Kentucky Conference: 2015
Table of Contents
Judgment Seat of Christ
Address—Jim Hyland
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Come my soul, take up the cross, count the gain, Despise the law, labor for and with the Lord brings exceeding great reward, free from every fear of wrath. Choose the laborers happy path tread the way which Christ hath trod till the Sabbath of thy God. 33 in the appendix, if someone could please start it.
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Like by way of introduction to what is on my heart this afternoon to read 2 portions of scripture, one at the end of the Old Testament and one at the end of the New Testament. So with that in mind, let's go first of all to the book of Malachi, Malachi chapter 3.
Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16.
Then they that feared the Lord spake spake, often one to another.
And the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him.
For them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name, and then in the last chapter of Revelation.
Revelation Chapter 22.
Revelation Chapter 22 and verse 12.
And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according.
As his work shall be, I have it on my heart this afternoon to turn to some Scriptures in the New Testament.
That brings before us different aspects of the judgment seat of Christ. We're going to see that the judgment seat of Christ for believers is taken up in four different contexts by the Apostle Paul.
But I read these verses by way of introduction because here we find at the end of the Old Testament.
A little company of God's people who were seeking to go on and to encourage one another.
They might have felt like a very small company. And don't we feel that way sometimes, brethren, you know, it's wonderful to be together in a room like this with so many of the Lord's dear people. But some of us come from very small assemblies where there are literal twos and threes. On Lord's Day morning and on Wednesday night or whatever. Other night, we you meet for reading and and prayer, and you might feel like a very little company.
But we find this little company here. The eye of the Lord was upon them, and how He appreciated them going on.
Not just individually, but going on together and seeking to encourage one another.
But what I want to notice particularly is that even a thought upon his name was jotted down in his book of remembrance. Because as we take up the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to find that it's not just a question of our actions that are going to be weighed and manifested and rewarded there, but every aspect of our lives, even those thoughts upon His name. You know, every time you have a thought.
Concerning the Lord Jesus, it's jotted down in his book of remembrance.
No wonder we're told in the New Testament to set our minds on things above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
Because every time you think of him so much, does he value it? So much does he appreciate it that he jots it down in his book of remembrance and he's going to reward in a coming day, and here even even a thought upon his name. Oh, he valued the fact that they spoke together. No doubt he valued those things that were done for his glory amidst all the darkness that had come in amongst God's people. And it was a dark day in Israel's history.
You read this little book, The end of the Old Testament. There was so much that was wanting.
These sacrifices were polluted. Many things had been introduced to the service of God that were not according to his mind, there was a lot of sin and unholiness that had come in. But he valued those things that were done for him. He valued the encouragement one with another, and he valued even a thought upon his name. And it's very interesting because we find in the next verse that he speaks of them as jewels. Why does he speak of them as jewels?
Well, perhaps there's more than one reason, but I suggest a couple of things at least. You know, jewels reflect light. When a jeweler displays diamonds and other precious stones in the showcases of the store, they adjust the light. I've had the privilege of traveling with my brother, John Mark Council, who's a jewelry salesman in the Caribbean, and when he would display his jewelry in the days when he and I shared an apartment in Nassau, Bahamas.
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He would make sure that there was special lighting in the apartment when customers came up to view those precious stones, because he knew that the reflection of light in those jewels was going to make the difference as to whether they sold well or not. And isn't it wonderful that you and I, as His jewels, can reflect the light of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? We're going to reflect it perfectly in the coming day. He's coming to be glorified in His Saints and admired and all them that are about Him in that day.
But he wants that reflection, and we find that often. I know they don't do it so much anymore, but often jewels at least used to be displayed on a dark background in the jewelry store. In fact, when I was a young person and you went to the jewelry shop, most always jewels were displayed on black velvet because again, they felt that the darker the background, the more luster the jewel the jewel would have.
In the eye of the beholder. And this was a dark background here. But against that dark background there were those who were reflecting the light of heaven. And he calls them his jewels. It also speaks of the preciousness of his people to his heart. Everyone here today who know the Lord Jesus as their savior, you're a jewel. You are precious to him. I know we sing the little song of a precious jewels that make up his crown, and that's a children's song.
But it applies to every child of God. Every child of God here today is a precious jewel to the heart of the of the Lord Jesus. And I often think when we take up this subject of what it says in the 87th Psalm, I think it's the sixth verse. And I know it's a little different context there, but it speaks of when he writes up the people, you know, God is writing up his people today. He's keeping those records if you belong to the Lord Jesus.
