would be those there of His people to be ready to receive Him when He came. And they were few, just a little remnant character of things with those shepherds and a Simeon. They were there to receive the King when He came.
They were there that the.
Christ might be born in Bethlehem. There was a company returned.
To Jerusalem. In that way, God gave a wonderful recovery of Paul's doctrine in the early 1800s.
And the truth of Christ's return was sounded around this world as the Ebony moment, expectation and hope of the Church of God, that midnight cry went out. Behold the Bridegroom. Why? And there was a recovery of Paul's doctrine. Why, that there might be that in this world, that in some way just a remnant character represented in a collective way his bride.
And his body down here and expectation of his return to receive him when he came.
And he says it's vital that you maintain that truth.
It supports that very thing.
What is the meaning of make full proof of thy ministry along that lines given that?
Exhorted to make full proof of his ministry. What does that mean? To go back to Galatians chapter 6.
The apostle says there.
Verse four. Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone.
And not in another, for every man shall bear his own burden. Doesn't that bring in the thought of public ministry? There a gift has been imparted to each individual, but we are to prove it, not only.
Gift is not godliness and.
We are to prove that.
That ministry by what we do not only teach, but to do the work of an evangelist, there have to be the the outward proof that.
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The Lord has given us a ministry, or if we're given a gift, if we have a gift, we are responsible to use that gift for the Lord's Lord.
The possession of the gift gives us that responsibility and that privilege to use it for the not for the benefit of ourselves, but for the benefit of the body of Christ. And that's what Timothy was told to do. Make full proof of thy ministry. Give evidence of it in the way you act. Is that the thought of someone has another thought?
Christian ministry, really, Simply put, I think Mr. Kelly put it this way, is the exercise of gift. Simply put, God doesn't tell you to do any work that he hasn't fitted you to do. So Christian ministry is the exercise of gift. So I can't do the work of an evangelist if I'm not an evangelist, but I can confess Christ. And I thought that was nicely brought out in the in the illustration of a house on fire.
But any work he's given us to do, he has fitted us for he's fully equipped us. And so with Timothy, he not only had the gift of public ministry and ability to shore up the Saints in connection with Pauls doctrine, but he also was an evangelist. He was a gift of Christ for the church and he wasn't to neglect that side of things. You know, it's we need.
And to apply it to ourselves, that balance, not only to have a concern for that which is connected with the Saints and a in a collective way going on for the Lord, but also towards the lost as well and whatever ability God has given us.
Whatever it might be, I'd like to make just one quick comment heaping to themselves. Teachers having itching ears. When Moses went up on the mount and they, Israel couldn't see him anymore, that's when they got dissatisfied and it was brought out that Pauls doctrine really brings before us the heavenly calling and character of the church and it's unseen things that faith lays hold of. We find in Corinthians we look not on the things which are seen.
That the things which are unseen, and it's those things that form our character. It's Christ and glory is the object of our hearts, but he's unseen. And when they they were no longer satisfied with the Moses, they couldn't see upon that mountain. They said this Moses, we don't know what became of him.
Make us a God. And what did Aaron say? He says take the earrings that are in your ears. And he took them, and he made a golden calf having itching ears. Where did that calf come from? It came from their ears. And where does this character of idolatry come from? It comes from giving up.
No interest in an unseen Christ, in professing Christianity, but wanting something tangible.
Visible down here that I can set my heart upon.
There's another thought too, in connection with ministry here. Let me just read it in Mr. Darby's translation. He says fill up the full measure of thy ministry. Because not only has been pointed out does God give each one of us a little ministry to fulfill, but he gives us the ability to carry that ministry to its fruition. Sometimes said God won't take us home to heaven until one moment before our ministry is fulfilled, however.
There are those I believe.
Who do not fulfill their ministry, who get off the path. The apostle Paul had finished his course and fulfilled his ministry and justice. Go back to Acts 20. See what he says to the.
Ephesian elders in connection with his course and his ministry.
Acts 20, verse 24. And none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course.
With joy. You know all Christians don't. All Christians don't finish their course with joy.
But Paul, in spite of the tears that he had and the many trials and difficulties from within and from without, he finished his course with joy. But notice what else he says, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the grace, the gospel of the grace of God, He finished that too. And so the apostle Paul was given a ministry. He fulfilled that ministry faithfully as a servant of God. And his desire for Timothy now in passing the torch on to him.
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His desire was for Timothy to not only begin his ministry well, but to continue and to fulfill that ministry. And that's what he wants for each one of us brethren, if we can just make this very practical in each one of our lives. I know we're not all Timothy, but we have all been given a little ministry to fulfill for the blessing of others and gift and ministry is not for our own edification or blessing, as John has just said.
If we're given a gift and ministry, and we all have been, it's for the blessing and the edification and the building up.
Of others and it's when it's used that it's going to have the proper effect on others.
But are we going to finish our course with joy? Are we going to fulfill the ministry that has been given to us? And so Paul says to Timothy, fill up the full measure of thy ministry. Timothy, again, don't be discouraged. Don't start out, Don't get halfway through what the Lord has given you to minister and get discouraged and turned aside. Well, brethren, don't we need that exhortation today? You know, it's wonderful to be at a conference like this. And we can speak of the things of Christ together and.
We have the Word of God and we're encouraged to be together, but what about next week?
In the little assembly we came from, are you going to fulfill your ministry? Just go to the end of Colossians and you'll see a little exhortation there in that connection.
Colossians, chapter 4.
And verse 17.
And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it.
You know, we're not told a great deal about archivist, nor are we really told what his ministry was. But the apostle Paul, in writing to the Saints at Colossi, felt that the assembly was suffering a lack because there was a brother in that assembly who was not fulfilling the little ministry that God had given him to do.
And Paul felt that he needed to be stirred up to carry that out. Now you're going to go home to a little assembly.
Or a medium sized assembly, whatever it might be. But you've got a ministry. And if you don't fulfill that ministry in your quiet way, whatever it be, and I'm talking to the sisters too, not just the brothers, Brothers and sisters all have a ministry, you know, your home assembly is going to suffer.
Not only are you going to not get the reward, but your home assembly is going to suffer if you don't carry out the little ministry that the Lord has given you. And I say this even to the sisters because there were some ladies in the days of the Lord Jesus on earth of whom it says they followed the Lord and ministered to them of their substance. What about the children here? You know, I think it's twice, maybe three times, it says of Samuel as a boy.
He ministered to the Lord. You don't have to wait till you grow up to minister to the Lord. What did Samuel do? Well, there he was at the temple. Eli was getting old. His sons weren't doing what they should have been doing to help out in the temple. Maybe it was simply to help, but well, we know he helped open the doors of the temple so the people could come up and worship. Those doors were heavy for an old man like Eli. I like to think of him sleeping up the ashes and making sure the sparks from the sacrifices weren't in the wrong place. Perhaps.
Little mundane tasks that Timothy or that Samuel did and it was ministry to the Lord. We used to have a brother at home along with the Lord, but he used to have a few peppermints for us If we helped pick up the hymn books after meeting. Well, there was a little incentive, I know, but you know you can help. That can be a ministry for the Lord. You can help keep the chairs straight. Make sure the hymn books are picked up after the gospel meeting. I've noticed that those who young people who stay behind.
After the meal, the fellowship meal and help clean up and wash the dishes, you know, they're the young people that God gives a greater ministry to later on. Well, I just say that in a very practical way, brethren, Timothy was given a ministry. He was to make full use of it. He was to finish it. He was like the apostle Paul to fill up that ministry. And I believe that's a good word for every one of us.
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We're coming to the third incentive here, I think in our reading here, and that is the rewards that await faithful service. That is it's, we've often been told a reward is not a motive for service, true, but it certainly is an incentive. And Paul encourages Timothy, a young man.
To continue on in faithful service.
And to keep the faith, look in this these books you'll find there were those that.
Made shipwreck of faith. There were others that departed from the faith. There were those that denied the faith, there were those that wandered from the faith. There were those that were overthrown. All of these things in the context here.
Timothy is encouraged to keep the faith and to press on even though the conflict was fierce. Paul is leaving now. I have fought a good fight. I don't think that was a boast at all. It was just an encouragement for Timothy. You can. You're in the battle as well. We're in the battle, brethren, and it's a real battle. I have finished my course.
It doesn't say he finished his the finished the work. He finished the course. I don't know if anyone can say they finished the work except the Lord Jesus. But he was a wonderful servant of the Lord, not without failure and he was leading his work with the Lord. I have fought the a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith, he says, Timothy, you continue on.
Is a reward for you as well, that crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, not to me only, but unto all them that love His appearing. Well, there's a lot in that verse eight that we could, we could dwell upon there. What is the crown of righteousness, Jim? Do you have a thought on that? Well, I believe it's a crown of righteousness here for perhaps two reasons. I'll just say before we comment on that, that there are crowns taken up in the New Testament in connection with various aspects of faithfulness for Christ.
As rewards at the judgment seat of Christ, and they're always in contrast.
A crown of life is given for one who lays down his life. The crown of glory is given to the one who.
Has no glory in shepherding the people, people of God. There's no so often there's no glory in that. But he says, never mind, I'll give a crown of glory at the end. We have an incorruptible crown in contrast to a corruptible crown and so on. But I believe here the crown of righteousness, first of all, is a reward for living righteously in an unrighteous world. In other words, Paul, as we said this morning, he has spoken of living righteously. We spoke of practical righteousness.
And don't we live in an unrighteous world? And brethren, we get so uptight sometimes because we see things handed down in the courts of this land that are unrighteous. But brethren, can we expect righteousness in an unrighteous world? Not a chance. It's only going to get more unrighteous as the darkness of apostasy, the seeds of apostasy, and the moral darkness deepen over the Western world. We can't expect righteousness in an unrighteous world.
But as we read this morning, we can live soberly, righteously godly when in this present world or this present age, right where we are today. Is it the last days and perilous times? Yes, indeed. But we have the resources to live righteously right to the end. In fact, if the day ever gets so morally and spiritually dark that we can't live for God's glory, we can't live righteously in this world, the Lord will take us out.
But until that moment we can live righteously. And He promises if we do that, there'll be a crown of righteousness in the end. But I believe it's a crown of righteousness for another reason, because we notice here it's in connection with the Kingdom. It's all those that love His appearing.
That's not the hope of the Lord's coming at any moment for us, but it is part of our hope. Perhaps just take a moment and go. Let me read it from Titus. We could quote it, but it's sometimes helpful to see it in Titus chapter 2. Just say, before I read this, we often say that our proper hope is the hope of the rapture, the Lord's coming at any moment. And that's true, but it's only part of it. Just notice what he says in verse 13 of chapter 2.
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Looking for that, the blessed hope, That blessed hope, that's what we're expecting at any moment. The rapture, the Lord to give the shout and call us home. But that's not all. And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, it's all part of our hope. It's all part of what we're to be looking for. We're to be looking for the Lord to come at any moment, but we're also to be looking for his appearing. And Paul tells us where to love his appearing.
And the crown of righteousness will be a reward for our position in the Kingdom. In other words, we are going to have a part in the righteous reign of Christ according to our faithfulness. Now be thou over 5 cities. Be thou over 10 cities.
Brethren, a king is going to reign in righteousness, but Princess are going to rule in judgment. We're going to have a part in the administration of the Kingdom, the righteous reign of Christ in the Millennium for that thousand years. And the way we're living now, our righteousness is, if I can put it that way, are going to be manifested and rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ. They're going to be, I'm sorry, they're going to be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ, and they're going to be manifested at the marriage of the Lamb.
When we, and then when we come back to reign with Christ, it's the righteousnesses of Saints. It's that which he can reward for and give a crown of righteousness for. And so I say our position in the righteous reign of Christ is being determined now by the way we are living. Are we living righteously? He'll give a crown of righteousness in that day.
Of that day when all will be manifest, where the world will look upon us as being foolish for taking a path like that. You had something. So if I'm not living righteously, Brother John, then what am I going to love is appearing.
You know, I think of, you know, maybe others have heard this, I think of Eric Smith view of the crown, whether it be righteousness or the crown of life. You know, Eric Smith came from New Zealand. I think many of us can remember him. He served the Lord for 50 or more years in Bolivia as a young man. He had the world before him. He could have had a good position in the government.
In the business with his father, his father was an unbeliever. He had the opportunity to be a captain of a ship. And he turned his back on all of that. And he said to his father, father, I'm going to Bolivia to preach the gospel. Well, his father thought that you completely threw his life away. He said, son, if that's your decision, you get out of this house. There's no place for you here.
He suffered. He suffered for making that choice.
Of following the Lord.
And he had to leave the house. He went to Bolivia. But what a fruit, what a harvest of souls that I hear. Heard about him coming in there once on a, on a truck. And as he came down the riverbed there, there were the Saints up in the high altar Plano, where it's very cold. There they were all gathered singing hymns.
The tears were pouring down the cheeks of Brother Smith, He said. There is the reward for for my sacrifice in going to Bolivia to preach the gospel. Well, it may be not exactly relevant to what we're the the crown here, but it was certainly a crown that he is enjoying now.
We sing 312.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Jim Hyland
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I.
Like to begin the Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #2 on the Gospel Hymn Shape.
Secularity. Thinking of verse 2. Come the father's house stands open with its love and light and song, and returning to that father all to you may now belong from sins distant land of famine, toiling Neath the midday sun to a father's House of plenty and a father's welcome. Come hymn #2, if someone could please start it.
And I will give you a rest.
Why don't you understand me? You want to have suffered.
On the crowns of word, What time?
And the word I love. Now what's your to read?
00:05:31
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessing.
To a very familiar portion in the Word of God in Luke's Gospel, chapter 15.
We're going to start with the 1St 2 verses of the chapter and then drop down further in the chapter.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 15 verses one and two to begin with, then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them, and then drop down to the 11Th verse. And he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my Father's?
Have bred enough, and despair, and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father.
I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.
And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son, but the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hit her the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is common. Thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound, and he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore came his father out, and entreated him.
Any answering said unto his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee.
Neither transgress diet anytime thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.
But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine it was meat that we should make merry, and be glad For this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found. Well, I realize this is a story that has often been taken up on an occasion like this.
I have no doubt it is a story that most of us in this room heard from the very early days of our childhood, perhaps from our parents, perhaps at Sunday school, sitting in gospel meetings like this. But I believe this story has a very, very important message for us.
In connection with the Gospel, before we take up this story specifically, we read the 1St 2 verses of this chapter because it gives the context for what we have in three stories that follow this one that we read being the third of those 3.
00:10:09
And that is that there came to the Lord Jesus with opened ears those that had a felt need.
There were those in the days of the Lord Jesus called the scribes, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and others who had no time to listen to what the Lord had to say because they were what we often refer to as self-righteous. They thought that what they could do in their good works and their religious piety would gain them favor with God, and so they had no time for the Lord Jesus because they did not have a felt need.
