Kentucky Conference: 2014
Table of Contents
Loins Girded
Address—Bill Prost
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Together #288.
288.
O thou whose mercies far exceed all we can do or say.
As in thy people, thou indeed dost daily more display.
288.
Saturday morning against my hand.
10-4 Our hearts are on our hearts and you're going to go out for a long time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I can't. Oh, I like to get you everything. Oh my God, you fall from your desire for our bloody falling, just lasting falling.
Nsnoise.
South Carolina.
What I have before me this afternoon is rather an unusual subject.
And at least in my memory, I can't remember anyone's having spoken on it before. But the Lord seems to have laid it on my heart, and so I trust it'll be from Him.
What I want to talk about this afternoon is a number of places where, in Scripture we are told to have our loins girded.
Loins girded.
If you have a Bible program on your computer, or you want to go to a concordance and look up the number of times that that word loins occurs in the Word of God, you'll find it there many times.
And the loins, I suppose, speak of this part of our body right here, the part where.
Our strength is in many ways, and Scripture applies it that way.
I suggest there are two meanings to the word in Scripture. The loins speak of strength.
And a number of times in the word of God it has that connotation.
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If we read in the book of Job, we find a creature designated as a behemoth.
And it says his strength is in his loins. We won't speculate this afternoon on what that creature may represent, but his strength is in his loins. And I believe that that has that meaning when it speaks about you and me.
But then a number of times in Scripture it speaks of girding up the loins.
Twice over in that same book of job, the Lord himself says to Job, Gird up thy loins like a man.
And answer me.
You'll remember that after Elijah had won the great victory over the prophets of Vale on Mount Carmel.
And the rain came on the earth.
And it tells us that.
Elijah girded up his loins and ran before Ahab's chariot to Jezreel.
And a number of times in scripture we are told to gird up our loins.
And I suggest that it has another meaning, which we will, with the Lord's help, develop a little as time goes on.
But it has also the thought of that place where our strength is.
Being held in and braced up.
In a right way.
Girding up the loins. We don't use that term, as I said a few moments ago, in North America or even in most English speaking countries, but I've been to some places in the world where they do that.
In India, and some here will recognize this, having been there very often, the men who work in the fields wear a garment that.
Is called either a Doughty or a lungy, depending on the appropriate language which is being used. And it's a piece of piece of cloth about maybe 8 feet long and maybe 3 feet in width that's wrapped round and round about the waist and cinched up. And when people are relaxing, they just let it all hang loose, so to speak. And they shuffle around the house or sit in an easy chair, they're relaxed.
But when they go out in the field to work.
They take one end of it, bring it up between their legs, tuck it in, snug it up good and tight. Now they're ready to go up, or to go out and work. The loins are girded up, everything is tight, held in place so that hopefully that doty or lunge doesn't come off in the course of work and they find they can work better.
The Lord uses it as a spiritual application.
And this, if I may say, I hope, will tend to be practical for our souls.
I hope it's OK to mention this, but sometimes we hear a few rumblings and complaints that sometimes the meetings aren't practical enough, and I trust we'll get down to some practical things in talking about what it means to have our loins girded up.
There are a number of scriptures in the Word of God where we read about this, and I'd like to turn to four of them.
One in the Old Testament and three in the New, each I believe, having a particular emphasis and a particular message for our souls. Let's turn first of all, to the book of Exodus, chapter 12.
Exodus chapter 12.
I think everyone here, except perhaps the very youngest, will probably recognize this as the Passover chapter, the institution of the Passover way back 3500 years ago, approximately that when God was going to deliver his people from Egypt.
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Plague had followed, plague bringing before Pharaoh the glory and majesty and power of God. And over and over again Pharaoh had promised to let the people go, and then went back on his word.
Finally, the Lord is going to do something very serious. He is going to smite the first born of every household where there was not blood on the door.
We're not going to go into detail about that. I know the majority, if not all here are familiar with it, but we want to notice the way in which that Passover was to be eaten. So let's go down here to verse 11 of Exodus 12.
Verse 11 And thus shall ye eat it.
With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
Is this the way you like to eat?
Do you like to eat in haste?
Sometimes, when we're young, we do.
And I don't want to introduce levity, but it brings before me what my mother used to say at our meal table when sometimes hungry boys used to go out their food a little less than in a civilized way, and my mother would make their remarks. Slow down. You're not filling a silo.
Sometimes we thought that it was just about that bad the the cavity was almost that big in our eyes.
Most of the time when we eat, it's nice to relax, isn't it? It's nice to sit down and take your time, enjoy the conversation at the table, eat in a leisurely fashion.
But here was a meal where the Lord tells them that they weren't to do that.
They weren't to have their garments just all in that relaxed mode, as if they were just going to stretch out. Take it easy, relax over the meal. Their loins were to be girded.
They were to have their shoes on their feet.
Sometimes in North America we don't pay too much attention to that. But in the East, in most countries, it is considered a mark of normal respect that you kick your sandals or shoes off at the door and you would not dare to walk into someone's house and just shuffle around and the sandals or shoes with which you had walked around on the street. But here they were to eat with their shoes on their feet, staff in their hand.
That meant they had to have one hand with that staff and the other to eat their food. They couldn't use two hands.
Of course, once again, in the East, very often they eat with their fingers so that they can generally manage quite well with one hand. In fact, you better manage with one hand because the left hand is used for other purposes and you wouldn't dare eat with it. But anyway, the point is, it says you shall eat it in haste.
Why was that? Why did they have to do all this in such a hurry?
Oh, because they were going to be leaving Egypt momentarily. They were going not only to be to be departing from Egypt. Pharaoh was going to thrust them out. He was going to say to Moses be gone.
Because the power of God in the killing of that first born was manifested so that there was a great cry throughout the whole land of Egypt. And we won't delve into that today. But the point is they were to be ready to go as soon as the word came. And it did come right in the middle of the night.
You and I are in an Egypt today, which, as most of us know, speaks of this world.
Egypt is a picture of the world from which the Christian is called out.
And they were to be ready to leave, and so are we. And I say to your heart and mind, God does not give you and me, shall we say, the luxury as Christians of relaxing in this world.
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Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you should always eat your food in haste. I'm not saying that you should always have, as it were, a stick in your hand and shoes on your feet as if you were ready to run for it.
That's not the point. We do have relaxing times down here and we thank God for them, but the point is that in a general way, our lifestyle is not to be such as if we are at home in this world.
And we like to be at home here, don't we? And so did the children of Israel.
You know and I know how difficult it was for them to leave Egypt in heart, even though they left it in body.
And over and over in the wilderness, their hearts went back to Egypt. They complained that they didn't have the right food to eat. And their heart went back to the fish and the leeks and the onions and the garlic and all those things that they enjoyed in Egypt.
It wasn't very long after they had been in the wilderness before they made themselves a golden calf. And where did they learn how to do that? In Egypt? Because Egypt worshipped the cow.
And later on, when the spies came back from spying out the land of Canaan, and 10 of them brought back that evil report saying there's no way. The people are too big, the cities are too walled up. We can't conquer that land. They were ready, as the word of God tells us, to make a captain.
Instead of Moses, make a captain and to return in to Egypt.
And you might say that those two things, and they both happen to begin with the same letter in the English language, the calf and the captain were the two things that were a snare to them on the one hand.
They never really got over until they got into the land of Canaan, the religion of Egypt. They wanted to go back there and the captain would speak of putting a man between themselves and the Lord.
And it was all part of the same thing, because when they told Aaron to make the golden calf, you'll remember what they said. They said. As for this Moses we what not, what has become of them?
And supposing something had happened to Moses, was the Lord not the same? Was the Lord not able to work things out for them? Even if something had happened to Moses, they were prepared to make their own captain and put something between themselves and the Lord.
And it wasn't until they had, at the end of those 40 years in the wilderness, crossed over the River Jordan.
And once again circumcision was renewed. That the Lord could say, this day, have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you?
I suggest that the picture here is for our own souls and God is in the picture and type here telling you and me that our lives are to be with our loins, girded with our staff in our hand, with our shoes on our feet. We are to be ready to go. And I would suggest, and I speak very much to my own heart, please understand this.
That probably one of the biggest snares of believers today, at least in North America.
Is the snare of worldliness. And I know I've made this remark before, and pardon its repetition, but I feel the need of it, that worldliness is in some ways more of a snare even than things like bad doctrine and things like that. Not that bad doctrine isn't serious, it is, but it can be more easily identified and dealt with. But worldliness is subtle. It's insidious, isn't it?
It creeps in and gets hold of us because we have to live and move in this world.
And we are in the world. But, as we find out in the 17th chapter of John, we are not.
Of the world.
And those Israelites had to be separated from Egypt, not merely in body but also in heart.
And God was showing them here that this was the way they were to be.
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Waiting for the immediate call to leave.
Well, our time is going. Let's go on now to the New Testament.
Turn with me, please, to Luke's Gospel Chapter 12.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Again, there is so much in this chapter.
And we don't have time to go into it all this afternoon.
A wonderful chapter.
But here particularly we want to notice several verses and then eventually the one on which our eyes will be focused. Verse 35. But read from verse 31, please.
But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure.
To give you the Kingdom.
Cell that you have, and give alms, provide yourselves bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens, that faileth not where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And here's the verse, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
When he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
The disciples here were of a Jewish background.
And they were no doubt very accustomed to seeing earthly blessings and earthly prosperity as a reward for faithfulness to the Lord. But it was a transitional time for them here.
As the Lord gradually but firmly and surely directed their hearts away from things in this world.
To heavenly things they didn't yet know the full extent of it, the full appreciation of it all.
And I suppose that that did not come about really until the apostle Paul's ministry, when he was given those precious revelations from a risen Christ in glory as to the truth concerning the heavenly calling of the church. But the Lord is gradually drawing the hearts of his disciples away from things in this world, and so he tells them here to seek the Kingdom of God. And he says all these things. That is the necessities of life down here.
Will be added unto you. If I may be so bold, may I say that to each one of the young people here today?
It's wonderful when you see bright prospects before you in this world. And let me say that I thank God for the opportunities that you have. Because I have met with many young people in countries in this world who had ability, who had ambition, and yet who were locked into circumstances where unless someone came along with a fair amount of money to help them out, there was no way that they could even dream.
Of the kind of opportunities in education that many of us in North America accept as a matter of course. And I say that I thank God for what is available to you. But I do say, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Give the Lord the 1St place and you will find that the Lord will work everything out for you, maybe not everything that you might otherwise have had.
But you will have the Lord's blessing in your life.
Which is worth far more than anything this world can offer you. And so here the Lord says, fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. What Kingdom?
Oh, there was an earthly Kingdom that they knew that the Lord had given Israel in the Old Testament, but I would suggest here the thought is not so much for an earthly Kingdom.
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But rather, a different Kingdom. You know, you and I are going to inherit the Kingdom on its heavenly side. You and I are going to inherit the Kingdom of the Father. We are going to live and reign with Christ over this world, but from a heavenly vantage point, far, far more than any earthly Kingdom. And so later on in his life, when the Lord stood before Pilate, he could say my Kingdom is not of this world.
And so the Lord was directing the hearts of his disciples to that which is heavenly.
And he was, I would suggest saying to them, don't worry if you seem to be having to turn away from what you expected down here. They expected the Lord Jesus as the true Messiah to drive out their enemies and bring that glorious Kingdom into place. He says, as it were, don't worry, you are going to receive the Kingdom.
But then what does he say? He says.
Don't worry so much about things down here. Use what you've got for the Lord's blessing and for the blessing of others. And what are you going to have?
A treasure in the heavens that faileth not.
You know, you and I hear a lot of hype today about providing for ourselves.
In retirement.
We hear a lot today about the baby boomers. I just missed out on being one. I was born just a wee bit too soon to qualify. But they talk about the baby boomers coming into their retirement years. And are you going to have enough for your retirement? Because after all, you're going to live longer than your parents and your grandparents did. Was that a medical convention several years ago? And they said we now consider middle age to go up to 85.
Quite a mouthful to say, but that's what they said because it's a known fact that most people that live to be 70 or more will probably manage to live on their own until they're well into their 80s or mid 80s. And we hear a lot of talk about that. Well, there's nothing wrong with preparing for the future. And the Word of God emphasizes that in a natural way. It tells us to look at the ants who prepare their meat in the summer and so on.
But the point is here, there is an investment that you and I can make an eternity that is far, far better than any investment down here.
And if you and I really want to have a treasure that's worthwhile, the Lord says you use what you have down here.
But what's the point where your treasure is there? Will your heart be also? Why was the hearts, or were the hearts, I should say, of the children of Israel back in Egypt so much? Why did their thoughts and hearts go back to Egypt so continually?
Because ultimately, if they had been willing to admit it, their treasure was really there. It was not in that land of Canaan to which they were going.
They had heard about that land, but then when the spies came back, ten of them with a bad report, they decided Egypt was better. And somehow the awful work of making bricks and being.
Sat over with task masters who it seems used whips and other things on them. Somehow they got over all of that and forgot how bad it had been and their hearts were really in Egypt.
And I say to my own heart, is my heart somehow in Egypt, even though I don't say so with my lips?
An old brother long since with the Lord, whom some of us remember used to say.
As believers, we can have as much of Christ as we want.
And our live show how much we want. Am I using my substance as it says here in verse 33 to lay up treasure in heaven?
