Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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See it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.
And another verse in the First Epistle of John.
First Epistle of John and the.
2nd chapter and verse 12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His namesake.
Well, first of all, and we have forgiveness brought before us through the Old Testament. There was number one that really had the conscious knowledge of judicial forgiveness. You know when David sinned by the prophet said to him, the Lord hath forgiven my sins. But it wasn't something that could be enjoyed as a present thing and knowing that the whole question of sin had been settled.
So that they could say at any time in their whole Christian or believing history.
And that their sins were all forgiven, but when the Lord Jesus accomplished that blessed work on Calvary's cross.
Then the groundwork, righteous groundwork, was laid so that every believer is entitled to know that as a present thing our sins are all forgiven. We don't need to come to the Lord over and over again and ask Him to forgive, forgive us. But as it says in Colossians chapter one, giving thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inherent inheritance of the Saints in life. Who?
Delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. This is something that even the youngest child in the family of God is entitled to know, that all his sins are forgiven. I don't speak in the way of future sins, but in another way it's true.
Because God never speaks of future sins in the life of the believer.
He always tells us that if any man sin we have an advocate. That is when a believer sins. It's not normal Christian life. But nevertheless it is true that the whole question of sin was settled once and for all. And all our sins were future when the Lord Jesus died and he's not going to die again. And if he didn't settle the question of our sins at Calvary, they never will be settled.
So everyone of us here tonight who have received the Lord Jesus as our Savior and say with assurance, like it says there in First Epistle of John in the second chapter, your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. You can give thanks that at every moment in your whole Christian life, this is true of you and you never need to come and ask for the forgiveness of your sins again.
Judicially.
That has been settled. The whole judgment of sin fell upon the Lord Jesus.
He bore all the judgment and he exhausted it. And so let me say again, your sins are forgiven. You. Everyone of us are entitled to enjoy this. And that's what Paul preached in Acts 13. This was a new thing to those at Antioch as they listened to him preach.
This man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. He said that couldn't be sold through the law of Moses, but it is so now that we can know and enjoy this. But then he also said, and by him, or as the new translation is in him, all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now it's more to be justified than to be.
Forgiven. If I were to do something very, very unkind and you forgave me, I still might not feel at ease in your presence. I might feel, well, that person's forgiven me, but I wonder what they really think of me. So that God has not only forgiven us, but when it says He has justified us, it means that He has brought us into a new position before him. And so he sees us not only.
Forgive them, but as justified from all things, you as a believer are before God in a position as though you had never sinned at all. And more than that, because Adam was in the Garden of Eden and he had never sinned up to that point, but he had a life that was capable of sinning and he did sin. So if you and I were only put in the position as though we had.
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Sin, by then we might lose that, because Adam lost it, if that was all that we have. But oh, isn't it lovely that we have more than that it says in him? And so where is the believer seen in Christ, and how blessed to know? As it tells us in John's epistle, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, and his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin.
He is born of God, or again, as it says we are, He has made us holy and without blame before Him in love. So I want each one here, every young believer, to know that you're not only forgiven, but right now and in perpetuity that is.
For all the rest of the time and for all eternity, God feeds you in Christ.
And this is a very wonderful thing to know that really gives liberty and the soul to know that God is looking at every young believer and every older one in this room tonight as before him in a life that never sinned and never could sin the same life that you'll have in glory so that this is where God has placed you forgiven them and justified from how many things from.
Things, as it says in Romans 8, it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? Well, it's very precious for us to lay hold of these things. Anyone who enters into this truth would never think of accepting the doctrine. You could be saved and lost again, because if that's the way God sees you, why then you can rejoice in the place He has put you in and just thank Him for it.
So it tells us too that we are before him in this way.
And this is what sets the heart at ease in His presence. For I quote the verse again in Romans 8. It is God to justify us. Who is he that condemneth? We have been justified in the highest court, and no charge could possibly be laid against the one who has been justified, so that we're entitled to know this and rejoice in it. And as it tells us in John's epistle again.
It says as He is, so are we in this world. Where is the Lord Jesus now? He's there in glory. He's there as the one who has settled the whole question of sin and sins and is there and we are seen in him. And as He is, so are we in this world.
We we can know this and we can enjoy it right now, here in this world.
Will not have a better standing before God when we get home to glory than we have right now. So how blessed to enjoy these things. Now let's turn to a couple of verses about sanctification. First Corinthians chapter one.
