YP Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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309.
Jesus, before thy face we fall, our Lord, our life, our hope, our all. For we have nowhere else to flee. No sanctuary, Lord, but the 309.
Before the.
I'd like to turn first of all to Jeremiah Chapter 9.
Jeremiah, Chapter 9.
And verse 23.
Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.
Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, but let the rich man, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glory of glory in this, that he understandeth the north me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And now the next chapter, the 10th chapter in the 23rd verse.
Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Oh Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
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Would you turn with me also to First Timothy chapter 3?
And verse 15.
But if I carry long, that thou mayest know how thou Artest to behave thyself in the House of God.
Which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground or base of the truth, and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit scene of angels, preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
And now would you also turn with me to Philippians?
Philippians, I'd like to read a verse in each chapter in the first chapter of.
Philippians and the 20th verse.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is game. And then the second chapter.
And the fifth verse.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Then in the third chapter.
And the 13th verse, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.
But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Now the 4th chapter and the 13th verse. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me.
Well, it's a privilege, dear young people, to be here and to look into your faces this afternoon. And if the Lord leaves us here, how many important decisions are made in youth? I believe the most important decisions of life are made in youth, and often those things that mold our whole life are decided by at least the age of 25. And so how important it is and that we should have right direction for our pathways.
As the world increases in its confusion, we hear about guidance teachers.
We hear about people going and consulting about all kinds of questions in business, marriage, all sorts of things. But isn't it a blessed thing that God has given us the light and wisdom of his precious Word, and He has also given us the person whose very name is Wisdom?
For it tells us in Corinthians, and that ye are in him who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And so it was on my heart this afternoon to speak of the importance of walking in the truth and with a right of purpose and object in our walk. You know there are many dear young Christians, and I'm sure that many of you have met them at school.
You met them in the place where you work and it's lovely to see their energy and desire for the Lord.
They really have the Lord before them. But as you talk to them, you find that there are so many things about God's Word and that they haven't been made clear about. And they have a person before them, but they haven't yet been guided, directed by the light and wisdom of His Word.
And then perhaps you talk to some of the young people in the meeting and you find out that they know a great deal more of the truth, but still they don't seem to have the person of Christ before them. And isn't it often so that we in this way become one sided? Was mentioned last night.
How in governmental circles they talk about a rightist and a leftist. And so it is in spiritual things. God speaks about the kings in the Old Testament, and he says about those who went on to please him. They turn not to the right hand or to the left. It's quite possible to be so taken up with having the Lord before you that you don't stop to listen to the directions that He gives in His Word.
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And so you're seeking to please the Lord, perhaps, but you haven't listened to the instructions in His Word about how you can please Him.
Or perhaps, as I say, on the other hand, you sat in the meetings, you have heard the truth ministered, you've read some very good and helpful books, and so it would could be said that you're quite well instructed in the fundamental things of Christianity. But somehow there seems to be lacking the enjoyment of the person that blessed One who ought to fill each one of our hearts to overflowing. He can't. The heaven and the heaven of heavens can contain him.
And surely He can fill our little hearts and fill them to overflowing. But perhaps that lack is in your life, as I often feel it is in mine. Well, that's why I had on my heart this afternoon with the Lords help to try and bring these two things together. And that is the importance of truth and the importance of a right purpose and object in our lives to give up one or the other.
That would make us extremists in One Direction or the other. And so I want to say as I begin here.
And that it's a very blessed thing to be brought up under the sound of God's word, to be brought up under the sound of the truth of God, to have within your reach and the precious ministry of many who have gone before, who have instructed us in the things of God.
But because sometimes we don't see the spiritual energy that we'd like to see either in ourselves or others, then we get a distracted we seek perhaps a wider path. But I believe that God has marked a path through this world for us.
And there is no reason why you and I cannot go on in the truth and also walk with the person before us.
You know we'll have to leave the path of the truth to have Christ before you because.
That would be to turn your back upon His revealed mind and the instruction that He has given us.
In his word.
And so here in Jeremiah Chapter 9, the Lord is speaking through Jeremiah and he says, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. No, there there are some young people amongst us and they have singular ability. Now they're very clever. But you know, there's a danger of us using this ability in order to get along in this world.
