Address—Bill Prost
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Could we sing together #171?
171.
He bids us come, His voice we know, and boldly on the waters go. Thank you.
To him, our God and Lord, we walk on life's tempestuous sea.
For he who died to set us free hath called us with his word. 171.
He builds us calm, his voice way no.
And boldly on the waters go.
To go on December 2004.
Nor over pillows round us. Dread.
While on the Lord.
We look.
And I'll come to write his voice.
It is on the way.
Let's ask the Lord's help. Loving God our Father, we look up to Thee this afternoon and we thank Thee for the words of this hymn that we have sung together.
O we thank thee, our God and Father, that thou hast sent.
Thy beloved Son into this world, and we thank the Lord Jesus that as thou didst bid Peter to come to thee on the water.
So thou dost bid us to come to thee.
And to walk on life's tempestuous sea.
And we thank Thee not, although the pathway may be rough, Thou art with us, and that that pathway ends in certain glory, Sir. Now we look to Thee this afternoon as we open thy word together and pray for Thy help.
In the time that we had before us, praying that thou wilt use thy word in blessing to our souls, and that above all Christ might be exalted, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, to the Old Testament, to the book of Job.
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Book of Job, chapter 28.
I reminded myself when this subject came before me, I trust from the Lord that I had spoken on it before.
And there are at least a few people here who will probably remember that. But it wasn't here in Denver, and it was between 30 and 40 years ago. So I suppose we can be allowed to speak on it again. But I'd like to read the first few verses of Job chapter 28 down to the end of verse 8.
Surely there is a vein for the silver?
And a place for gold where they find it. Iron is taken out of the earth.
And brass is molten out of the stone.
He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection, the stones of darkness and the shadow of death.
The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant, even the waters forgotten of the foot.
They are dried up, they are gone away from men.
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and under it is turned up, as it were, fire.
The stones of it are the place of sapphires. It hath dust of gold.
There is a path which no foul north, and which the vultures I hath not seen. The lions whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.
And then turn over for one verse please, to the New Testament, John's Gospel, chapter 13.
John, Chapter 13.
And verse one.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come.
That he should depart out of this world under the Father, having loved his own which were in the world.
He loved them unto the end.
We want to speak this afternoon a little bit about the pathway of the believer through this world.
And I know you may think this is a rather unusual and interesting scripture to which to turn in order to bring that out.
Jove lived a long time ago, probably sometime around or a little after the time of Abraham.
And.
You're all familiar, I'm sure, with his history, how that God allowed untold sorrow in his life in order to teach Job something that he could not learn, perhaps any other way.
And during the speeches of Job and his three friends, we find sometimes, especially in what Job says, something that is very precious to our souls.
Here job takes us into the mining industry, which evidently they were doing way back then.
Perhaps not on the scale that they can do it today. They didn't have the sophisticated equipment and the ability to go down into the depths of the earth that possibly can be done to day, but nevertheless they did it.
And they knew about going down into the earth in order to find that which was not evident right on the surface.
And so it talks here about silver and gold and iron and brass, or it should be, I believe, copper, but that is not really important for our purposes.
And it talks in other places in the Word of God about mining. So does evident it was known back in that day.
Why does God bring it in here?
We want to emphasize this to each one of us this afternoon.
Because whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. And I believe way back in Job's time, God used Job to give vent to some of these things in order that you and I with the benefit of the New Testament.
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Can look back and see that God was teaching us through those things. An illustration of the principles in the New Testament. I would suggest that one of the thoughts here is.
That everything that is wonderful in this life is not right there on the surface. It takes effort to get it.
And nowhere is that more evident than in the Christian life.
We tend to want life easy today.
And don't get me wrong, I have no objection to modern conveniences or doing something to make it easier to achieve a certain task or whatever you want to get done.
But nevertheless, the fact remains that what we have to work a little bit for, we value more. And God has placed much of what he gives you and me in Christianity.
In a place where you and I have to exercise ourselves in order to get it.
No, I don't mean that in the wrong way, because there is much that is right on the surface, don't get me wrong, but at the same time God has provided that which you and I can have by diligent effort.
Remember reading the story of a man whom some of us were talking about the other night, A man who was actually born in England but lived most of his life in Canada, but ministered a great deal in both north in both Canada and the United States.
James B Dunlop. I never knew him, of course. He was long before my time, But what exercised him in the Lord's things at the age of about 24 was that Scripture. The soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
He said I want to have it and it's going to mean diligence and he got it much used of the Lord went to be with the Lord back in the late 1920s if I remember rightly.