And verse 2.
The Church of God, which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. And then in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Well, here we have what I could perhaps speak of as positional sanctification. Now He's spoken about forgiveness. We all understand how a person can forgive us. But God does more than that. He puts us before him in a new life, in a new position. We are seeing in Christ the righteousness of God in him.
But now the truth of being sanctified simply means that we are set apart and you know this world in which we live is under judgment before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, he said now is the judgment of this world. Just like a man who is in the death cell the the sentence has been pronounced upon him. He's just waiting for the day of execution. That's the position in which this world is and God at the point of the day in the which he will.
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The world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead. So this world is under judgment. We're living in a doomed place, but we have been set apart. We don't belong to it anymore. As the Lord Jesus said in the 17th chapter of John, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
We're set apart. We don't belong to this world anymore.
And this is our position as before God and as we were noticing the other night in First Corinthians Chapter 11. The Lord may deal with us as those who have been willful in our ways, but it says when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. We're just not part of this world at all. We belong to heaven. We are.
Sanctified and those at Quorum.
Addressed as being sanctified in Christ Jesus set apart. And then what we have in Hebrews chapter 10 is very precious, because by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. This is a place that we have been brought into because of the completeness of the work of Christ, because God has been perfectly glorified.
And then we're not just sanctified till we sin again, but.
He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. So positionally every believer has been sanctified or set apart.
Paul speaks of it too, in Hebrews.
As being set apart from all those things that they went on with before. That is, when they sinned, they had to bring a sacrifice and the sacrifice had to be offered. If they sinned again, they had to bring another sacrifice. It wasn't possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin.
So he brings in sanctification there as being set apart from all those things that were only types and shadows of good things to come.
And that's why he says forever, because in the Jewish ritual, as we know, there are many sacrifices. The Day of Atonement rolled around every year. The question of sins was brought up and it says it was constantly before them. It was, It says in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year just constantly went on. But now.
Since the Lord Jesus has accomplished this work.
Set apart not only from a world under judgment, but no longer having to go on with anything that has to do with putting away sin before God. We're set apart from all that. It's complete and we can rejoice in it. But now there's the practical side of sanctification.
When we speak about being forgiven and justified, that is what God has done for us, but when it speaks about sanctification now it is brought before us in a practical way.
Let's turn to John chapter 17 where the Lord Jesus prayed.
And the 16th verse.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And now let's turn over to 1St Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23. And the very God of peace, sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body.
Be preserved, blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Now here the Lord Jesus in his prayer the 17th of John, says that we're not of the world, that is, we're positionally sanctified. But then he also says and prays to the Father, Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
So Paul brought before the Corinthians that they were positionally sanctified, but he brought before the Thessalonians.
That he was praying for them, the Lord was praying for his own that they might be sanctified through the truth, and Paul was praying for those at Thessalonica that they might be practically sanctified. Now there's a difference between being positionally sanctified and being practically sanctified of sometimes use the illustration. Perhaps they've mentioned it before that if you went into a store and there were some baskets of apples on.
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Floor and you picked out one of those baskets and bought that basket and paid for it and you said to the store keeper, now I'm coming back in an hour and I'll pick that up. So he writes your name on the handle and marks it paid and that really belongs to you.
In his mind, it has been set apart for you. It's not for sale. It's been set apart, I say for you.
And there exists, but it's with the other nine baskets now on the floor. And so a little while afterwards, some person comes in and says, I'd like to take that basket of apples. Well, he said, see the name on the handle that's been sold and I can't sell you that one. And a little while later, someone else comes in, picks the same one.
And so he realizes there's a little bit of confusion there.
And so he takes that basket with your name on it and Mark paid and he puts it out in the back of the shop. Now it isn't anymore yours when it's out in the back of the shop than when it was sitting there. It had your name on it. Was Mark paid? But there's no confusion now because it's in a separate place. And I think perhaps you can see the point that.
We're sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
He's paid the price and in God's account we have been set apart and set apart for glory, no longer part of this world, and we belong to Him. But you know, we can mix with this world and we can go on with this world and we can.
Make choices in life that are not according to God's will. And if that is so, we're not acting like those who have really been set apart. As we notice, the Lord Jesus said that we're not of this world, but Peter said whosoever will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. I believe it was James said that.
Whosoever, therefore, will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God.
That is, when we go along hand in hand with the world, we're not really acting as though we have been set apart as belonging to the Lord.