We find it's the habit of the world and of the enemy of our souls to always try and pick the best for themselves. The king of Syria came to the king of Israel and said your children, even their even the goodliest, are mine.
He claimed the very best of the people of God to be in his court, and to add to his importance, we find too when.
The children were carried down into captivity, Daniel and Shadrach, and Meshach and Abednego.
Now that king Nebuchadnezzar chose them because they were the best, the most clever, the ones who had poise ability to stand before the king. So he chose them to give them a good education and promote them high in the province of Babylon. But in the in the in the second case, we find that there was a purpose of heart and a disability that God had given to them would not be used just to increase the importance of Babylon, but it would be used to be a witness for the Lord in Babylon.
Better that was. And so if God has given to anyone a little more ability than another, it was brought to us yesterday. What hast thou that thou hast not received? Whatever we have, it's not our own. We're bought with a price. We belong to the Lord. He has paid a tremendous price, more than we could ever measure, to make us His very own. And then it says, let not the mighty man.
Glory in his might. Maybe there are some young people and there are here.
They're real really strong physically all they can do all kinds of feats at school and they can run, they can play and they they really have exceptional physical ability.
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Well, how nice it is to see those who have a body that is affirmative God for endurance use that for the Lord not to get along in this world, but to use what He has given us for Him.
And then it says, let not the rich man glory in his that not the rich man glory in his riches. Perhaps God has blessed you with a little more how the material means of this world and another. Well, it's not your own. The Scripture speaks of material things as being another man's. They don't really belong to us. What really belongs to us is the unsearchable riches of Christ.
But whatever material things we have, we are only stewards. They don't really belong to us. So why should we glory If we did happen to have a little more ability, a little more physical strength, a little more of the material things of this world, it's nothing to glory in it but increases our responsibility because we have received it from the Lord. But now it says here's something to glory in.
But let him that glorious glory in this that he understandeth.
And N me all that is the most wonderful thing in this whole wide world.
Not that you have been able to master things in this material world or make progress in this material world that may make you great in the eyes of your fellow man, but all. What a wonderful thing He understandeth and knoweth me. Oh, and dear young people, God has revealed himself. He has made himself known, and He has made himself known so that we might be able to know what is in his heart.
And then He has given us eternal life so that we can share His thoughts.
For eternal life is not merely the endurance or length of time that we will exist, because even the unsaved will exist eternally. But when it speaks of eternal life, it's explained to us in John 17. It says this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, That is, by new birth, God has given us a life by which we can enter into and enjoy his thoughts.
We can haul communion with the very one in whom we live and move and have our being.
I don't know of anything more wonderful than this. I have mentioned this little incident before, but it rather struck me and there were a couple of men and they were crossing the ocean on a ship and the two of them were standing on the side of the ship looking at a beautiful sunset. One was a believer and the other was an unbeliever. The unbeliever turned to the Christian and he said, he said, do you know of anything more wonderful than this, the sunset at sea?
It's so beautiful, yes, said the Christian. I know of something more wonderful. I know the God who made all those things. I know God is my father. I know the Lord Jesus as my Savior. Ah, that's far more wonderful. If you could be a clever scientist and master many of the things that men are now finding out in connection with this world which God has created, that wouldn't be half as wonderful as knowing the person himself.
If you had a personal acquaintance will say in his lifetime with Einstein, wouldn't you be very pleased to tell your friends, oh, I've not only heard about the wonderful inventions and discovery of that man, but he's a personal friend of mine.
Oh, how wonderful. It says Abraham was called a friend of God. Oh dear young people, you have a tremendous heritage if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you know the creator of the universe, and you can speak to him as one who loves you, one who's interested in the smallest detail of your life. For in him we live and move and have our being. You haven't a friend on earth. Whoever counted all your hairs?
But the one that we're talking about has counted your hairs. He knows the very number of the hairs of our head. Not even a Sparrow falls to the ground without his notice. And he says, Let him that glorious glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.
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Yes, people have various ideas of God. They have ideas of their own.