But the point is in this chapter, and we want to dwell particularly on verses 7 and seven and eight, there is that which has to do with things outside the vision of this world which you and I can lay hold of only by faith.
And every believer here knows something about that, because you have had to lay hold of your salvation by faith.
And even the youngest child here that is saved knows that he or she had to grasp it by faith.
Wonderful.
And it did my heart good to talk to a young girl just the other day, six years old.
And we were reading together, all right. She was my granddaughter. OK, but.
I asked her. I said, Do you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
I'd never heard her confess Christ, although I was pretty sure she was saved. She said yes, I do.
By faith she laid hold of it.
But there's much more than that for you and me. By faith we lay hold as we were speaking this morning.
Of things that are outside the natural eye, the glories of Christ.
And they're brought out here, if I can say it, compared with the silver and the gold and the iron and the copper.
That have to be mined under the earth. Yes, Once in a while you can find a gold nugget, so they tell me and all you have to do is pick it up. But most of the time it's not that easy, is it? You have to dig for it takes effort.
But what about that path for the believer where you are going to enjoy those heavenly things?
Verse seven because this meeting isn't an hour long, we're going to have to go along a little more quickly than perhaps we would otherwise. Verse seven. There is a path which no foul knoweth.
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The Spirit of God knew when it penned these words that birds, I suppose, have the best eyes and probably the best ears in the animal Kingdom.
Some of you young people maybe know this, and maybe some of the children here too, but birds of prey especially, such as Eagles and Hawks and owls have tremendous eyesight.
Just to give you an idea, an eagle could probably stand on the edge of A10 Story Building, right up on the roof of A10 Story building.
And without any problem could see an Ant crawling around on the ground below. And if an eagle's flying up in the sky, he could probably see something that he wants to catch, like a rabbit or something like that.
Easily a couple of miles away. Amazing.
What does that bring before us?
There is a path which no fowl knoweth. What about the ears of some of those animals?
Absolutely amazing.
I haven't made a study of this, but I looked into it once just because I was interested in it. Owls have one ear set a little bit higher than the other so that the sound reaches 1 ear before the other.
Because of that hearing, they've got their own GPS system. They can track their prey, they know exactly where it is, the slightest rustle it makes, and they can hear it.
Even almost to the point of hearing the heartbeat of what they're after.
A hawk can hear a mouse under a foot of snow.
Wiggling its way through the grass.
But that brings before us, I suggest, the perception of the intellect of this world. Has man been able to do wonderful things? Yes, he has. Has he been able to discover things? Indeed he has.
And he's worked hard at it. He's worked hard at it. Some time ago, somebody gave me a book and said you ought to read this. And it was the story of the Wright Brothers as they literally invented the aeroplane.
Work, work, work, work, Day after day after day. Trial and error mathematics. Go and try it again. Have the plane crash. Oh dear, what went wrong this time? On and on and on till finally they got there.
But there is a path which no fowl know, and you can't discover it by human wisdom.
It can only be discovered by faith.
But what we want to emphasize is that there is a path.
And there are many who are giving up today, and it concerns many of us.
Not only because it grieves our hearts.
But because we know only too well the tendencies of our own hearts that if we're not careful, we could give it up too.
Why is it so difficult in these last days? Because the devil is making a very special attack if he can.
To destroy anything in this world, it honors Christ.
This isn't a young people's meeting, but young people. He's taking special aim at you, to use a common expression. He has you in his crosshairs. He doesn't worry so much. Sure, he's after everybody, but he's not so much concerned about people in my generation because he knows that within a few years we're going to be off the scene. But he wants to destroy your lives if he can.
And he's going to go at it, as the old saying goes, hammering tongs with any way he can.
In order to discourage you. But let me tell you, on the authority of God's Word, there is a path.
There is a path and it will be there right until the end, but no foul knoweth it.
And which the vultures eye hath not seen.
Vultures. What do they bring before us?
What's a vulture like to do?
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Feed on dead things, doesn't it? Feed on dead things? And the Vulture brings before us the activity.
Of this world energized by Satan, seeking to feed on that which is morally dead.
And that's what we're seeing in the world around us today. We are saying moral.
Death.
People that are very much alive, very much able to go about things in this life, but morally bankrupt because the absolutes of the word of God are being taken away from us so that basically everything becomes relative.
And that results eventually in moral death.
Vultures. They're looking for dead things.