Verse 35 The verse we want to focus on let your.
Loins be girded about and your lights burning. Same thought as we had in type in Exodus 12. Loins girded about, not as it were, letting the garment flow out all over the place, and more than this, not using our strength in the wrong way.
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I've often and still do enjoy, I've often enjoyed and still enjoy being around young people. They kind of keep you young in your thinking and their energy and ambition.
Their ability to look at things in a simple way without seeing all of the difficulties that some of us look at.
You know, it says in Ecclesiastes 12 That when you get older says the grasshopper shall be a burden. Well, I used to think about that when I was young and thought that's kind of a bit far fetched. But you know, it doesn't sound so far fetched anymore because sometimes things that you used to think nothing of doing.
Are now, well, they look a little more challenging. And yet to young people, it's no big problem.
Speaking to a young man the other day and we were talking about doing this and going that and getting on a plane and going here and then getting on a train and.
Coming this way and that way. And I said, well, that's quite a bit of a job to pull all that off. And at the age of 19, he said, ah, he said I'm young. That won't be any problem and probably it won't either.
I wouldn't want to do it because I'd be tuckered out, as the saying goes. But the point is, where is your strength channeled when you're younger? Where's my strength, such as it is, channeled? Is it in the right direction? Are my loins girded so that my strength is being used in the right way?
What does it mean to have our loins girded? We've talked about it, but in a spiritual sense, if we could define it this way.
It means that everything that is inward in you and me that has to do with our spiritual affections, our strength, and everything that is within us is under the power of the Spirit of God and according to the Word of God. And we'll touch on that a little more in a few minutes. And so our loins are to be girded about because once again here the thought is to have our strength in the right direction. But the supreme thought here is.
To be ready to go. To be ready to go.
And your lights burning.
We're never told in scripture, to my knowledge, explicitly. I want you to go and be a testimony.
Because if the focus is on our being a testimony, then the focus ends up being on self.
But if we are occupied with Christ, we will be a testimony. That's the way Scripture puts it.
But the point is, we, our lights, are to be burning in this world. Do my friends, my acquaintances, realize that I'm ready to go? Do they realize that I hold on to things lightly here? And it's not a question of how much or how little I have, It's how I hold it.
You'll find this a little bit funny, but I remember talking to a rickshaw driver in Calcutta in India, and he was a young man and he was fairly healthy and fairly strong. And he pulled a rickshaw, just held the shafts in his two hands and pair of sandals on his feet. And you climbed up in the back and he'd run down the street to take you from A to B. And the government over there eventually decided that this was too demeaning to have.
A man pulling a rickshaw like a horse or a mule or something like that, and they were going to ban them.
And there was such a public outcry by the rickshaw pullers. They said no way, this is our livelihood, don't you dare ban these things. We want to keep going. And the government had to give in. And they do rather well, especially when they get tourists on the back. And the tourists usually pay rather handsomely and they charge accordingly about five times what they charge the locals and a tip to boot and so on. So they do rather well.
And this man was all enamored with his prospects and how he was going ahead in the world and he was going to make money and all the rest of it.
And you and I, from the vantage point of North America, we would perhaps shake our heads and say, poor fellow, he doesn't know what he's missing. And he thinks he's got the world by the tail. And all the prospects he has are to be a rickshaw puller. And when he gets to a certain age, his body will give out. He won't be able to do it anymore. And then where is he going to be?
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For he was all excited because he was young and strong and life looked good and he was going ahead.
It's not a question of how much you have, it's a question of how we hold it.
Loins girded about in lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
Now, this isn't really meant to be.
As if the Lord Jesus is going to a wedding before he comes to get us. It's Eastern imagery. And there would be a young man, a wealthy bridegroom who would be going into the wedding and his servants would be waiting outside. And the bridegroom and the bride and the wedding party would be inside partying. But you know, the servants would be faithful to their Lord even though they weren't part of the wedding ceremony.
And part of the festivities, they'd be waiting outside, but they would be all ready so that as soon as the bridegroom came out and said, let's go, they wouldn't have to say, oh, boy, well, just a minute, Sir, till I get hitched up here and get my shoes on and get everything ready to go and get the horses ready and all the rest of it. They would be right ready. And the bridegroom would appreciate that very, very much.
Now I know we're living in a world where servants as such are not the norm in North America.
But such is still the case in many parts of the world, and it has been the case for by far the greater part of the world's history. And the Lord, by His Spirit, uses his imagery to show that that's the way you and I are to be.
Loins girded, lights burning, and like men that wait for their Lord.
Well, let's go on. We have two more verses. Turn with me now to Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
In the book of Ephesians, as many of us know, we have probably the highest truth as to the blessings of the believer in this dispensation.
And Paul has been bringing before them.
What it means to be part of that precious body of Christ.
The uniting of Jew and Gentile in one body by the Cross.
And to be not only redeemed, but already to be risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ.
And it's interesting that in the book of Ephesians you do not get in the same sense the Lord's coming presented. In fact, I don't believe there is a mention of the Lords coming for us in Ephesians.
Because while it was their present hope, I'm sure it was, yet it would have been out of place to talk to those who were already risen and seated in heavenly places about the Lord's coming to call them home.
Rather, what is emphasized here is the need for that which will maintain us in the enjoyment of those heavenly places here and now. And that is the emphasis here in the end of chapter 6, where, as we know, we get the armor of God if you and I are going to enjoy those heavenly places.
We need to have not just part of the armor, but the whole armor of God.
And I want to take a minute to talk about this because the heavenly calling of the Church is under severe attack today. And you know this as well as I.
A brother wrote many, many years ago, and some will recognize the source of the quotation.
That when the Church loses the sense of its heavenly calling.
Humanly speaking, it loses everything.
And that is true, and that is why the devil was so careful and so energetic to bring the Church down very early in its history.
From the sense of its heavenly calling down to an earthly level.
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And for many, many hundreds of years, the Church was in the Dark ages.
Having lost the sense of their heavenly calling, lost the sense of the Lord's coming for them.
And lost many other precious truths.
Thank God for a work about 180 years ago or so, when God raised up those who were led by His Spirit to restore to us those precious truths that had been lost for centuries.
Among them, the heavenly calling of the Church and the fact that we are here.
To wait for the Lord to come for us at any moment.
It's under attack today, and it always has been, but more so today, perhaps, than ever.
Some of us were talking about this yesterday, and it bears repeating.
Some were talking about preaching the precious truth that Paul preached.
The precious truth of the one by the truth of the.
Holy Spirit's presence here in this world, indwelling every true believer individually and dwelling among believers collectively as the House of God and other precious truths that the Lord gave to the apostle Paul, such as the believer being in Christ and so on. The truth of the Lord's coming for His Saints before the tribulation period and so on, and the emphasis on the heavenly calling of the Church.
Although that was not exclusively given to the apostle Paul. But the point is all that is coming under attack. And someone was asking in a reading meeting once again many, many years ago, about preaching that precious truth. And he was exhorting people, the brother in question, exhorting believers who knew and understood those truths to go ahead and preach them to other believers.
Someone raised the question. What if they don't want to hear it?
And the brothers response, I believe, was very perceptive, he said. They will listen to you in many cases until you try to take them to heaven.
And at first glance you say, what do you mean? Isn't every believer going to spend eternity with Christ in heaven? Thank God that's true. But he was not talking about that. The brother was speaking about we have what we have in this book of Ephesians. That is the heavenly calling of the church, the living and enjoying, living in and enjoying of those heavenly places while we are down here.
That is not popular and it has never been popular, and that's why may I say that the efforts of the devil to bring the Church down to the level of this world has been so successful.
And it's a problem today. And what are we told here? And we don't have time to go into the armor in detail, but look at verse 14.
And it's the first part of the armor. Notice this stand. Therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
What does that mean?
It can mean perhaps a broad spectrum of things. It can refer to our affections, perhaps. But I want to make a practical application of it for your heart and mind this afternoon. I suggest to us that in what we need today, it brings before us that the precious truth that we have in this word that has been revealed to our souls.
Needs to have such a grip on our souls that I would not dare to take a step that is contrary to the Word of God. I would not dare. And let me be practical.
To go where the word of God is not honored.
There is much being said today about the blessing that God is giving in this world among those perhaps who do not adhere to the precious truth that many here this afternoon are familiar with.
There is a lot being said about the blessing that God is giving among those who are not gathered on the ground of the One Body to the precious Name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
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Where perhaps the Spirit of God is not given his true liberty to lead and guide and so on.
There is a lot of blessing that the Lord is giving, and sometimes there are those.
Who come forward and say, well, I want to be part of that blessing, I want to get involved in it, I want to enjoy all those other dear believers seem to be enjoying those lovely Christians. And they are in many cases lovely Christians.
My heart goes out to everyone of them, and I trust that your heart, as I trust mine, is.
Seeks to be as broad as the heart of Christ, and that my love flows out to every true member of the body of Christ.
Without any hindrance.
But if my loins are girt about with truth.
I cannot. I cannot go.
Where the truth of God would not be honored.
It is one thing to have individual fellowship with a believer, it's another thing for me to be connected with a system of things.
That is man made and not according to what God has given to me.
Now God blesses wherever there is anything of himself, and God bless us according to the degree of light that believers may have. And I say I thank God for every true believer who is living up to the light that God has given to him or her.
But I say to your heart and mind, if my loins are going to be girt about with truth, it means I trust and I believe this with all my heart from my own soul, that that girding about of my loins with truth will not allow me to go beyond that precious truth that God has revealed to me. You and I are responsible for what God has revealed to us.
We are responsible to live in the good of it.
We read way back in Luke, I believe.
I'll read it because I don't want to have the wrong chapter. Uh, turn back with me to.
That same chapter of Luke, chapter 12.
And this is a general principle.
Verse 48 of Luke 12.
Middle of the verse. For unto whomsoever much is given of Him shall be much required, and to whom men have committed much of Him will they ask the more?
God holds you and me responsible for what He has given us.
And he wants to see those loins gird about with truth. And I say to your heart and mine, and I trust I say it as much to my own heart. And this is very solemn. This is the first piece of the armor, and I cannot pretend to take some of the armor without the rest of it. We don't have time to consider all the other things. But if I do not have my loins girt about with truth, that is I if I am not willing to live up to that which the Lord has given me.
And revealed to me I am missing a part of the armor and I am open to the devil's attack.
And sometimes we wonder why the devil attacks.
It may well be because I have not been careful to have my loins girt about with truth.
Well, we'll leave that for now. There is plenty more here in Ephesians 6 and particularly in the armor of God that we could spend time on. But I say to your heart and mind one, and to my heart once more when it comes to the precious truth of God. Excuse me.
I can't afford not to have my loins girded up.
I can't afford just to say, well, it doesn't matter, I know.
That group of believers?
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Doesn't follow the word of God.
The excuse me?
Another infirmity of old age.
I know those dear believers.
Don't follow the word of God, but they're such lovely Christians. Oh, I say, beloved brethren.
May our hearts go out in the greatest of love to each one, and may we show that love.
But may we not compromise what the Lord has given us.
May what is due to him?
Be paramount, He is worthy.
One more verse first. Peter won.
First Peter chapter one.
And I'm going to read a few verses beforehand. The verse we have in mind is verse 13.
But let's read from verse 9. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
That is the present enjoyment of it, of which salvation the prophets.
Have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you.
Now remember, Peter was the apostle to the Jews, so he's writing to the Jews from a Jewish perspective, although it's good for us too. Verse 11 searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.
When it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, and to whom, it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Which things the angels desire to look into? That is all those Old Testament writers who penned those Old Testament scriptures by a Spirit of God.
In many cases wrote things that they themselves didn't understand.
They wrote about Christ, they wrote about his sufferings, and when they asked the Lord to give them a little more light as to what they were writing.
The only answer they got was.
You're writing for people in a future day and they had to be content with that.
Even Daniel, who says he says I heard but I understood not.
And what does the Lord say to Daniel? He said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the book is sealed until the time of the end.
That's all the answer he got. He had to be content to know that down the road there were a people, there was a people coming who were going to understand.
Peter, as it were, says now you Jewish believers, you're there, you're there, you're able to understand. And I say to your heart and mind, we're there in an even more real way because we're right at the time of the end and we are seeing events develop in this world that point to the very imminence of the Lord's return.
Now I know you may say I've heard that before.
Few days before I came down here, I was reading some very old notes of a conference up in Ontario, Canada in 1915, almost 100 years ago, and there a brother was making the remark the Lord's coming is very near.
And here we are, almost 100 years later.
I don't believe we're going to see anywhere near another hundred years or even another 10 or 20 years.
You and I are seeing what all those Old Testaments Saints looked on to.
What Peter was talking about here and now he says in verse 13, Wherefore, in other words, based on what I've been telling you?
Gird up the loins of your mind.
00:55:02
Be sober, or as we would say in modern language, be serious.
And hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be holy.
For I am holy, if our loins in Ephesians were to be gird about with truth, here it talks about.
Girding up the loins of your mind.
We're never told to gird up the loins of our heart.
Because the heart goes to where something is important to you.
I once tried to talk to a young man about something that I knew he was interested in, and I had a hard time getting his attention.
I wasn't paying too much of attention until I noticed the pretty girl that was taking precedence over anything I had to say.
I didn't have to tell him to gird up the loins of his of his affections. He didn't need that. No, they went there without any problem.