Out their own minds and they will tell you, well, I think God is this. I think God is a God of love. I don't think he would cast anybody into hell. And they'll tell you all kinds of things that they think about God, but they really don't know him. They think they do, but they really don't. Because the only way that we can really know him is through the revelation that God has given of himself, that God hasn't left us.
To find him by our own searching, it says in Job can stop by searching find out God.
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? Do you think that you can by any kind of searching, find out God? Well, you just have to look on the confusion of this world and find out whether it's possible. Just think of all the different religions. If I think of all the wise men in this world, have they found out God? No, the only way that you can move God is through His Word, and God has been pleased to reveal Himself through His word.
He has been pleased to make himself known as a God of light, as a God of love, as a God who, as the scripture says, humbles himself to behold the small things of our lives, who talks to us of the most intimate things in our whole life. There isn't a thing.
It tells us in the 139th Psalm that before I was even born and that God saw my substance yet being unperfect. And in His book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. Isn't that marvelous? Before I was ever born, God was taking notice how the very members of my body and then He gave me breath, and in my lifetime He tells me that there isn't a single thing associated with my family life.
My life among my brethren, my life in the world, my clothes, my hair, everything.
He's concerned about every single thing, and if there's a person says something that's a little unkind, he knows all about that. And he is one who enters into and sympathizes with us in our whole pathway, as we have been having in our reading. And in order to have our company and to be a faithful and merciful high priest, he's gone up there and he's a man in the glory, and he'll remain a man forever.
Oh surely, dear young people, we have something worthwhile. We have something that we ought to hold is the most marvelous heritage possible, and that God has made himself known not as one who is so far away that we really can't know too much about him.
But he has come down in the person of Christ and walked this world through in this world.
As our brother read to us, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Perhaps if I could put that verse very simply, it's like this God knew that men had wrong thoughts about him, and so he sent his son down into this world and he said, now they'll see in a man what is really in my heart toward them. And there was one in this world. For to be reconciled means to be before a person having.
No, nothing between and. So here we find the Lord Jesus walked through this world.
You want to know his sympathies? He wept at the grave of Lazarus. Do you want to know? Do you want to know how he felt toward a blind man? He stood still in a big crowd of people when a blind man cried out. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me.
He went to a home and there was one sister that was worried because she was having a little much too much to do.
And he talked to her and explained to her that she was too much occupied with things that were not as important as others. Oh, this is this is God revealed in Christ. That was what God really was. And yet at the end of that blessed pathway, what did the world say?
Well, it's a song thing to think of it, but I believe that is what is brought before us in the end of the 15th of John. It's just as if the world at the end of his life said, well, if that's what God is like, we don't want him. We don't want him for in the end of the 15th of John, it says as they have seen and hated both me and my father. Oh what a picture of the heart of man. And yet God didn't give up. If I one can speak reverently.
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The blessed Savior went into death and went for that we might be reconciled. We refused to be reconciled by His perfect life of love and grace and kindness. And so he went into death, and he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And now he's beseeching men to have right thoughts about Him, to be reconciled to God. And so I say again, what a privilege is yours, dear young people, if you know the Lord is your Savior.
You have the most wonderful heritage that any person could have upon the face of the earth. He understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. And for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Yes, I've often made this comment. The Christian is the only person who has an intelligent outlook on what's going on in the world. Do you think the wise men of this world do will read the editorial columns in the newspapers?
And you'll find that the wisest man have suggestions, but they have no solution. They just don't know what to do. As the Lord Jesus said. Men's hearts failing them for fear, distress of nations with perplexity. How can the Christian face it all so calmly? Is it because he just closes his eyes to what's going on? Oh no, God has called us his friends. The Lord Jesus said, I've not called you servants. I've called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father.
I've made known unto you. And so, because we're his friends, he, as it were, brushes aside the curtain and says, now I'm going to tell you what's going on in the world. You don't need to be confused like the rest of people. I'll tell you what's going on in the world and I'll tell you where things are heading. And you just watch the events take place. You watch the leaders move into their place. You watch things happen. And you'll see that I knew it all beforehand.