There's a page on his book of remembrance with your name on it, and I say every time you even have a thought towards him, he that book is open to that page with your name, and he's jotting it down. He'll never forget it and he's gonna reward you for it in a coming day. And then I read at the end of the New Testament, because here we have a similar encouragement. You say, well, in Malachi, that was God's people in the Old Testament, but what about you and me today?
Oh, he gives a promise on the last page of the word of God, in fact, three times, as has often been pointed out.
On this last page of Holy Scripture, he gives the promise that he's coming.
And in one of the contexts he says, and my reward is with me to give every man, according as his work shall be, he's going to reward everyone and every person is going to have something that he's going to find to reward and commend for in that day. And so we're going to see this as we take up these various contacts of the judgment seat of Christ, and I believe we're going to see how God is going to look at everything.
In our lives as believers and see if there isn't some aspect of that thing that he can't reward for in that day. And here he says my reward is with me. I want to make this little suggestion before we go on and turn to some further scriptures. But the judgment seat of Christ will take place very quickly after we get home to heaven. The reason I say that is first of all as we read here, my reward is with me.
I think of it when my girls were younger and I used to come home from a trip, I always had something in my bag for my girls. And you know, no matter what time of the night I arrived home, why I wanted to quickly open my bag and give them those little things that I brought for them. Because I delighted to bring my family something, some little souvenir, some little trinket from my trip and I didn't want to delay. And I think of the Lord Jesus.
In the coming day, the reward is going to be right with them. He's not gonna delay, such will be his delight in rewarding his own for any faithfulness. But there is another reason I say what I say because if we were to turn back to the 4th chapter of Revelation, we would find that as soon as the heavenly scene opens there, the redeemed immediately have their crowns. Those crowns that are given for rewards that the judgment seat of Christ.
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And immediately they have their re, their rewards, those crowns. I think again another little hint that the Lord Jesus is not going to delay to reward in that day. I would just say this too, by way of introduction, that the judgment seat of Christ will do three things. I'm looking forward to the judgment seat of Christ. I can't wait because first of all the judgment seat of Christ is going to show the perfection.
Of all God's ways with us here in this life, things we didn't understand down here, and we'll develop this a little later on, I trust.
But I think of the children of Israel, when they were in the wilderness, you know, they often complained.
And they often said to Moses, why did you bring us this way and that way? We're hungry, we're thirsty, we're going to die.
They questioned over and over again God's ways with them during their wilderness journey. But it's interesting when you go to the Psalms and you read, I think the 105th, 6th and 7th Psalm are there about, you'll find that he rehearses in retrospect the wilderness journey. And what does it say? He led them by the right way. In retrospect it was the right way. And brethren, we're going to look back in the coming day at the judgment seat of Christ.
It's all going to be displayed there and we're going to bow before him and say he led us by the right way. And the other thing the judgment seat of Christ is going to do is magnify and give us an appreciation of the grace of God like we've never had before. We're going to finally realize the import of that verse that says it's God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure because that the judgment seat of Christ we're going to realize.
That if there was any response in our hearts, any desire to follow the Lord, he put that response in our hearts. He worked in us to put and gave us that desire, and then he's going to reward us. No wonder the redeemed at the end of Revelation 4 take their crowns, those rewards, and cast them back at his feet. They realized that it was all of of himself, and he's going to get all the glory in in the end.
We're going to realize that it was nothing O of ourselves and then we're it's going to also establish our place in the Kingdom in that thousand year reign when we reign in righteousness with the Lord Jesus. It says a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment and that's why it says and I know it's figurative language but in connection with the parable the Lord told.
He said, be thou over 5 cities, be thou over 10 cities. There's going to be reward and administration given in relationship to our faithfulness. Now that's why Paul at the end of his life in writing to Timothy, he refers to the crown or reward there as a crown of righteousness. It's a reward for living righteously in an unrighteous world, and it establishes our place in that reign of righteousness.
In the coming day, Well, with this in view, then, I'd like to go first of all to 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 beginning with verse 6.
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather, to be absent from the body.
And to be present with the Lord, wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest.
And your consciences? Now just make a comment before I bring out what's particularly on my heart.
In saying that, here I believe the judgment seat of Christ is a general term.