Now I'd like to speak a little bit, dear young people, about the practical application of this because I believe it's very important in our lives. The decisions that we make in life are so very, very important and many a dear Christian can be like poor Lot. He belonged to glory and I'm quite sure I'm going to meet Lot in heaven, but he wasn't practically sanctified. He chose the well watered plains. He.
His family under the sad influence of things down there in Sodom, and he had a saved soul, but a lost life, if I can speak of it in the way I'm talking of it tonight. He was positionally sanctified, but not practically. And so how needful for us in making our decisions in life that we should seek the Lord's guidance so that we would make them.
In the way that would acknowledge that we are not our own.
We are bought with a price. We belong to him. Now let's turn to this passage that we read in.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 23 and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. This is a lovely expression, the God of peace.
In my mind, I connected with that verse in Proverbs.
Where the Father is laying before his boy the path of wisdom in this world, so full of confusion and sin. And this is what he says.
He says her way, wisdom, ways, that is, her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. How many a dear Christian has followed the wrong path and has found anything but peace in it?
He may have found some of the supposed fun of this world, but I'm sure.
That you don't find peace in that kind of a path. And so here it says the very God of peace sanctify you. Holy dear young people, the Lord wants you to go on in your Christian life with joy and peace. He says earlier in this chapter, first Thessalonians 5 and the 16th verse, rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, so you can see how He wants us to be happy.
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And he also wants us to walk in peace.
And so here he says, sanctify you fully, not just in some things in our lives, but in all things. God has a positive will for us in everything. And the Christian is to seek the positive direction of the Lord. When I'm traveling, I don't just try all the different roads and then finally hope that I'll light on the right one. I like to look at the map and start out in the right one and follow the.
One, I like to have positive direction that sometimes we say before we start out, let's look at the map before we start so we won't make some bad turns and then have to retrace our steps. And so this is what he's telling us here.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Now you know a man is a triune being.
When I say a triune being, I mean just what it says here. He has three parts to his being. He has the spirit and the soul and the body. When God speaks of the lower creation, he never speaks of the lower creation as being spirit, soul, and body. He speaks to the lower creation as having breath and life and a certain amount of emotions. And they have bodies, certainly, but the lower creation?
Has no God conscious part to their being, but God has made man's soul. Animals have instinct, but they're not intended to be directed by God-given commands. You notice when God placed all those animals in the earth and and birds and so on. He didn't.
He didn't tell them what to eat and not to eat as a command that they might obey or disobey.
Gave them some instincts which certainly control their lives to a very large extent. But with man, he wasn't intending to have him governed by instinct, but instead that he might listen to the voice of his Creator and obey him in obedience and love. And so he spoke to Adam, and he told him that he might eat of all the trees of the garden, but one tree.
Not to eat of and he warned him what would happen if he did. So he gave him intelligent direct direction for his pathway. And as Christians too, God has given us in his word direction for our pathway. And it says.
Blessed is he that I'll read it. It's in Proverbs 8, Proverbs chapter 8, and verse 33.
Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it. Not blessed is the Mass watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. So here he shows that there is a blessing and just waiting for instruction from the Lord for our pathway.
So I wish to speak about how man, men and women, young people too, are made-up in this way, spirit, soul and body. And this is the way the Lord directs us and sanctifies us wholly, that is in a practical sense. And we ought to make every decision in our life in this particular order that's given here if we would be preserved.
Pathway for God's glory. Let us suppose now that here's a young person, he's thinking about what kind of employment, what job he would like to have in life. If the Lord should leave him here, why isn't it nice that he can turn to the Lord in prayer and instead of saying, well, I'd like to be this and that. He can ask the Lord to direct him. And that's why the Spirit comes first, the intelligent God conscious.
Part of the being.
Sometimes you hear people say they like something, and then after they've spent a lot of time preparing for it, then they wonder if they can really honor the Lord in that particular thing they thought they liked so well. Wouldn't have been much better to have asked the Lord in the beginning and said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He has something for you to follow In life. I've seen young people who have spent a lot of time.
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Preparing and then been very disappointed afterwards because they found that they had prepared themselves for something that they weren't really sure the Lord wanted them to be in. Well, I believe it's very, very important, dear young people. The spirit then is the intelligent God conscious part of your being and God has given you to know whether you have first of all been fitted for a certain line of work. Secondly, whether you can honor.