I was at a wedding a couple of days ago and I don't think anyone had to tell either one of the bride or the bride or the groom to gird up the loins of their affections. There are those here that were at that wedding and can relate to that. They didn't have to be told that, did they?
But we have to gird up the loins of our mind, because the mind can go in all directions and the devil knows how to stimulate your mind and mind.
In many different ways, and the loins of our mind need to be girded today as never before.
Provide pro sorry, pardon. A rather practical and maybe a shocking reference. I was talking to a brother my own age who was once gathered to the Lord's name. I still keep in contact with him. He's involved in various types of Christian work which I wouldn't feel free to join up with him in, but I thank God for what he is doing.
And he told me that he was involved, among other things, in trying to help men.
Christian men.
Who have serious problems?
And he said, Bill, this is no exaggeration. He said, in my experience, 80% of Christian men, and not just nominal believers, those who are real believers are hooked on ***********.
I could hardly believe it. He assured me that that was not in the slightest exaggerated. And I say that right in an address to those gathered to the Lord's name, because it can be a problem among.
Any believer and you and I could go on and on in the things of this world, how the mind is bombarded from all directions.
With things, we need the loins of our mind girded up.
Y.
Because it says here.
B Holy, for I am holy.
And that isn't an expression that's meant to be taken lightly. And I speak most of all to my own heart because what my thoughts go to, if I don't judge them, will eventually translate, as you well know, into action. Because it's a well known proverb that as men think, so ultimately they act. And thoughts are the precursor to the action. And when you and I see, and I'm not going to point the finger anywhere but back here, but when you and I see a believer.
Fall into sin.
We can be very sure that the thoughts preceded the action, and if we would judge those thoughts that our brethren cannot see.
We would not have to be subject to the discipline of our brethren for the things that they can see. Well, our time is gone.
We leave those thoughts with each one here, both for the heart and for the conscience, that we might have those loins girded up in a spiritual way, our strength directed in the right way.
And things within held in in the right way, girded up, not just left to go anywhere we want in order that we might live for the Lord's glory.
01:00:11
Until he calls us home, I know our time is gone, but let's sing just part of one more hymn.
#173.
173.
And.
Versus.
Two and four, two and four of 173.
Philippians 3:1-3
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
3/2.
#172.
Yes.
2400 Oh, oh, oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh, oh, oh oh oh by last way.
Opening address and, uh, reinforced by the him we just sang. I suggest that we take up Philippians chapter 3. I believe it is a chapter which would help us to gurn up our loins and, uh, open that out to us is the him we just finished. We sang the dearest object of our love compared with thee but dross.
It emphasizes the Lord Jesus being the object of our heart, our affections of our lives, our love, and, uh, associates, and attaches us to that which is heavenly.
Three.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is saved. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath aware of, he might trust in the flesh. Ay, more.
Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted lost for Christ, Yeah, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but down, that I may win Christ.
00:05:03
And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do for getting 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.
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.
Let us mind the same thing, brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Whose endless destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, Who mind earthly things? For our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.
According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
The Apostle Paul as the pattern.
Christian Life.
He is given to us as the.
Model, if you will, of Christianity and the individual life of the Christian.
By example of his life, and so he could say be followers of me now he could come short in that as and so he would say, even as I also am of Christ.
But the character of his life was the object of his life was a man in heaven.
And that was the prize that he wanted that person and his whole life was focused on that desire to have more for himself, of that one that was.
One who had drawn his heart's affections out to himself. And he's presented to us in this way in this chapter. And God presents it to us as saying, I want your life to be that as well. And so is script, as it's been said, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also in our live show where our treasure is.
And if our treasure is found in this person?
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Then it will manifest or display itself in the character of the life we live and the choices we make and what's important to us and what isn't. And so we have Him presented to us, whether we're young or older, as that one that God has given that.
We might learn from this man, the Apostle Paul's life, and see in it that pattern that God would have for our lives as well.
We might mention too, as we have been reminded many times before, that uh, the third chapter of Ephesians brings before us Christ as our object, and in that sense it does indeed, as we remarked earlier, take us up to heaven. Uh, the 2nd chapter is more Christ is our pattern, and perhaps more Christ.
00:10:00
In his earthly pathway and in his perfection down here. But the third chapter brings before, brings Christ before us as a risen Christ in glory, doesn't it? And so he's there as an object for us. And that's ultimately, as Dawn has mentioned, where Paul's ministry takes us. We're not to forget about Christ in manhood. We're not to forget about him as our pattern for us.
We he is indeed an example that we should follow in his steps, as Peter tells us. But ultimately, if we're going to walk well down here, we need to have him before us, not as merely a man who walked down here, but as a risen Christ in glory.
Hey, in life and something.
If we add individual conversations here and the question we're asked, well, what do you enjoy?
Everyone would have those things that they find pleasure in, and being natural people as we are, there's perhaps a variety of things that we can find our pleasure in. But there's one that's greatly emphasized in the beginning of this chapter, and it's rejoice in the Lord.
Can we honestly, truly say that in our daily life we find great joy?
In this person, the Lord Jesus, and more than that, I think it's important to recognize that it says the Lord or in Lord because when he's presented to us as Lord, he's presented to us as a person who has absolute complete.
Rights over everything having to do with our lives.
And that's something that.
Man resists completely in nature.
There's not a single person of us in this room that naturally speaks, speaking.
Wants someone else to tell us what we can and we cannot do we all by the fall of Adam have very independent natures. I want to decide what I do and what I don't do and yet in Christ we're brought into a new relationship with this person in such a way that we can actually find joy in someone that has complete.
Rights.
Over us and over our lives we find it perfectly in the Lord Jesus life. He could say I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. He found his joy in complete and perfect obedience to the will of God as a man. The first one in all history that has ever found his joy naturally that way, but the Lord Jesus being who he is.
Could say that, and now we through new birth can also say that we joy in obedience to the will of our Lord.
It's right with conversion, doesn't it?
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
The idea that we have here in the United States of America so often is, Oh yeah, you can believe in Jesus for your salvation and you can do pretty much what you like.
That's not going to be a happy life. That's not what God had in mind. It's there is one who is Lord. And like you say, the beginning of that life become begins with a surrender to the authority of the Lord Jesus in every aspect of life. That brings real joy. And so he says in chapter 4 as well.
Verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord.
Alway, did you hear that?
00:15:00
Again I say rejoice.
Are you always rejoicing?
Brother Bill, are you always rejoicing?
Well, I'm going to tell you a short story, but you finished what you were saying first.
Well, I can remember an exchange in a reading meeting being reported to be many years ago where I won't name the brothers, but one of them asked the other, if you're rejoicing in the Lord Alway, can you say that? And he said, yes, I think I can. And the brother himself said, well, I can tell you that when I've got a splitting migraine headache.
I find I am not rejoicing in the Lord the way I should. And, uh, I can relate to that. And so, uh, I think it's something that we ought to be doing and it's the standard God holds us to. And if we were walking with Him as we should, we would be in spite of physical infirmities. But I have to confess that things get in the way sometimes. Is that reasonable? I think I have to agree with that, brother.
The.
The rejoicing that it's speaking about is not just a superficial joy, it is something that runs deep in the heart. And I think if even when you have a splitting migraine headache, brother, if I would talk to you about the Lord and our portion in Christ, I think you would rejoice, wouldn't you?
Bob, I'd like to tell you a story from our grandfather on his deathbed. He was struggling for breath. Every other breath was blessed the Lord, O my soul, and forget not only benefits, we take him two or three times to say that I can remember that as a child.
He was rejoicing in the Lord in circumstances that most of us would be complaining about.
That's why it says rejoice in the Lord, doesn't it? Doesn't say rejoice in your circumstances.
But in those circumstances, you can rejoice in the Lord.
Our portion in Christ, brethren, is so secure, so constant, that we have reason to rejoice always. In fact, it's a command. Rejoice in the Lord always. Doesn't say if you think you can, No, always.
In Romans chapter, the high point, the highest point in the whole of the book of Romans.
Is found in chapter 5 in the words We joy in God. You can't get higher in the whole of the book than that We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's been commented that if you took a man who was not saved to heaven, he'd be looking for the exit. He'd want to get out. He would not find heaven a place of enjoyment.
Well, what attracts his heart?
In spite of the fact that the word heaven gives the idea of perfect place, perfect circumstances, and everything else, what controls a person is what's in the heart and what they find their joy in. And so God has done a work in US. It wasn't there when we were born, but He has done a work in us that now we can find and do find our joy in God.
Those things that bring joy to his heart.
We have been made now so that we enjoy the same things. What's the number one joy of the heart of God?
His Son, what is he made to be? The number one joy of our hearts. His Son, what are we going to enjoy together for eternity with God, our Father, His Son? And so the apostle Paul was learning and had learned in a very practical way.
To say I want more of that joy every day of my life, that which is to be mine for eternity. And so it's brought out to us in this chapter how those things that hinder it as well as those things that contribute to it. And so it is for us to.
00:20:13
Want to know him better, For to know him is to love him. To know him is to find joy in His person.
Because God has made us in such a way now that nothing else will fully satisfy the yearnings of our renewed hearts than that person.
And He will fill it to overflowing. But nothing else that could ever be presented to us in this world at this point.
Would ever fully satisfy what God has made us to be.
Make a comment, it says to write the same things.
I'm gonna comment on some things that were said in the opening address in connection with to write the same things.
In first Peter where it says gird up the loins of your mind, right before that it speaks of the revelation of the gospel and the message of the gospel, and then it says gird up the loins of your mind.
And then it goes on to recognize the hope that is set before us.
There's a very practical, I believe, connection with that in the day in which we live. We live in a day when man is never satisfied with what he has and he always wants something new. He always has to have something new.
And so for example, in a practical sense, today some of the major telephone Internet, whatever companies have built right into their pricing structure and their plan that every so many once a year at least if not more, you automatically get the latest and greatest cell phone Internet connection.
Man, we'll spend.
You know, a new version of the iPod or some pad comes out and you'll spend all night waiting to have the very first new edition of it and the the one he has in his pockets less than a year old.
That has been conditioned. The world has conditioned man to that. It used to be that automobiles, you had life cycles of coming out with a new design every so often, but the companies that figured out how to make a faster change over were more successful.
Product new announcements used to be once a year or two, and now they're every four months. That's the larger companies need to bring in.
The newest, latest, greatest Does it bring happiness to man? No, it doesn't. But it's part of the way he has been.
Mentally conditioned to think he needs it to be happy. And brethren, part of the girding up of the loins of the mind is to be satisfied with the fullness of God's revelation and not constantly thinking. We need something new and something that improves on what we already have. But we have been conditioned generally.
Not to think that way. And it has perhaps more effect on our mental attitude than we may generally realize. And so it's important for us, if you will, to get off the bus if necessary, to enjoy without the constant need of something new and better in technology and so on, to find our enjoyment in that which.
Does not change Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. And He's presented to us as the only object that satisfies eternally without the need to put out an upgraded new addition.
00:25:15
So let's not be upset if you don't, if you go home when you haven't learned one new thing at this conference, if you have a little more of himself.
Chapters that when the Lord begins to present the truth by His Spirit, He presents that which is most likely to be the hindrance to our entering into it and enjoying it. In the second chapter, as we mentioned, it's Christ in manhood. Christ is our pattern. Perhaps what we might say more the graciousness of the Christian life.
And while we don't want to go back to the second chapter, it is noticeable there that the hindrance there is verse three of chapter 2. Let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other better than themselves. If we're going to be like Christ in our practical walk, there is a danger of vying with one another for positions of importance and.
As a result, strife and envy and so on come about. But it's different in our chapter, isn't it? What's the hindrance to the enjoyment of Christ in glory as our object?
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision to what does that refer. I would suggest, and maybe others can develop it, that it's really in essence a reference to.
Judaizing principles which would bring the church down to the level of this world.
In the Old Testament, the Gentiles were referred to as dogs.
They were outside of that sphere of blessing and that, uh, sphere where the promises of God were enjoyed. And if they wanted to have any of them, they had to come through Israel. But they were referred to as dogs. And even the Lord Jesus himself used that imagery in talking about Gentiles. But what's happened now, Oh God, as we learn in the book of Ephesians, is brought you and Gentile into one body by the cross.
Where are the dogs now? It is those who would seek to bring the believer down to the level of Judaism, to bring him back to the level of things in this world, to make Christianity into a worldly religion.
To bring it down to the level of this world and make it popular. And we know that Satan has been all too successful in that over the centuries. And so this second verse, I would suggest, refers to that. And that is the biggest.
Shall we say hindrance to the enjoyment of Christ as our object and the enjoyment of a risen Christ in glory? It's the biggest hindrance to the believers having the energy of his new life by the power of the Spirit, by looking at a risen Christ in glory.
It has to do where our affections are.
When we came traveling up here, we stopped at 2 Bayside and other people stopped their cars.
Most of them came out of their cars with two dogs or more.
Or at least one.
And and Marianne made that remark.
That's where the people's affections are today with their dogs.
Where shouldn't be our affections be with the Lord Jesus Christ instead of these outward things where dogs can be very affectionate because they are very dependent upon us?
But we are more dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and we should have our affections toward Him.
00:30:11
Contrasting that last, uh, category in verse two, brother Bill, which you said beware of the.
Concision.
In verse three it speaks of the circumcision and I think it is helpful to see the difference.
Concision is cutting at.