But there were those who had a felt need. Or you can just picture the scorn of these self-righteous men as they said this man receiveth sinners and Edith with them. You know, it's remarkable to go through the Gospels and see the things that the enemy said about the Lord Jesus.
The things that were really said in mockery and derision, but were gloriously true in themselves. He saved others himself He could not save. They said that in mockery and derision. But oh, what a wonderful truth that portrays no, he couldn't save himself, as we sometimes think he on the cross must die. And so here they say in mockery this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. But I am so thankful that tonight we can proclaim in the gospel.
That this man, the Lord Jesus, is still receiving sinners. He still desires to bring into blessing and fellowship with himself those who are lost and afar off. And so there were those who drew near to hear him. They were the publicans and thinners, those who had a felt need. And let me stress at the beginning of this meeting, it's more than just recognizing that we are sinners. I think if we were to go out on the streets of Perrystown tonight.
Or any other town or city in North America, and interview passers by on some busy street corner and ask them if they're sinners. I think even today people will still admit for the most part that they've done wrong things, but to recognize that there's nothing they can do?
To get rid of their sins or to better themselves before God is quite another matter.
And it's not just recognizing that we're sinners, but it is to recognize that we are sinners, helpless, and rotten to the very core, that there is nothing we can do to get rid of one sin. There's none no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must.
Be saved. And so we find they drew near and the Lord Jesus told three stories.
It was mentioned today in one of the reading meetings that the Lord Jesus often spoke in parables, and I want to make it very clear that a parable is not a fairy tale, nor was it a fable. The Lord never told fairy tales and he never told fables. I know when we were growing up we had a book of what was called Esop's fables, and they were made-up stories to make them some point to illustrate, some to be kind or to be honest or whatever it was.
Some attribute of humanity. But the Lord Jesus spoke in parables and parables were stories that he told to make clear some moral point or some application of the truth he was seeking to press upon the heart and conscience of the hearers. And so he tells first of all the story of the lost sheep, and then he tells the story of a lifeless coin, and then he tells the story of a lawless son.
So again, we have a lost sheep. We have a lifeless coin because we're dead and trespasses and sins. If we don't aren't the possessors of eternal life. We're lost. We're helpless. We're guilty. But then he illustrates it again in connection with this lawless son. It's the story we often refer to as the story of the Prodigal Son.
If we were to go back to the Old Testament, I believe it's the 21St chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, we would find a contrast there. Because a prodigal son, a rebellious son in the Old Testament under the law, was to be brought by his parents, if you can imagine such a thing, brought by his parents to the gate of the city and he was to be stoned by the elders of the city. Pretty severe, wasn't it? Pretty harsh under the letter of the law.
00:15:08
But here we have a prodigal son, and now we're coming into the age of grace here as the Lord is introducing it. And in grace there was mercy, there was welcome back, there was position and relationship for the repentant prodigal who returned. And this is the story of the gospel.
It's the Father's heart we want to seek to present to you tonight. In the first parable, the parable of the lost sheep, we have particularly brought before us the Lord Jesus, the shepherd seeking the sheep. In the second parable, it's the woman with the light sweeping and looking for the lifeless coin. It's the work of the Spirit of God. But here, more particularly, it's the Father, the Father desiring the blessing of the prodigal.
The father waiting for the that turn around, and the Father who welcomes back, and the Father who provides everything so that the son can come back into the home in all the dignity of sonship. And so we find, as this story opens, a certain man had two sons.
I used to struggle with this a little bit because both of these boys were the sons of the Father. But I think you have to take it in the context of realizing that we are all the children of God by creation. It tells us in the book of Malachi hath not we all have we are not all one father. Hath not one God created us. It tells us in the book of Ephesians there's one God and Father of all.
It also tells us in the 17th chapter of Acts, we are all the offspring of God, and whether we realize it or not, we are responsible to God. In that way, we're going to find that the son who went off and wasted his substance with riotous living.
And then came back in repentance, enjoyed a relationship with the Father that had never been enjoyed previously, and he enjoyed a relationship with the Father that the older son, the older brother, never came to enjoy because of his spirit and and attitude. But nevertheless they were both the sons of the Father. And we have come forth from the hand of God in creation, and sad to say, there are many who go on their way tonight.
And they refuse to recognize it. They refuse to recognize their responsibility to God. That's why man tries to tell himself that when it's all over, he just dies and it's complete oblivion, complete annihilation, that there's nothing left beyond this life. If man could convince himself of that, then he convinces himself that he has no responsibility to guard his father as creator. But all scripture teachers are still very different.
Because God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And these two boys in the story, they were both responsible to their father. But the story unfolds in of two very different ways.
So we find the younger one. He comes to his father and notice what he says. He says, father, give me. Isn't that the spirit of the age we live in today? This is a selfish age. This is a me first, a me only age. I deserve it. Give it to me. You know man today wants all the mercies and blessings that the Creator can give him without the company.
Of God the Father. They'll we. They're willing to take everything. This this Son he wanted everything that he felt was his due that he felt he deserved as the Son of the Father. But he wanted to go his own way. He did not want the blessing of the Father's company. He did not want to walk in communion with the Father and obedience to the Father on the Father's estate. And so he says, Father, give me.
You know, it's true that everything man enjoys comes from the hand of a giving God. In fact, Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, looking at things from a natural standpoint twice, he says for a man to eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of all his labor, it is the gift of God. But you just look around in a restaurant when meals are served and note how many people actually pause for a moment to recognize.
That those that food they're partaking of is a gift from God. How many people stop at the end of the day and thank God for the mercies that he has bestowed upon them and the health and strength that they've had to get through the day? Oh, I know we're coming up on Canadian Thanksgiving, but, you know, it's not enough just to be thankful one day of the year. No man is unthankful today. In fact, it's one of the characteristics of the last days.
00:20:27
Men are unthankful. Ingratitude is that which characterizes the day in which we live.
And so he says, Father, give me. And he was so happy to take what the Father had for him.
But he soon went his own way, and he lived for himself. You know, man today features this world as a playground in which to indulge himself. There's only one life, and we've got to make the best of it. Let's have fun. If it feels good, do it. Live for the moment, whatever slogans they use. And man doesn't live in view of eternity. Man is living for the moment. Man lives to please himself.
And so he wasted his substance with riotous living. But it didn't last long because, you know, there is pleasure in sin. Scripture recognizes that there's pleasure in sin, but it's pleasure in sin for a season. And there have been many who have gone their own way and lived for themselves and found that they've only reaped to themselves sorrow and corruption. You know, I realize I'm looking into the faces of many who are being brought up in Christian homes.
Those who have parents who are praying for you, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior? Or are you seeking to squander, like this young man here, the truth of God and the privileges and blessings that have been brought before you? Have you tasted of those good things, but you haven't taken them in and made them your own? Well, we find He begins to be in want because, you know, sin does not satisfy.
Oh, there's pleasure in the act. There's pleasure for a moment, but sin does not satisfy. And so we find he begins to be in want because there's a famine in the land. Now, this is a story about a literal situation to make a spiritual point. We're not talking about a physical famine. In fact, the good things we've enjoyed here today in a temporal way downstairs, show there's really no famine in this land today.
There's really no want amongst those of us who are here in this room. I'm not saying there isn't poverty, not saying there aren't those right here in Canada who go to bed hungry at night. But generally speaking, there's plenty if man is willing to work for it or to reach out and take it. And so he began to be in want. And if you are living in sin, if you do not know Christ as your Savior, tonight you as much as you may enjoy sin in the act, you have a hunger.
That cannot be satisfied except by your God. You know, the human heart, though, is too big for the world to fill, but it is only God and Christ that can fill the human heart. And So what does this man do? He has a longing. He has a hunger. And so he goes, and he joins himself to a citizen of that country. And you know, that's what people do today. They have some hunger in their soul. They have some need. And what do they do?
Well, they join up with some of the humanitarian causes that go on. And I'm not saying those things aren't wrong. I'm glad for charities and I'm glad for societies that feed the hungry. I'm glad for the Red Cross and societies that go in to disaster areas and so on. And I've seen in disaster areas in other parts of the world, some of these organizations at work. And it's wonderful. You're thankful for it, But that doesn't satisfy the soul's hunger.
And people are joining all kinds of causes today, thinking it's going to satisfy them, doing some good deeds, thinking perhaps that it's going to merit them favor before God. But all our righteousness is before we're saved. All the good things we do are about a pile of filthy rags.
And so he joins himself to a citizen of that country, and he sends him into his field to feed swine. Now this is about as low as a Jewish young man could go. And those to whom the Lord Jesus was speaking at this time understood this. You know, there are those that I know.
00:25:02
Who raised pigs raise hogs and it's a very respectable living. It's a good living and there's nothing, nothing, no shame about it for But for a Jewish young man to go down and feed that which was unclean under the Jewish order of things, I say, that was about as low as he could go.
And as he sat there amongst the pigs, amongst the swine, it says he Fain would have filled his belly with the food that the swine did eat. Now I suggest that there was no shortage of pig food for him to eat. That's not the point. He could have eaten all the pig food he wanted, but it didn't satisfy his hunger. And we can feed on the things of this world and try to satisfy our souls by going deeper and deeper into the things of this world.
But I want to tell you, it's not going to satisfy your soul. You can eat us where all the pig foods you want, and you'll still go to bed at night hungry in your soul. And so this young man, he found that that which the citizen of the country provided for his swine could not satisfy his hunger. But thank God, as he sat there, he begins to think, oh, would tonight, that if there's someone here who's not saved, you'd start to think about these things.
That you'd start to consider your condition. And he begins to think not only of his condition, but what he left back when he left the father and the father's estate. And more than that, he begins to realize that he has wronged his father. He begins to realize that he has sinned, and as he sits there in the filth of the pig pen, he realizes that he needs to turn around.
Because that's really what repentance is. It's repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that saves the soul. And repentance is simply to turn around. It's to have a change of thought. And so as he sits there, he starts to realize what he's done. He doesn't know the Father's heart in the pig pen. He's not going to find out that until he gets back in the company of the Father. But he does realize that he's a Sinner. And maybe tonight you don't realize the love that's in the heart of God the Father.
But if you can just first of all realize you're a Sinner and that you need to repent and turn around, that's going to be the beginning. Or you'll get to know the heart of the father as you turn around and so to speak, make that journey back. And so he realizes he sinned, and he makes up this little speech that he's going to say when he gets back to the father, and he turns around and he starts back down the road.
Now, I don't want to read more into this story than this year, but the father was evidently watching.
The Father was longing for the return of the prodigal, and I want to just make this simple suggestion, at least an application that I don't think this man got very far out of the pig pen before the Father was running down the road to meet him. And that's the way it is with the Sinner. If you simply realize you're a Sinner tonight and you come to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, why his arms are open wide tonight. He's bending low from heaven tonight.
To hear one Sinner whisper and confess that they have a need.
And come to him. He's ready. He's willing to pardon tonight. He's waiting on the very threshold of heaven, as it were, to receive sinners. Oh God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
And what I'd like to do for the rest of our time here this evening is to note that when the sun returned, there were seven things that were supplied to him by the Father. There was no use of telling the Son to do this or that. No, the Father now is going to do everything. And these seven things, I believe, are seven things that the God the Father is waiting to bestow.
On the Sinner who comes to him tonight, the first one is in the end of verse 20.
He runs and he kisses him. Or if you notice another translation, he covered him with kisses. Oh, I like that. You know, the kiss was the confirmation of the Father's love for the son. Now he's going to start to learn not only his great need as a Sinner, but he's going to learn the great heart of the Father that he had sinned against. In fact, he never gets his speech wholly out.
00:30:02
The little speech he made-up in the pig pen, he never gets that holy out, because the Father intervenes and the Father runs and he covers him with kisses to confirm to the Son himself his love.
You know there's a solemn contrast to this verse in connection with Judas, because when Judas came to betray the Lord Jesus in the garden, again, if you notice another translation, it's the same word. He covered him with kisses and that solemn to think about you know, Judas.
Went about with the Lord Jesus during his public ministry. He saw this the miracles. He heard the same words that the other disciples heard. He saw the same love extended to them.
And he remained an unregenerate man to the end. And when it came to betraying the Lord, so determined was the enemy through Judas. To make sure that there was no mistake as to who this person was, he covered him with kisses. But here we find the Father comes, and he covers the repentant prodigal with kisses. I say this had to be first, because he had to understand the heart of the Father.
Before he could really come into the father's house and enjoy all the other things that are listed here.
He had to have an appreciation, at least in some measure, a confirmation of the Father's love and all. If you only knew how much God loved you tonight. You wouldn't stay away. If you could just get one taste, one inkling of the love of God the Father. I say you'd come tonight. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. I'm going to repeat a little story I know probably all of you have heard me tell before, but it touched my heart. Some years ago, Brother Garvin Seymour from Saint Vincent and I were visiting in Trinidad.
And we have opportunity to go from school to school, often from classroom to classroom, and to have a few minutes with the students present a simple gospel message, sometimes sing a gospel chorus, and then to leave a Sunday school paper or a calendar or some little message on each desk.
And we were in a classroom of seven and eight-year olds one day, and Brother Garvin was giving a simple gospel message to the boys and girls, and he was seeking to impress upon them the love of God for them.
And so he asked the boys and girls to put up their hand and to tell him when asked someone that they knew loved them. And so a number of those children raised their hands and some of them said mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, friend. Most of them had somebody that they knew for sure loved them.
But there was 1 little boy and he had his hand up and one brother. Garvin asked him who is it that loved loves you? With the saddest look I've ever seen on a child's face, He said Nobody loves me and that's sad to think that no, he felt that nobody loved him. But we told the boys and girls that though there might not be someone on earth that they felt loved them. That though you might feel forsaken and alone. Just look up, there's someone who loves us and someone who loved us enough to send his son.
The Lord Jesus the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So the first thing is he covered him with kisses. But then when we dropped down to verse 2022, we find some other things. The next thing is he says bring forth the best robe and put him on it. Put it on him. You know those rags from the pig pen?
We're not worthy attire for the presence of the Father or the Father's house. And I think we see very quickly that the robe speaks perhaps of several things. And we have in Scripture the robe of righteousness that which he has provided us, provided for the Sinner, to make him fit and worthy for, for his presence. In ancient times, when someone was invited to a function or a wedding, often the wealthy person who had invited them would provide.
Robes or garments for the guests, that which they felt was fitting and suitable for their estate and for their for their banquet. And there was a man one time who came into a feast the Lord told about, and he didn't put on the wedding garment. He tried to come in that which he himself had provided.
00:35:00
And we know that from the story, the illustration that he was taken out.