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And here it includes both believers and unbelievers. For the unbeliever, it will be the great white throne judgment that we have later on in Revelation. Because there we find that the unbelievers, those who have rejected God's salvation and mercy, God's way of blessing, they stand there and they are judged for their sins, and there they stand before God. The heaven and earth flees away.
It's a great white throne. There's purity but no blood. And the books are opened and the reason they're there is because their name is not written in the Lamb's book of life and they are cast into the lake of fire. It's the second death. And I just want to say, if there's someone here and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your savior, you're not going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ for believers, but you will stand at a judgment seat and knowing the terror of the Lord, Paul said we persuade men.
Because it will be a terrible thing. There will be no hope there it will be to.
Realize that your eternal doom is sealed, but this afternoon the way of blessing is open for you.
The work of Calvary is available, and God has extended the day of grace.
Thus far, but as I say here in this context particularly, it has to do with the judgment seat of Christ for believers. Now just a little contrast between the Great White Throne judgment and the judgment seat of Christ for believers at the Great White Throne judgment, We could liken it to the judge on the bench at the court of law, because if we were to go to a court of law today, we would find that there are people on trial.
For their sins against humanity and people are brought up and it's the person that's on trial.
Because they broke the law and it's the person. It's because of their deeds, of course.
But it is the person that's on trial, and it is the person that is going to have to bear their penalty, whether it's a jail term or community service or whatever it may be. It's the person on trial. But there are other kinds of judges as well. If we were to go to the County Fair, we would find that there are judges there as well, and they're judging, but they're not judging people. They're judging their works. They're judging what they've done. And so there may be ladies who brought different baked goods.
And there are judges who go along and they taste those baked goods. Maybe it's jams or something like that.
And they taste them. And it's ultimately the person that gets the the award, whether it's the blue ribbon or the cash prize. It's the person that gets the reward. But it wasn't the person that was on trial. You go to an art exhibit and there are judges there judging the art. It's ultimately the artist that gets the reward for the best piece of art. But it wasn't the artist that was on trial. It was their their works, what they do, they've done. And when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ.
I have No Fear of being judged for my sins because my sins have been taken care of in the blood of Christ.
By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, but my whole life is going to be brought into review.
And I believe that's the context that we have here in 2nd Corinthians 5.
It's the context of our whole life being brought into review and the Apostle Paul says here twice we are confident.
Isn't that beautiful? Again, when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, I'm not going to stand there in fear and trembling.
Oh, it speaks of being ashamed that it's coming and there is going to be loss that the judgment seat of Christ.
But not loss of salvation. Again, that's secure in Christ. I'm going to have utmost confidence as I stand there, but my whole life is going to be reviewed. You know, it's interesting that Daniel lived his life in view of eternity. I say that because his name actually means the fear of God, and Daniel lived his life in the fear of God or the fear of the Lord. That is, that fear to do anything that displeased the one that he thought to serve.
Do you and Ari live our lives in view of that day? Do we live our lives in the fear of the Lord? It's the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of understanding. And it is going to cause us to walk by faith, not sight. The apostle Paul here, he puts this wonderful hope before them. In fact, if we were to back up to the preceding verses, he we, he has talked about the condition of those.
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Who have passed away, and those who are waiting for the Lord's coming, and being clothed upon and not clothed upon, and so on in connection.
With our bodies and the Spirit being absent from the body and present with the Lord as to those who've gone on before and so on. What a wonderful thing it is to have a hope beyond this life. Because when he speaks of walking by faith, remember this brethren that faith always has an object. There is no such thing as blind faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark as many think. No faith always acts on the light that it is given for the moment and for the next step. And faith always has an eye to the future.
God always gives us something for the future, all those that live by faith.
And are listed in Hebrews Chapter 11. They all had something before them beyond this life.
There were those who didn't receive the promises, but they saw them afar off and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundation whose builder and maker is God. Even those who suffered and didn't receive deliverance that are listed at the end of the chapter. God having provided some better thing, they had something beyond this life. They looked on by faith to something other than the suffering down here.
And so we walk by faith, not sight. And we're confident, he says here to be absent from the body and present with the Lord, because it's one or the other.
It's we're, we're, we're, it's one or the other. I know we have the Lord with us every step of the way. And lo, I am with you always, even under the end of the age. But as long as we're here, we're not there. As long as we're here in this world, we're not there. You know, those of our loved ones who've gone on before, my father and mother, for instance. You know, if they had opportunity to come back, they wouldn't want to. And if we could understand what they're enjoying in the conscious sense of the presence of the Lord now.