Known unto God are all his works from eternity. And so the Christian, as the little hymn says, through scenes of strife and desert life, we tread in peace our way. Oh, what a privilege then is ours. How we should value this precious revelation of God. That's the most up to date book in the world. It's far ahead of the daily newspaper. It's far ahead of the things that are coming off the press.
In this very day, because God only knows the future and knows it with unearning accuracy. And so how blessed we are. I'd just like to make a little mention here about sin. You know, there's a confused idea that many people have about sin, and especially in this day when the devil is seeking to blind people as to what sin is before God.
Because sin is the basic cause of all the trouble in this world, and nothing could be a more clever plan of Satan than to hide from man what sin really is. And so probably many of you young people have heard the expression Well, sin is just relative.
It's only what you've been taught, and if you've been taught one way, then you look on a thing as a sin. If you've been taught another way, you don't look upon it as a sin. Well, God gives us a clear definition of what sin is. Sin is lawlessness. It's the exercise of my own will and independence of God. It's just doing what I like without any reference to my Creator. As it says, the plowing of the wicked is sin.
The ploughing of the wicked is sin.
Pardon a little illustration that will help you perhaps to understand that verse.
Because a man might easily say, well I don't see anything wrong in plowing. Why does it say that? That's sin.
Well, supposing you were a farmer and you waken up one morning and you look out in your field and there's a man and he's plowing in your field. Well, you say to your wife, I wonder what that man's doing out there in my field. So you go out and speak to him and he, he's running the cloud in the field. And you say to him, Sir, what are you doing? Oh, he says, I didn't know there was anything wrong with plowing. Tell me, what's wrong with plowing?
Well, you say it's my field. You didn't speak to me. You didn't recognize my rights over that field at all. That's what's wrong. That's what's wrong. Well, he said I could get another instrument instead of a plow. Perhaps I could get a rake. Would that make any difference? No, he said. And you say that's not the point. You wouldn't recognize any responsibility to me. And now, dear young people, when you live your life with no reference to God.
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No sense of responsibility to God. That is sin. That is sin. Sin is lawlessness. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Can people sometimes say, is that a sin? If you have no reference to God in your life, if you haven't consulted Him about where you should go tonight and how you should act tonight, then I'm not going to ask you what you're going to do. But I say you know sin, that you didn't recognize your responsibility to Him.
You have a responsibility to God. Now, there are some things in His Word that He has made very clear, and I'd like to just give a couple of little instances in the Word about this, first of all.
When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, he gave them a command. He told them that there was one tree and that they were not to eat out, and they eat of that tree. That was sin. That was an act of positive disobedience to God.
But I want you to notice that after they had taken of that tree, the strange thing is that what caused them to hide from God was something else. Did you ever notice that? And when the Lord came down and walked in the garden and called Adam, what did Adam say? Adam said I hid because I was naked. God hadn't said anything about that. God never told him that that was wrong.
He told them that it was wrong to take that tree, but why did they feel ashamed that they were naked? That's the first instance of conscience in the Bible. There they knew that they had done something wrong and they had a conscience. And God has seen to it that every man has a conscience, even if he has never heard God's commands. Every person in this world has a conscience. Now, conscience will never tell you how great a Sinner you are.
It might be illustrated like this, supposing that you had a perfect vision, perfect vision, and you're in a dark room. Well, your eyes are all right, but you don't see very much because the room is dark. Nothing wrong with your eyes, but the room is dark. You maybe see a few things. Some of the things that are in the room, you're not just sure what they are because the room is so dim, but you know there's something in the room.
Well, that's like conscience without the word of God. Man knows he's a Sinner, but all of a sudden somebody switches on the light. Everything shows up and God's word illuminates conscience. God's word makes a man feel uncomfortable. And so why do people say, oh, I don't believe the Bible? Well, it's just like turning on the light and it makes them feel pretty uncomfortable. So you see, there are instances where there's a definite.
Going against the word of God, that's disobedience, it's transgression. Then there is the sin against conscience. But now just another little word for those who are Christians. Daniel, as we mentioned a few moments ago, was in Babylon. He was going to school in Babylon and the king prescribed that they should have certain meat and drink wine at the at the meal table cafeteria, if you like to call it.