And he was cast into outer darkness. And so it is only as we have that which is provided by God the Father. Through Christ we've been made the righteousness of God in him. You say, I'm not worthy to come to the Lord Jesus. I'm too bad a Sinner. But that's the kind of material that he can save to realize that we aren't worthy, that we are bad, that we're rotten through and through, That the natural man is an enmity with God.
Oh, I say. That's the kind of material he can save. And he can bring the best robe and put it on him.
But let me just say this too, about the robe. The robe marked him out as the Son of the Father as he moved about the Father's estate from that time on. Because robes often speak of character, they speak of our deportment.
Again, I have opportunity each year to be in the Bahamas and to go from island to island and school to school.
And to preach the gospel. And after many years you get to recognize the students by their uniform. It's the old British system and each school has a certain pattern and color of uniform. And after the children and young people are let out in the afternoon.
On the streets of Nassau or some other town or city, I can pick out the students and tell which school they they attend. I know that a the boys who wear Gray flannels, a white shirt and blue Blazers, they come from a certain school, the girls with green blouses and Plaid skirts. Well, that's from another school. You get to know the students by their uniform and where they fit in. And so as the sun moved about the estate, he was dressed in that which the father.
Had provided for him, and for those of us who know Christ, there ought to be, as we move about this world and give testimony to who we belong. There ought to be that character, that which marks us as the sons and daughters of God the Father. Then we find in that same verse there was the ring on his finger.
Now the kiss was the confirmation of the father's love in receiving him back.
But the ring was the testimony as again as he moved about the father's estate was the testimony of the father's love, continuous love for the son. Many of us wear a wedding ring, and that wedding ring takes us back to the day when the one who officiated our wedding said you may kiss your bride. That was the steal of our of our vows, so to speak. That was the confirmation of love at the time.
But then there was a ring slipped on our finger. And as we've gone about for the years we've been married, why, everybody sees that there was one who promised to love us till death do us part or the Lord comes. And so there was that testimony as the sun walked about of his the Father's eternal love and all. How wonderful He loves us with an everlasting love. And if you come to know the Lord Jesus as your savior tonight, you'll experience a love that's eternal.
You know, we hear about the breakdown of love and the family and relationships today on every hand seems like every week we hear something that shocks us. Marriage breakups and children abused and families being torn apart and all that kind of thing.
But always, isn't it wonderful that we can speak of a divine eternal love? And so a ring in Scripture speaks of that never ending.
Eternal love. And then there were shoes on his feet. This brought him into again into the place of dignity as a son. And shoes speak of our walk through this world. Because maybe there's someone here and you say, well, if I get saved, I don't think I could ever live to please the Lord. None of us could ever live to please the Lord on our own strength. But their spiritual shoes provided for us, you know, it says in the book of Deuteronomy in connection with the blessing of Asher. Thy shoes shall be as iron that's brought the iron speaks of.
Of power. What power? To walk. For Christ He provides the power, and thy shoes shall be His brass. That's endurance, so that we can run with endurance the race that is set before us. And so if you're thinking, well, I'd like to get saved, but I could never walk like a Christian. Oh, don't worry about that. Everything will be provided for you so that you can walk with power. As a Christian. None of us could live the Christian life apart from what God the Father provides for us through the Lord Jesus.
00:40:12
And then in verse 23, and this is really the crux of the whole matter, there was the fatted calf provided, And I think very clearly we see that the fatted calf killed and enjoyed together, is a picture of the death and the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God has always taught from the very beginning of time that the way a blessing for the Sinner must be on the basis of the death and the bloodshed.
Of an innocent victim. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, immediately God provided coats of skin, which necessitated the death of innocent and innocent animal or animals Cain brought. I'm sorry. Abel brought a more excellent sacrifice than Cain because there was the shedding of blood. He brought something from the flock. Those sacrifices in the Old Testament. So many of them. And they were all pale reflections and feeble foreshadows of what was in the heart and mind of God.
When his Son the Lord Jesus would go to the cross of Calvary, and there give himself as that supreme sacrifice, there shed His precious Blood, of which blood we read, the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin, and so we find that He sits down at a feast.
Communion with the Father. There was a feast because a feast speaks in Scripture of being happy.
There's joy, there's happiness. And the happiness wasn't just with the prodigal return, the happiness, in fact, probably the greatest happiness was with the Father. You know, earlier it says there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over 1 Sinner. That repents if you get saved tonight.
There'll be greater joy in heaven than here in this room, I can guarantee you that. Oh, there's joy and salvation, but there's great joy in heaven. Heaven is stirred every time a soul repents. And so there was a feast. This fatted calf, I say it speaks of Christ.
And the prodigal was able to sit down in full communion with the Father.
You know, when we get saved, we're brought into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, and with one another too. But the basis of it is the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all sin, and so they feed together on the fatted calf. All his hunger is finally satisfied. He must have been starving by the time he sat down at the Father's table.
He couldn't fill his belly with the pig food. In the far country. He'd had a journey home. Now I imagine he's pretty well famished, pretty well starved, and maybe there's someone here and you're starved, spiritually speaking. Oh, you can come to the Father's table and you can enjoy the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going to satisfy your soul. But I want to notice two more things that were provided there in the end of verse 25.
When the older son drew near the house, he heard these two things. First of all, he heard music. Now, as I say, these are physical things, actual things to illustrate a spiritual point, and we find that music in Scripture speaks of the joy of communion.
I say that because you remember in Second Kings, when there was a question arose as to a certain battle that Israel was facing.
Elisha called for a minstrel, and when the minstrel played, the spirit of the Lord came upon him.
And gave him words to speak prophetic, prophetic message as to how to take up and handle the matter.
You remember 2 with King Saul when the evil spirit came and troubled him. David was brought into his presence and played on the heart, and the evil spirit left him for a time. Again, I say it speaks of the joy of communion because God wants to save us not just from the just penalty of our sins, that's true, but he wants to save us, to have fellowship and communion with himself, that which was severed or broken in the Garden of Eden.
Adam enjoyed fellowship with his God before sin came in. But sin came in and it separated because sin separates. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Sin has separated but oh, there's a wonderful provision through the Lord Jesus and the work of Calvary through as what is illustrated here is the fatted calf, so that we can be brought back into a place of fellowship and communion. We're brought nigh by the blood of Christ, it tells us.
00:45:06
In the book of Ephesians. And so after they sit down and have the fatted calf, now there's the music, there's the joy of communion.
But there's the dancing as well. Because if music speaks of the joy of communion, dancing speaks in scripture of the joy of victory. You remember when there was a victory in Davide life and Goliath was killed and there was a great victory over the Philistines? Why the ladies came out of the city dancing and singing.
Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands. You remember when the ark of the Lord was later recovered from the Philistines? David danced mightily before the Lord. There was a sign of victory. And oh, tonight there's been a great victory. A victory at Calvary Cross.
They and I recently were in Europe again, and we visited some of those battle sites. And over the years we visited a number of those battle sites in Western Europe and those memorials that remember the victories that took place. We stood just the other night at the Men in gate once again, as we've often done. And there, every night at the Mening Gate there is a ceremony. They've missed two nights since the First World War.
And it was two nights where there was fighting so close to the Men and Gate, which is in Ebers, France, on the Belgian French border, that they couldn't have that ceremony for safety sake. But every night there's a ceremony to remember those who gave themselves in that in the great two great wars.
To remember those victories, and it's very solemn and there is usually night after night, hundreds and hundreds of people. I don't know how many people were there the other night, but there were.
Hundreds and hundreds of people and there are 56,000 names engraved in tablets at the menengate, 56,000 names of men and women who were whose bodies were never found to bury in Flanders fields.
And then you go out in that area and you drive around Flanders Fields, and after an hour you haven't even driven around all the graveyards and the crosses and the markers for miles and miles of those who gave their life for victory in connection with our freedom here in this world.
But oh, there's been a far greater victory won in this world than any victory over some natural enemy. A far greater victory won than was ever won on the on the hillsides in the fields of Western Europe. It was a victory at Calvary Cross.
It was when the Lord Jesus went there and he gave his life. He bore my sins in his own body. On the tree he died for me. He shed his precious blood and we sometimes sing a hymn his be the victors name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim is their conquest, while his conquest was his own. And so there was the the dancing, the joy of victory. Well, I would just say before we close that there was blessing for this young man.
Because he came in repentance. But there was another man. There was his older brother. You know, he never came in to enjoy what the younger brother enjoyed. He was the son of the father. He was the father's son. But he never was brought into the place of communion. He never had an appreciation for what the father could provide because he was self-righteous. Oh, he thought I've always done good. You know, there's two people on the two kinds of people on the Broad Rd. that leads to hell.
There's the down and outers and the up and outers. The prodigal was the down and outer, and he realized that and he got the blessing.
There was there's the up and outers too. They think they're pretty good. They think they're on the clean side of the Broad Rd. But it all leads to a lost eternity. And sad to say though the servants servant pleaded, though the father pleaded, he never came in and received the blessing. We're going to conclude this meeting in a moment, but you know, you fall into one of these two categories tonight. You're either the younger son who has returned and come in repentance and received all that the father can give them.
And a home in heaven, saved from hell and on your way to the Father's house. Or you're like this older brother, and you're going to go out that door and you're going to go out just as lost as you came in. Oh, how sad, the Father pleaded with the older brother. He wanted him to come in. He wanted him to enjoy all that had been provided at his good hand. But we never read that he came in and received the blessing. And wouldn't it be sad if you went out into a lost eternity tonight?
00:50:09
If you drew your last breath and we had to stand by your coffin and say you know, he never came in, as far as we know, He never came back as far as we know. Or if the Lord Jesus came to night, and he might, the coming of the Lord draws near, and he may come to night, and if he comes to night.
Will you be ready? Will you be one who goes into the Father's house to enjoy, in a fuller and deeper way, all of the Fathers provided?
Or will you be like the older brother, left outside to go to a lost eternity, Eternal separation from God? Oh, I say tonight, God loves you, the Father loves you. And I'd like to sing in closing, just again the second verse of hymn #2 That we started with. And I want us to really think about this. And if you're not saved, oh, as we sing this come as a repentance Sinner, receive the Lord Jesus and come to know God as your Father.
In a far more intimate way than you could ever know before him. Hymn #2, Just verse two if someone will start it.
On the Father's house stands of life with his glowing light and strong.
And returning to the father.
I'll see you.
The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
Children—Howard House
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Oh.
But.
00:05:19
Sunday school this morning and does anybody have a number to start with?
#40 OK, let's start with that.
For the Bible tells me so.
Let's all want to.
The Bible tells me.
He could die.
And take to a grand wise he will wash away my sins and all that soul child coming. Yeah.
From every heart.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, you don't love me.
Yes, give the club speak. The Bible tells me so.
You don't want me love you, love me still.
When I'm very, we can know from his shining.
Home on high, He will watch me where I lie.
Yes, you touch love you.
Yes, you have loves me.
And she talks. Love you touch me.
The Bible tells me so.
Do thus loves me be will stay, will stay.
All the way.
If I trust him, shall I die? He will Take Me Home. My heart. Yes, Jesus was Jesus.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, dreams, I just love you.
The Bible tells me so.
43.
One door and only one, and yet its sides are two inside and outside. On which side are you? One door and only one in the other side are two. I want the inside on which side are you?
00:10:03
All right, and let's sing 41.
Around the throne of God in as well many children.
Save children who things are all forgiven. We'll have the anthem Spring Staying in glory. Glory.
Glory to God.
In shining robes of spotless white, each wine will be arranged.
Dwelling in everlasting light and joy that never fades in glory. Glory.
Glory to God.
On heart.
What brings them to that world above that heaven so bright and fair, where all is peace and joy and love? How can those children bear saving glory?
Glory, glory to God.
On my.
God save your shadows, but to wash away their sins now washed in that most precious blood. Behold, and why and please standing glory.
Glory, glory to God.
I hope every boy and girl this morning is going to be one of those ones that were just singing about, one that in heaven is going to say glory, glory, glory be to God on high. Won't that be a privilege to be in heaven?
And to be able to sing like that to the Lord Jesus and we'll be able to see him. It won't be like now when we have meetings, we know He's in the midst and we hear that a lot in meeting, don't we? But we don't see him with our eyes. But someday we're going to look on him just like we're looking at each other. Shane can look at Dakota and Dakota can look at Shane and you can see each other and you can see your smiles. And that's how it's going to be someday with the Lord Jesus.
So even though today we can't see him like that, someday it will be like that.
So does somebody have another song?
32 all right.
I know nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon rest, I see nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing, it's my grace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Holy Christ translator.
Makes me why that's no no mother found. I know nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can force things at all. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing.
That I have done.
Nothing but the blood.
Pressure is not close and breaks me. Why that's no more.
00:15:07
No longer. I'm trying. No nothing that could last. Jesus.
It sends all my haunted beasts having but the blood of Jesus starts through an almighty of my righteousness. Now things are nothing but the blood must be.
I know nothing but the blood of Jesus.
So we were just thinking about the blood of Jesus.
How did Jesus blood come out?
Dakota, remember what happened?
Pardon.
Yeah, the blood came in. Remember, he had his hands, one of them over here, one of them over here, and his feet down there. And then they took big nails and they put them in this hands and his feet, big nails.
And they put them up and there's a wooden cross and they put them and they pounded the nails into the cross just like that. And that happened about 2000 years ago.
And then what happened when they pounded the nails in?
The blood came out right because that's what happened when we when we get something into our skin.
But you know, the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God, has never spoken about that blood that came out of the hands and out of the feet.
What happened after he was dead? Do you remember right after?
Remember, a soldier came along.
Yeah, that's right.
But what about even before that?
Yes.
Shane said. They put in a spear, they took a sphere.
Soldier right into his side and out came says blood and water. And you know it was important that it was then, because that was after he was dead, when they pounded the nails into his hands and to his feet. That was before he was dead. But at that time he hadn't suffered yet for our sins. Remember the three hours of darkness.
And everything got black, nobody could see anything. And there he was hung up. And God punished him during that time for our sins. So when they pounded the nails into his hands and to his feet, at that time he hadn't suffered for our sins. Then after he had suffered for our sins, then they took the spear.
And they put it into his side. And then that was the testimony that the sacrifice had been killed, and that blood came down and flowed down onto the cursed ground.
And through that blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
So let's sing maybe one or two more.
34.
00:20:00
Let go.
Jesus Christ.
Can make us know.
Precious, precious blood of Jesus ever offered free.
Oh, believing all means Jesus.
Hey, one more.
4242.
Three 4.
My hands are into her right sleep. Hold the door warm, and the heart came in with a crisis and a Christ.
And the sword.
Before we get started.
All right, does anyone know the verse for this week?
Does anyone know the verse? I have a few candies here.
Yes, Samuel.
Very good.
Go ahead.
Go ahead and stand up, I'll help you.
Yes, any man.
Thirst let's him come unto me.