I've never had this happen to me, but I can well remember my late father-in-law telling me about how he was visiting in southern Mexico in Oaxaca, and he liked to walk and he liked to try and keep up with those brothers down there as they walked out over the mountains. Occasionally they gave him a mule to ride on, but sometimes he walked. Of course, keeping up with those men that were used to it was.
Not that easy. And one time at the top of a hill, he.
Was obliged to lie down and just.
Like this and try and catch his breath, not realizing that he could pretty much follow Spanish. One brother looked down at him and said to another brother, do you think he's going to die?
And the other brother said no, he won't die. He said the spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.
But while he was lying there, the other brothers walked on a little ways and figured that he would catch up because it was going to be downhill from that point on. And my father-in-law opened his eyes into his great horror, saw this great bird slowly circling down, down, down, down. And he realized that if he didn't show some signs of life, that bird might land on top of them.
Vulture.
Are the vultures attacking Christians today? Yes, they are. Why?
Because Christians are playing dead.
Morally dead.
It can be brought out. Let's turn to the Book of Two Thessalonians to see.
What happens there? It is not brought out as death.
But rather as sleep.
Sorry, First Thessalon. Yes, First Thessalonians. I beg your pardon, not Second Thessalonians. First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
Verse six. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others.
But let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep, sleep in the night.
And they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Whether you're asleep or whether you're drunk, it's all one and the same. You are not alive as to what's going on.
And you and I ought to be alive in this world, because we're children of light.
And the Vulture cannot attack you in that path. But Satan is using his vultures today to attack young people in order to take you and me off, because he recognized that even though he can't take away the salvation from a believer.
If there is morally a giving up of some of these things that God has given us.
There's moral death, and that's what the Vulture preys on.
We don't need to go into specifics, but moral death comes from feeding that old sinful self. To be carnally minded is death. In scripture you get three kinds of men, natural men, spiritual men, and carnal men. The natural man is the one who has nothing but an old nature.
The spiritual man is one who, in the power of the Spirit, walks with the Lord, but the carnal man is a believer who walks in the energy of the flesh.
And when we go down that way.
Then we open ourselves up to those attacks.
But there is a path we can follow by faith that doesn't involve that attack.
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The Lions whelps have not trodden it.
I've had no experience at all with Lions.
I've only been to Africa a few times and at no time did I ever see a lion.
For those who have had anything to do with them.
Fear them greatly.
They're very powerful beasts.
In the days before they had guns, they were tremendously feared by those who had only homemade Spears and things like that.
Nobody tangled with a lion.
Yes, there were men in the Old Testament that could handle them. David killed 1, Bennyaya killed 1, and so on. But a fearsome animal?
But Mr. Darby's translation takes a broader look of it. And if you look in the Derby, it says the proud beasts have not trodden it.
This hits right where the rubber hits the road.
Because there is a tendency.
Even in believers for there to be pride in walking the Christian pathway.
I can't walk the Christian pathway with any degree of pride.
The proud beasts and the natural man is built on pride. It's the first thing that is mentioned in the things that God hates.
Now, we're not going to spend the whole time in this address on the negative thing, don't get me wrong, but we want to cover these things because they are a problem today.
The proud beasts have not trodden it.
And you and I, if we are going to walk the Christian pathway, there must be humility in the presence of God.
There must be the recognition that in every step of the pathway we need to walk in absolute dependence, and that goes for any age group. I cannot walk that path in my own strength. Some of us were talking about that earlier today.
Because I'm looking at a company that for the most part is gathered to the Lord's name and many here have been brought up. Thank God.
Under the sound of that good ministry, a wonderful heritage, but, sad to say, there can be, if we are not careful, a tendency to be proud of it, yes.
We perhaps have something that much of Christendom does not have, but as I was quoting to a brother, and this came from a brother many years ago, he said if we do have more than other believers in the body of Christ, we can do one of two things with it.
We can either use it to accredit and distinguish ourselves as a body, or we can seek to use it for the benefit and up building of the whole body of Christ. May we remember that that does not mean to compromise.
But it means that we seek to use what we have for the benefit and blessing of others.
That means reaching out, that means in our hearts embracing the whole body of Christ, while at the same time.
Being willing and gladly willing to walk a narrow path in faithfulness to the Lord, The devil wants to destroy that wonderful balance. The devil wants either to take us on the side of a broad path and a broad heart.