We wouldn't wish them back for 5 minutes, you know, when Samuel was called up by the witch of Endor at the request of King Saul, he said. Why have you disquieted me to call me up? He didn't want to come back. He was in a place of rest. And our loved ones who've gone before, they're in their unclothed state, as it says, that is, they haven't received their glorified bodies yet, but they are in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence, but for us who are here.
Let's keep in view that as we live our lives and walk by faith from day-to-day.
As we said earlier, everything is being recorded, everything is being written down. He's writing up the people. What story, what tale has been written about you and me? What has been written this very day in heaven concerning our lives? Has it been that which is for his glory and for his honor. And so he says here, and that everyone may receive the other things.
Done in his body according that he hath done.
Whether it be good or bad. And so I say everything is going to be weighed in that day. Everything is going to be brought to light whether it was good or bad. Even as I said earlier, our thoughts, you know, we have a lot of bad thoughts. At least I do. I have a lot of bad thoughts too. You know, even my idol words are going to be reviewed in that day. Every idle word that man shall speak, he shall give an account of in the day of of judgment. And so.
Let's live in view of that day. Let's, like Daniel, live in view of eternity. Let's, like many of those of faith in the Old and New Testament, live in view of what's ahead. You know, you think of the Apostle Paul. He was saved, as we would say, right out of the world. He had the world at his doorstep. What was it that gave him the courage to go on from day-to-day and year to year and apart from the Lord Jesus, who suffered more?
Then the apostle Paul in the path of faith and service. But what was it that preserved Paul? He had the end in view. He had the prize. He had the goal and brother in the prize. In the Christian life is always Christ and glory. That's why Paul could give up the things he once counted dear, forgetting those things which were behind. He pressed towards the mark for the prize. He had that prize in view, and it gave him the courage and the strength to run the Christian race with the the end in in in view.
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Now let's go for another aspect of things to 1St Corinthians chapter 3.
First Corinthians chapter 3.
And verse 9.
For we are laborers together with God.
Ye are God's husbandmen. Ye are God's building according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation Can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold.
Silver.
Precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest.
For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. Yet so as by fire. Well, we've spoken of the judgment seat of Christ in connection with our whole life being brought into review.
But here I believe it's narrowed down a little bit, and that is, it's in connection with our service. Because every little service for the Lord Jesus again, is jotted down in his book of remembrance, valued by himself, and it's going to be rewarded in a coming day. But I read the context here because, you know, there's a lot of service for Christ that perhaps is not going to receive the full reward that he wants it to receive to receive.
Because we find here that Paul, first of all speaks of a bill, a foundation that has been laid.
And himself as the wise master builder. If we were to go over, I think it's to Ephesians 2.
We would find there it's developed a little further where it says that the foundation were built upon. That is the Church of God is built upon is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. What is he really referring to? Well, it's the truth of God that was laid down at the beginning of Christianity, and it's been laid down by all the New Testament writers, apostles and prophets. But Paul was the wise master builder.
Because brethren will never really understand the truth of the Church of God.
Our true calling and our service for Christ unless we go to Paul's ministry.
Why is there so much confusion amongst so many Christians as to our?
Reactions and interactions with the world and our position and what we get involved in and so on today.
I believe largely it's because Paul's ministry is ignored and neglected, at least to a great degree. And so Paul was the wise master builder. He gives us foundation truth concerning the Church of God, the hope of the Lord's coming, what it is to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. How we can serve acceptably while we're here in the path of faith because God has an intelligent service for each one of us to render, it tells us in Romans chapter 12.
But we're to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your.
It's really intelligent service. We have an intelligent service, but we're never going to know how we can intelligently and acceptably serve God and serve the Lord Jesus unless we go to the foundation principles that have been laid down and remember too that nothing can change, that what has been laid down at the beginning, the foundation cannot be shaken. The question was raised if the foundation be shaken.
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What can the righteous do? That's a quotation from the Psalms. But in Timothy 2 Timothy, where it seemed like, at least outwardly, everything was being shaken. He says there that the foundation of God standeth. Sure, it'll never be shaken. The truth of God stands for all time. But then he exhorts us here. How to build, Where to build? We have a service to do.
And we're to be faithful stewards in building. But you know, sad to say.
We don't always build those things that are for his glory. And so there are different things. And again, it's illustrative. It's figurative.
But he speaks of these different things.