Circumcision is cutting off. In Christianity, the flesh is completely cut off. We don't recognize it. It is gone before God. It is dead and buried. And what do you do with something dead and buried? You leave it there. Christianity is on the other side.
But concisions still recognizes the flesh and seeks to cut at it. That's fleshly. And that is what you mentioned. Brother Bill is the bringing down to the level of this world again and a worldly religion. Beware of it.
We have the same thing in Colossians chapter 2 notice.
In verse.
Umm, 20.
Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world?
Why, as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men.
So if you are still recognizing the flesh as something that God is dealing with, you're going to do that. You're going to put rules and regulations in place to control the flesh. But in Christianity, our position is completely different and that's why it says in verse three of our chapter, we are the circumcision. In other words, if we understand what true Christian position is.
It's a place where the flesh has been completely cut off and God does not recognize it any longer. We are in a new position in Christ, completely new. So to be brought back down is something that distracts from Christ.
Bob referred to Colossians two. I would like to also read verses 11 and 12, in whom ye also are circumcised. That's the verse in our chapter. Verse 3. Circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh at the quickened, together with him having forgiven you all trespasses and so on. Here we have the same principle brought out earlier in the chapter in picture form in the Old Testament. It's after they crossed the Jordan River, their death, spiritually speaking for us. There are death with Christ. And then they went to Gilgal and there they were circumcised and as Bill.
Commented his address is at that point that the reproach of Egypt was rolled off of them, and in connection with our chapter and the object of Christ.
As I said a few minutes ago, an unsafe person.
If you took him to heaven, having only the life of Adam, they'd want to leave. They would not wish to stay.
We recognize doctrinally that we have gone out of Egypt, the world.
To go to Canaan, if you will. But as it's been said and was said, you can take a man out of the world, but it doesn't necessarily take the world out of his heart.
00:35:08
Adams, Rice.
Never leaves the world as long as it's here.
Adams Rice is not capable in heart of leaving the world.
But we.
Can recognize that we have new life in Christ, but at the same time our atom life, if you will. We can look at it that way, the flesh in US.
Is not going to change. It still loves the world and it's only when God, practically speaking, has his way in US that we can fully enjoy.
That which is our true portion.
And we only do so when we recognize ourselves as having died with Christ, yes, more than that, having been risen with Christ. And it's when we recognize our position in Christ, in resurrection.
And the fact that the flesh is to be treated as dead or cut off, that we truly enter in practically, brethren, into those things that this chapter presents to us.
And so, as it says in verse three, we are the circumcision.
We may not always live it, but in position where the circumcision.
And God would work in us, so that in practice we live.
The other side of death and we live in resurrection life and then heaven is everything. Until then, it's not.
Until then, we're like the concision we want in some mixture.
Half of the new and half of the old are sometimes 80% of the new and 20% of the old. But there will always be in us that tendency toward a mixture. Here at the conference. It can be 100% to enjoy the Lord. But the conference isn't the real test. It's after we get home and we're in daily life at home and we've got access to as much world as we want with the click of our finger.
And then it's there's a tendency in us to have a mixture, to have some of the old and some of the new. But in true practice, the apostle Paul is an example of a person that was 100% for that, which is the true position of the Christian.
So could we say in simple terms that it's really the difference between simply dealing with the fruit or the plant itself and dealing with the root? I know if I can give a practical illustration, we are.
Whatever word you wanna use. Cursed, blessed with black walnut trees around our home. And, uh, one of them I took out and took the whole stump out, but the other one was right on the property line, right by a stream, and it would have been a job and a half to get the stump out, so I didn't take it out. What do I have to do? Keep cutting off the shoots as they come out every year because it wants to grow again. And cutting off the shoots is like the concision, isn't it? It's not dealing with the root of the problem.
It's recognizing there's something there that I don't want, and it's cutting it off, but it's not really getting at the root. But Christ, in his work on the cross, deals with the root of the problem, that old sinful self. Now by his grace we can reckon ourselves, as Romans 6 tells us, to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. And as Dawn says, we'll never progress in our Christian life.
Never be able to enjoy a risen Christ in glory until that precious truth has a grip on our souls.
And we recognize that, as Dawn was saying, even though we don't always live it out, that positionally we are dead and risen with Christ.
00:40:14
Seven and verse three are seen when it says we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit.
Man doesn't worship God.
It becomes, more than anything else, he worships himself. I'm the center of my world, I have to make me happy, and so on. And he wants to be the focus of his own life and his own attention. But true Christianity brings us into the liberty of being delivered from ourselves, to be able to find in another, in God himself, the object of worship.
And veneration.
He says rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Did man naturally, when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, rejoice in that man? He did not.
He appreciated being healed.
Having disease taken care of, receiving the benefit that the man could bring. But did he find his joy in him? No.
No, he did not the envision. Instead of fond joy in him, he went so far as to hate him out of that envy and say we will not have this man, we're not going to find our joy in him. We don't want him. That's the natural heart. And to the measure to which the flesh is given a place, as in chapter 2, it says Vainglory. It may be vain, but it's there anyway.
Man wants the glory for himself.
That's nature, that's fallen nature, but it's very much there. And to find someone else to have this, the glory, the honor isn't natural and easy to accept. Well, he can have a little, but I want some too. But.
The right place, the true place, the place of liberty is to rejoice in Christ Jesus.
Difference in translation here uh in verse 3 for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and King James translation it has a small S but in Darby's translation it says.
Umm, for we are the circumcision who worship God by the capital as the Spirit by the Spirit. And I I would just like to remind us as we speak about.
Umm, our occupation with Christ and our enjoyment of Christ that it is only in and by the Spirit of God who dwells within us. He's one of the very, very important components of the Christian experience. It's actually God dwelling in US who communicates the things of Christ and makes Christ and brings Christ home to our enjoyment.
He's the one who is working in us to produce.
Worship he's also the energy of the Christian life. The flesh is the energy of the first man. The spirit is the energy of the new man. And I, I know that that's a simplistic example and I know there's others here that can give a, a more detailed example there or explanation, but I, I, I think it's important for us to realize.
Where this enjoyment of Christ comes from if the believer will read.
The word of God.
And will allow the Spirit of God to take the word of God and minister it to us. The result will be an enjoyment of Christ because that is what the Spirit of God is there for. He will take the things of Christ and make them good to us if there's if we come together on Lord's Day morning.
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And we we gather together for worship. If there is, if there is one.
Audible spec of worship that comes from our heart. It will have been generated by the Spirit of God because that's what he's been given to us for. So we have a I like to think that well, we know that we have been given everything that pertains to life and godliness and we have been given everything that pertains to life and God. We don't.
We don't generate that ourselves, it has been given to us and the Spirit of God is one of those extremely valuable tools that God has given to help us to be able to rejoice in the Lord ye.
That's what we have, John, chapter 16.
And verse 13 we have the work of the Spirit of God to exalt Christ. And it says here, Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all.
True. Well, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the truth. He said I am the truth. He is the living truth. And so the Spirit of God leads us to a greater appreciation of Christ and we become better acquainted with him where the Spirit of God has liberty. And that's why I feel the best place that we can be on the face of this planet earth.
To become better acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ is where the Spirit of God has liberty.
By this Spirit to lead in worship and in ministry.
And I believe that.
To be gathered simply to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest privilege, because I believe here it is that the Spirit of God has liberty to exalt Christ, as it tells us here in John 16 and 13. It says, For he shall not speak of himself.
Or from himself.
So the Spirit of God is the worship leader. Sometimes you hear about worship leaders.
There is a worship leader, brethren. It's the Spirit of God we worship.
By the Spirit of God, and that's so important. And I think it's good for our young people to realize sometimes the questions are asked, why don't we have musical instruments?
And this is the difference between the old order of things and the Old Testament and the new.
The old was adapted for man in the flesh.
Naturally speaking, I enjoy music, but when we come together to worship the Lord, we don't come for our own enjoyment. Brethren, that's the problem. We have switched the focus of enjoyment from Him to us. Oh, I enjoy that particular place. They've got such nice music. They might have good music. I don't say they don't, but I said that's not the focus.
We come together to worship him and the leader as the Spirit of God.
And that's why you don't have anywhere in the New Testament either the Lord Jesus or the Apostles.
Using musical instruments, you don't have it once.
The Spirit of God is the one to guide in the worship. He occupies us with Christ, and the more we're occupied with Him, the more is going to flow out of our hearts the expression of appreciation of His glorious person. That's what worship is. Sometimes people have said, and I think it's been helpful, we worship God for who He is.
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We praise Him for what he has done.
And so it's the appreciation of all that God is for us. Brethren, the more we learn, the more we worship. Worship isn't necessarily audible. We read about the wise men that came from the East because they had seen the Lord star and they came to worship him and when they saw him.
Not in the Manger, but in the house. They fell down and worshiped him. It's not recorded any words they said.
It's simply the appreciation of the glory of who He is. That's worship. How wonderful brethren were made to worship God.
By the Spirit of God.
I could just make one more comment with regard to concision and circumcision. Concision is produced.
By the efforts of the 1St man.
C Circumcision recognizes the end of the first man and gives liberty for the Newman to operate. So when whenever we we set up, we set about to.
To, umm, try to regulate our lives in such a way that we'll we can we can please God. Those are the efforts of the first man circumcision recognizes it's an.
And takes up things in the new.
About truth and connected with Ephesians chapter 6 your loins skirt about with truth and is built brought out to us. That's the place that the lines are the place of strength.
Yeah, the contrast to truth is error or what is false. And the moment I embrace something that is false, I lose strength. That's what Satan did in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. He tempted them with something that was false. And the moment they embraced what was false, they lost their strength.
Buy it and they fell into error. And so sometimes we live in an age when truth is treated as secondary.
You know love is #1.
Even love without truth.
And so it's given a supreme, you know, except everybody, except everything. You think your way. I think mine at the expense of truth. And sometimes in our Christian lives there is that tendency to put aside a little truth for a little pleasure or a little bit of the flesh or a little bit of something. What's the consequence?
To lose strength.
Because the minute something that's not truth is accepted and into the practical way of life.
There's no longer the girding of the loin the.
It has been given up, and we need to be very careful because we live in an age where the whole mindset is truth, relative truth. The little secondary. This is more important. That's more important, but it's the very first thing that preserves in the armor the life and the moment. It's given up, everything else will go, and it's time as well. So let us never underestimate.
The importance of absolute truth for the preservation of our souls. And as Wally said, it's found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Word of God, and it needs not one tiny bit of it to be compromised or we will lose that which preserves us and gives strength to the Christian life.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Tim Roach
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Welcome to the Gospel Meeting.
Maybe we could start the the meeting this evening by singing number six.
God and mercy sent his Son to a world by sin undone. Jesus Christ was crucified. It was for sinners. Jesus died. Could someone start number six please?
I want to speak tonight about heart conditions.
They took my grandfather's license away from him years ago. He's with the Lord now, but they took his license away from him because he had a heart condition. He had congestive heart failure.
We wanna do a a heart examination of everyone here in the room tonight.
We wanna find out what your spiritual health is and let's go to Genesis Chapter 6.
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We know you can, uh.
Come to the meetings. You can come to the conference. You can sit here in the meetings. You can look like you're listening.
And you can fool your friends and maybe your parents about your heart condition.
But tonight you need to be honest with yourself.
What is your heart condition?
And the first heart condition that we're going to consider tonight is an evil heart. Genesis 6, verse 5.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Continually they had evil hearts. That was their condition.
And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me.
That I have made them well. God had created this world. He had put man into this beautiful world, and there was no sin. But it wasn't long before Adam.
Disobeyed God and sin entered into the world and death by sin and man had sin was passed down from Adam to his children, and we find that his son Cain killed his brother Abel.
And it got worse and worse. Man turned to all sorts of wickedness and violence and sin, and God said I can't stand it anymore. I'm sorry I ever made, man. I'm going to wipe them off the face of the earth. And so God sent the flood.
To destroy man. But God had a way of escape from that flood. There was a man named Noah, and Noah was told by God to build an ark, to build a big boat that all the people and the animals, everyone who wanted to get on that boat, they could get on that boat. There was a way of salvation.
Adam or Noah? He preached righteousness to all the people, but nobody wanted to hear it. He said There is a way of escape. Come on the boat with me and God will save you from this, the floodwaters. But nobody listened. Nobody but Noah's family. So only eight people got on the boat and eight people were saved. There was a way of salvation.
In Genesis 8, verse 21 we find that after there is salvation there was worship and it says in verse chapter 8, verse 21 The Lord smelled a sweet savour and the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I smite again smite anymore.
Everything living as I have done, and so God preserved mankind.
And in verse. And and it says here that the Lord smelled the sweet savour. That's because Noah, he took of the animals that he had brought on the ark with him and some of them, and they all came off. And he took some of those animals and he offered them up as a sacrifice to God, and the blood was shed there.
At the altar. And it went up to God, and it was a sweet savour to God, a sweet smelling savor of worship to the Lord, reminding God that one day Jesus was going to come into this world to be the savior of sinners. And that is your problem tonight, is because you are a Sinner and there is danger ahead for you. There is a flood, only it's not a flood of water for you. It's a flood of eternal damnation in the lake of Fire, and there's no way out of that except through.
The Lord Jesus Christ, and so the Lord Jesus has come into this world and died on the cross in order to prepare a way for you to be saved, a way of salvation. And why does God want to save you?