And.
What do you do when you're thirsty?
Very good.
OK, stand up.
If any man.
Thirst.
Let him come unto me.
And.
And what?
You do on your first take a big.
Just what are you drinking, right?
OK.
Any others? No.
What about Katie?
Do you want to say First Corinthians 15?
No, OK.
Jack's too young.
I.
See ya.
OK.
A bit in the back row. Anybody hungry for some candy?
00:25:04
All right.
Any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. It's not too hard.
Come and drink and all of us are thirsty in our souls. We all need that water from when we were a little child. We didn't choose to be born a Sinner, but we we are by nature, by practice, we're sinners.
But the Lord Jesus here he says to those sinners, Let him come unto me and drink, and you know he is the water of life.
We read a verse in Romans that says the wages of sin is death, for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's go to John 10.
John 10 And verse one Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheet fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the doors the shepherd of the sheep, Him the Porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
So all of us understand what a shepherd is. He has a whole bunch of sheep.
And I remember being at one point in Romania and we climbed up to the top of this big mountain and we looked down and there was a shepherd and he had a whole bunch of sheep around him. And there are some cattle on another hill and over here with some more cattle. And you could look, it was a beautiful view, just it was lower everywhere, all around. And so this shepherd, this man.
He was taking care of his sheep.
And if a sheep started to walk away from the shepherd, maybe like David gave a sling.
And maybe he's hit a stone right beyond the sheep. Then the stone would hit another stone and make a big sample and then the sheep would come running back to the shepherd, right? Because he's, he's scared, isn't that right?
So that's what a shepherd does. He scares the sheep and then the sheep comes running back to him.
And you know it says he calleth his own sheet by name.
So I don't know about this shepherd and how well he knew his sheep.
And but, but the Lord Jesus is our shepherd. He knows each one by name.
And here it's not too hard to know all the kids names because there aren't as many of you. But if you think of all the people in the world, there are about 7 billion people in the world. That's a lot of people's names to know, isn't it? You know what? The Lord Jesus, He knows each and every name and he wants each and every one of you here this morning to turn to him.
And you know what the Good Shepherd did? Let's let's go later on in the chapter.
Says verse 11. It says I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
So you know what, this shepherd, I don't know if he'd give his life for the sheep, what would happen if a wolf came?
What would the Good Shepherd do that we just read about Jesus? What would happen if a wolf came?
Yeah, Shane.
Yeah, the wolf would eat all the sheep money. That would be terrible.
So what is the Good Shepherd going to do to stop that? Is he going to get in the way? What do you think, Caleb?
Yeah, you might just throw a stone at it, this thing, right? Or this shepherd, I don't know if he had a knife, maybe he had a gun, I'm not sure. But he was going to take care of his sheep, wasn't he? And the Lord Jesus, you know, he's the same way I am, the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is willing to give his life for the sheep.
00:30:05
And then verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and have known of mine. And then verse 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received in my father. Verse 27. My sheep hear my voice.
And I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me, is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one.
And then let's go back to John's 6.
And verse 37.
Says all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me.
I will in no wise cast out. So what do you think that means I will in no wise cast out?
You know what that means is that.
Each one who comes, the Lord Jesus, there's no way that you will be refused. That means that every last single one of you, one person that comes to Lord Jesus, maybe any of those 7 billion that say to Jesus, Jesus, I want you to save me. I want you to be my savior and I'm sorry for what I did. Please wash away my sins. It means that every last single one who is willing to do that Jesus will not refuse. He will say yes, come.
Just like a Good Shepherd to his sheep.
There's a.
Jim Highland just said in the Gospel last night, he spoke about the sheep and how there might be 99 and then one goes astray and the Lord Jesus, he's not willing to let that one just go. He wants to go and get that one.
Let's turn to Luke 18.
19 actually loop 19.
Verse 10 says for the Son of Man. Who's that talking about, Sam?
Very good son of man is come to speak, and to save that which was lost.
So I need 2 volunteers.
You want to volunteer?
All right, Shane, what about you, Dakota? What what I need you to do is Dakota is going to hide, and Shane, you're going to seek, OK? You're going to. It's going to be hide and seek, right? So you sit back on your chair. She and you close your eyes. Don't open them.
Now, Dakota, go ahead.
Quiet. He might be able to hear you if I don't keep speaking.
All right, let's give him five more seconds. Don't open your eyes, 54321.
I was looking all around high and low.
And everywhere a sheep might go.
There's a lot of people here, isn't there?
Looking all around for his sheep.
Where did he go?
Keep looking boy, the sheep is really lost.
Where is the sheet.
00:35:01
Very good.
All right, we need two more volunteers, Samuel and Stephen. All right.
We're going to let Steven hide. OK, Samuel, give them 20 seconds.
1234567891011121314151617181920.
Very good.
So we saw an example of someone seeking and someone find and finding that one. So it took a long time for some people and for some people it only takes a short time. Maybe some people get saved when they're really young and they're just maybe two or three years old, and then some people it's a little bit older.
I think just recently we were singing.
This song that Samuel gave out and it goes a little child of seven or even three or four. But you know, recently somebody came through and they said a little child of seven and they wanted to say it. Or even 30. Sorry, 77 or even 34.
And that's what he's saying. And that's true. There are some people when they're very, very much in their older years, they come to the Lord. And it's wonderful when we can come when we're young, But it's best to come if you're if you're, if you're not going to come when you're young and you refuse the Lord Jesus when you're young, you can still come when you get older.
But today is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Because.
See, some people can say, oh, well, you know, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait till I'm 20. I'm going to wait till I'm 30. Maybe they're saying I'm going to wait till I'm 15. Whatever it is, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. You shouldn't wait. Although if you're an older one today and you haven't accepted Jesus as your Savior, you still can't. That's what I mean. You still can't accept Jesus as your Savior. Let's turn to another verse in Matthew.
Matthew, Chapter 18.
And verse 11.
Verse 11 Says For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. So we had seek and deceive in the last scripture we read, but this one just says save. And if you look at the context here, if you look what just came before, it's talking about little children, little ones. And you know, sometimes a little baby dies. We have somebody at work and she is about.
Forty 40s maybe, and she was a grandmother and her husband was a grandfather for the first time just last week.
For the very first time last week and, you know, they went to the hospital and they saw the baby and it was a little baby boy and they're all excited and the father and the mother, they brought their little child home and they're taking care of it.
And about 5:00 the next morning, the mother woke up and hear the baby was no longer breathing.
And she couldn't believe it, but her little baby had died.
It was called something. It was called SIDS. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is what they called it.
And you know what that little baby though, if it had survived, it would be brought up in a non Christian home and there is a possibility that it wouldn't be going to heaven. But from this verse we've read, the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
That little, that little boy went straight up to heaven. He didn't have to accept Jesus as his Savior. He didn't understand. He was too little to understand. But you children this morning are old enough to understand that you've done things that are wrong.
00:40:01
Just last week I asked a little girl have you done anything wrong? And little girl said yes. I said what did you do wrong? And she said I beat up my sister.
And she got all red. She was blonde hair, she got all red and she was really embarrassed.
Has anybody ever done that before? Beat up their sister or their brother?
Yeah, that's wrong. That's a sin.
So it's pretty easy to realize that we're sinners, and what we have to also realize is that we can't do anything ourselves.
It's like writing on it with permanent marker. We can't take it off with the blood of the Lord Jesus Heat. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. There's not one sin that you can do that He cannot wipe away.
His precious blood.
So let's sing another one. Another two maybe.
46.
46.
Gladys.
And it comes and it falls on the GIRL, and they once all be held by us here.
All right, one more.
30 7 Thank you.
He will never. He will ever.
Kingdom, all the same ones, all the bright ones and years old.
Bring the storms of the morning, and Christ round the door. The English shall shine. And conspiracy.
Open 1A
Open 1B
2 Timothy 4
Reading
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We just ask these for thy health in this last reading meeting that there might be yet things that we could glean from.
Those precious pages with the instruction for our pathway help us to know how to go on and learn more of the My blessed ways. Lord Jesus. So we ask Thy help, commit ourselves to Thee and pray for those on the road now and ourselves to Thee for this time, and ask the help of Thy Spirit and pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Second Timothy, Chapter four of the Science you like diligently to come shortly on me, for demons have forsaken me having love this present world, and is departed on the festival. Nika rescind Siglasia is unto Dalmatia only Lucas with me take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me. For the ministry Anticheist have I sent to Ephesus.
The cloak that I left at throw *** with carcass, when I'll come and spring with thee, and the books, especially parchments. Alexandria, the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works, of whom be thou aware also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge, notwithstanding the Lord still lifting.
Strengthen me.
That by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Flute, Crisco and Aquila and the household. Vanessa, Forest, Erastus abode, corn, the troponins have I left sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubeless greedeth thee. Impudence, Linus, Claudia and all the brethren. Lord Jesus Christ, be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
Well, as we know, these are the last and final words that Paul penned by divine inspiration just before he laid down his life for his testimony and faithfulness to Christ. And as you we take up these last few verses, I think it's beautiful to see, brethren, that there's a very tender and a very human side to what we have here. You know, we think of the great Apostle Paul, the one who was raised up to give the truth of the church and unfold the mystery concerning Christ in the church.
Truth of the Lord's coming have the privilege of traveling amongst the people of God in those early days of Christianity, preaching the gospel in so many places. But there's a very human side to Paul. Paul was a man just like like we are. He was human and he felt things and he felt them very keenly. And what I've appreciated in reading these last words of the apostle Paul is that while he was a man of tremendous faith and trusted the Lord for every circumstance.
Yet he never became callous or indifferent to his circumstances. You know, it's wonderful to be able to go on no matter what the circumstances are, in our personal lives, in the family, maybe in the assembly, our circumstances at home, whatever they might be, difficulties at work. But we always want to have a tender spirit in connection with what the Lord has allowed in our lives.
And so we find here that as we started, he says to Timothy, I think this is so touching. Do thy diligence to come short beyond to me. He wanted Timothy fellowship just wanted to give him a hug just to sit down and talk with him. Paul was a prisoner here. Paul knew at this point he was going to lay down his life. He had special revelation from the Lord that he was going to lay down his life. Want to see Timothy one more time. It was his son in the faith, the one that traveled on the mission field with.
The one that they had no doubt spent many happy hours of communion in the evening when before they lay down to sleep in their room or while they were were journeying along. And any of us who had the privilege of having fellow laborers with us, with us know how close you become to those fellow laborers. Paul and Timothy were very close. And Timothy not only close, but Timothy was a man who had the same exercises and desires. And that all, as we've been saying in these memes, could entrust the care of the Saints.
00:05:30
Passing on of the truth to do you want to see him one more time he desired his fellowship. Well brother, do we desire one another's fellowship like that wonderful to go online and to communicate have emails and text and all that. Isn't it wonderful when we can get together with the Saints of God those that we are in fellowship with those who like precious faith is nothing like being together. Communication is wonderful from a distance but those opportunities to be together. I trust we value them.
No, we were just in Western Europe. Some of those brothers only see each other once a year. Some of them can only break bread once a year. Some of them are isolated isn't even two of them, so they can't break bread on a regular basis. When they come to a conference or an all day meeting and their tears flow, you know they value it and they appreciate it. Rather, we have so many opportunities here in North America. We really value the fellowship and community of our brothers.
You know we have more than the Lord and saw that.
Here.
Man of Sorrows, I think it's his grief as in fast through this world you have very little fellowship. We didn't have a place to lay his head. It was there were a few havens that left, like the House of Mary and Marshall, where he.
That holds in was appreciated so in the main that many nights on the mountain tops alone and so that our brother Jim has said is is important. We have more than really the Lord enjoyed because we've been brought into a fellowship. If you look at First Corinthians chapter one.
Mentioned there.
Verse nine. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, while it goes on to describe the character of that fellowship.
The seek true brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we all speak the same thing. That will be an organization for money left. It was a problem in the fellowship in Corinth because they were not perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
And this the Lord has given us.
And sometimes we just work along that line.
Sometimes we think of fellowship in terms of coming together for recreation or what have you. I don't. It's called fellows here, but it doesn't have a spiritual dimension here. I'm not being critical, but if we get together and see this, particularly in Brazil, and some of the brethren get together, I wonder now, is there any spiritual thoughts to this? Yes, it's nice to be together.
It's wonderful to to the like minded.
But is there a spiritual dimension here? Are we strengthening the things that we make or is it just the time or the social, social interaction and so on where the things that the Lord are in the advance? Well, bubble shift is really the apostles doctrine and fellowship breaking the dread and prayers. It's in the things of Christ. It is not in the things of Christ. It's on a very mundane worldly level.
Which is really not going to be a spiritual encouragement to us. I'd like to see. It's true. That's true. The true fellowship we've been brought into, as you pointed out, First Corinthians is with Jesus Christ, God Son, and with God the Father as well. We get to John's ministry. That's true Christian fellowship. There's a natural aspect of things that's needed and you can't deny nature without.
00:10:00
Spoiling what's spiritual, but the spiritual is the most important.
Quoting it in verse chapter one of.
We have fellowship one with another.
Principle of our relationship with Christ that we have true fellowship and that word fellowship is the same word that's oftentimes translated communion and it's only mentioned I believe something like 16 times that don't quote me exactly, but not very often. And so communion or fellowship has the same thought to it, but it's based on the finished work of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is for us to get together in our homes.
To have a wonderful meal together and then break out our Bibles and to read a little portion of Scripture, have a hymn sung. And I don't you just picture that. The apostle Paul, as you've just been mentioning, he just wanted to have that little time with Paul, with the Timothy, just one more time. The apostle Paul, one little bit of fellowship with Timothy and they've been sweet times before. And he asked him to come diligently. And then he says a little bit further in verse 13.
When thou comest.
You know, he had the faith that the Lord would allow it. And we oftentimes ask for something. And if if we ask according to his will, we know that he heareth. And so Paul, I believe, had a special revelation from the Lord that he was going to be martyred. He knew that he earlier he spoke and he said, for we shall not all sleep. And so when he was speaking to the Thessalonians and he spoke of the coming of the Lord, but now he says.
My course is finished. His race was over, and I believe Mr. Darby uses that word in connection with that in verse seven. I finished a good fight. I have finished my race. I've kept the faith. He kept the faith. All of it, all of the Christian truth that had been delivered to him, the heavenly truth that arisen Christ had given to him by revelation. He kept it all. He hadn't sacrificed. He hadn't.
Compromised any of it.
And so here he's just waiting for the end, and the Lord just gives a little bit of the time for the preparation, you might say, and to refresh his heart. And he has this opportunity to send one more letter. And I'll just make this other comment is that this is a little picture of the judgment seat of Christ and these individuals that are mentioned. It's not haphazard. It's very, very specific, the way the Spirit of God has given the names and tells a little bit of something about everyone.