We're to build on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, those things that stand the the test of the of the fire, because everything again is going to be tested in that day. And here he uses the illustration of test by fire and those things that were not for his glory, that are illustrated here as wood, hay and stubble.
They're going to be burned up, and I'm glad they are. And to me again, it's just going to show the marvelous grace of God.
When I see in my life that big heap of wood, hay and stubble, those things that were not for God's glory.
And I see. And I don't want to speak flippantly, but I see the match lit and it goes up in flames and it's gone. And then to see there's something left after the fire. Some little bit of gold, little bit of of of uh, silver, a little precious stone. Oh, I say. I'm gonna praise them for all eternity. It's just gonna bring forth fresh bursts from our heart forever. Just like those in Revelation 4 as they burst into the the song and give him all the glory. That's what it's going to do, brother.
And I'm going to be glad to see that wood, hay and stubble all gone. And it must be so for us to really appreciate the grace of God and to enjoy that heaven heavenly scene. And so it's all going to be manifested there. But just hold your finger here in this connection. I would like to read some verses in the book of Colossians just to exercise our souls in this regard in a very practical way.
In Colossians chapter 3.
And verse 22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with I service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Paul was writing to the Colossians Saints, and many of them were servants, or perhaps even slaves to ungodly masters.
And they might have wondered, how can I serve the Lord in my day-to-day job and grind of life?
The apostle Paul says you do your work well, obey your masters, obey your employers, and that service to the Lord and don't do. I service as men pleasers? And I want to make an application here in a little broader sense perhaps, than the context, because so often in our service for Christ, we're looking for the Lord's approval rather than man's approval. But that's not what he wants us to do. He wants us to be like Paul, who said we labor, that whether present or absent, we might be accepted of him. So often we want to be accepted by our peers or by our brethren. And you know, it's not wrong to desire to be accepted.
But the question is who's acceptance do we really want? Are we doing serve I service as men, pleasers or those little things? And I suggest that the greatest rewards are going to be given for those hidden services that nobody knew, that nobody saw. We didn't get thanked this side of heaven. We didn't get appreciated because perhaps no one knew that we were doing it, but those little things that we did.
Under the eye of the Lord Bec Those were done for him, and those are going to get, perhaps.
The greatest reward in that day. And so I want to encourage you to go on and do those little things. And I would just say this too, that if we start with the little things, then God may entrust to us greater things. You know, I was in business for many years and anybody that's been in business or is in business knows that when you hire someone in a company or corporation, you don't usually start them at the top.
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You may even have them on probation for six months or a year. You start them down at a lower level and if they prove themselves then they may work up through the company. Now would God run something more careless than humans? No, he proves us in the little things. And I just say to the children and young people here, I have noticed that the children and young people who stay behind after the fellowship meeting and help clean up, maybe stay and collect the hymn books after everyone's gone out of the meeting room.
Uh, after the evening meeting and little things like that. Those that slip over and do a little work around the meeting room when nobody's looking on a Thursday afternoon, those are the ones that God entrusts greater things to later on. It starts with the little things, and if we do them for the Lord, oh, there's going to be a great reward in that day. And, brethren, isn't it really the Lord's approval that we want the man's approval may make us feel good for the moment.
It may last for a little time, but his well done is what is really going to make it worthwhile in a in a coming day when he says well done, thou good and faithful servant. And I would just say too, he wants us to have an abundant entrance into his Kingdom. You know in Peter where it speaks of having an abundant entrance, It's not an abundant entrance into heaven. We're all going to have an abundant entrance into heaven. But again, rewards have to do with the Kingdom.
And he wants to give a full reward in that day. He doesn't want to just have to say be thou over 5 cities. He wants to say be thou over 10 cities. He wants us to have I say again what scripture calls a full reward. And so we find here it's our service that is reviewed and rewarded for. But now let's go to 1St Corinthians chapter 4. Just over a a chapter in Corinthians First Corinthians chapter 4.
And verse 4.
For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified?
But he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time.
Until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness.
And will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God.
So just to review for a moment, we've spoken of the judgment seat of Christ in connection with our whole life being brought into review. We've spoken of it in connection with our service. But I suggest here it's something very different and that is our motives, because someone has said our motives are as important as the thing itself. And you know, it's possible to do the right thing in with the wrong motive, but God not only wants us to do the right thing in our lives.