Or he wants to take us on the side of a narrow path and a narrow heart, and both are equally wrong. God wants us to have a heart as broad as that of Christ, but a pathway as narrow as His was.
The proud beasts have not trodden it.
Nor the fierce lion pass by it. Ah, the fierce lion is Satan.
Again, I say I've had little or nothing to do with lions.
The only time I ever heard a lion really roar was one that was in a zoo.
But I can tell you it made me jump because I wasn't expecting it.
And the roar was incredibly loud. I had never heard it before. For those who had to do them. I remember reading the story of some who were trying to build a railway in what is now Uganda in Africa way back about 1900.
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And the lions were a problem, terrible problem. They brought all kinds of workers in to try. And of course, being a hot climate and working on a railroad where every day the end of the tracks was further along, they didn't have any permanent settlement. How could you build a railway that way? So they had to sleep in tents, and they would surround those tents with fences made of thorns and everything so that no man could possibly get through.
Those thorns without doing terrible harm to his person. It was physically impossible.
And in the morning, a man would wake up.
Maybe six men would wake up and find the 7th man in their tent was missing.
And the lion had been so quiet and so careful that he had not only come through those thorns, but he had come right into the tent, killed that man with one bite, taking his body away silently so that no one even woke up.
Unbelievable.
And it happened time after time.
I finally got them.
If you want to see them, go to the museum in downtown Chicago. They're there and you can still see the scratches on the hides of those lions even though they're over 100 years old.
Where they went through the thorns, but they did it so quietly that no one ever heard them.
Picture of Satan the fierce lion.
That's out there to get you and me. He doesn't always appear that way. Sometimes he appears as an Angel of light, and that's what he's doing sometimes today. But he's also the fierce lion.
And again, he can't take away your salvation.
But he wants to destroy your Christian life.
But he can't touch you in the pathway of faithfulness to the Lord and in the enjoyment of Christ.
And I want to emphasize that in the last few minutes.
Some will remember reading The Pilgrim's Progress, and if you haven't read it, I would encourage you to do it.
And you will remember there was a time when the man there by the name of Christian came along and there were two lions.
And he thought, how am I going to get past them? One was on one side and one was on the other.
And if he made a wide berth around one, he'd fall into the mouth of the other. And if he made a wide berth around the other?
Then the other one would get him. How is he going to do it?
And if you'll remember, there was a path that went right between those two lions, and both of them were on chains, and each one could go only so far and as long as he stayed on the path.
Neither Lion could get him deviate this way, and this one would get him. Deviate this way and this one would get him.
You know John Bunyan didn't know all the precious truth that you and I know.
But in that illustration he brought out a most important principle, and that is.
Balance in the things of God, and we're not going to dwell on that this afternoon except to emphasize its importance.
Because a lot of problems among the lives of believers come from.
Not perhaps the embracing of positive error, but the holding of truth in improper balance.
And that, perhaps, is not the province of the young people so much as it is those of us that are older.
And if we don't hold the truth of God in its proper balance, we will get out of balance. And then the lion comes in right there and gets us.
Well, in the last few minutes I want to mention a little bit.
The positive side of things. Is there a positive side of it? Yes, indeed there is.
Let's look at the end of this very chapter in the book of Job, Job 28, verse 20.
Whence then cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?
Jobe was asking an honest question. He was up against it. Where do you get it?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
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Destruction and death say we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof, for he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven.
To make the wait for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the Thunder.
Then did he see it and declare it? He prepared it, yeah, and searched it out. And unto man he saith, Behold the fear of the Lord. That is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.
Now turn to Proverbs chapter 8.
Proverbs 8.
Here again we have wisdom brought before us, and notice what it says here. Wisdom personified.
Verse 22 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.
Well, as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
When He prepared the heavens, I was there when He set a compass upon the face of the death.
When he established the clouds above. When he strengthened the fountains of the deep, When he gave to the seas decree that the water should not pass his commandment, When he appointed the foundations of the earth.
Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.
Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth. And my delights werewith the sons of men.
Now a verse in second one, First Corinthians 1.
1St Corinthians 1.
Verse 30.
But all of him are ye in Christ Jesus.
Who of God is made unto us, Wisdom.
And righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written, he that Gloria let him glory in the Lord.
By faith.
You and I lay hold.
Of those precious things that God has for us in Christ.
They're meant to be enjoyed now.
If we go down to the second chapter of First Corinthians here we find that it says in verse nine, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
And we often have that verse brought before us, considering the portion of those who have departed to be with Christ.