There are real lessons about each one.
Who had been with the apostle Paul were no longer with him, but not also the same Lisa some or I comment on Demas. I would say there were some who were out serving the Lord and even typically this he sent to Ephesus for the edification of the president there all wouldn't have selfish photos, did he? He would have liked to perhaps text some of those brethren with him, but he knew that there were needs out there amongst the people of God and in the gospel field.
And so he was happy that they could they could go and get help. But nevertheless he felt it very keenly. I have no doubt there were many lonely hours that the apostle Paul spent. He had the Lord, the Lord stood with him, of course, and he never lost sight of that. But still that natural or human fellowship and contact. Again, I say this very human side to what we have here. But as soon as he Timothy coming, then he brings up a very sad note.
He must have to be having love this present world or this present age. You know, it's interesting that we're going to have Luke here in the next verse, like the next verse. It's interesting that the three brief mentions you have of Demas, It's always in connection with Luke.
And it's very significant. You have him in Colossians and Philemon mentioned with one as one of the fellow laborers of the Apostle Paul. Wow, that must have been quite a privilege. Wouldn't we have all liked to have been able to tag along and travel with the Apostle Paul, sit under his ministry in the third loft in Troas, hear him preach from the temple steps in Ephesus or whatever? It was great privilege. Demas had that privilege. Luke had that privilege.
00:15:02
And twice he must just mentioned in connection with the fellow laborers of the Apostle Paul. But here at the end of his life, we find that he has to give this sad note. Now, I don't believe it's been already alluded to that Demas went off into a wicked world. I don't think he went off into immorality.
But you know, it was one thing to be associated with Paul the missionary, quite another thing to be associated with all the prisoners. And you can understand this. I've been in countries where Christianity is illegal and to be associated with Christians put you in a dangerous position. There was one thing that's dangerous enough to be associated with all ways without traveling, but to be associated with all the prisoner, why, that could mean you're very light.
Yourself, you'd be guilty.
By association. But how sad it was that Demas wasn't willing to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. Timothy had been exhorted in these epistles to suffer and to endure as a good soldier, and so on. But something grew the heart of of Demas away from following after Paul. And it's really in contrast to what you have in the end of the eighth verse.
Because in the end of the eighth verse, it speaks of those that love His appearing. In other words, those who are living in view of another day, those who are living in view of another world. Do we love disappearing? Are we living in view of the day when Christ is going to reign supreme and things are going to be set right and righteousness is going to be the order of the day, and we're going to be associated with Him and laying with them, and He's going to declare us as His people in that day?
If we don't love his appearing brother, we're leaving our hearts open for this world. It's either that world or this world again. I'm going to repeat a little story I know I've told before, but to me it illustrates. It's so beautiful. William Kelly, whose commentaries are still in print and many appreciate today, was one of the great minds of England back in the early days of the revival of the truth of God. And he had a nephew, I believe it was, who was attending one of the great universities of England. I can't remember was Cambridge or Oxford, but one of those universities.
And this young man was excelling in his Greek studies. And the Dean of the college and the professor realized that this young man must be getting some special tutoring somewhere. And one question about it, he said his Uncle William was helping him. And the Dean of the university arranged to have an interview with William Kelly. And the Demon University was astounded in the presence of one of the great minds of England. And finally he leaned across the destinies that Mister Kelly.
You could be a great man in this world. We're either looking on to a future day. We love his appearing. Our brethren were dangerous, believing ourselves open like Demas to love his present age. It can't really be bold.
The infection was everywhere here in in the face of the falls lot of days and.
And again, it's mentioned Venus. It doesn't say he's forsook Christ, but he didn't walk any longer with the apostle.
All.
Says in the first chapter all day which be in Asia have forsaken me.
What a sad picture. But he was perhaps was one of them.
Compromised. There was compromise there.
And perhaps seeking some worldly advantage like we spoke about lot, but he no longer identified with the apostle Paul as mentioned, he didn't go on to The Dirty side of the road, so to speak, but he just did not want to be in the company of the apostle all or I think it it also relates to the truth that.
Paul was teaching, don't you think?
In actuality.
But I believe the great lessons you learn is that in the last days, as we've been saying at great length in these meetings, there's a giving up of that. But it was true in actuality, when he thinks to, yes, I believe so. What's the end of this present age? It's going to be in, in the judgment that falls upon it. And the end of all man's plans and designs and desires are all going to come to an end. So I'd love this.
00:20:18
Present age, to have our hearts set on things that are really going to come to an end is a sad exchange for that which is eternal. You know, we're delivered from this present evil age, says in Galatians. It doesn't call it the evil age here. It's just wanting things in this world and not wanting that heavenly calling and the path that goes with it.
May even be the religious side of the world. You can apply it in that way because again, there are so many who have given up false doctrine. They haven't given up as John said, they haven't given up the Lord. They haven't given up their Bibles. They are walking to some degree and.
Practical godliness and piety. But to go off into the religious side of the world is perhaps the most dangerous side there is, because Satan knows that that which is closest to the truth can often be that which leads to giving up the heavenly calling the believer. Just say, too, that there are three men here who are connected. We don't want to miss this. We have Demas, if I can sum it up this way. Demas began well.
And then just work and like lost, we never hear of demons coming back and being restored in that way. We find then that there's a loop. Luke, Evan, well and ended well. And then there was Mark or John Marcus. He's called in another place. He began not so well, but he ended well. It's not wonderful. And we see this. These are the last days described here. We find that, yes, there's a giving up. There's a going away.
But there's also restoration and there's also the ability to begin well and end well. But again, I want to bring out a little human side of things here. Only Luke gets with me. Here was the Apostle Paul who had served the Lord for so many years, and the Apostle Paul, who I don't think we realized how battered his body was. He'd been in, he'd been in shipwreck, he's been beaten. He's been in all kinds of things. He's walked through through storms and all kinds of bad weather. He, he, his body, I.
Suggest his body probably 8 sometimes from the things he'd experienced. Why did the Lord make sure that Luke was with him at the end? He was the beloved physician. What better person to be with his faithful servant to the end of his life, but one who could not only minister to him and encourage him spiritually, but one who could minister to him and help him physically. I think it's so beautiful to see that God made sure.
That's a beloved position, many gone their own way for one reason or another. But the doctor was with him. And rather doesn't it show how God cares for for his own? You know, you see an elderly St. of God who's gone on to the Lord and helped the Lords people and serve the Lord and they get to be old and feeble and the Lord comes along. So I bring someone alongside just the person that's needed might be a family member, it might be a young person, it might be.
Brother, sister in Christ, or it may be just somebody who has the ability, naturally speaking, or has in that line of medical things that the Lord provides for his people right to the end. And I think it's so beautiful to see that only Lucas with the beloved physician was written to the very end.
Verse 10 that there are three individuals that are mentioned and perhaps you might say that there are three different things that attracted their hearts and the Spirit of God gives it here. The Demas he went to Thessalonica and in that place they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. And so they were characterized by the waiting for the coming of the Lord, and it captured their hearts. They desired that. But then the second epistle was written to the Thessalonians.
Thessalonians and really they had lost sight of that coming and they had been deceived. In chapter 2 particularly, he goes over some of the reasons perhaps that they had been deceived. And so perhaps Demus just that says he loved the world, a pretty strong term. And so he set his eye upon this world apart from Christ, and then it says it brings in Christians.
00:25:09
And Cretians, he went to Galatia and Galatians error was in connection with the legalism and they had taken up with the law and they had put themselves under law. They were Gentiles. They God had never intended the Gentiles to take up with Judaism. And Judaism we know is entirely distinct from Christianity. And so he, perhaps we have a little glimpse, perhaps it was that Cretians like that legal side.
Of Christianity. And so he found his place in Galatia, and then Titus, perhaps Titus went to Dalmatia here. And Dalmatia means vain splendor. And so perhaps the showy part of Christianity. I don't want to speak disparagingly of any group of brethren, but sometimes, you know, the Pentecostal side of things, Pentecostal power and a showy side to Christianity is what attracts different ones. And so instead of being occupied with the truth of God.
And instead of being able to say what Paul did, I have kept the faith. These different ones are given, their names are given as something had attracted their hearts. And instead of going on in the purity of the Christian faith, they were sidetracked. And so the Spirit of God gives this these three places doesn't like a Galatia and Dalmatia. And even today there's a snare in each one of those.
As I said earlier, Mark didn't start out so well and Paul realized that in the early days, Mark wasn't up to what they were going to face on their missionary journeys and there was a sharp contention between he and Barnabas over the situation and John. Mark went his way and Paul took Silas and so on. But isn't it beautiful to see that even in these days that are described here at the end of Paul's life?
There was restoration and all recognized that now John Mark had learned the lessons that he felt he needed to learn. There's no doubt this spiritual growth. And now he was profitable for the ministry and he wanted Timothy to bring John Mark, to bring John Mark with him. He wanted his fellowship too. He wanted to see him as well. Perhaps give him a little encouragement, said John Mark, did you deliver the lessons? I hope you've learned. I sent you away in love because I knew you weren't up to it. But now you've learned it. I could if they ever had this meeting, I could just imagine how tender. I don't know if they ever had it, but if they ever had, I can just imagine how fans are. It must have been. And can't you just picture John Marks saying, yes, Paul, you were right.
I wasn't ready to go with you. You were right.
But I've got into the essence of the Lord, and I don't want to read in the Scripture when it's there, but something that happened between John, Mark and the Lord. And now he was profitable. And Paul had another comfort, didn't he, That as he departed, there was another young man who was going to take up the torch with Timothy and carry on for the Lord.
Like all passing on the back home and I really, you know a person will.
Run so far.
Then their work is finished. They pass on the baton to someone else who takes it up and goes on. You look at first Timothy 6 and the exhortation of the apostle Paul there in Christ. Timothy 6:00 and 12:00 to Timothy. I think it's good for us to consider here, fight the good fight of faith. Here was his exhortation to Timothy.
Fight the good fight of faith. It wasn't gonna be easy. There was conflict. Lay hold of eternal life on eternal life.
What is really life? Whereunto thou hast also, thou art also called?
And has professed a good profession before many witnesses and if we look over in.
Philippians 2. Philippians 2/22/21.
Other exploitation there Philippians 2.
21.
Will all seek their own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ. Well, look at the commendation 19 But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I may.
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Also may be of good comfort when I know your state all seek their own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ. But Timothy was not of that character, but you know the proof of him that as a son with.
The Father, he has served with me in the Gospel, and therefore I hope to send presently so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. Well, there was real sacrifice there, Paul's.
Work as an evangelist was not easy. He suffered every peril. He was shipwrecked. He was.
Beaten was robbed five times he was.
Stoned and left for dead, Timothy was sharing this these sufferings with the Apostle Paul. Turn over to Matthew 9.
Where the Lord?
Gives an exhortation there. Good for all of us.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Ray, therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
Well, it was important, of course, to be faithful to the truth that Paul had.
Had left with the Saints. Upholding and and teaching Paul's doctrine was very important.
Definitely.
Especially when it was being given up here to such a large extent. But there was the field of labour.
Timothy would have to gird up the loins of his mind and enter into the You have to be engaged in the fight.
In the conflict here in in giving out the gospel too. And well, there's still a shortage of laborers in the vineyard, as the Lord said.
We, we all can do our our part.
Perhaps there's never been a time when laborers are more needed in the vineyard and but we have to gird up our loins, loins of our mind. But we look at that verse. There is a first Peter chapter.
One, it's good to be reminded of these things with Peter. Chapter one.
Verse 13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Girding up the loins, that takes energy. We can't allow our minds to go everywhere and the things of this world.
You have to restrain and you have to.
Of those things, the emotions and the thoughts under the control of the word of God. I don't want to get away from our chapter, but I think that Paul was just passing on the baton to Timothy here and.
And exhorting him to continue in the in the good fight of faith.
Genuinely feeling. How do you get on? There's a difference. There isn't. It's a genuine feeling. The Apostle Paul and those that were written had a genuine feeling.
That commitment?
That means I personally have a phone.
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That were particularly suited and prepared by God to go with the apostle Paul. He wasn't a one man show, if we could put it that way. He knew that he needed others. And so if you turn to Acts chapter 20, we find that there are others listed there that went with him on these on a missionary journey, or this was not a missionary journey, but they went with him. It says verse 4. They're accompanied with him.
They're accompanying him into Asia soccer of Berea and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secondus and Gaius, of Derby and Timotheus, and of Asia Tikis and Trophimus. These going before tarried for us at Troas. So they were a complement of individuals that went, and they were prepared by the Spirit of God to go, and they were particularly suited to complement Paul as he presented that heavenly doctrine.
That the risen Christ had delivered to him. And we have these different ones that are mentioned in this chapter as well. So they were mentioned at the beginning of Paul's work, you might say, and now they're mentioned at the end. And so one of them here is mentioned in verse 12. Tikakis have I sent to Ephesus. Now Tikakis was one who was an encourager. He had a special work given to him of the Lord and Paul recognized it. And if you look, I think it's at the end of Ephesians.
It says in verse 21 That ye may that ye also.
May know my affairs and how I do. Tikakis, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known unto you, to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know our affairs, that he might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your heart. Now here was a faithful messenger. He took a message from Paul, delivered it to the Saints, and then delivered a message from the Saints to Paul.
And he was an encourager.
I his name is only mentioned five times in Scripture. Jim mentions that Demis has only mentioned three times. Many of these dear ones, they're, they're mentioned in Scripture is very, very brief, but they had a very specific work. I hope there's a lot of encouragers in this room. Tikakis was noted for it and he was used of God to encourage the Saints and to encourage the apostle Paul himself. And so Tikakis was sent by Paul to Ephesus.
And as young men, these ones learned in the presence of Paul what it was to travel and preach the gospel and minister the truth. And I think it's very helpful for young people to associate with the gospel work. It might be in your own local area, it might be Sunday school work, might be going down to the inner city with a brother who has an exercise, and so on. I'm thankful as I look back on my youth.
Had opportunity to go to the Gospel tent work in Nova Scotia and other places and I learned a great deal from those brothers who had that exercise. It was their exercise and their work and we went simply to help Content Eggs to make sure the chairs were set up.
But while we were doing that, we learned a great deal from them spiritually and how to handle the truth of thought and present it and so on. Wonderful training ground. And so it's good. I just want to encourage those who are younger. But I just say this too, with the Apostle Paul, as you meet his life, Paul was careful too, who he chose to travel with him. And sometimes there are those who may want to travel with a certain person.
Be part of a work and I believe a person who has been raised up of the Lord to carry on the work. They are responsible to carefully choose their fellow laborers, those that they know are going to be a help to them in the work, whether it's in a physical way or or a spiritual way that the great thing happened with all the markets.
So now the case with Paul, and we could turn to it in chapter 15 of the book of the Acts. It's a good principle.