Glorify Him in it. And now if I haven't the ability to make certain grades, well then I realized that perhaps the Lord has something for me other than trying to go on with something where I might require a great deal of mental training. So God fits each one to fill a certain place in life.
Just as in our bodies, God sets in the body as it hath pleased him.
He didn't intend that my hand would fulfill the same function as my feet. He gave to each a place in the body. And so in the Lord Jesus went away. It says He gave to every man his work and commanded the Porter to watch. And so I just want to say in a very simple way to you, dear young people, before you think of making that kind of a decision.
Pray about it. Consider it well if there's some way of finding out.
What's going to happen if you graduate in this? Are you going to have to belong to some association or union that will give you a bad conscience then? Or is it worthwhile spending years preparing for this and then finding out when you're done that you're going to have to have to do something with a bad conscience? Why isn't it much better, as the Scripture says, about counting the cross, thinking beforehand, and God has given you He?
Direction and his word and he has given you intelligence. There are two things that we need. As we were noticing the other night when the Lord directed the children of Israel, it was the commandment of the Lord and it was also looking up, which corresponds to prayer. And so I ask you, when you make these kind of decisions and search the word of God, see if you can really honor that. Honor the Lord in that particular work.
And then you can fulfill what first Corinthians 7 says that every man abide in the same calling for any is called with God. That's very happy. That's why he says the God of peace. It's very happy when you go to work day by day to feel that you're in a position where you can honor the Lord.
And it really gives you peace in your soul. And do you think the Lord is interested in this?
By the Lord Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, and what is his truth, thy word, his truth. And then Paul prayed for these Thessalonians who once lived to do their own wells, that now they would be set apart wholly as blind to the Lord, sanctified, holy. So there's first the body, and then the next is the soul. And in the Bible the soul is the state of the emotions or desires.
So it says, the desire of our soul is to thy name.
And the remembrance of thee, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. The soul is always looked at, as the emotions says about the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. You'll always find the soul when spoken out by itself in that way.
It's always the emotions in US. And so before you say, well, I like it, I'm going to go into it, say now I want to ask the Lord about this. I want to search his word about this. And then you let your emotions go next. And then you hear Christians say, Oh, I like my job and.
They if they prayed about it and they have really thought the Lord's mind, then how happy you can be.
And doing that job as the very job that you have the consciousness that the Lord intended you to be in. Oh, that's a very lovely thing, dear young people. And this will make your life a happy one, and it will also make your life a blessing to others. Because I've seen young people prepared for something. Then when they got into the profession, there was something about it. They just felt they couldn't honor the Lord and their mouths were shut. They couldn't say anything.
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Anybody else? Because there was this little question mark about the things they were doing themselves. And so they not only weren't happy themselves, but they spoiled their testimony. So you can see there's first the spirit, the God conscious, intelligent part of your being, and then there's the soul, the emotions. And that you can say when you find that work and that niche in life God intends you to fulfill, you can say I like doing this. I really feel this is where the Lord wanted me.
Be and there's a sweet piece in that. And then of course, the last one is the body. In other words, you have to be there physically to do the job. But you first of all thought of it before God. Then you have said I, I, I'm sure I can like that. And to allow your emotions to go and then you're there physically, the place where you are in your body.
Well, that refers to your job. That also refers to your friends, you know.
We can see how that sometimes a person might get into bad friendship. You meet some likable person in the world and maybe he's a very likable character because there are many people that you could call nice likable people in the world. Jesus looked at a man who wasn't saved and as the Lord spoke to him, says Jesus looking on him, loved him. But he said you like one thing and so you can see.
Traits in people you can be very thankful at all. The world isn't so miserable and impossible that it's hard to live with. I'm very thankful if a man who works beside me or lives next door to me is a kindly man. I'm glad all the animals aren't wild animals. Some of them are tame. And so God hasn't allowed us to see the full results of the fall in this world. But remember.
That if that person is not saved.
Why if you make a friendship with that person, why you're making a friend of someone who's really an enemy of the Lord in his heart. Whosoever, therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And here's a verse that gives you direction about choosing friends. 119th Psalm on the 63rd verse it says, I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy.
Sex and so when you're thinking of choosing friends way and intelligently before the Lord.
Don't just allow yourself to get carried away.
With some nice person who perhaps is not saved when they lead you away from the Lord. Like Peter going and warming himself at the world's fire. And then it wasn't long. He was denying his Lord, and perhaps those men talk friendly to him, was rather comfortable on a cold, cold day to sit down by the fire there. But it wasn't the right place for Peter to be.