Wonderful, and it's true, but what does it say in verse 10? But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.
There is a path.
And I can remember an old brother sitting at a Toronto conference many years ago.
And saying, brethren, what a blessed path it is.
But it is a path that I cannot find with natural wisdom. I cannot find it if I am morally dead. I cannot walk it in my own strength, especially in pride. But it is a path where?
The devil cannot attack me. The devil is attacking a lot today, and we are seeing more than one turned aside sometimes. Not with any special issue or any special problem, but simply general discouragement. General, if I could use the term, lackadaisical attitude. It's too much trouble. It's too much energy.
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Can the Lord give us that which is needed? Indeed He can, but what is the problem? What is the problem with my heart?
If I don't have the desire to go after those things.
May I suggest?
Among other things that I am taking a temporal view and not an eternal one. And in that sense it is not merely that I look forward to the joys of being in heaven with Christ, wonderful though they are.
The root of the problem in many cases is that I am blind.
Or the devil has blinded me till the glory of Christ.
We won't turn to it, but in 2nd Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul in talking of unbelievers, says the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light and it should read of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God should shine under them. He does not say that God has blinded their minds to their lost condition and their need of a Savior, although that is true also.
But primarily he is blinded their minds to the glory of Christ.
And the devil's whole energy today is to blind your mind and mind to the glory of Christ, so that instead of.
Enjoying the glory of Christ presently, right now, in everyday life.
Well, looking forward to a fuller and more complete revelation of it for all eternity.
He gets me thinking about how rough life is down here and how difficult it is and how can I cope with this problem or that problem or worse still, shall I say it?
Within the experience of the local assembly, this one rubs me the wrong way, or that issue bothers me, or this happened over here and I can't handle it, and so on.
I don't think that I am immune to that any more than anybody else. It affects us all if we're not careful.
But then, over and above it all, we see that One who is made unto us. First of all, wisdom.
And the wisdom of God will cause us to look at that blessed one.
Who in His person embodies, as we had brought before us the other day in the reading meeting, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And then it says that He, that Gloria let him glory.
In.
The Lord.
There is a glory of Christ that is shining. Now there is a glory of God that is shining.
In his face.
And the Lord Jesus wants us to understand and enjoy that glory, even here and now.
Can we do it?
That path is there.
But it's a bit like mining, as we've said, you want to know more of those glories of Christ. It takes diligence, it takes effort, it takes time, and it may mean having to give up something in order to get it.
It may mean having to give up something in order to have it.
We could. Our time is gone now. We could tell lots of stories, but there have been those who have given up much in order to enjoy those glories of Christ. Are we willing to do that? Sometimes it takes that, but it's well worth while. Just the same way as those who spend their time and their energy mining go down to get things that are not visible right on the surface.
But it's worth it because of what they can get.
And they're willing to make the effort. The natural man will make all kinds of effort.
Witness the gold rushes that have taken place in North America in the last 150 years, one after the other.
Right here in Colorado, you had one.
People would do anything, go after anything, endure any hardships and we had one up in the Yukon in Canada.
A lot of Americans came up there too, wanted that gold, willing to do anything in order to get it. God has given us that which is far beyond in the glories of Christ.
Let's sing part of a hymn in closing #168.
And will sing only the last two verses for the sake of time. 168, verse 4.
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O pardon us, Lord.
That our love to thy name is so faint, with so much our affections to move.
Verse Five O Kindle within us a holy desire.
Like that which was found in thy people of old. 168 verses 4:00 and 5:00.
Oh, pardon us, Lord, that our love to thy name is.
The faith with so much of.
Perfection still move.
Our call? Not much more. Spell us.
So let's go the love not.
So little.
OK, no weather.
The ladies are like that.
Which was?
Found in the.
Paper.
Whose hearts were on for?
All they were.
Cut and patience.
By face to.
Behold.
Bless God our Father, once again we look to Thee this afternoon and commend thy word to thee.
For Thy blessing upon it we thank Thee that even in these last days.
Thou canst tell us in thy word there is a path, and we thank thee for.
A path, Lord Jesus, that can only be found by faith in walking with thee.
A path in which thy glories are revealed.
We pray that we might, as we have sung together, have a desire for those glories.
To have it kindled within us that we might follow after Thee, blessed Savior, until thou dost call us home. We thank Thee, our God and Father, for the object that was set before us.
Keep that object before our eyes, we pray.
For we ask it, Lord Jesus, in thy precious and worthy name.
Mm-hmm.