Jim And it's something that we all need to be very careful, very exercised about to labor with those that are.
Really of the same mind and so here Paul it says in chapter 15 of Acts verse 40, Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren under the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Celestia, confirming the churches and then he came to Derby and Lister and behold, a certain disciple was their name Timotheus. Well, we won't get into the detail of it, but isn't it wonderful that Paul was a little bit older and he.
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Valued the having a young man around and it would have been nice to have John Mark, but it just John Mark hadn't made that real commitment. He hadn't really devoted his life to Christ and to service in the way that Paul thought was necessary. And and so he just felt that John Mark was holding back a little bit. He hadn't given 100%. He wasn't willing to lay down his life for Christ. And Paul could discern that. And so he said it's not right.
Not, not the right time, but isn't it wonderful? The Lord gave him Timothy. And so the Lord gave the best, as it were, and then he gave him Silas to go with him. But they went together and they were of the same mind. And these men, not like you and I, we go out perhaps to give out gospel tract or invitations to come to special gospel meetings or something. They went out to the Gentile world and they well knew that they could face murder them that day.
And so they had to make a commitment that it was worth going to the Gentiles to tell them about Christ and that their idols were nothing. And so they faced death every day. So it's a wonderful thing that the Lord raises up different ones. May we each be exercised to allow the Lord to use us.
If brother comes along says I think I'd like you to come along with me and the work.
Well now what about the individuals exercise? Are they concerned to be before the Lord about whether they should take up this invitation or not? And I just want to think of that in verse nine there it says, do thy diligence to come unto me shortly. So here's Timothy reading this letter and he gets to this point and he says, Oh dear, Paul wants me to come with him. I guess I'd better be before the Lord about this.
And as he's considering, maybe he doesn't know what to do. Sometimes the Lord works this way that we we have a an idea, maybe something the Lord maybe has put in our heart, but we're not too sure. And then you come down to verse 13 and Paul goes on to say the quote that I left at Troas with purpose. When thou come a spring with thee. And sometimes the Lord has a a very gentle way of reinforcing to us that, yes, this is from me. And I do want you to take this up just in these very practical little things. He could have been reading along and saying, oh, well, that makes perfect sense. Thank you, Lord, I think all good.
So just from a a practical standpoint, we have to each one of us be before the Lord. And I'm sure Paul would have been the last one to try to run over anybody else's conscience, but he would have presented it and say, you know, it's between you and the Lord, Timothy, but I'd sure like to see you again.
The bottom line is describing together for the faith of the gospel, and Paul always wanted to make sure that his fellow laborers had the same foundation. I'm going to speak very plain for a moment. I remember some years ago a brother who left the Lords Table. He contacted some of us who had a gospel work at that time and he wanted to continue on with us in that gospel work. But I when the brother, not the other brother and I discussed it, we said, how can we strive together for the faith of the gospel? Because this brother, young brother said well.
It's just a gospel work, and we can go on in the gospel work. But what about when souls get saved and he wants them to go to his fellowship and we'd like to exercise them as to the truth of the Lord's table. That's not striving together for the faith of the gospel. And so Paul's desire when he wrote to the Philippians, he uses that expression because he wanted to make sure, as I say, that his fellow laborers had the same exercise as to the truth that he had been given by inspiration.
And again, as Walt said, it works the other way too. If someone asks you to go on a little mission trip or something, make sure it's those who hold the same principles. That you're not going to get off somewhere and find out that you're going to have to compromise your position or your principles because you're hooked up with, with a, a gospel work or some Christian activity that really doesn't hold the same basis of truth that you do. So I think as we've been saying, not to belabor it, but it's a very important principle.
00:45:08
Person cannot break bread and fellowship at the Lord's Table. We should be careful about working with them too. This, this.
Laxity comes in amongst us, you know, and.
There's association. I want to be careful what I say, but there's association with those who are still connected with system. Now they're their desire to give out the gospel is commendable.
That's good and.
We have to have discernment now. Can we bring them along and allow them to just distribute tracks and so on? Or it takes discernment but to wholeheartedly join with them as if there was no difference and have fellowship with them in their in their social?
Social field.
A sister can can easily be drawn away by her affections into another fellowship entirely and and leave the Lord's table that way. We have to be careful who we labor with in the gospel. I know that has been I've had that problem in India because when you go to India.
Every door is open, just come along.
Western Missionary is welcome everywhere.
You could speak in dozens and dozens of halls. They'll widely open the door for you. Come on. Well, you have to be careful on that because if you're going into a hall that where they're holding doctrines that are not according to scripture and have no idea of the truth of separation, you're joining with them and.
It, it's a, it's a compromise really. So I, I've had that.
Exercising problem in my own life. It's best to work. There's lots of work with those who are gathered on scriptural ground. There's still many, many open doors for the gospel to work together.
Unitedly, according to divine principles.
Scriptures that might be a help to guide because we need the word of God to give us wisdom in that connection, don't we? And so Mark's Gospel Chapter 9 tells us of an incident in the Lord's ministry and John asked this question. John, Mark's Gospel Chapter 9 and verse 38. John answered him saying, master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us, and we forbade him because he followeth not us Jesus. But Jesus said forbid him not.
For there is no man which can do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of Maine. For he that is not against us is on our part. And so the Lord had to rebuke John. We don't need to go and interfere in the work of God in amongst our brethren in other places. And so John wasn't told to go and join with him in the work. He was told to let the Lord do his work, and he was going to use others if the gospel was the only thing that.
If the gathered Saints were the only ones that ever preached the gospel, the grace of God, there be very few saved. But we can rejoice that the gospel is given forth in other places, but we're not to join the other.
Scripture is an Old Testament passage and it applies in principle. In Deuteronomy chapter 22 it says there in verse 9, Deuteronomy 22 and verse 9.
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled or forfeited. There's a reward. There's a sowing that goes in, goes on, and a vineyard speaks of a private worker, an individual work. You have your own little vineyard. If you're doing a little bit of a gospel work, you have your own vineyard. Well, don't mix it with the work of the flesh and the work of faith.
Fleshly means to mix it in. Let's be plain about it. Let's not use worldly practice to try to get the Saints that get sinners into hear the gospel of the grace of God. We need to work in on the principle of faith, and the Word of God is used in the preaching of the Word of God. But then there are those that hold principles in connection with salvation, and they are mixed in their fellowships. Let's be plain.
00:50:03
Some people teach that you can be saved and lost again. You want to preach the gospel with someone like that. Now someone may get saved. If you were to preach with someone and they didn't hold the truth of what it is to truly be gathered to the Lords name on divine ground or they didn't hold the truth of eternal security.
Someone might get saved, but you might not get the reward. That's what it's saying in Deuteronomy chapter 22.
The Lord would delight to give you a reward, but it may be forfeited.
And we would be nice if there was a brother who was spiritually emphasized.
I also have.
Because.
A lot of, but that's basic.
And I know.
And happiest my brother was spiritually.
Well, it starts with the physical little thing.
Faithful and not which is least is faithful also in much. And as we said yesterday, those little practical things like Samuel ministering to the Lord and helping to open the doors of the temple and just helping Eli as he got older. Those were the things that were the springboard then for God using him as a mighty judge in Israel later on. But brethren, our time is moving on and I just want to, I think we ought not to miss just a few general comments in connection with the end of this, the last part of this chapter.
We find again a very human side with the apostle Paul in verse 13. He wants his coat and that's why in verse 21 he tells Timothy to come before winter. That's we don't have to spiritualize that. That's that's a very real thing. Paul was an old man and prisons weren't prisons like they are today. I've I've spoken in some prisons in this country in the United States that are as good as the Best Western almost. Well, those that wasn't the conditions Paul Paul was in.
And he felt these things very keenly. Like I say, he never became callous or indifferent to his circumstances. And so he needed his coat and he wanted Timothy to bring it before winter. But he wanted some books too. He wanted some writings. Again, I'm going to make a practical application. Do we value that which God has caused others to write that are a help to us in our study and appreciation of the Word of God?
Paul wrote by several epistles, by divine inspiration as we know, but there were others who wrote things too. And there were things written that are not included in the word of God that no doubt Paul felt were a help too would were a help in edifying. We had a table full of them here yesterday. There's libraries full of them. You can go on the Internet now on things like STEM publishing in the Bible Truth website and those kinds of places and find that that good written ministry.
Paul valued it and he didn't have access to it like we do. He couldn't just log in and, and, and read something from Mr. Darby or Hamilton Smith or whatever, or pick a book at a conference like we can. He desired that Timothy, when he came, would bring those writings that he valued. Well, do we value those things? God has raised up men of past generations and there are men today too, that God has raised up that are writing things that are very helpful. They don't replace the word of God. Nothing replaces.
The Word of God. But there are the there is Christ Exalting ministry that will help you in your understanding and study of God's Word.
There are things too that might cause bitterness in a child of God. And you know, someone has said the experiences of life that we pass through either make us bitter or they make us better. And so here he mentions Alexander the coppersmith. And we might add to what Jim added earlier or said earlier, those 3 individuals. But Alexander is one perhaps that started off on the wrong foot, started off badly and he ended badly.
And so he opposed Paul and perhaps it's the very same one that had been disciplined or had that's really in First Timothy. He really was in the outside place and he never found repentance. He had missed the mark. He says in verse 20, chapter one of First Timothy, of whom Alex is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blasphemy. Oh, he just never seemed to have a recovery.
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And so it could have caused bitterness in connection with the apostle Paul. But Alexander was bitter. He didn't have a forgiving spirit towards Paul. He didn't have any appreciation for the apostle Paul. But then it speaks of those that had forsaken Paul. He went to prison. He had a court appearance. And at the court appearance the brethren didn't show. And so he says at my first in verse 16, my first answer, no man stood with me.
But all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.
Can't you see the old Apostle Paul in the prison alone? He stands before the court, not a brother in Christ, with him as all by himself. Now there may have been some that perhaps couldn't be there, Maybe Luke. We don't know why it doesn't mention that Luke was there, but it says no man stood with me. All men forsook me.
And so we live in these days where circumstances come up and their bitterness that could come in. But Paul didn't become bitter. He begged the he, he says, I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. He didn't hold them accountable for it, if you will. And he went on in the spirit of grace.
But they didn't show us period of retaliation.
Alexander was a very harmful character, whoever, whoever he was, he was a bitter opponent of Paul. And then, but Paul doesn't retaliate. He says the Lord will reward him according to his works. The solemn, solemn fact there. But all left him with the Lord. There's some things that we just have to leave with the Lord.
Not to defend ourselves and retaliate. The Lord never retaliated when he was treated in such a.
Ignominious way in his death. He didn't defend himself and he didn't.
Stand up for his rights or retaliate against those who were treating him in that shameful way well.
Here was a man that was withstanding his words. And as Robert said, this must have been Rome, wasn't it, Robert? This must have been Rome, because that's when he was brought before one of the cruelest tyrants that ever lived. It must have been before a Nero and.
You know what type of person he was and.
And the Lord delivered him, I guess on the 1St instance, but finally he was beheaded by the Nero's power. Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. Isn't that a beautiful contrast by me? The preaching might be fully known that all the Gentiles might hear delivered out of the mouth of the lion. I think the lion was Nero, and that's what he he, he was delivered on one occasion.
But.
It was only it was only temporary. He was later arraigned again. Did he ever get his liberty here?
I don't believe liberty after this.
Perhaps it was the Saints at Rome that had forsaken him, because really here he was in Rome and those in the assembly at Rome could have been a comfort for him to him. But as a lion, as you say, is really the Roman authorities and really under satanic influence, don't you think? And the same in connection with the Lord Jesus. The Roman power was there, the dog, but it was under satanic influence.
And so we live in days when the authorities, the powers that be, are coming under the influence of Satan, Satanic delusion.
Robert, because this must have really impinged the heart of Paul, because in the end of Acts, when he was approaching the imperial city of Rome.
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And to me, it's one of the tenderest scenes in the life of Paul. The brethren did come out and they came out as far as API Forum in the three Taverns. And when Paul saw it, he thanked God and took courage. What a blessing it was for the apostle Paul when they came out. But when he got to Rome and they saw what was going to happen and he was brought before Nero, they weren't then willing to associate with him again, perhaps because of fear of persecution or even death.
And so it must have really hurt Paul. They had initially, as he'd entered Rome, been a great encouragement to him. But in the hour, shall we stay of his greatest need. No man stood with him, but the Lord was with him. And brethren, we can always take comfort. Let's let's bring this right down to where we are. You say I've got trials. I'm going back to work next week. This week I'm going back to school. I'm going to face some circumstances. We're going back to our little assembly and.
I know what's going to happen when I go back there. Maybe you're going to feel like no man stands with you. But brethren, remember the Lord is with you and he gives us the strength. And here it wasn't the strength to crush the enemy, it was the strength to overcome.
In the face of the enemy, Paul wasn't about to crush Nero. That wasn't the point. But he was going to be. He was able to stand even at this very difficult time. It was strength to overcome.
In spite of the forces that were arrayed against him. And then notice verse 18. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom. You say, well, I thought we just said that he was going to lay down his life. That doesn't sound like deliverance.
From the power of Nero. But just take a moment to go back to the book of Daniel, because I think you see something similar there with the faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
In Daniel chapter 3, we know this story well.
Daniel's three friends were faithful in not bowing down to the image that the king had set up. And remember, again, like Nero, the king in the Nebuchadnezzar had the power of life and death, and whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive, and so on. And so the promise or the threat was that they were going to be thrown into the fiery furnace if they didn't bow down. But let's notice what they say to the king when these three men are brought before him.
Verse 16 of Daniel chapter 3. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If so, be our God whom we serve. Now notice this is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. I'm going to stop there. They didn't know the end of the story. We know the end of the story because we've heard it from the days of our youth, but they didn't know what was going to happen.
They said our God is able, but they didn't know whether they were going to not only be thrown into the fiery furnace, but consumed in the fiery furnace. But notice the next statement.
This is their, this is their real faith. And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. In other words, what they said, whether we perish in the fire or not, our God will deliver us from your hand. They knew that their God was able to deliver them in spite of whatever happened. Now we know they were delivered through the fire. Paul was going to receive deliverance by being martyred. Very interesting, isn't it? It's like those in the end of Hebrews. They didn't accept deliverance.
In the way we think of deliverance, they were sawn asunder, they suffered martyrdom and so on. But there was some better thing prepared for them. And Paul knew that whether he laid down his life or not, he was going to be delivered from the mouth of the lion. He was going to be delivered from Nero, and all the power of Satan and his hosts arrayed against him because he knew to depart and be with Christ was far better. You know when Paul wrote that to the Philippians, Far better. He knew exactly what he was talking about.