He might have to work with the ungodly, but it's another thing to find your relaxation with them.
So there he chose the wrong kind of friendship and it ended in disaster. And so there's first of all, I am a companion, first of all, the spirit. You see those first of all, who are the Lords and those who keep his word. And then you say, then you let your emotions go. Then you're willing to make those those persons your friends that you can share many things with and.
Of course, the body then goes last. You become their friend, you perhaps go out with them and have nice times of fellowship together. And then there's also the thought of where the Lord would have us to be gathered. Now I And when you speak to people in the world and ask them where they go and what group they fellowship with, you'll often hear them say, Oh well, we have such a nice group and we have a nice minister.
They're doing a good work and I just feel so happy down there. And you say, well, but is it according to God's Word? Well, I think they're doing the good work and I think there are a lot of people being saved and it's really a nice place to be. Is that the way we should be guided? No, I believe, dear young people, we should go to God's Word.
And in God's Word, we find God has marked out a path.
You remember what the Lord said to Gideon. He had 10,000 people with him. Nice to have that many helpers, 10,000 and they all were willing to go with him and fight the Lorde battle. But the Lord said Gideon, whom I say shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. Whom I say shall not go, with thee, the same shall not go.
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That must have been very disappointing to poor Gideon to see that 10,000 meltdown to 300.
That's all he had left when the Lord showed him who was to go with him. And sometimes when we follow the path of obedience to the word of God. Now see, I'm trying to bring before you spirit, that is the intelligent God conscious part of your being, searches the Word and says, where does the Lord want me to be? What is the path of obedience to His Word? You pray about it and you go there. There's not a big crowd.
There's not 10,000 or anything like that. There's often less than 300 that Gideon had. It really may get down to pretty small numbers. But Gideon, Gideon was with the the group of people the Lord intended them to be with. And so you and I and making the decision with whom we'll have fellowship, with whom we'll be identified, with, whom we'll gather to remember the Lord Jesus. Are we to be guided by our emotions?
Or are we to be guided by the word of God? So you see.
The Word of God is our intelligent direction for our pathway says in Romans 12, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service. And I hope that you can say, I hope I can say that I'm gathered with those that I am gathered with, because I believe that that's where the Lord would have me according to his words.
Sometimes we get disappointed.
But we learn to love the people who are walking in the path that God has laid out in His Word.
We allow our emotions to go then, and we are associated with them because we believe that that's the path. And many of their Christians at the end of his life is very, very thankful the Lord has preserved him. In the past. He's had disappointments and trials. But there's the spirit and then the soul, the emotions, the desires. You find your friends and let your emotions go. You love those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
Just like those who went out to David in The Cave of Adelaim. Why are those men loved David informed about band? They weren't there because they were the nicest group, because it says they were discontented people there. There were people that were in debt. There were people that were distressed. And that's what you always find among mellows that are gathered or rejected. Christ. You'll find us contented people, you'll find distressed people, and you'll find people that are in debt too.
But they gathered to David, and if you'd asked any of them, why did you go there? Did you choose that crown? I'm sure that any one of them would have said.
But we believe that David is God's king and that's why we're there. And you know, they had great devotedness to David. They it tells us that when he just asked for a drink one time, some of them risked their lives to go on distraught. I drink for David. Their emotions were there. Their bodies were there. They were in that cave, The Cave of a Dome with David. Well, we see this order then as to.
Those with whom we would be identified.
In in being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. And now we come also, perhaps we could say, to service for the Lord. I won't say a great deal about this because we talked about it last night, but sometimes as Christians we might think there's certain things that we would like to do to serve the Lord.
But sometimes the Lord gives us things to do that aren't just exactly the things that we would choose. Maybe the Lord puts you in a place where it isn't just exactly where you would want to be, or gives you a work that it isn't exactly what you would choose. That was the way it was with Paul, if Paul had the choice.
He would much prefer to serve the Lord among the Jews. They were his own people. He understood them better and they understood him. And every line of reason would have said, well, he would make a good servant to the Jews because he loved them so dearly. But the Lord said, Paul, I have something different for you. I want you to be the apostle of the Gentiles. I want you to go at my call.
So he was to be directed now by intelligent direction from the Lord.