But he wants the motive to be right. And so the Apostle Paul here encourages the Corinthians Saints not to judge something before the time, but to leave it with the Lord. We often say we can't judge motives, and that's right. But the Lord can and he will. Now I want to put this in its proper perspective and context here in this in this epistle, because, you know, I suppose the most missed, applied and misconstrued verse of our time is this verse.
Judge. Judge not that you be not judged. You know that is the most misconstrued and misapplied verse of our time, and people use that to say, well, we can't judge anything. Well, it's interesting that in the 5th chapter there was something that needed to be judged because actions must be judged. Sin must be judged for the Lord's glory, because God has always taught from the beginning of time that sin is a thing that is not fit for His presence or the presence of his people.
And there was sin allowed in Corinth. There was very serious sin and evil.
And it was commonly reported, and they were slow to take up the matter and to deal with it for the Lord's glory. And so the apostle Paul writes, and leaves nothing unexplained as to how the matter was to be taken up and judged. But isn't it interesting that before he takes up that matter, he says, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come? Because we must judge actions for the Lord's glory, But we can't judge motives. And maybe there's someone here this afternoon and you say.
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You know, I tried to do something for the Lord and everybody spoke against me. Or that sister said something. That brother did something and the Lord never came in and dealt with it. You know, there are some things you're just going to have to leave till the judgment seat of Christ Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come. He'll bring out the motive. He'll bring out the hidden things of darkness. He'll bring out the councils of the heart. Mary of Bethany to me is a beautiful example.
Because when she poured out her ointment at the feet of the Lord Jesus at the end of his pathway.
Not only did Judas speak up against her, but all the disciples spoke against her. But read the account carefully. You'll never read of Mary saying one word. She never spoke up to try to vindicate herself. She never tried to justify herself. She let the Lord do it. She left the vindication, the justification with the Lord. But, brethren, there's some things are never gonna be settled this side of the judgment seat of Christ. There's some things you're just going to have to leave. Paul was misunderstood by his Corinthian brethren. They judged him at every level.
They questioned his authority as an apostle. They questioned his ministry. They even questioned his ability to present his ministry.
He said, that's OK, I'll leave that with the Lord. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I know it takes faith to leave those things with the Lord, but just leave them. They'll all be straightened out another day. The tangles of life will be undone in that day, and we'll see it all from his perspective. And we'll just praise him for his ways with us there. Oh, I just want to encourage you to leave those things.
With the Lord you know so often we do more damage by trying to vindicate ourselves. You know the Lord Jesus it says who When he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. How could he do such a thing? He knew that God had the record down properly and God has the record down properly. And the Lord Jesus still hasn't been vindicated on planet earth yet. He has his rightful place in heaven, but not on earth. He's waited 2000 years plus. That's a long time. Surely you and I can wait just a few to hear.
His vindication in that day.
And see it all manifest in the light of his presence. Now let's go to Romans chapter 14.
Romans chapter 14 and verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live we live under the Lord, and whether we die we die under the Lord.
Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lords. For to this end Christ both died and rose, and received that he might be, might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou said it not thy brother? For we must all, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Well, look here. We have the judgment seat of Christ the 4th time. And if we were to read carefully the context of this chapter, which we don't have time to do.
I believe we would find here that it's a question of our spirit and our attitude. It's not just a question of motive, but the spirit and attitude in which we do things. Because again, he wants us to do it not just with the right motive, but he wants us to do it in the right spirit. It's often been pointed out that Caleb was the only one that we read of that got a personal inheritance when they entered the land. All the rest got it by by tribe and family.
But Caleb got a personal inheritance. Why? Because when he was faithful in standing for the truth in his day.
It says my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him.
When we come over to the last words that Paul penned by inspiration to a young man named Timothy.
And exhorted to go on and be faithful and continue in the truth of God. In the last days and perilous times, Paul said the the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. He wanted Timothy to be faithful, but he didn't want him to do it in the wrong spirit. You know, sometimes we can be clear as ice and just as cold. We can be straight as a razor and just as sharp we can be and and just as cutting we can be as pointed as a spear and just as piercing and so we want to be faithful. It's true.
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And these are days when there's days of giving up the truth. We need to stand faithful, but he wants us to do it in the proper spirit. Blessed is that man in whose spirit there is no guile. Daniel was another man who lived in difficult days, but at least twice it says Daniel had an excellent spirit. And so Moses in contrast, he had a provoked spirit. They provoked his spirit at the waters of of Mara. But you know where to be meek and lowly in spirit. We're to have a we're to be.