We know we we quote that verse and we by the Spirit of God from the pages of the word of God, we have some little inkling of what's ahead. Paul had been caught up there temporarily. He knew it was far better to depart and be with Christ. And so as he's about to lay down his life, he says he will deliver me from every evil work.
I'm going home and it's going to be complete deliverance into the presence of the Lord.
01:05:01
I think in connection with the brother John's question at his first defense was his first trial and though we don't get it traced in in the apostles journeys and the little maps that might be in the back of your Bible. There was he was set at liberty in first Timothy 1-2. I'll just read the verses. You don't have to turn to them as I just softly to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia.
There was part of that time when he was set at liberty and then in Titus, he says.
In chapter 3 verse 12, I be diligent to come unto me to an accomplice, for I have determined there to winter. And then the beginning of Titus, he says I left the encrete, so he must have gone to Crete as well. We learn in our chapter that he left.
This cloak at Troas down in verse 20. Trophies have I left at my lead. I'm sick. And so he did get a certain amount of liberty and went back again in the sphere of his labours. And what did he find out in that time? All day in Asia? Forsaken me wasn't just in prison, but he found out on that journey that now he was a marked man, he was a prisoner.
And then that very sphere of his laborers, he traveled again and he found he was a rejected man. He was arrested again and he knew this time the Lord revealed it to him he was going to go to trial and what his result was going to be. But I think it's so tender to look at what concerns the apostle in this chapter, the ministry bring, Mark, He's profitable to me for the ministry.
He's concerned that the truth go on not just for his own comfort. He did long for Timothy companionship. I thought that was it's lovely his son in the faith, but his what was before his soul was that the the truth of God would go on and he says none stood with me. Oh it's touching at his first defense, but the Lord gave me power. Why that the preaching might be known.
That was what was the desire of the apostles heart, that the truth would go on and be walked in by the Saints. Just want to notice.
Earth throat from us. Have I left at my lead? I'm sick. Can I make an application?
Maybe the little assembly where you are or large assembly, there's difficulties and when those things come in, they can just.
Be just make our insights turn make us almost physically sick.
When the difficulties come in and they press in, he says. Trophamus. Have I left at my leader sick?
Lord wants you to stay right where you are. It might be hard and maybe things just make you sick at heart, but you stay there and be an encourager and one who is going to seek to be a help to the Saints and encourage them on. In Paul's doctrine, he left him there even though he was sick. And then one other little thing.
He says in his very last words, the Lord Jesus Christ be with my spirit. Mr. Darby translates your spirit. It's plural. It's not just Timothy, it's you and me, your spirit. And like to read one verse.
And, and Psalm 106 is in connection with a little something we had earlier.
Well, maybe 2 verses verse 32 of the 106 Psalm. They angered him all so that the waters of stripes so that it went I'll with Moses for their stakes because they provoked his spirit so these fake unadvisedly with his lips. Timothy, you're going to need the Lord Jesus Christ with your spirit. The days dark. The difficulties are great, even personal enemies like Alexander, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit grace be with thee.
How we need it?
He didn't exercise his gift of healing for focus wasn't the Lord's mind, but would be healed on this occasion. So sometimes we we don't always get healing, but.
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He won a trophy to remain there, didn't he, for a work?
Do for him we don't find the gifts of healing, generally speaking, ever used to further the work of the ministry. They were signed gifts for the unbeliever, but not to further the work of the ministry or for the healing of the household of faith. Before we sing again, just say this in conclusion. It's interesting. You can check it out at the end of the of this epistle.
He gives these little commendations and there are three categories mentioned. There is a couple, Priscilla and Aquila. You know, we can go on to the very end as couples. It's given up today, marriage is given up, the families being smashed, but we can go on as couples. Here was a godly couple still going on. There's a household, the household of the Vanessa Forest often refreshed Paul. He said we can go on as households.
And there are individuals. And when you take those 3 categories, brethren, it doesn't exclude anybody in this room.
We're either individuals, we're all individuals. Some of us are couples, some are households with families, and whatever category we fall into, there's full provision to the end. And Paul rejoiced that there were those who were going on in those various capacities even at the end. So brethren, there's full provision for us to go on. There's no excuse to give up all the resources. Are there? Are they the last days? Yes, they are. But I trust we're encouraged to press on the few moments that are left.
Same 288.
Gospel 2
Open Mtg. 7
Open—J. Kemp, J. Ferguson
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.
You coming over here? Is that what you?
Yeah.
Do you want to sit on my lap?
Here.
A little bit more comfortable.
So long, I've never tried recipes like that.
Especially walking.
Oh.
Fire.
And what is he going to show them?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
00:05:32
I.
I.
I.
I.
I.
127.
127.
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No.
Read a couple of versions together.
Group Chapter 2.
Ruth. Chapter 2.
And birthday.
They said boys and roots.
Thou not my daughter.
Go not to glean in another field, neither go from him, but a bind here found by my ladies. Let thine eyes be on the field that they do read.
And go down after them. Have I got some young men that they still not, and when they were 30 go under the vessel?
Drink.
And then in the First Corinthians chapter 14.
Just the last part of verse 26.
That all things be done by the edifying.
Verse 29.
That's a prophet, See two or three. So let the other judge.
Verse 31.
40 days, all prophecy one by one, that all may learn and.
Only comfortable.
To the prophets are subject to the Prophet all the purpose of the state.
I.
I hope that.
Few words that I might speak this afternoon might.
And truly so edification.
Rotation comfort.
That's the purpose of ministry.
And.
I don't want to speak very long because I'm sure that there will be there will be some others that.
Have a word for us?
This afternoon.
But, umm, God's desire is to.
Encourage his people. God is a God of encouragement.
And when we are together, we receive encouragement.
Comfort, but we can't live on past blessings. This conference is not going to give you strength for the future.
There has got to be the daily dependence on the Lord. I underlined that because it's important. We can't live on past experiences.
We need a sense of the Lord's presence.
Each day we need to pray that prayer.
Psalm 16 Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.
The culture in which we are living today, as you know, is a culture of self pleasing.
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The whole world revolves around that that.
Philosophy. Have you ever heard a person say on the Internet?
I have finally found myself.
What a disappointment.
But that's the way people talk today. But you know, the Word of God, the wisdom of the Word of God is not an improvement upon man's wisdom. It's the very opposite. The very opposite.
And God has given you a new life, a divine life that you did not have before.
You turn to First Timothy, chapter 6. Paul speaks of that life.
A few times in that chapter to his son Timothy.
Verse 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, or lay hold upon that which is really life.
And whereunto thou hast been called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.
The apostle here is speaking.
Of life.
Well, we all have a natural life, of course. That's why we're here. But that natural life is stained with sin from the very outset.
We know what kind of a life we have, but God has imparted to us.
Something that is really life.
What is that? It's eternal life, of course. An eternal life is something beyond a life that endures forever.
That's what people think eternal life is.
Eternal life is the full revelation of what God is. It's a quality of life.
And it's life in the knowledge of God. You know, brethren, when you get to heaven, you're not going to have a different life than you have now. No, you have the same life now as you will have for all eternity. But I ask the question, are we enjoying this new life that we have?
Because there's two ways you can live. You can live unto yourselves.
And I'm afraid that's what we do too often. You can live unto yourselves, if that's your choice.
There's a very powerful stream in the world today to please yourself.
I'm the center of my world.
If it pleases me, all right. If that matter affects my, that spills over into the assembly too.
Has someone offended me or my family? I'm going to leave fellowship.
Self pleasing.
The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again. There is the the new life that you possess, the life of God.
Now what a liberating power there is, not what I was, but what Christ is.
That is the point.
Leave what you are behind entirely, because it's not worth thinking about. We've had enough of that. You've lived long enough. You have come to learn that the flesh profited nothing, that there's nothing good there in the flesh for God. Bury it. It's dead with Christ. It's buried with Him.
Open the casket and look in to see how things are going. You are dead with Christ.
And you're living with a divine life.
You say sometimes you young people might say, I don't feel very dead when those temptations assail me, but you have to have right doctrine before you can have right feelings. And God says ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
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And we are to reckon with God. We now, brethren, have a life in resurrection. Romans 6. Let's look at Romans 6.
Romans 6 We you know, I sometimes think of.
The story I don't want to take too long here, but Mr. Darby was.
In the United States, and there was a small conference.
Convened and.
It was the brothers suggested to Ephesians 1.
And so they went on and had a nice reading in Ephesians one and death. Someone asked Mr. Darby after the meeting, Mr. Darby, did you have that passage on your mind? Well, he says not really. I didn't think we were up to that state of things spiritually, but I had Romans on my mind. But he says we always end up in Romans anyway. So I remember. Remember. I remind you, young brethren.
Study the book of Romans, its fundamental truth. Brother Bruce Ansky has just put out an excellent treatise on the book of Romans. Young people, I would highly recommend that you read it because Romans is fundamental truth and we're not going to give a outline of Romans now, but you notice in chapter 6, I know ye not that verse three, know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death.
And so on, knowing that our old man is crucified, with him the body of sin might be destroyed, and so on. Verse 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Verse 11. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Well, we are dead with Christ. Do you believe that? Do you reckon with what God says? Here is a dead man. Here we have a man that was a drunkard. He was a drunken sought, but he's dead now on the floor there. Offer him a offer him a bottle.
Is he going to make any response to it?
He was a drunkard before, but now he's there's no response to it. He's dead.
And so we are dead with Christ and all that you say. I still have that response within me. I still want to do those evil things.
I was listening to a tape recently and the brother who was speaking was astounded that amongst those gathered to the Lords name there were certain things evident that were.
Definitely contrary to the word of God and sinful. And yet they were breaking bread. That's a serious matter. I we broke bread this morning professed to remember the Lord's sufferings for our sins, did we not?
And we saw the Lord suffering that agony for our sins. Am I going to go on with something that has caused the Lord that suffering?
Inconsistent. That's an understatement. It's it's serious.
If I am going on with anything in my life that cannot bear the light of the presence of the Lord and break bread and still go on with those things serious in God's sight anyway.
We are dead to sin.
Alive unto God. We've got newness of life now, young people, each one of us yield. Verse 13. You know you neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. What are you yielding your members to? What are your eyes looking at in the Internet? I never look at the Internet, but I know what's on it.
And through my dear wife, who is a computer expert. But what do we look at with our eyes? What do we listen to with our ears? Your members, now that were used for those things, are set apart. Yield yourselves unto God knowing.
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Reckoning with God and now yielding your members.
Unto God do you start off the day.
By bowing in the Lord's presence and say, Lord, you have.
You have saved me by your precious blood. I want to be used in thy service today. Leave me and guide me.
What I should do? I want to be, I want to use those members which were used for sin and evil before. They're under a new master. I reckon with God. I'm dead to sin. What God says.
So.
Which which fear are we going to live in?
We're either going to live in the spiritual sphere. This comes out in Romans 8, which I just want to touch upon. The point is.
We are to yield our members.
Our eyes, our ears, that is a challenge to each one of us. It's going to be a challenge. Who am I going to please in my life? The Lord who redeemed me with his precious blood? Or am I going to live for myself?
You know, there's a verse, I just want to turn to it. John chapter 12. It touches on the.
Subject of discipleship, and I'm not speaking on that this afternoon, but.
John John 12.
Early 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground, and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Either loveth his life shall lose it.
And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
In that verse is quoted by the Lord in all the gospels 6 times and it shows us that now our priority should be to please the Lord.
In the estimate of the world, it's losing your life.
But are we living in view of eternity? That's a challenge. Are we living in view of the glory?
And are we keeping that old nature in the place of death?
You know any boy or girl would answer this question here. You see an animal out there rooting in the mud.
You know right away what kind of an animal that is, don't you?
It's a pig, yes, that's his nature. He, he loves that.
But you won't see a sheep doing that. And if a sheep gets into the mud, he may fall in there, but he's miserable until he gets out.
But the, the pig is quite happy there. That's, that's this fear that he enjoys. Oh, brethren, what fear are we living in day after day? Romans 12.
What is it that is the motivation of our lives? I'm going to read Romans just a few verses in Romans 8 here.
Well, here we have the position of the Christian. Therefore there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The latter part should not be included here. So this is our position before God. We are brought into favor before God. We have the same position before.
Jehovah before God, as Christ himself has. We're in the same favor. He looks upon us.
No longer in the flesh.
We are not in the flesh as to our standing before God, but the flesh is in US.
The flesh is in US and don't try to improve it. It's buried. It's dead and buried with Christ. Leave it there.
00:35:06
The flesh is in us, and we are. Are we obligated to allow that flesh to manifest itself?
Is it inevitable that I have to obey those desires that?
Well, up in my breast sometimes.
No, we're not obligated to obey those evil desires.
That.
Wants controlled us the constant battle, but we do have now a new power. Here's this in book and I drop it. Everyone knows that the law of gravity brings that in book down.
It's a universal law. Any place in the world, that hymn book will always fall down.
However, if I take a helium balloon and I attach it.
To the book, you know that the book which before was drawn down by that law of gravity, it now begins to rise.
Why is that as the law of gravity changed?
Has it been obliterated in some way? No. The law of gravity is just as strong as it was before. But now I've introduced on that book another law or principle, as the apostle calls it here in verse 2. The principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the principle of sin and death. That principle of sin and death is what you had as a natural man from your birth, and it's still there.
But you're not obligated to obey its lusts.
Because now God has given you a new power but a divine life, but you also have a new power that gives you.
The strength to overcome those evil desires that rise in your heart. And you say, how can I overcome this temptation? Well.
It's a challenge and it's a continual battle, not only for the younger people.
But for those that are older too, we still have that trouble.
But the point is.
What do we occupy our minds with? And we have that divine life and a new power. You know God does not forgive sin. Did you know that God Forgives sins? All those wicked, evil things that I have done in my life that I'm ashamed of, He forgives my sins. But you have an apple tree out here. You could take all the apples off this year. It will yield the same apples next year.
It won't change.
And I remember a story of our brother **** Gorkas.
To illustrate that point, there was a an old apple tree in his the backyard of his grandfather's house and a grandmother's house. And the apples were naughty and sour and bitter and they only used them to play, to play ball with. So finally the grandmother said, cut down that tree, cut it down. I don't want it there anymore.
So we cut down the tree.
But after a few years, the tree began to sprout again and send up shoots, and soon there was a trunk there, and soon there were apples again. And **** thought, oh, now we're going to get some good apples because it's a new tree, not like those other sour ones that we played ball with, you know, The apples were just the same. There was no change. Sour, naughty, wormy.
They were just the same. Why? Because they came from the same route. And brethren, that route is there. It's going to produce nothing.
But evil? Give it a chance and it will manifest itself.
But remember verse nine, we are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. So coming back to my illustration, first of all let me finish what I was saying. God does not forgive sin.
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He forgives sins, but sin has been condemned in the death of Christ.