And did he learn to love these people or just read? And you'll see he spoke to them as my beloved, dearly beloved and longed for. And whenever he could, you find him with the people He was down by the Riverside embracing them before he went on his journey, when he had a little stop, he sent and called for the brethren. You see, he, his emotions were there. He loved them and.
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He wanted to be with them. That was his service to the Lord.
And he found peace in that service. Even the Lord brought imprisonment.
Well, and there's also the thought of marriage, you know, and this comes in our lives as young people and do we just look around for someone that serves our emotions and, and is the kind of person that really, as the world would say, seems to excite us and this kind of thing. There's lots of young people that think this is the deciding factor, but you know, I see that the.
The happiness that really abides begins a different way.
And that is intelligence, it says.
Your spirit and your soul and your body. I've often said to the young people, when you think about somebody, why always think of it that person? If it's a question of marriage, always think of it in that order. Think first. Is this really the person that the Lord has for me? And weigh it well before the Lord. Can you share life together? Are you suited to one another?
Can you really share the burden of life together?
Are you both willing to walk in the truth? Is 1 rebellious against the truth and the other willing to walk in it? Well then there won't be oneness of mind. And the Bible says how can two walk together except they be agreed? Can you can a husband fulfill a place God intends in the home? And is the wife willing to fulfill the place God intends all these things?
The thoughtful young person considers always that I like the person.
Let that come second, consider the other first. Ask the Lord 1St about those things that you decide intelligently before Him. Now, I'm not saying that you look for perfection because no one's perfect and certainly we're not perfect ourselves and we don't expect or shouldn't expect any other person or our partner in life to be perfect. We're always going to have to bear with things that only brings out.
Character, but while I'm Speaking of is a general way that we should be guided in these decisions. And if I have shortcomings myself, then it's foolish for me to expect a perfect partner. I've seen some young people and they have a lot of shortcomings themselves, but they're always looking for a perfect partner.
If they're a little more conscious of themselves, they would often find that someone else could would be a very happy partner to share a life with them because.
They were suited to one another and so, you know, this is the intelligence part of making those kind of decisions. Go to the Word of God and consider what He tells you about what to expect in one another, boy or girl. See whether the person is suited to you. As I say and as we know, the Lord didn't form.
A partner for Adam from his head.
He didn't form a partner for Adam from his feet, he formed a partner from his side. And so the person needs to be someone who can be at your side. Not someone that's above you or below you, but someone who's at your side, someone that you can share things together. Well, this is first of all, and the spirit, the intelligent part of the being. Then the next one comes, the soul.
That's as we would use the expression falling in love, then you let your emotions go. You say, well, I I really been before the Lord. I really believe that that's the partner for me and.
Now you allow your emotions to go, and there needs to be those two things. My father always used to say to us as children, remember the two important things in marriage. Of those two things, respect and love, those two come before the body. So the respect, it says that the wife is to reverence her husband. It says about the husband, he's to give honor to his wife. And so this is the intelligent part of the being.
And then love, the emotions. There needs to be emotions by there has to be, because love is an emotion. But it's best to face these things intelligently first because I've seen young people fall in love and then you couldn't tell them anything because they had decided it before they even considered the first part. They had started at the second part, the emotions, instead of starting in God's way that were sanctified.
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Spirit, soul and body. And yet I've seen many, many happy marriages that went the other way.
There was the spirit and there was the soul and there was real love and that love was an abiding love. And in God's plan it starts in the heart of the man because it was Christ that loved the church. We our love is a response of love to his love. And then the body doesn't go until the marriage. And then if the marriage, the body goes. So you have spirit and soul and body. Well, that's in connection with marriage and.
One other thing I could say, and that is the place that you would live, you know, you could look around and think of places where there's a lot of pleasant things, nice climate and perhaps a lot of things that you would enjoy an easier way of life. But is this to be the thing that besides our where we live, the Lord doesn't want all his people living in the places where it's easiest and most pleasant and where the weather is always the nicest?
He wants people saved in places where there's not much rain and places where it's cold, all kinds of places around this globe. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Supposing they said all but we just hate those kind of climates and the customs of those people. Why I just couldn't live there. No, the Lord was to guide them. And dear young people, when you make the decision where you're going to live.
Remember, the Lord can plan that for you and you can be perfectly happy in a place that may not have all the kind of climates and all the environment that you'd like. What you feel, it's where the Lord wants you to be. You feel like that's where he chose for you to dwell. And so he sent you there and he, he, he wanted you to be there and.