Why should he save you? Because he wants you to be a worshiper. He wants you to be giving glory to the Lord Jesus.
Well, the heart, the heart of man is evil, but the heart of God, the heart of God is goodness. That's reaching down to preserve mankind. See God? He will have a people for himself and he wants people to worship him. And that is why we have the Gospel meeting tonight.
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God wants you to be saved. He wants you to be a worshipper of him tonight and to give glory to God. And so the opportunity is still here for you to be saved. We hear a lot about global warming. It's going to destroy the earth and people are worried and they try to do a lot of things to preserve the the ecology. But in verse 22 of our chapter it says while the earth remaineth seed, time and harvest.
Cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.
You see, the goodness of God maintains the universe. This is the world that he made with his hands and with the word of his mouth, He sustains your life. You sit here and you breathe. You breathe in. You breathe out. You breathe in. You breathe out. How can you do that? It's God himself who sustains you so that you have life and so that you can think, and so that you can breathe and so that you can hear the gospel.
God says here, and your soul shall live.
Hear the message tonight. Yes, most of you in this room have heard the gospel many times, But just hearing it doesn't save you. When God says here he means it got to go in, has to go in through your ear and down to your heart and to believe what God has said. Believe.
I don't want to bring level levity in the Gospel Meeting, but there's a there's a comic strip about Hagar, Hagar the horrible and uh, King Hagar's right hand man. He notified Hagar and he comes running in and says the peasants are revolting.
And Hagar says they sure are.
The next condition, the next heart condition I want to speak of.
Is a revolting heart. Let's go to Jeremiah chapter 5 and he speaks about a revolting heart.
Jeremiah, chapter 5.
And Jeremiah speaks about a revolting heart. He says this and this is this may be what what what your condition is, is your heart condition, a revolting heart. And so God says this. But these people, verse 23, these people have a revolting and a rebellious heart. They are revolted and gone.
Hagar had gotten the meaning of revolting mixed up.
But I don't want you to get your heart condition mixed up tonight. I want you to know what your heart condition is. Is your life revolting to the heart of God? Is that your problem tonight? That you have a revolting heart? God commands you to repent. He commands you to believe. But you have refused. Up to now, you have refused. You've revolted against God. Well, maybe you look around this world and you and you see the havoc that is caused in people's lives.
Different experiences and things happen in people's lives and we see the trauma that's caused and the injustice in the world. And you say, well, if there is a God, why is all there is? Why is there all this sorrow and this sadness and this sickness?
But you know you have been fooled by the devil. This world has rejected God.
This world has crucified him on the cross, and they said away with him. We don't want him crucify him. And so this world, they chose Satan and now Satan is the God of this world. There are two gods that you have to contend with in this world, two gods that you have to contend with in your life.
It's Jesus and Satan. Jesus is the true God.
Satan is a fake God.
Satan is an Angel of light. He tells you nice things, he tells you even Christian things, but he twists the truth.
And turns it into iniquity and sin, and makes you believe him.
Satan blames all the bad things that happens. He he blames it on God. But really, really, it's Satan who wants to destroy you. It's Satan who wants to take you down to hell, and it's Satan.
That does not want you to be saved. He does not want you to give glory to God.
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Jesus. He died on the cross for you, and he made a way for you to escape the terrors of hell and to avoid the influence of Satan.
But you ignore God, You ignore God as if he does not ex exist, and you believe the lies of Satan.
Well, you are deceiving yourself and you are are revolting against God. Let's go to Jeremiah 17, Jeremiah 17.
This brings us to our next heart condition. The condition of this heart is a deceitful heart. Jeremiah 17 verse nine And this is this is explaining your heart tonight. This is what your heart is like. It says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
When you turn against God, when you close your ears so you don't have to hear the gospel message, you're deceiving yourself when you listen to Satan.
And you believe with the lies that he tells you, you're deceiving yourself.
Your family, your friends, maybe those in the assembly, they can all see what your values are.
They can see your actions, they know what what you value, they can see that you miss a lot of meetings.
Because you do not love the Lord Jesus who loved you and gave himself for you.
I'm afraid that you are a fake.
And it's evident in your life.
You are like Judas.
Judas lived a life of pretend.
Now Judas's father, his name was Simon the Leper.
And Simon was a Pharisee.
A ruler of the Jews.
And and Simon invited the Lord Jesus into his house not too long before Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus.
Now perhaps that invitation was part of the conspiracy against the Lord.
We don't know what the motive was for why Simon invited the Lord Jesus to come to his house. But we do know that the Lord Jesus went to Simon's house and the Lord Jesus. He socialized with publicans and sinners. He socialized with prostitutes and Pharisees. The gospel goes out to whosoever will, the gospel goes out to you. You are in this room tonight. You are part of whosoever.
It's not just that guy down the street who you know is wicked and does bad things. It belong. It means you too, you or whosoever.
In The Gospel Goes Out to you, what is your motive for coming to this gospel meeting tonight?
Some of you, you want to be here. You want to hear the gospel shared with others. Some of you are here because your parents make you come. Some of you have been invited.
You don't know what this is all about and you want to know what is this about Jesus? Who is Jesus?
What is your motive for coming to the Gospel Meeting tonight?
Are you deceiving yourself like Judas? Are you pretending to be interested, but secretly?
You're despising the goodness of God and you are rejecting the grace of God.
Let's go to Proverbs chapter 16.
It may be that your problem is pride.
This brings us to our next heart condition, A proud heart.
Maybe your problem is that you are proud.
You're selfish. You do not live for God.
You live for yourself.
And in pride you set yourself above the word of God, and you do your own thing.
Perhaps work is more important to you than the things of God.
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Maybe the videos and the Internet and sports?
Replace the meeting nights.
You will not get away with your selfish pride, God says here in Proverbs chapter 16 and verse five. He says. Everyone that is a proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Though hands join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
When we think too much of ourselves and we become selfish.
That's a result of pride in our hearts. And we're not going to be unpunished. We will experience punishment for our pride. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after death the judgment. God will punish you for your abominable and proud heart and for your unbelieving heart.
Is that your heart condition tonight? Proud, proud heart?
Don't reject the Savior. Don't reject him any longer. Come to Jesus now, because the longer you revolt against the love of God, the harder your heart is going to become. And if you harden your heart tonight, you may lose your chance to be saved. And it may be that God will harden your heart and you will never be able to be saved.
And Satan will make you, and you will be made to believe a lie.
And you will believe more of the lies of Satan, and you blame him for everything that goes wrong.
You will think that you're OK without God.
You don't need all this Christian stuff. It's a bunch of nonsense.
You think you have nothing to worry about.
Well, you could end up like Pharaoh. Exodus chapter 10 verse 20 talks about Pharaoh.
Exodus 10, verse 20. And here we see that Pharaoh had a proud heart and he revolted against God one too many times.
And So what did God do? Exodus 10/20 says the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children go. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would not do the will of God. Well, the will of God for you tonight is that you believe on the Lord Jesus. The will of God for you tonight is that you'll be saved.
But if you refuse, If you reject, If you harden your heart against the word of God.
God may end up hardening your heart so you cannot believe.
And you go through life always rejecting Jesus.
And you become bitter towards God and you'll hate Christians.
Maybe you are developing an adamantine shell around your heart that makes it too hard to break open.
You need to have a broken heart, because without without repentance and without a broken heart, you cannot be saved.
Let's go to Psalm 34.
Psalm 34 brings us to our next heart condition.
And that is a broken heart.
Psalm 34 verse 18.
It says the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Contrite means crushed. Maybe your spirit is crushed because of some traumatic things that have happened in your life and you.
And you experience a broken heart.
Broken hearts come from physical or emotional trauma.
And broken hearts can affect both believers and unbelievers.
Well, I don't. I don't know what has broke, what has broken your heart tonight.
But maybe you have. Maybe it's because you've broken up with your boyfriend.
Or your girlfriend.
Maybe your parents have been divorced.
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Maybe your dad beats your mother.
Maybe a loved one has died.
And you feel cheated by God.
Maybe someone here is facing financial ruin.
Or maybe you were abused as a young person.
And now the memories that you have buried within your soul are starting to surface.
And they're troubling you.
And they're causing you deep depression.
And maybe you have anger and bitterness in your soul.
There's so many things.
That break our hearts.
What is Breaking your Heart tonight?
The Lord he wants to heal your broken heart, and so how do we deal with the trauma of such a broken heart?
If you want to be saved and you believe in the Lord Jesus and you believe that he is God.
And you believe that he is the savior? Then you will have a resource.
For your soul, that can help you with your broken heart, because God has given to the believer the privilege of being a member of the body of Christ.
And we each have the responsibility of having the same care for one another.
Brothers and sisters in Christ.
Don't turn your eyes away from the helpless.
Don't turn your eyes and your hearts away from those.
Who are suffering from a broken heart.
When other people have heard us.
Or they fall short of our expectations.
We need to choose in our hearts. We need to choose to show them grace instead of judgment. And there's a verse in Matthew. Let's go to Matthew, Chapter 7.
We need to show people grace.
And I think Grace.
Is can be defined as mercy and favor and pardon.
Jesus showed.
You and me. He showed us grace rather than judgment.
Lord Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty for my sins, and he paid the penalty for your sins, if you'll only accept it. He took the punishment that we deserved. And here in Matthew Chapter 7, verse one and verse two says, Judge not that you be not judged, For with what judgment you judge you shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.
If you continue to think that, it's your responsibility to judge that person who offended you or perhaps abused you.
It will be more grief coming back on you than what your soul can really handle.
You need to trust the Lord to examine the heart and the motives of those who may have hurt you, hurt you.
And leave all all the judgment to the Lord Jesus.
And you'll you'll find that if you let go of this responsibility that it will be very, very freeing or liberating and it and it will allow God to to fully heal and restore your heart. And so if you if you live alone with these be buried memories and the subsequent anger and bitterness of soul, it's going to break your heart.
Let's go to Psalm 147.
N.
There's another thing that.
That breaks a heart and that is when we have sorrow.
About our sin that we've committed against the Lord.
If you are an unbeliever.
You might be searching for freedom from the guilt of your sin. And if this is, this is the heart condition that we look for, one that is a broken heart, broken with their sin, with the conviction of sin in your heart. And so a broken heart means that you're sorry for your sin against God, and you feel bad that Jesus had to die on the cross because of your sin and that he had to suffer there and take the punishment that you deserve.
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And even if you have only done one little sin, maybe you say, I haven't done such bad things, you've only done a little sin.
Well, the Lord Jesus had to die even for that little sin.
Jesus had to die for you, and in Psalm 147 and verse three it says he heals the broken in heart.
Oh friends, tonight the Lord Jesus wants to heal your broken heart.
If you have the the if, you understand that you are a Sinner.
And that it's your sin that's dragging you down to hell. It's not God, it's your sin. It's your sin that's dragging you down to hell. Well, the Lord Jesus, he wants to heal that broken heart tonight. Are you ready to be saved? Now is the time. Now is the time to be saved. Last week we had 10 days at of camp up in Michigan on a lake up there and we had about a hundred 150 to 200 people there for for part of the time.
And while we were there.
Becky Van Holstein was was the cook there at at the camp?
And her son Mike. He was driving his motorcycle. He was driving along the road through and went through an intersection in a car at the stop sign, didn't see him and pulled out in front of him and he put the bike down and it slid and he slammed into that car and immediately Mike.
Was dead.
It happened so fast.
Mike could not avoid death.
There are many tears shed at Michigan camp that day.
Don't wait any longer.
You have no promise of tomorrow.
Come to Jesus right now. Be you can be saved tonight.
Let's go to Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes 3.
Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11.
Speaking about God says he has made everything beautiful in his time. He has made everything beautiful in his time.
When the Japanese when they mend objects, say like a bowl that is cracked and broken or a cup.
They they like to exaggerate or magnify the damage by filling the cracks and repairing the broken object to fill the cracks with gold. And so it makes it evident that there's an obvious change from the original condition. And they believe that when something has suffered damage and has a history, it makes it beautiful.
I think that's a beautiful analogy for what God does with our brokenness.
You may be broken in your heart about your sin.
Or maybe difficult times in your life, bring all your cares, bring all your worries to the one who has the power to heal your broken heart. In First Peter chapter 5 and verse seven, we're we're told to put all your worries, put all your fears and all your brokenness on the Lord Jesus.
Cast all your care on him because he cares for you. The Lord Jesus cares about you.
Jesus is in the process of making You Beautiful.
And he wants to heal your broken heart. Let's go to Luke chapter 24.
Luke Chapter 24 in Our next Heart Condition is a Slow Heart.
Maybe you have a slow heart tonight.
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Luke 24 and verse 25. God warns you not to be slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
It may be that you have been raised in a Christian home and you are almost persuaded to be a Christian.
But not yet. Up to now, you have refused. You are too busy, too busy enjoying life, and you have up to now you've rejected Christ, the Savior of sinners. You are slow of heart to believe, and each and every time you refuse to be saved, the fires of hell are being turned up and heated up a little bit more and a little bit more, and each time until hell will receive you into the jaws of death.
And damnation.
John 318. It says that he that believes not is condemned already.
Because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. You're condemned already because you don't believe in. John 336 says he that believes not the Son. The wrath of God abides on him if you do not believe.
Death, judgment, damnation and hell is in the future for you. Don't be slow of heart to believe all the words of God in Romans chapter 10 and verse 9, Romans 10.