They evidently had their meals together, and so that they were all provided with the meat that the king gave and the wine which he drank. Now you see, the word of God had condemned certain meats to an Israelite, and so he could say, no, I can't take those meats. They are forbidden of God.
But what about the wine which he drank? There was number express command to an Israelite that he was not to drink wine. Now I believe this brings in something else. Here were here was Daniel and his three friends in the court of in the school in Babylon and and now who do they want to please? Who do they want to please and they discerned in communion with the Lord.
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Without a direct command that this was something that would not be pleasing to their Lord, something that would be a hindrance to their testimony as those who wanted to please the Lord. Now dear young people, I say this to you. Perhaps you say, well, show me a verse that that's wrong. Well, some. There are some things you can show a verse, but there are also other things and that if you really want to please the Lord, He'll show you.
He'll show you. He showed Daniel and his three friends, and nobody said you've got to do this or got to do that. But inside their heart was a desire to please the Lord. And so when this situation arose, they acted faithfully, they acted firmly, and they recognized that that thing under those circumstances, in that position was wrong. And the Lord will guide you if you want to please Him. And there may be things in life.
Where you will have to be near enough to the Lord to discern his mind. That's why I say with young people.
We like to leave room for growth. We like to see them go on in the things of God and maybe there's something that you don't see anything wrong with today.
But if you seek to go on and walk with the Lord in time while He's going to show you that that thing is a hindrance to you living to please Him.
It's a hindrance to your testimony and the Lord will give you grace them to give up that thing.
Well, how wonderful to know that if there's anyone here that's not saved, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin, whatever your sin may be. And surely when we think of what sin really is before God, what countless sins, how many things have we done to please ourselves? Oh, you say, I just have a few sins.
Well, I could ask myself, how many things have I done to please myself? I dare not say to you that I just have a few sins. I have to recognize in his presence now that it's one disgrace. I'm a 500 pence debtor and he's frankly forgiven me and he'll do the same for you. He's a wonderful savior. I commend them to anyone here who doesn't know him. He wants to be your savior today. But now we read also in First Timothy chapter 3.
And the 15th verse. But if I tarry long, that thou mightest know how the oddest to behave thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Here we find.
The responsibility of the Christian in the House of God. Now I might say here.
That the House of God here doesn't refer to a physical building. It's not how you behave in a certain building which men term a church, which men might turn the House of God.
The House of God is that place on earth that is in the place of the profession of Christianity.
And so it's important that we should know, commit all the confusion that we see and that which bears the name of Christ. Is there a conduct that God has given to us in his word that is becoming Yes, I believe there is. Here it is that we might know how to behave ourselves in the House of God. And if we read God's precious word, if we acquaint ourselves with a revelation that God has given in his word.
Then we will know how we ought to behave ourselves as those who bear the name of Christ, who are in the place, in the ranks of Christian profession.
And then it goes on to say, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. I just like to speak a little of this last part of the verse. The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now the church doesn't teach the word of God is what teaches. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, But the church is responsible to be the support of the truth.
To be that which maintains and stands for the truth of God. And that is the purpose of the Bible readings that we have been having here.
Now, that is, if we profess to be gathered according to the mind of God, then.
We are responsible to maintain the whole truth of God. You may know of many places where you could go in the city of Toledo, and you know that there are some very sincere Christians. But perhaps when you go there, you know that the speaker who is there may perhaps teach that you could be saved and lost again. He might deny the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus. He might say that Christ could sin, but did not sin.
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Well, could you recognize that as being the support of the truth, where those things that are so vital to the person and the work of Christ are not maintained? Oh, brethren, surely this is very humbling to us because you say, oh, but they're nice Christians and they have the Lord before them, and thank God for that. What to God that some of us who knew the truth were more occupied with the Lord Jesus?
But this is no reason whatsoever to give up the truth of God. This is no reason to go and identify ourselves with a very vivacious and happy company of Christians who are not standing for the whole truth of God. God's assembly is responsible to be the base and support of the truth of God. And if in this meeting there is anything that is said or in the Bible reading, that is not according to the truth of God.