You were a light for him, a help, a blessing in that assembly where he wanted you to be.
And so first of all, then ask the Lord where he wants you to be. And then you just say, well, I like it here. A brother that I know back at home, he, he lived in a place where things were perhaps a little easier. And then he moved to another area where I don't think things were just all together as nice. And someone said to him, well.
Brother, did you like it better where you were?
Or where you are here, Dwelly said. One place is good, a waiting place is the other. He was waiting for the Lorde return, and if the Lord wanted him in that other place, that was where he wanted to be. And so we think of the.
Of the Brazilian or Idi rather and.
David said to him, Why did you come here, Eddie? I you're just a stranger in exile and we have to walk up and down here. This is no place for you.
And he said, where you are, David, that's where I want to be in life or in death. Well, how grand it is then, young people, that we can choose even the place where the Lord wants us to live, that we can settle there and be happy there. We can let our go and say, well, I just love this place because I believe that's where the Lord wants me to be.
I heard of a missionary and someone said do you like the dirt and the mud and all those things?
Now he said, but he said, I do love being where the Lord wants me to be. And so this is it, the emotions and the body. Well, it's it's interesting to see here in the practical side then of sanctification, a very God of peace, sanctify you wholly and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body.
The preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Is the Lord able to give us this sweet peace and confidence and joy? Yes, He is. And we're not here to stay. We're just waiting for his coming. Certainly United States has ambassadors and a good many different countries, and I don't think those ambassadors choose where they're going to be. The government makes a choice for them and sends them and so.
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In a certain sense, you and I are ambassadors in the in this world, and we ought to be.
Ready to just be in the place where the Lord wants us to be, and He wants us in a certain place just to be there. Because we're really waiting for His coming. We're not in this world to stay. We're just passing through. And so, dear young people, this would be my desire for you. This was the desire of Paul for the Thessalonians, and this is my desire for you. It's certainly my desire. I trust, at least for myself.
And that as I gland through this life and that I would be preserved spirit, soul and body. Preserved in our thinking, preserved in our emotions, and preserved in where we allow our bodies to be.
And I think of what Paul said when he was talking to the elders at Ephesus in the 20th chapter of Acts. He said that he had two desires, that he might finish his course with joy and the ministry that he had received the Lord Jesus.
That testify the gospel of the grace of God and applying it to each one of us here. I believe those two desires ought to apply to everyone of us. Every Christian doesn't have a happy ending to his life, but if you seek the Lord guidance, then I believe when the end of life comes, it's like it says in the Psalms. Behold a perfect man, behold the upright. The end of that man is peace.
So that Paul said there's just one thing that I desire. Two things, rather, he said.
I want to have a happy ending to my life. What I did, although he died as a prisoner and I believe his head was chopped off, that was the way he ended. But he called that a happy ending. He could say I've fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I've kept the faith. I believe if you had talked to Paul at the end of his life and said, Paul, would you like things to have been different? I believe you would say I'm glad the Lord has brought me. This is the happy ending to my life.
He has given me grace to at least seek to follow Him, not perfectly, but seek to follow Him.
To honor him, to stand for him and for his truth. And he said this is a happy ending to my life.
And did you accomplish what you wanted to accomplish in life? Yes. He said my responsibility was to keep the faith. And he said by God's grace, that's what I have sought to do. And dear young people, those are two happy desires in our lives now that we might fulfill in this world what the Lord wants us to accomplish. For He has something for every one of us to accomplish, and also that we would fulfill a little service.
That he wants us to do.
Finishing it with joy, well, this is a this is a great blessing and it isn't how long we live, Bobby said. John the Baptist was taken at 30 years of age.
If I had been living at that time, I might have thought it's not a tragedy a young man like that so devoted to the Lord, The Lord said among those born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist, and at 30 years of age he was beheaded.
Was this a calamity? No, he finished his course. He had been sent to witness to the nation of the coming of Christ. And so when he had completed that work, then the Lord comes and appears on the scene, and John is given a martyr's crown. There's no mistakes in God's ways. But, dear young people, we can have a happy.
Path We can know that we're forgiven. We can know that we're justified. We can know that we're positionally sanctified.
And we can pray that we will be practically sanctified, set apart in all the decisions and plans of our life, to do what is pleasing to the Lord and to have the sense in our souls of His approval, in what He would have us do through life.