Brings us to our next heart condition.
And this is a believing heart.
Don't be slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
And the prophet and evangelist tells us in Romans chapter 10 and verse nine. He says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not perish. That's what we find in John 316.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. But you will have everlasting life. For this heart condition you need to have a believing heart. Salvation does not come from something you do, something you achieve, or money that you give. Salvation comes from believing.
Acts chapter 10 and verse 43. It says whosoever believes in Jesus shall receive remission of sins. Do you want forgiveness for your sins? You can be forgiven tonight. You can go, you can go home with the peace of God.
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Let's go to Acts Chapter 2.
Acts Chapter 2. And this brings us to another part condition.
And this is a pricked heart, a pricked heart. And in in Acts chapter 2, Peter was preaching, and he says in verse 37, They were pricked in their heart. And they said unto Peter, until the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift.
Of the Holy Ghost.
Notice that Peter does not say here to believe. It's because they had already believed. In this verse, Peter means that you need to repent and separate yourself from your selfish desires and to separate yourself from yourself righteousness and to separate yourself from your connections with the world and from your abominable pride.
Believe and repent. Believe and repent always go together towards salvation.
You might say, I believe.
But if you have not repented.
You're not saved.
And if you have repented and you do good works but you don't believe.
You're not saved.
There needs to be believing and repenting. They go together. Your heart needs to be pricked and you need to repent and turn away from your selfishness.
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From your sin.
You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Let's go to mark Chapter 2.
Mark chapter 2. And here we have reasoning hearts. These people were reasoning and talking against the Lord Jesus about what the Lord Jesus had said and they were reasoning in their hearts. And I'm going to read this story. It'll just take a couple minutes. Mark chapter 2 and verse one. And again he Jesus entered into Capernaum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house and straightway many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive them.
No, not so much as about the door. And he preached the word unto them. And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy which was born or carried by 4 people. And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, where all the people they uncovered the roof where he was. And when they had broken it up, they let down the bed, wherein the sick of the palsy lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy.
Son thy sins be forgiven thee, But there were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts. Why doth this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?
And immediately when Jesus proceeds in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them.
Why do you reason these things in your heart? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise, take up thy bed and walk, But that you might know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins? He says to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, Arise, take up your bed, and go your way into your own thine own house.
And immediately he rose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all in so much that they were all amazed and glorified God saying we never saw it on this fashion. For they said we've never seen anything like this before. And so these people, they had reasoning hearts. They could see what Jesus did. They could hear what he said. The Lord Jesus said to the man, your sins are forgiven you.
And they reasoned in their hearts. They did not believe. They did not have faith. They did not believe that Jesus could forgive sins. Who is this man? They did not believe that Jesus was God.
They did not believe he had power to forgive sins. But Jesus is God, Jesus is God, and Jesus does have power to forgive sins. Maybe you think that you are so bad that God doesn't want you that he couldn't possibly.
Pay for your sins and to forgive your sins well.
The Lord Jesus does have power. He has power to forgive sins. And so Jesus is God. You must believe that you must have power. You must believe that Jesus has power to forgive your sins. And if you do not believe that Jesus is God, you can't be saved. Secondly, you must believe that Jesus did the work on the cross so that you could be saved, so that you could have your sins forgiven, and that through his death on the cross and through his shed blood and that he was raised from the dead and he.
And He's in heaven tonight. Believe and you will be saved.
Ephesians chapter One.
We have another verse, Ephesians chapter one and verse 7.
And this is saying in Ephesians one verse seven. It says in Jesus, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. So you must believe that Jesus is God. You must believe that Jesus died on the cross, and that he shed his blood, and that he rose again from the dead, and that he has completed the work so that you can be saved.
Believe.
That while Jesus was on the cross, he took the punishment for your sins.
All the judgment of God against your sin was put on Jesus.
00:45:00
And Jesus was punished for those sins.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin.
Even the sins that you haven't committed yet, the Lord knows them. He's put them on.
Jesus and he was punished for your sins. There is nothing more that you can do to be saved.
Nothing that you can do to help Jesus.
To save you.
The work is done. All you have to do is believe.
We have one another heart condition in Psalm Chapter 51.
In verse 10 and this is a clean heart.
God wants to give you a clean heart. In Psalm 51, verse 10 says create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You know, some people ask Jesus to come into their heart, but Jesus cannot come into your life.
Unless you have a clean heart.
There's a little 3 year old boy.
He was at camp and about six months ago his mother told me that he, the little boy was he was thinking about Jesus and about his heart. And he asked her if Jesus comes into my heart, will it hurt?
And the little boy is thinking three years old. We sing that song. A little child of seven, or even three and three or four can enter into heaven through Christ the open door. While at camp this year, this little boy, three, 3 1/2 years old and adoring the children's hour, he heard the story of David and Goliath, and it was acted out. And he was afraid of Goliath. And he did not want to come back the next morning to Children's Hour because he was afraid of Goliath.
And they had to tell him, explain to him that Dave had killed Goliath and so Goliath wouldn't be there that day. And so he he agreed that he would come to the Bible hour. Well, there were things that this little boy was afraid of. There's some other things too. And. And they sang the song about brave Gideon that Gideon had the Lord with him. And and the three-year old boy was thinking about that. And he connected the dots.
And he decided that David and Gideon, they weren't afraid because they had the Lord with them.
And he came to his mother and said to his mother, I want to be saved.
I want to have the Lord with me because I don't want to be afraid.
That little 3 year old was saved by faith in the Lord Jesus.
And that is how you can get a clean heart tonight. That is how you can be saved tonight. Come to the Lord Jesus. You can get a clean heart and you can be free from your worries. You can be free from your fears. You can be free from your broken heart. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And you'll have a clean heart within you. And then you can enter into fellowship and communion.
With the Lord Jesus, it's the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all sin.
You need to believe and repent so that you can come into salvation. Jesus says I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
We can enter into salvation through the Lord Jesus. After you are saved, Jesus will come knocking. Jesus will come knocking on the door of your soul so he can come into your life and to have communion with you.
And to and so that you can have communion with him. You see, the Lord Jesus wants to be your friend.
Do you want to be Jesus friend?
If you want to be Jesus friend.
Please come and talk to me after the meeting.
I'll be around here for a little while and I can talk to you. Or maybe someone else can talk to you about being saved. In closing, let's sing #4.
Christ is the Savior of sinners.
Christ is the Savior for me. Long I was chained, and since darkness. Now by His grace I am free, saviour of sinners.
#4
Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
00:50:09
For there was changing since darkness.
Nobody is grace. I am free.
Save your own sinners.
Savour of sinners like me.
Nsnoise.
She came from judgment to pray.
9009 and try this and the savior for me.
Save the world and say.
You're out there's like me.
Chinese club for my rhythm, so it is the savior for me.
What Is the Best Gift You Can Have?
Children—Wally Dear
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Clock says 9/14.
That's close enough. Let's get started.
Good morning, everyone.
You know, I think this is going to be a good day.
I remember.
We used to have work done by a man and we'd say good morning.
Bill and he'd say, well, what's good about it?
And sometimes you just say morning. But you know what?
This is a good morning.
And I'll tell you one reason why it's good.
It's because the Lord Jesus, He loves you just as much today.
This morning.
As he loved you yesterday and the day before and the day before that, and in fact as much as when he hung on the cross of Calvary when he died for you, so that makes me happy, and I know others are happy because of that. And it is a good morning. So I think we ought to begin by singing.
Got a hymn sheet here and by the way.
Before we start singing.
I'm gonna be handing out money.
To the boys and girls that are sitting on the front rows. So if there's anybody interested now in coming to the front, come right on up. We'd love to see you on the front rows.
See my bag right there?
All right, who's got a song? Anybody have a number they like to sing off this hymn sheet?
5 Great. Let's start by singing #5 Let's sing the first and last verse, and that way we have time to sing a few more songs. So #5 verses one and three.
Oh.
My God.
Well, that was good singing. Anybody else have a number?
Which one?
16 All right #16.
Whosoever he raised.
All the world around, friends and loved one of the drivers and I had to work on his phone. It was so far over. The world may come for him so far everywhere. So I've never been alone. The name of the proclamation over there and there.
00:05:27
No loving father of the Wanderer home.
So I'm prepared for the world who had gone.
I'd like to repeat what I said before for those that have arrived.
I'm gonna be handing out money to those that are sitting on the front row, boys and girls that are on the front row.
Are gonna get money.
I got a bag full of it.
No, I didn't win the lottery.
Because I don't do the lottery, but.
Anybody else have a number?
Song.
How about it?
I think we're off to a good start. I really enjoyed the singing here today.
We've got uh.
47 songs. We've already sang two. So anybody else have a number? Or if you don't know the number, how about just telling us the name of the song?
For the first line of the song, anybody?
Yes.
32 #32 All right.
So we're going to see the first and last verse.
What can watch?
Us in the floor and I can't be quiet as long as no, no, no.
Nothing but.
Anybody else?
Yes, 11.
#11.
Will you write?
A gold strike, but when your eyes come together.
And I see those that are singing like they really mean it. They love the words and they love this thing about Jesus and they love the salvation that they have in Jesus and they love to sing about it. That's good now.
I'm gonna repeat what I said before.
And I'm gonna add something to it.
For anybody that's sitting on the front rows, we've got a couple of seats left here.
And maybe I'll say the second rose too, because we've got empty seats on the 2nd row, so any boys or girls that are sitting on the first or second rows.
You're gonna get.
A bag of money.
And also, I have to give to you something that's better than money.
Something better than money.
So it's getting better money plus something better.
OK, who has the number song? Anybody else have a song?
We've got time for at least one more.
I think we're just getting warmed up here.
Yes #30.
#30.
A thing will not.
Play my tears.
Winking well, not saving.
It like everyone died for me to get some time for your heart and dream. It's a place to make me free.
You, you know, I can't say Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
The intention risks will take me trust in him without a grin of Mars Bloodstone Delaware's diabetes and he has time to make one Thorny OK, run. Hey, hey, hey, the price will save me.
Him she'd here, but all the songs we sang were wonderful songs.
46 All right, I see it says children's hymns and choruses, so.
00:15:01
Let's do 46.
And of course, this one here, we like to break into parts, so we'll ask the girls to sing their part where it says any calls, any calls, all the GIRLS.
Like to ask only the girls to sing that line and the boys will ask you to sing the very next line where it says and he wants all the boys too. And together we sing the rest of the song #46.
Glad T.
ING last day and it began to last one. 2000 and 20.
So we'll just set these, uh, him sheets aside.
You can put them under your seat if you like.
Now question.
Did anybody learn a verse for today?
Oh, I see quite a few have learned a verse for today. Now we've been doing some traveling and I must say.
I'm not sure of which verse was in the Sunday school paper for today.
But you don't have to say the one in the Sunday school paper. That's very good if you can say it. But if you know a different verse, that's fine. But I'd like to call on those that really know the verse.
Really quite well because we don't have a whole lot of time.
To, uh, spend on the memory work. It's very important though memory work.
There was a little girl and she brought to the Bible hour something that she had made.
And it was an owl.
And it was very nice, and it was colored so very nice. And here were the words that were on the owl.
3 words.
Be wise, memorize.
And I never forgot that, you know, boys and girls.
You're young and you can learn verses quickly and that's good. So when you're young, memorize and memorize the word of God. Now who has a verse they would like to say today? And I don't want to scare you with this.
This is not a club. I think you already know what this is, but it's nice when everybody can hear what you're saying. It's so encouraging to hear the boys and girls. So let's see, we'll start with you, OK?
For the wages and stuff, but to get to God as you tell him, I said Jesus Christ the Roman 623 very good. That's beautiful. Well, why did you send us desk but the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Romans 623 good, very good. How about anybody here 3. All right, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord Romans 623 For the wages of sin of death is the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and in 623.
The wages of sinisters with the gifts of God as eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 623 You know what I think I know what verse was in the Sunday Scope paper last week.
How about you? You wanna try it? No, OK, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 623.
The wages of serious death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 623 Beautiful, huh?
All right.
Anybody else?
Oh, over here? Sure, let's start at the same.
Would you send a step? For the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 623 beautiful good way to have sent us that for the gift of God is eternal life. From 623 the wages are saying that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Roman 623 beautiful. The widget of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
00:20:15
Romans 623. Good.
That everybody.
Don't wanna overlook a soul. Well, that verse wasn't hard to say. And you know, it goes right along with what I'd like to talk about today. It's beautiful.
And it's not a hard verse to learn. And I really appreciate the fact that God in this book, you know, this is the word of God. He makes verses simple so that boys and girls can learn verses. And we can know even as a child what the Lord is trying to say to us. And you know, the Lord Jesus, he loves the children so very much. He really appreciates you boys and girls.
And I hope you appreciate him. Well, I told you.
That.
I was gonna be handing out money.
And I'm not going to make you work for it.
It's going to be a free gift.
And I understand from that first Romans 6 and 23 that even though the wages of sin is death the gift of God.
Is eternal life, well, isn't that wonderful? The very best possession that you or I could ever have, and I hope everybody has it here today, it doesn't cost you or me one cent is because Jesus paid the price.
On the Cross of Calvary to save our souls and to cleanse our hearts.
And to make us whole and to give us this wonderful.
Gift of eternal life.
Years ago.
I can recall we attended a conference over in Dorsey and our brother Jim. He may remember this and I'm sure others do too.