I hope that it will be corrected. The important thing is now that we have no right to handle a word of God deceitfully. We have no right to set aside any part of it. We have no right to say, well, we'll agree to disagree. We must stand for the truth of God. Now, of course, there may be little things that affect our personal walk that, as we mentioned before, are a question of personal growth in our souls.
When we speak of that which is the foundation, that which has to do with the person and the work of Christ, brethren, it's so important that we stand for the whole truth of God.
And in these days of testing, in these days when the enemy is so busy, May God grant that you, dear young people who are being brought up in the meeting, may value the Christian heritage that God has given to you and that you should be able to sit under the sound of the Word.
Where the truth of God is given out. Where the person and work of Christ are maintained.
And I'm thankful to say as I hear, I just heard this, I heard a short time ago about a man, a very important man, who taught that the Lord Jesus Christ could sin. And then I was amazed just about a week ago to hear about another man, very, very active among Christian young people, his works being read by Christian young people. And he made a public statement that the Lord Jesus Christ could sin.
Oh, brethren, May God in His grace keep us walking in the truth of God. They give us to value and walk in that which God is made known to us. And so the assembly, God's assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth. It is that which is responsible to support the truth. All you say, there's so much weakness, though. The meetings are so small. There's bickerings, there's little things.
Are the enemies at work the enemies at work? I must tell you a little incident, if you'll pardon a personal reference about my dear Father. He was asked to go up to Quebec City in Canada some years ago to visit a little company of Christians who had come out from the systems and who were, who are meeting simply in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he made the trip up there and.
When he met this little company.
One of the brothers said to him, he said, well, we've just come out from the churches, but we don't want to have anything to do with those known as brethren because they have so many divisions, so many troubles. We don't want to be identified with them. Well, I thought the Lord gave my father wisdom about how to answer him.
Said, well, I just like to ask you one question. Why did you leave? The church is where you are.
Well, we didn't think we could go along with some of the things that were contrary to the word of God.
And that's why we left. And he said, now you've just gathered together as a group of little Chris of Christians here, a little company, and you're meeting in the name of Christ alone. He said, do you think the devil's going to look on this little company here in Quebec City and say no, those Christians are so happy and they're so desirous to please the Lord, I'll just leave them alone. I won't bother them at all. I'll just let them go on happily together.
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Well, he hung his head. He said. No, I suppose he won't.
And he said, when trouble comes in among you, what are you going to do?
Well, he said, I suppose we'll have to stand for the truth. And brethren, so it is. The enemy will never leave that little company alone. He'll do his best to bring in personal bickerings. He'll do his best to bring in distractions. He'll do his best to bring in anything and everything to rob us of the precious truth of God and to rob us of that precious harmony.
One with another. So isn't this next verse lovely if the 15th verse brings before us?
The responsibility of the assembly as being the pillar and base of the truth. Isn't this 16th 1St lovely because this brings before us a person, a person and without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit scene of angels, preached under the under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. What is the secret of godliness?
Oh, it's the Lord Jesus Himself in His blessed pathway here through this world. It's a person you know. I'm sure we all recall the instance in the 6th chapter of John when the Lord spoke faithfully. He said is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profit is nothing. And many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then the Lord turned to the 12.
And he said, Will ye also go away? And Peter, who had a person before him, made this remark. He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe in our assure that thou art the Christ.
And the Lord's answer must have surprised you. It surprised me. I meditated on it for some time.
I thought the answer was very, shall I say, surprising? The Lord said to Peter in response. Have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? Why did the Lord make an answer? Why didn't he say, Peter, that's lovely, I see you're here because I'm here. Why did the Lord answer him in that way? Well, I think of it like this. It's just as if the Lord said, well, Peter, if you're here because I'm here, then don't look at the crowd.
There's another disappointment ahead and brethren, it's important for us. Let's not have our eyes upon the crowd. There's only one. The mystery means secret here. There's only one person who is the secret of godliness and his blessed pathway as we have been having in our reading gives us the secret of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, as we remarked here was one in this world who perfectly.
Revealed God. He was God manifest in the flesh. He was justified in the Spirit.