To to act in the spirit of the Lord Jesus, David said when he failed. Renew a right spirit within me.
You see how our spirit and attitude and there are many scriptures we could mention, but our spirit and attitude is so important.
If I can just sum it up this way as our life is reviewed at the judgment seat of Christ.
And our whole life is brought into display. Our service, our motives, our spirit and attitude. To me, it's just as if he's going to turn everything in my life and see if there isn't some aspect of it that he can't reward for. That will be his joy and delight in rewarding. So maybe I did the wrong thing in the right spirit. Well, he can't reward me for the thing, but perhaps he'll reward for the spirit. Maybe I did the wrong right thing with the with the wrong motive. Can't reward for the motive, but he'll perhaps reward for the thing I did. You see how he's going to turn everything to see if there isn't some aspect of that thing.
That he can't reward for, but I'd like to end on a little different note. And by doing it I'd like to go to Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews, chapter 12.
And verse one. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. This is what I want us to notice, particularly looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand.
Of the throne of God. I want to say in conclusion that rewards handed out for faithfulness at the judgment seat of Christ are not to be our motive for following the Lord or serving him or living for his glory. Christ is to be the motive. Christ is the motive of everything in our Christian life. And it's looking unto Jesus. It's having Christ before our souls as that object, the one and the only one who began and completed.
The path of faith and service and perfection. That's why it's not so much he's the author and finisher of our faith, but he's the author and finisher of faith. He began and completed the path of faith and perfection, and as such, God has seated him at his own right hand as the object for you and for me. And so our object and our motive is not to be reward. Rewards are given as an incentive because it's like the athlete and so often, just as we have in this portion.
The Christian pathway is likened to a race or an athletic event because we understand very clearly that when the athlete goes out to participate in the event, he always has the goal, the prize in view. Why doesn't a young person give up many comforts and train themselves and discipline themselves? Because to participate, to practice and participate, because they've got the goal, they've got the prize in view.
And the prize, I say again in the Christian life is always Christ. Yes, those rewards are given as an incentive, but I trust, brethren, that every one of us here, young and old, who know the Lord Jesus is our Savior, have Christ so before our souls that we are motivated to live for His glory down here. That's the real motivation, and I can't stress that enough at the end of this meeting.
What is motivating you in your Christian life? Is it Christ? Has he so captured your gaze? Has he so captured your heart? You know, when we were growing up, we used to sing that little hymn. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace, we sometimes sing a little prayer. I trust it's the sincere and earnest desire of each of our hearts.
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All fix our earnest gaze, so, holy Lord, on the.
The West Side beauty occupied. We elsewhere none may see. Oh, does Christ fill our gaze and fill our hearts.
That we run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to him, having him before our souls every day, and then realizing that when we get there, so much, so much does he value every thought, even a little note of praise is going to get its reward. Every action, the spirit and attitude in which things are done, everything is going to be rewarded in that day. And won't it be worth it? Won't we wonder why we didn't give up more? Why we didn't seek grace to live more for his glory?
When we look into his lovely face, when we're there in the light of glory, oh brother, it's going to mean everything to him. And it's going to thrill our hearts to to hear him say, well done, thou, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Philippians 3:1
Reading
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Unto him who?
Is forever.
Familiar portion. It's often been taken up but occasions like this, but perhaps again for our encouragement in the book of Philippians.
Philippians, Chapter 3.
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 safe.
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, whereof he might trust in the flesh I 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 gained to me? Those I counted loss 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, 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 not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 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, where do 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. They are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, 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 under His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
Well, as I say, this is a portion we've often taken up on occasions like this. But you know, at the beginning of this chapter, Paul said it wasn't brief with her. Earned some for him to write the same things to the Philippians.
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And so often to go over the same things, brethren, same chapters, same line of truth is what we need. And it's our hearts for Special Situations, a special time before we embark on this chapter. As we know, the book of Philippians is the book of joy. But you know, I've enjoyed 4 keys to this book in each of these chapters. It's often been said, and rightly so, that you don't have to read very far in the Word of God.
To realize that the subject is always Christ. In the Old Testament it's the pictures and the illustrations and the foreshadows and types and so on. In the Gospels, it's the life of Christ. In the Epistles we have Christ brought before us in connection with Christianity and where he is now. Later on in Revelation you have prophetic events and the full exaltation of Christ here in this world, and so on. But the subject is always Christ.