My uncle, Mr. Ralph Buchanan, or I should say Clawson Ralph Clausen. He stood up in the front and he offered.
A free gift to anybody that was willing to come to the front and accept it.
Can anybody remember what the gift was?
Nobody remembers. How about somebody in the back? Yes, you're exactly right.
He had a bunch of dollar bills in his pocket here and he began to pass these out and you know what, the line just got longer and longer and he kept passing out these bills one after another. And I got to thinking to myself, my he's very generous and the fact is that everybody that wanted.
A dollar bill. They got a dollar bill. I never asked him how many he gave out, but seems to me it must have been 100 or more.
Not today, I must say. I'm not being that generous.
I can't offer what I have in my bag to everybody, but I am offering it to those that are on the front rows.
And I'm gonna tell you this.
What I have in my bag.
Are bags of money and in each bag.
At least $100.
Of real money.
Now how many? Believe me, put up your hand if you do.
There's one boy here. There's two over here. See, my wife trusts me. That's a good thing, right? This boy here. OK, more hands are going up. Well, that's interesting how we seem to have an influence on one another.
If somebody else thinks something's good and you pay attention to that person and they mean a lot to you, then you start thinking about the fact. Well, yeah, maybe that is good because my friend, he goes for it and so.
00:25:08
What I think I'll do?
Is to ask.
The boys and girls to come to the front.
And receive your.
Bag of money.
Anybody wanna come and receive your bag of money? OK, just line right up here and then after you get your bag, you can go back to your seat, OK?
I hope nobody is too disappointed.
But this is real.
It's interesting what we will do for money, money, money, money. That's something that people place a great importance on today. We need some of it, you know.
It's nice to have food to eat and clothes to wear in the house and so.
Well, look at that. I didn't run out. All right, Everybody got their bag of money.
So.
Anybody happy?
With their bag. OK.
Good. Good, good, good.
This money.
Is, I believe, worth something now.
It's not worth $100 bills.
Why? Can anybody tell me why? Yeah.
It's shredded. Exactly, it's shredded. I guess we all know what shredded means, don't we? Some of you maybe eat shredded wheat for breakfast. Well, this money has been shredded. And the fact is, every year the United States government shreds.
Money.
At the present time though, I understand they're not shredding it. It's being pulverized. Money wears out and instead of shredding it.
They pulverize it, which means they make a powder out of it.
And I found that very interesting.
Because.
Money wears out, it doesn't last forever. And I think that perhaps some of you here today.
We're a little disappointed.
In the fact that the money was shredded, but I will say this today they're pulverizing the money and they're not shredding it. And so it's possible that this time will be a collector's item.
So I said earlier.
In this little meeting.
That we were offering something even better than money, and that's why I put on this.
Little bag of money a verse, and this verse is from the Bible. And I wonder if somebody would be willing to read this first. OK, could you read that verse to us?
Everyone that asketh.
Come.
To the waters and he that has no money.
Come ye but.
Coming by and eat.
Yeah, yeah. Come by wine and milk without money, without price, Isaiah.
55 one very good. Thank you.
And so we have here.
In the Old Testament, a wonderful verse, I'd like to turn to it. Some have it on their bags. If you don't have a bag, you can turn to it in the word of God because I believe that what we have here is.
Is infinitely more wonderful than.
00:30:04
Money and people place a great importance on money, but money?
In time it disappears.
It goes away, it doesn't last, but what we have in this verse is an invitation, I believe, from the Lord Himself.
To enjoy that which truly satisfies our hearts. And that's what we want. We want to be happy. And you know, money really doesn't.
Make a person happy. I read an article about men that have died, very wealthy but very unhappy. And there was a man in Ontario some time ago and he won the lottery. I think he won over $6 million.
But.
He rather regretted having won that much money. He was rather a quiet individual. He he enjoyed his life the way it was. But then after winning this money, he felt, well, he needs to spend it. So he went out and started buying some expensive toys.
Like race cars. And he bought a Camaro and he began to drive a lot faster than he used to drive and so.
He began to get speeding tickets and he got one after another after another to where they suspended his license.
So then he says, well, I need to get a chauffeur. He bought a Lincoln Town Car and now he has to decide who's going to be a chauffeur. Well, he put forth applications. I think he got 70 plus applications. Now he has to try to figure out which one of the 70 should be the one to drive him around. And things went like this and he really wasn't happy about his big win.
And I'm sure we could relate many, many stories, you know?
In the very town I live in.
The young man that plows our driveway, his name is Bill.
And just this summer, he won $100,000 in a lottery.
Well, no, it wasn't this summer. It was during the winter because.
I begin to wonder, is he going to continue to plow our driveways?
And he did. He continued to drive, follow the driveway. But you know what Billy told me?
He said I could not sleep for a week after I heard that I won that money, so now money's keeping him awake and that's not a good thing.
Somebody said that money can.
Are you a bed?
But it cannot buy you sleep, and sleep is very, very important.
And there are many people today that are very wealthy.
But they worry about their money.
They wonder if their money is going to be safe and they even lose sleep over it and that's not good. Well, I believe here in this verse we have.
A call.
Oh, and I believe it's the Lord himself.
And he's trying to get your attention.
You know, sometimes you drive down the road and.
There's somebody on the corner and they almost step out in front of your vehicle and they go like that.
And you find out what they want.
They want to wash your car, turn in here and get your car washed. It's like, hey, wait a minute. Well here I believe the Lord says, oh everyone that thirsteth.
Now, I believe we're not talking so much about physical thirst here as we are talking about.
A thirst in our hearts, in our souls, for that which can make us truly happy.
And I wonder if there's somebody here today, one of you boys or girls, you're not happy.
And you feel in your heart that.
You just you want something to make you happy.
Well, here we find the Lord is offering to you that which will satisfy your heart.
00:35:04
And the Lord Jesus, it tells us he satisfies the longing soul, and he fills the hungry soul with goodness.
Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Well, if you're thirsty, you really appreciate water. And there's fountains back there. And I've been back there taking a drink of that nice cool water and oh how refreshing it is.
And.
The Lord Jesus, he wants to refresh your soul. He says come, come. That's a beautiful word. What does that mean? Come, little girl said one time. That simply means he wants me. And we sang it in the song Remember that was number.
46 He calls, and he calls all the GIRLS, and he wants all the Bois too.
And so he offers to you.
That which will make you happy. But it's an invitation. Come, come. Have you come?
Come ye through the waters, and he that has no money now.
These bags are supposed to have over $100.00 of shredded money in these bags, but you cannot go to the store.
The Walmart or you can't go to the.
Wendy's or the McDonald's and expect to get a hamburger with this. Because really, in the eyes of most people, this is no money. This is worthless.
But on the 1St here it tells us about those that have no money.
Something more than gold is in this verse, something that's more wonderful than $100 or $1,000,000 or a billion dollars. And I know there's people in this hall here today if they were offered.
A billion dollars on this hand, or eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord on this hand. They would accept this hand. How about you?
A billion dollars can probably buy you about anything you want here in this world, but it's not gonna last.
But eternal life in Jesus Christ is that which goes on and on and on. And it's wonderful. It's to be with the Lord Jesus forever in his happy home in heaven, eternal life. And so there's nothing more wonderful than to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. And so it goes on here to say he that has no money, come, ye, the invitation goes out again, come.
Buy and eat ye come, come, come, come.
Buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Coming to the waters, Waters refresh.
And that fountain back there, so refreshing. Take a nice cool drink wine. It tells us in the Bible that wine it makes glad the heart of God and of man brings joy. And milk is that which nourishes, nourishes. And so God has for us a wonderful.
Offering here, and it's without money and it's without.
Price because Jesus paid the price on the cross of Calvary.
We sing those songs sometimes goes like this. On the cross for me, on the cross for me, dying there in agony. Jesus paid the price, himself the sacrifice.
On the cross for me and now the Lord Jesus if we turn over to the New Testament.
I believe it's John chapter 6 verse 35 the Lord Jesus says.
He that comes to me shall never thirst.
00:40:03
Because. Because.
I am the bread of life, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me.
Shall never thirst. So it seems to tie in very nicely with this verse that we have here.
Some time ago I gave these out.
In another place and I noticed after a meeting.
Some of the boys, they actually opened up this little bag and they were trying to piece together these little strips of money. And I think they were trying to make $100 or something like that out of money. And I saw that's not going to work, I don't think, but they were trying. But you know, we tried to.
Come up with money some way, somehow. But the important thing is.
What is more valuable than gold than money, $100 million dollars. It is salvation.
Salvation.
Is of the Lord and we need to trust Him for salvation.
Because the Lord Jesus, he did the work at the cross.
Tells us that he died, he was buried, but he rose again the third day, according.
To the scriptures for this wonderful book that we have here in our hands.
And salvation goes on forever and ever. And that's a wonderful thing. You can't lose it. You know, even if I was giving out dollar bills like my uncle back there and Dorothy, those dollar bills wear out. In fact, I'm told that the dollar bill, it lasts about 17 months. Now, that's the average lifespan of a dollar bill.
And I imagine $100 bill.
Would last longer than that.
But after 17 months, pulverized.
But what we're talking about here?
It goes on and on. It's a happiness that lasts.
Because it's eternal life. And it tells us over in John 17 that this is life, eternal, eternal life.
To know God, the only true God and Jesus Christ.
Who he has sent now?
I see our time is gone.
Sang a song. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It's the only remedy for sin, the blood of Jesus. Think about it. The Son of God gave his life and love for you and me at the cross, and now he lives and he is coming again.
Are you thirsty?
Are you hungry in your heart? In your soul?
There's only one who can satisfy your thirst, your hunger, and that's Jesus.
Jesus. Well, I see a kindness.
Go on SO.
You can keep these little packets, maybe put them away, and as I say, it's a collector's item. Might be worth something more.
In a few years, but I must say.
I hope the Lord comes before that.
So.
The Lord's Table and the Lord's Supper
Calling Something By a Name Does Not Make It So
Philippians 3:4-12
Gospel 2
Gospel—Al Coleman
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's open our gospel meeting tonight by singing hymn #10 There is a Savior and High in the Glory.
A Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save now as ever. His arm is almighty, His love great and free. Oh come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior.
Receive him this moment, and peace shall be thine.
I was.
At A at the supermarket counter.
A little while ago and just behind the counter there are magazines. Some of the magazines are just vile.
Terrible. But one caught my eye was this. It was Robin Williams. Well, you know what? He was the comedian.
And Robin Williams died not too long ago.
And, uh, on the.
Magazine cover, it says he could have been saved. I think of that. He could have been saved and we're going to save the same thing tonight. That if you're not saved, you could be saved. Why? Because there's a Savior on high in the glory that's wanting and willing to save you, and he wants to save you. So let's sing this hymn.
There is a.
Glow and the glowing.
There's problems in Iraq.
There's problems in Afghanistan.
Mr. Putin is ready to pounce on Ukraine.
The little country of Israel is having all kinds of problems.
What about America?
I think one of the biggest things is that giving up of God altogether.
And that's coming apostasy. It's coming slowly but surely, and we know that after the Lord comes, it'll be just a total giving up of God.
In the apartment that we are to move into in about in a little while.
The folks there wondered in the interview with us and so we came and had this interview with them and they wanted to know all about us. Now this home that we are going to was built by the Baptist. It's no longer run by the Baptist.
And on the front of the building is this caption. This building was built to the glory of God.
Beautiful.
But some of the residents in that building there are bucking up this take out God, take out joy.
The total giving up of God.
And I'm gonna mention why the water. Excuse me, One other thing.
The gathered Saints.
Little by little, the numbers are going down.
I believe that it's just going to be a feeble view. When the Lord comes, just take us home and how we long for his soon return. How we long for his soon return. Mm-hmm. You know, I come to the conclusion one thing.
And I, and I believe that everyone here would agree with me that we're just on the threshold of the Lord's coming. He's coming.
It's so very, very soon. Maybe tonight.
And so, uh, in the preaching of the gospel, we preach the love of Christ, don't we? The love of Christ, the cross of Christ on which God's beloved Son was crucified. There on Calvary's cross, he was crucified for you and I. He bore our sins in his own body and the tree on that cross when he was alone, forsaken.
00:10:10
He shed his precious blood.
To wash away all our sins.
And again I say the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. We'll never get to heaven without the blood of Christ. We'll never get to heaven without the work of Christ and Calvary's cross. There we go.
It's all provided free. The gift of God, as we had this morning, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's a giving God, giving God.
That God wants to give, and to give and to give.
But you know, the tragedy is that many don't want to take, don't want to take.
It's a solemn thing.
And so tonight.
I want to.
Because of the wonderful gospel message, I wanna give a a few.
Verses from the Book of Job.
And these verses, one of a few, many of these verses are solemn because in the preaching of the Gospel there is the warning, the warning.
Because one day we will be too late.
The gospel won't go out anymore. You won't have these meetings here won't go out anymore.
And so there's a danger of still not knowing Christ as your Savior.
Is there some young followers here in this room tonight that don't know the Lord as their savior?
Is it possible that?
A young man can grow up in a Christian home and go to gospel meeting every day, every every Lord's day, and hear the sound of the gospel and yet still be a stranger to him. Never come. Is it possible?
I'm going to say yes. You know why? Because right here, right here. And thank God he he had to deal with me and save me.
As I got older.
Is a wonderful savior.