The Spirit of God came down at his baptism and marked him out. You say I've been misunderstood, I've been falsely accused. Things have been said about me that are not true. The Spirit of God never falsely accused you.
The Spirit of God never falsely accused you. He knows everything. The Lord Jesus was falsely accused, but he was justified in the Spirit. The Spirit of God came down and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And if the Spirit of God falsely accuses you, then I say you would have a reason to leave the meeting. That could never be though, could it? And so isn't this lovely? The secret of godliness is.
Here was 1 manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.
Scene of angels. The angels looked down and saw their Creator as a man here in this world.
And the angels are looking down. They're looking down to see the wonders of God's ways in the church. They look down to notice whether a sister has a covering upon her head. Have they noticed things in our lives too?
And so there is in the Word of God that which is, as Paul said, were made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men preached under the Gentiles. I think this is lovely too, because when the Lord Jesus was rejected by the nation, what did he do while his grace reached out beyond the nation to the Gentiles? Did somebody hurt you? Somebody did something unkind and mean and you said.
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I'll never try to do anything again. That's all the thanks I got. What happened when the Lord Jesus was rejected by the nation?
Well, he just went on, and if those people wouldn't have him, the branches grew over the wall. Blessing reached out to the Gentile, and in his blessed path, where we find the blessing of the Sarah Phoenician woman, we find His grace reaching beyond the limits of Israel. Oh dear young people, if somebody's hurt you and said something, don't give up. That's just what the devil wants you to do, just exactly what he wants you to do. Some perhaps, and perhaps an older brother or sister for always hurts a little more when we older ones say something unkind.
And you know when when this happens, it's very easy to say, well, I'm not going to come to the meeting anymore. Nobody cares how the Lord cares. Don't give up. Don't give up. The Lord allows that testing, but he loves you. He wants you to be his friend, his companion, and then believed on in the world that is, there were results. In spite of the fact that he was rejected, there were results and we'll meet those in glory.
Yes, there were results from the blessed work of that rejected 1.
Down here and God will see to it that if you go on for Him, there'll be results. They'll be manifested when maybe not here. He was received up in glory. They'll be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ. All dear young people, don't give up. Don't be discouraged. Don't think because somebody said something and hurt you and that this is a good reason. That's just what the enemy wants. Go on the assembly then we see is the pillar and base of the truth.
But the secret of godliness in the assembly is a person and having.
That person before you and you will never be sustained in the path. God is testing you and your youth. God is testing you when you're young because He knows that. If the young people go off, when I go to an assembly and I see that the young people have gone and they're just a few older ones, I must say it almost breaks my heart. I know there's just what the enemy wants. He just wants to see all the young people discouraged and gone.
But all what a word of encouragement here. God has made himself known. He has a testimony here upon earth and he has a person to set before our souls. Now I just want to read these verses that we looked at just very briefly in Philippians because.
Was my purpose to say a lot about these verses, but just to bring in a few thoughts.
Philippians chapter one.
And verse 20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether we it be by life or by death, or to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Now, my father used to have a little saying. Some of the older ones have heard him say it if we did any everything right.
Nothing would be right unless the motor was right. And now that's why I read Philippians, because I could spend time here to trying to correct a lot of outward things. I could spend time here talking to you about things important in their place that have to do with outward things. But I want to talk to you now about the moral springs of your life. What is your purpose and mine in life?
Here was Paul's, he said. My earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing.
I shall be ashamed that is, he wanted to live in such a way that his blessed Savior would approve of the way he was living his life at the Mall of Springs that controlled his life would not be self, would not be what other people said and thought and did.
But that Christ would be the one whom he could speak of as.
His life he is our life in the absolute sense, but in a practical way that he might be our life is a little hymn says not we may live while here below, but Christ our life shall be. Is that your earnest expectation and your hope is this what you and I are living for now that our lives might be for him, that he might be the one who is the.
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Motive Spring of all our actions.
Why, as I say, you could get people to do things in an outward way and there be nothing for God in it at all when the Lord Jesus was here. They kept the Passover most scrupulously. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles most scrupulously. But it was the Feast of the Jews, Feast of the Passover. It was the Jews Feast of Tabernacles. And you could go on. And outward things that you could mold yourself in outward things.