It's put away from God's sight. He doesn't forgive sin. He he condemns it in the death of Christ. He puts it in the place of death. And you are to do the same. You are to reckon with God and that divine life that you have with that new power that we have read about the Spirit of God.
Will give you.
Liberty Liberty is not licensed.
Not licensed to allow that old evil nature to manifest itself. What's to minister to it in the world? The news stands The Internet. When I was young it was all the television, but I think the Internet, I'm told, is far worse. Anyway, the point is, what are you yielding your members to? What are you occupying your mind with? Do you give place to the flesh? Easy to do.
Lots to minister to it, as I have said, and but that new life.
You have been given.
Sometimes at a meeting like this, so we all look very sanctimonious and we all are occupied with these things, All right, That's the way it should be. We should be refreshed, we should be built up, we should be encouraged. That's God's desire. But when we get back home, sometimes we give quite a place to fleshly things.
In our lives.
Maybe not always immoral. I don't think Dimas went into immorality, but he went back into the world. Is the world occupying your heart, young people? Is it present advantage? That is before you take a lesson from Lot. Heath lifted up his eyes and looked on the planes. They just looked like the Garden of Eden. That's what I want and that's what I'm going to get. And he drifted further and further away from his uncle Abraham.
Picked up a woman there along the way, someplace that he would never seem to stay very long in one place.
And he pitched his tent towards Sodom. You know, a wicked city, an evil city. Lot had present advantage before him. And.
That's what controlled his life, you know, his end. He ended up in the gate of Sodom as a judge, nearly lost his life, lost his family, a saved soul, a lost life. Lot was not living in view of that coming day of glory. Well, it's a challenge for us, brethren to keep our focus, right? I don't like that word focus. I don't know of a better one, however, to keep our eyes upon eternity.
Remember, young people.
You have life before you. Not trying to talk down to you. Someone else should be saying this. I have no children, but I I would encourage you to put the Lord first in your life. I know you have a lot of responsibility at school and at work, being settled in your profession and so on. All right, it's that's correct. Do it for the Lord Lord's glory, but don't forget your priorities.
Don't forget your priorities. There's going to have to be self denial in your life some way or other. It's a sacrificial life. When the Lord Jesus died, he gave 100% everything he gave for us. He held back nothing.
How would you think about a young, young lady that said to a prospective bridegroom? Well, my dear, I'll give you a 90%, but I want 10% for someone else.
When seeing that, she doesn't agree with that, the opposite to 98 percent, 98%, but I want 2% for myself or for someone else. That would not work either it's 100% all or nothing. Well, there's a tendency in our heart, you know, just have a little reserve. Just give me a little concession for the old nature Lord, just on this occasion.
I want to have a little for myself there. That's our hearts. But when we you know that verse I read in John 12, It comes after the description of the Lord giving him is all for us. Is the corn of wheat going down into the ground and dying giving everything for us. Shouldn't that motivate us to live for Him and not for ourselves? What else could and.
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Then we have that diverse any man save his life, he shall lose it well.
I need this truth more myself perhaps than anyone the apostle could say I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. There's that new life again, crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. There's a good motto for you. Christ liveth in me. Not very pleasant to be crucified. Any volunteers that want to be crucified?
It's not very pleasant to be put on a cross, but that's where the apostle, the way the apostle describes it, there crucified with Christ, That's the old nature. We're not going, We're not to live for the old nature anymore, but Christ liveth in me. There's the new life that we have. You go to Colossians 3. Set your mind upon things which are above, not on things which are.
In this life, for ye are dead, and your life is hit with Christ in God.
There's where your life is, there's where your interests are. I'm afraid if I take an inventory of my own life, it's pretty disappointing because how much of the day have I have I had my heart on heavenly things? I have to bow my head and say I don't know 10% or what. But our life is up there, brethren, and.
God wants us to live in view of.
The time when all will be manifested. There'll be a reward for your presence at this meeting, while it's a wonderful thing to be with our beloved brethren here in Hammer Bay.
Kindly invited us.
Conference is over tonight. Another, not another conference until another year. SO50 What is it, 51 years? There's no conference. We're going back to the same problems in the assembly, at home, at school. The Lord is sufficient. He is our great high priest and our advocate and the Word of God to direct us. That verse in Romans 8. And I'm finished verse 13.
If you live after the flesh.
Die. That's the end of that sort of life. But if you through the Spirit, you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God. All right, you choose which fear you want to live in.
May the Lord help us.
Living view of the coming glory and to hold the things of this world lightly, we have to get through this world. I'm not condemning education, but what is the priority in our lives?
The time will come when there will be a reward.
Lord will delight to give a reward for your presence here at the meetings.
This weekend, and for every little act of devotedness, it's all recorded in the annals of eternity. You don't have to worry about it. You may have forgot it, but the Lord has not forgotten it. Some people say, well, you forget your past failures and sins and go on. Well, be careful there. We certainly shouldn't be occupied with our past sins, but we should be humbled by them. Like Hezekiah after his failure, he said, I will walk softly the rest of my days.
Was humbled. He walked humbly, carefully the rest of his days. Well, may the Lord bless these few disjointed thoughts. May we have.
Fresh energy.
To live in the power of the new life that we have, that resurrection life which lifts us above this poor, dark, perishing world, gives us the power to be a testimony here.
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While you're left here to be a channel of blessing, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. That's possible with you. You can be in a channel of blessing in this world, the sources up there, but the channel you can be. May the Lord bless His word to us today.
Just want to open to the the hymn that we started out with. I think it was 127.
They just want to read verse 4 again.
Oh, what a home, but such is love that He must bring us there to fill that home, to be with Him and all His glory share the Father's house, the Father's heart. All that the Son is given made ours the objects of His love, and He our joy in heaven.
So I just wanted to share a few thoughts this afternoon.
Tying into that, and also I think.
Relate a little bit to what Brother John was talking about.
And Rose and I had the privilege about a week ago to to go to a little party. And it was pretty unique in character. I'd never never been to one. And kind of the topic that I have on my heart is something that admittedly I don't know too much about. I'm sure others would know a lot more about it.
But this party that we went to was an adoption party and.
It was challenging and this couple who was who was adopting.
They're Christians and they live in Perry Sound, not too far from where where we live, and we get together from time to time and are able to enjoy some things of the Lord. But I just really appreciated the challenge that they had in their hearts, and I guess it started back from when they were.
The girl, I think she was about 12 years old. She, the Lord places.
This thing of adoption on her heart and she wanted to adopt. And so after they got married, they were phoning, they got into foster care. And so they were phoning the foster system, but they were told that they had to be married for two years before they could foster kids. And I think that's probably a good idea.
Work on just your marriage, getting to know one another first before you throw a new dimension into it. But anyways, after two years they were able to foster some some children and then maybe a year or so ago they were able to get a couple girls, one's 8 years old and one is 6 years old. And anyways time went on and they are able to to adopt.
These two daughters and so these girls would have come from a home, not a Christian home.
I taken out of this situation, which obviously if they're in the foster care it it's not an ideal family home and they are able to get placed into this, this nice Christian home.
00:55:11
And have parents that love them and wanted to care for them. And so this party was very unique because they had invited everybody who were a part of their lives into this building and.
They said it takes a whole village to raise a child. And so we just want everybody to share in the joy that we have of adopting these these two girls. And they actually said vows to these to these girls as saying that they wanted to be loving.
Good parents bring these girls up to the Lord. And one thing that I thought was really touching was they said to these girls, we will, we will never leave you. And so, you know, coming from the past of whatever they would have come from, I think that those words would have probably meant a lot to these girls.
But the other nice thing about this party is that the gospel was able to go out because the thought of adoption and the gospel. I think there's there's some real.
Real parallels that we can draw. And so I thought we could just look into the Word and look at a few different instances where adoption is mentioned. I think we can all take this personally because we're not for the Father sending the Son to go to that cross for us. We'd all be lost without hope in this world, but because of God's great love for us, wanting us, choosing us, He wants us to be a part of His family.
And so when he brings us into his family.
We're not just servants or anything. He calls us sons and daughters. He he calls us his children. And so that the last verse of that hymn that we sang, I think gives that sentiment. But let's go into Romans chapter 8.
And I think John left off at first.
14 So let's start off at verse 14.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared.
With the glory which shall be revealed in US. And so any of us who have given our lives to the Lord Jesus have trusted in him to have our sins washed away. We have the the Spirit of God within us. And so verse 15 says it's not not a spirit of ******* that we need to to fear things. It is the spirit of adoption and we can address.
God as our Father, and what a privilege that is, that the Lord Jesus being the Father's only son.
Was willing to share that father with us that we could we could call him our father think of that verse in John 20 when he says to Mary, I ascend to.
To your God and my God and to my Father and your Father. Something like that. Maybe I'll flip to it. So I quoted, right?
John 20, verse 17.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them.
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your God. And so the Lord Jesus delights to to share His Father with us. Not only that, but the verses back in Romans 8.
That we are reading say.
Say that our Spirit, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
Proves to us that we are the children of God and as children we are heirs and we know that the Lord Jesus is is heir heir of all things. All things are are given to him from the father, but he's willing to to share that with us and so he says we can be joint heirs with Christ heirs with him. And So what a what a privilege were were brought into and.
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I don't know that we can really quite fathom all that all that that means.
But we know that.
There's going to come a time soon where?
We will be revealed as as the children of God, as the sons of God, and what a day that will be when when the Lord Jesus and God the Father will be happy to to display us as his children.
People around us, not everybody might, might not know exactly that we're Christians.
It's nice if we're able to to share something with them that would tell them, but in this day it's going to be clear to all.
That we're heirs, we're children of God, and that we've we've accepted Christ as our Savior. And so we all go through trials, we all have sufferings at this stage in our life.
But.
The exhortation in verse 18 here in Romans 8 is I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US. And so the sufferings that we go through are are nothing compared to this glory that we're looking for when the Lord Jesus.
Shows that for all to see.
Verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth, and pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves grown within ourselves.
Waiting for the adoption to it, the redemption of our body.
And so even nature around us, animals, everybody is under this this curse of sin. And they're all waiting for the the day when that curse will be lifted. And it's coming very soon and we will be at liberty. And so I think we all feel that the effects of sin around us in various ways.
So even we has grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption.
And I think in one sense, when we accept Christ, our adoption is completed.
But just like salvation has various facets to it, there's that sense.
When we get to the glory where it will be completely done, when our bodies will join our souls there in the glory with the Lord and and that adoption will be completely finalized that the party that we went to.
They were hoping that they would have the papers completely finalized, but still there were some things that were going through the courts, but they were they were 100% sure they had the faith that they were going to be able to, to keep these girls and that they would be their own. And so they said even though this may not be official, official, we're going to we're going to go ahead with this this party anyways and just celebrate, celebrate this adoption and so.
When those papers are finally stamped, it'll just be.
Kind of that last approval that they need. And so when we get to the glory, our adoption will be 100% complete.
Let's go to Galatians chapter 4.
Some similar verses.
To what we've read.
Started at verse 3.
Even so, we, when we were children, were in ******* under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son bait of a woman made under the law to redeem them, that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
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And because ye are sons, God has have sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ABBA, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. And so once again, just through the work of the Lord Jesus, God sent forth his Son Jesus Christ to go to the cross to to redeem us.
That we might be, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and we might join the Lord Jesus into the family of God. That you might call us children, That you might call us sons and daughters.
Ephesians, chapter one.
Let's start at verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Courting, as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holier without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children. By Jesus Christ To Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
So I think just this whole topic of adoption, I think.
The keyword what just comes to mind is just grace. It's just the the grace of God that he would bestow these blessings upon us. And it's when I look at this family who we were celebrating with, it's just just pure grace for these girls to be taken out of a dark situation and just put into such a such light and already.
Both these girls have confessed Christ as their savior and so just what a what a joy to these parents hearts to be able to to make such a difference in in their lives and so.
Going back to the spiritual aspect of this.
Why would the father want to do this? Why would he want to adopt us as his children? Well, verse five says it's according to.
To the good pleasure of his will it gives it gives the father pleasure to invite others to draw alongside his son and and share in the in the share in the relationship that the father and the son have with one another.
And.
Let's go over to James chapter one.
I just want to read verse 27. I think this is a verse that spoke to this couple when they were thinking about adoption.
So James won verse 27 pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. And so I think what they did is is wonderful taking this verse at at face value, visit the fatherless, visit the the orphan, so to speak. Maybe maybe some of these children do have.
Fathers and mothers.
Naturally speaking, but they're not wanted and this couple were willing to to take these ones and and be a father and a mother to them. So visit the fatherless and widows to in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. And so it it was just a real challenge for me.
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Because adoption of course was is not really something that had had crossed my mind but just thinking of.
Some of these thoughts and the grace, the love that the father has towards us in adopting, it just seems so nice that this this couple wanted to extend a little bit of that to these girls. And what makes it, I don't know if it's a little more sweet, but it was it's completely, completely their choice. They're expecting their first child this month sometime. And so they they wanted their family to include some of some of their own children and.
Some children who have been adopted in and it'll be neat to see to see this family.
Grow and just continue to grow in the things of the Lord.
Have just a couple more verses I want to turn to.
First John, chapter 3.
First John chapter 3, verse one.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not beloved. Now are we the sons.
Of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when we, when he shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure. And so behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Just. It's just so nice to step back and just behold, that means to look, look at the love that.
That God has for us, that he shows us.
We who Ephesians 2 Says were in darkness, we were without hope, without God, in this world completely lost.
But the Father loved us so much that he was willing to send his Son and to die for us so that through the shed blood of Christ we can be called the sons of God. And I had mentioned in this whole story the keyword is grace. And I just have one more verse about grace that I that I enjoy and I shared it with a few this weekend.
And it's in Romans chapter 5.
And second-half of verse 20.
Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And I think.
I think what first comes to mind is the cross. We know sin abounded at the cross. It was it was us who wanted the Lord Jesus there who were.
Mocking him and ridiculing him and nailing him to that cross. Sin abounded there, but we know that the Lord Jesus won the victory. Grace did much more abound. And I think this verse, it applies to everything in life. And I think the reason why it applies is because no matter where we turn, sin abounds for the moment we've spoken on how it won't be for much longer. That's in abounds, but for now.
It abounds.
But no matter where we look.
We can read the rest of this verse. Grace is much more abound, and we know that the Lord Jesus has already won the victory.
We can be thankful that we've been adopted into his family. Those of us who have accepted him as our savior, been adopted into his family. We can look forward to being with him and like him. We shall see him as he is.
As we have read and so let's as we go about and we see the the darkness in the world, let's just remember grace is much more abound and let's let's remember to thank the Father for the manner of love that he has bestowed upon us.
That's the same pin number 21.
#21.
About the same #18 and then.
2 Timothy 3&4
Walking the Path
Gospel 9