I've been gathered to the Lord's name for over 50 years.
I've done the Lord Jesus as my Savior for over 60 years. He's never failed me once. He said all the way home, Savior.
And that's a wonderful person that I've gonna meet shortly.
He's coming.
Job Chapter 36.
Job Chapter 36.
Verse 18.
Because there is wrath.
Beware.
I'll repeat that again.
Because there is wrath, beware.
Lest he take thee away with his stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.
Because there is wrath, beware.
And so tonight.
If you don't know Christ as your savior, I'm saying to you, and I believe God is saying the same thing to you, beware. Beware.
If the Lord was to come in 5 minutes.
And you hadn't accepted Christ your Savior. You'd be lost forever.
In a thinner as hell forever.
Does God want to send you there?
No, absolutely not.
The verse I always like to quote in the gospel meeting is this. It's in Ezekiel 33.
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his evil way. And then he says, turn, ye turn for a while when he died, turn me, turn me, for why will you die? He wants you to come to him tonight. God's time is now. He says, Behold, now is he accepted time.
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Behold, thou is a day of salvation.
That's the solemn part of the Gospel. Beware the warning. Upcoming judgment.
Now I'd like to tell you something wonderful about the gospel, and let's go to Job.
34.
And verse 14.
I'm gonna give you a little experience about this verse. I'll tell you that every gospel meeting I've taken in the last few years, I have read this first.
If you can imagine.
I love, I love gospel verses, of course. And, uh, umm, in our assembly, Bruce Anstey got up. He was, uh, he turned to this first and uh, he looked at me when he was reading this purse as if to say, well, here's a verse for you. And, and I, I tell you, I just about left out of my seat.
An incredible verse here it says. It says if he set his heart upon.
Man, if he gathered unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to the dust.
Now let now let me quote you from Darby.
If he only thought of himself, and gathered unto himself his spirit in his breath.
All flesh would perish together, and man would return.
To the South, to the dust.
I'm gonna ask you this question.
Did God think of himself?
No, absolutely not. And that's the joy of this verse. God did not think of Himself. Who did you think of? He thought about you. He thought about me.
Uh, he thought, uh, my condition is a guilty lost Sinner. He saw me and all my sin.
Almighty love arrests that man.
Go ahead. Did not think of himself, it says. He could have gathered his spirit and his breath, and man would have perished.
Man would have perished.
At the cross of Christ, the Lord Jesus had at his disposal.
10 legions of angels.
I believe that man could have been completely exterminated at the cross for what they did to God's beloved Son.
If he gathered unto himself his spirit in his breath.
All flesh would perish. All flesh would perish.
But now here's the answer.
Where do you go for the answer to this first? John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God didn't think of himself, He thought, You and I, God, love this world. God sent his Son.
What a wonderful God.
MMM. And you know this wonderful God.
Thank you, thank God He opened my dark heart to see beauty in him.
God so loved the world.
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Let's go to Job chapter 33.
Job 33.
And I'm going to go down in this chapter.
And go probably verse by verse.
Starting at verse 13.
Thank you. So thankful for Elijah that spoke to Joe. Uh, it was Joe was a was a proud man. It was.
The pride of man is lost. Is is the last thing to give up.
Joe had to get down and you know, before you get a blessing in your life, you're going to have to get down, down the feet of Jesus. That's where the blessing comes from.
To get down.
The The prodigal son could say, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.
You think of this, there's the prodigal son, and the father sees it will fly far off.
And, and he's waiting. He's waiting eagerly for him to come.
And he comes to, he comes to the Son comes to him and says, Father, I've seen to get into heaven in thy sight no more worthy to be called this time. What did the Father do? He wrapped his arms around that son. Yes, he did. You think that was good?
What? What did the sun smell like?
He, uh, he, he was in the, he was in the pitch tie.
He must just smell awful. You know, I think the same thing for myself. What do I smell like when I when I came to the Lord? But yet he accepted me. This man receiveth sinners and eateth with him. Yes, he does. He received the most vile Sinner in this world, and save him.
Or to think of so many of the.
No. Incredible.
The stories of the grace of God and saving lost souls.
It's the grace of God that I am here today. It's the grace of God I am here tonight.
And for each one year, tonight that knows Jesus as the Savior is the grace of God.
It's all his grace. We didn't deserve it. We didn't deserve one thing.
It's all what he's done there.
You think of that blessed One there, hanging on Calvary's cross.
There alone Forsaken.
By a holy righteous sin hitting God. And there he was in that cross.
The most terrible, Terrible.
Suffering that any, any, any person could could have was lacrosse.
And he bore there on that cross for me.
Why was he there? Why was he there? Because he saw me in all my lost condition. That's why he was there.
Verse 13.
Why dost thou strive against God?
Why does thou strive against him?
I'm gonna ask you a question.
Why are you putting off the question of your soul's salvation?
Why are you waiting? What are you waiting for?
Everything's been done for you.
And yet there are so many that are waiting, waiting, waiting. They go to a gospel meeting, they go home. They go to a gospel meeting, they go home and still not saved. You see, this is very important tonight.
Because it might be the last one you'll ever hear.
The last one, and that's a solemn thing.
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Because there is wrath. Beware lest he take thee away with a stroke, and then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see light, but the wrath of God appideth in him.
Think of that. The wrath of God abideth on him.
It's just as if, OK, here I am, I am the judge and you are standing there.
And you come before the judge.
And the judge says you're guilty.
You're guilty.
And the sentence is passed, The wrath of God abideth on him.
All that's left now is the execution of that judgment.
Balzette is the precarious position of a lost soul.
What a what a precarious position.
Why do you strive against him?
He's come to you many, many times.
And wants to save you. What are you striving against him?
Why are you putting it off?
Verse 14.
For God speaketh once, gay twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Let me read this first. Little bit different for God speaketh once. Yeah, twice. Yeah, three times. Yeah, four times. Yeah, five times. How many times?
A Six times.
Uh, yeah.
It's a very solemn thing.
God is speaking to you and God is speaking to this world. Yes, he is.
God is speaking to this world.
In a dream, in a vision of the night when deep sleep fall with one man and some rings upon the bed.
Never lay in your bed at night.
You know.
I enjoy some of those times in bed at night.
Sometimes Kathy doesn't know what I'm doing, what I'm, what I'm thinking about.
It's nice, those those quiet times.
When you can be with the Lord.
I enjoyed this because, uh, Kathy and I were have been, uh.
Just enjoying.
Job. These verses, these chapters.
And so on our flight across the country, I had about four hours or so to meditate and to go through these verses.
Wonderful so we're never going to get to the bottom of this precious book. It's God's word and how wonderful it is that you can just have those quiet times just to.
Meditate in a dream, in a vision of the night, on deep sleep, palleth upon men, in some rings about upon men. Then he opened the ears of man, and sealed at their instruction.
God is talking to you. Are you listening?
I take my hearing aids out so I can talk better.
But that's the problem these years, they don't hear sometimes and when God speaks.
Are you like me, turning the deaf ear?
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
My brother-in-law.
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I probably told you about this before.
His name is Wes.
He has rejected the gospel for over 50 years and I'll tell you, for over 50 years I prayed for my brother-in-law.
And still he's not saved. You know what he is now? He's kind of like a recluse.
He lives at home alone. We had to rescue my sister out of that home.
And for her health.
He drinks.
Oh, he hates the gospel.
He doesn't want it.
He told my sister that I drink because you're a Christian.
He's a miserable man.
Living alone can't do a thing. He can't drive a car anymore. He can't do anything anymore.
He has social workers coming to help him to bath them and things like that. He's living alone and still he don't know prices his Savior. And still every day I pray for West Hollingshead and still he's not saved.
What a solemn thing.
If Wes Hollingshead went out of this world tonight, still a lost soul, he'll have all eternity to think of all the Gospels that he heard and all the news of salvation and the testimony of his wife.
It's a solemn thing. He'll have all eternity to think about that.
Very solemn.
Friend tonight, don't put off this question of your salvation come tonight.
For God speaketh once, yet twice.
Verse 17 That he may withdraw a man from his purpose and hide pride from man.
You know man would like to go in a certain direction away from God.
What's he say?
Withdraw a man from his purpose and hide pride from man.
Back home in in Richmond, we've had the 14th chapter of John in our readings. You know the first part of the 14th chapter of John. It says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
You know, and it took us two meetings to go through those four, those first 14 verses. They're beautiful. They come from the heart of the Savior.
Philip says to the Lord says, how can I know the way? How can I know the way? Ah, Jesus is the way the only way?
Lovingly he calls us so the scriptures say, whoever will let him come today, the blessed Savior is the only way.
Yeah, he said.
Dear young boys, dear young girls.
Are you saved?
Are you saved? You know you're in a gospel meaning tonight. You know this is a solemn occasion.
To think of.
Are you saved?
You have to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 18 He keepeth his soul from going down in the pit again. I want to I want to quote that verse and Ezekiel 33. I take no pressure in the death of the wicked.
From going down to the pit.
I believe that it says here three times in this chapter, verse 28, he will deliver his soul from going down to the pit.
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Verse 30 to bring back his soul from the pit.
Think of that. What a God, What a God that does not want to send a man to hell.
He chased it also with pain upon his bed, in the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his life of of horth bread and his soul dainty meat, His flesh is consumed a way that it cannot be seen in his bones that they were, they had been sticked out. Yay, his soul draws near into the grave, and his life unto the destroyers. Now these verses, if there be a messenger among him.
An interpreter.
One amount of 10A, one among the thousand to show a man uprightness, One among 1000. I just want to say this is one among 10,000.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he is gracious unto him.
And said, deliver him from going down into the pit. I have found a ransom. I found a ransom. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
There is a way in which man can be saved tonight. It's through the cross of Christ. It's through the death of Christ.
It's through the blood of Christ. The only way to be saved is through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On it. To think that we have our risen Savior. He's not dead. He's not dead. He is alive. That Blessed One is now on high in the glory, alive.
A risen savior.
Man would like to think he's dead. No, he's a lie.
His flesh shall be fresher than a child. He shall return to the days of his youth.
Odd that this reminds you of going back to the fifth chapter of of of second Kings name in the Syrian. What happened when he dipped himself three times in the Jordan and he came out and his flesh was the flesh of a child?
He had a new life and you know if you come to Christ, he'll give you a new life and a new outlook in life.
Everything will be new.
And then it says, He shall pray unto God, and it will be favor unto him.
This is a a safe soul, one that prays. But now I wanna talk to you about.
We we moved out of our suite on Wednesday.
And to get to picture this, we have a huge Catholic Church right next door and our window faces out to the parking lot.
And many of the residents of our apartment complex.
Are moving heads. They're moving into our suite and there's the lady upstairs moving in and they come and they wanna move into our apartment because they wanna go next door to pray.
To pray to who?
To who?
There was this sweet little old lady and she's 9092 years old and she saw that we were moving and it was a big day for us and we didn't have a a lunch or anything, so she provided us lunch.
Just the sweetest little old lady that you, that you and, uh, the lunch that she got was from the, uh, umm.
Uh.
Uh, yeah, Where you get free food right at the food bank. And, uh, she, uh, she had a chicken there and she shared it with us. And so we got to talking to her about, uh, salvation and about the Lord, but she goes next door to pray to Mary.
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Tamarind.
2092 years old.
I don't know whether she's saved. You know, it could be a life with her. She might have touched the hem of his garment. I don't know. She knows about the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross of Christ.
So there's another lady in our coffee circle that we have coffee every Wednesday morning. And Wanda, she, she's 8086 is it? And, uh.
She not saved Wanda. We're gonna give you a Bible, OK. And so wanted to get this Bible and she takes it upstairs and about too late, weeks later, she comes down and she says here I can't, I don't want this. I don't want this, the word of God. What about eternity? Well, she says, I worry about that. Well, you know, if you know Christ as your savior, don't have to worry about it.
You can calmly face the future when the blood is on the door.
We don't have to worry about about the future. Our future is all settled in Christ.
There's a man.
There's a man that I know that I grew up with.
And this man is.
He had a great position in the United Church up the street.
And it was very important there and all the things that he did and he used to tell me what, uh, what all he did for the church there. And, uh, he got prostate cancer.
And.
I went to see him and we sat on. I sat on the bed beside him and talked to him about the Lord. I gave him some gospel trash to read.
And as he was talking to me, he said, well, he said pretty soon I'm gonna go and see the man upstairs.
What man upstairs, what is his name? He didn't even know the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a solemn thing to pass out of this world. Well, I was, I did, you know, I was a great church man, and I did all those things in the church. I looked after this, that, and everything else in the church. But were you saved?
Did you know Jesus as your Savior?
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us.
For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Is a wonderful God.
I want to look around this room tonight and see is there a soul here tonight that is still saved? It's still not saved.
God speak at once. Yeah, twice. Are you listening to what God says? He wants to save you. A savior on high in the glory. A savior who suffered on Calvary's tree.
It says, Come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior, God's time is now. God offers salvation full and free to whosoever will. But there is one condition.
And that condition is.
Now.
Don't put it off for an for an for another day. Come now to Jesus, that dear loving Savior.
Philippians 3:13-21
Satan Wants the World for Himself. God Wants the World for His Son
God's Desire Is That His Son Be in the Midst
Open Mtg. 6
Open Mtg. 11
Be Sober Be Real
Phil 3:4-14
Cleave Unto the Lord
Phil 3:13-21