But now I want to talk about the inward. The outward is important, and I'm not belittling it, but I'm speaking about the N word. Is Christ really the purpose of our lives? Are we really seeking to live in such a way that He would be magnified in our bodies? As another has said, we are a testimony and nothing else. That's all we are here in this world, a testimony of nothing else.
As it was read to us now then we are ambassadors for Christ. That is the important thing that we should live in this world as those who have Christ himself as our life and this manifesting itself in our pathway now in the second chapter.
We have him brought before us as our example and I haven't time to go into all the details of this chapter.
But many that are acquainted with the Epistle to the Philippians remember that there was something that burdened the heart of the apostle in Philippi.
And that is, there was envy and strife and vain glory, and there's nothing so chilling as when there is that sort of thing at work among the people of God. And what was the apostles reply in the midst of all this situation? Well, I don't believe there's any epistle that ministers Christ in such a lovely way as is brought before us in the epistle to the Philippians. Christ is our life. And now?
In this chapter Christ as our example, and it brings before us how the Lord.
Who was?
God himself to his God himself.
Came into this world and took the lost place and now this is the example God has given to us. And you say, well, I follow brother song, so I think he's a godly man. I follow sister so and so I think she's a very godly person. But you have the wrong example. You have the wrong example. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Whoever you set your mind upon, that person may fail.
And if you do, if that person fails, you're very likely to go down with them. But if you and I make Christ our example, what a perfect pattern? Could we have any more perfect pattern? Oh, don't make any other Christian your example. Imitate their faith, but only have one example, and that is the Lord Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus and now in the third chapter.
And the 13th verse, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Well, here when it talks about forgetting those things which are behind, it's not primarily Speaking of forgetting past failures.
In a sense, we should not forget past failures. Paul had to say to the Ephesians, Wherefore remember that she being in time past Gentiles in the flesh.
Paul never forgot that he once persecuted the Church of God and wasted it. But there's something we can afford to forget.
We can afford to forget that anything that we've done for the Lord in the past, if you lived yesterday for the Lord, you can forget about that because God has got the record down. So you can afford to forget about it because He won't. He won't forget about it. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.
And the trouble with us is when we try to remember some of the good things that we've done.
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That's liable to make us proud and think that we're getting somewhere. So Paul said, he said I don't want to look back and make a kind of a report in my life and see how I'm getting along. I might get popped up if I thought I had lived for the Lord. I might think I was somebody. And dear young people, I'm not going to encourage you to look back on your life if you failed on it to the Lord. But don't look back to pat yourself on the back. You'll only spoil your.
Your object having the object before your soul.
Man was trying to break a path across a field of snow, and they realized he was making a very crooked path. So he set his eye on a tree on the other side and he started on. And then he thought, well, I must look back and see how I'm getting along. And there he saw this crooked path. And then when he had put his eye on the tree, he had done very well. And he started encouraging himself how well he was getting along. And then he realized he wasn't looking at the tree.
It was really looking at how he was getting along so quickly. Put his eye back on the tree and I went. But when he got to the other side of the field, he spoiled that nice path while he looked back to compliment himself on how well he was getting along. Hold on, look back, keep your eye on the Lord. If he's kept you to this day, thank him. But if you get your eye off him, you might make a little break in your path. Any of us could, doesn't matter who we are.
How may we have our eye upon Him? We have a right object for our hearts. We have His truth, but we need to have a person. As I said, there needs to be a right object, a right purpose in our lives. And then the last chapter in the 13th verse, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. You might say all, but it's so difficult. You don't know what it's like in the place where I live, in the office where I work.
There's problems in the assembly. The Saints are not as happy as they used to be. There are no young people.
He asked. The Lord knows all about it. He knows all about it, everything. He's a merciful and faithful high priest, and He knows all about just exactly what you're trying to face. And when God wanted a man to write this verse, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. He didn't choose a man who was enjoying good health and sitting in a nice parlor or in a nice study writing letters. I sit in a very comfortable study sometimes when I write letters.
But.