But I want to just go back for a moment and notice a verse in each one of these chapters that brings before us the special and unique way in which the apostle Paul, directed by the Spirit of God, brings out Christ in these four different chapters. Just say two to young people, but to all of us that it's helpful when you open to a book, a chapter, or a portion to try to 0 in on a key verse or phrase.
That which will unlock or open to you the book, the chapter, or the portion and God has those little keys that are very helpful. These 4 verses I'm going to give you are keys to these four chapters and to the outline of the book of Philippians. In chapter one, the apostle says in verse 21, for me to live is Christ. In other words, in this first chapter we have Christ as the believer's life.
You know, the athlete says for me to live is sports. The musician says for me to live is music.
Or whatever it might be, but.
When Paul got saved a Saul of Tarsus, there was a complete turn around and his whole life was to live Christ. That was the whole exercise and desire of the apostle Paul. Is that your desire and mine to live Christ? For me to live is Christ. We won't develop these for the sake of time, but then go to the 5th, the 2nd chapter in the fifth verse he says let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
What we have in this chapter is Christ as the believers example. The reason I say that is because if we were to read the following verses, we would find in the context here they're given as an example for you and for me as we live in this world. I know we often read these verses on Lord's Day morning in regard to the Lord Jesus taking up the work of the cross and where He is now and so on.
And rightly so, but in their context, it's Christ set before us as the believers. Example. Just skip over to the 4th chapter for a moment.
And perhaps the key verse there is verse 13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Here we have Christ as the believer. Strength. Do we need strength to live for Christ to follow his example? All the power, all the resources, all the strength are there.
And so the apostle Paul said I can do all things, not just some things, but I can live the Christian life. I can do all things through Christ. It's Christ the believer's strength. But back in our chapter and we'll get to it, I trust. But verse 14 he says I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In other words, in this chapter we have Christ as the believers object. And as we have already said in these meetings.
That is to be our object. Are we going to run with endurance the race that's set before us? Are we going to live the Christian life for God's glory? We've got to have the object before us and the object, the prize in the Christian life is Christ and glory. So Christ is brought before us in these four different ways. But overall, I just say that Philippians is the book of joy and brethren, joy in spite of circumstances. And if we can get a little taste of that joy and understanding of that joy again.
In these meetings, in spite of our circumstances, then, I think it's been worth our while to be here.
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Lord put the chapter on my heart and I want to add a little more introduction.
Uh, to the give emphasis to the words Christ our object.
More than perhaps any other chapter in the whole of the word of God, we have that fact presented to us. And, uh, it's said over and over and over again in meetings like this, but sometimes it's hard to get it into a context that it has much practical day-to-day application to our life. And, uh, yet I, I would like to, hopefully we'll see that as we go through the chapter more, but what it brings out to us is.
The apostle Paul explains to us what it meant to him to have the Lord Jesus Christ as the object of his life, what it meant to him, and how it controlled how he lived his life. And so, as has already been said, something is going to control our lives, and what controls us is what controls our hearts. And this chapter brings before us things that would.
Draw our hearts to the Lord Jesus in such a way that we would be has already been used the words motivated to live exclusively for Himself as the object before the heart. And as it says in the very beginning, he says in the very first sentence of the chapter, rejoice in the Lord.
Very beginning of what it means to have the Lord Jesus.
Is the object of our our object is. Put it this way, what is it in your life that you find your joy in?
That's going to dictate to a large measure what the object of your life. And different people have found the joy of their lives, not always in a Christian way, but they found the joy of their life in this thing or that thing. And that has been formed the way in which they live their life, and they live it according to that which gives them.
We might say pleasure in some cases, but nonetheless that which in a general way gives them the joy that.
They live for, and here the apostle Paul was encouraging his brethren, as he says in the very first exhortation, Rejoice in the Lord, find in the Lord Jesus.
The joy. But I want to connect it because of the way he says it. Here it says rejoice.
In Jesus, no. Rejoice in Christ, no. There's a reason later which we hopefully will get to where it says Christ and as the object, why we say it that way, but it says here rejoice in the Lord. And that implies something very important if we're going to have Christ as the object of our life, and that is.
It starts with.
And acceptance of our relationship to Himself as Lord.
Do we find it a joy to be under his authority? Paul says. Find it a joy to be under his authority as one that has the right of control in the life. As long as we resist that, we will not find Christ the object of our lives. We will choose something else in which we perhaps have the control.
Or the authority of choice, if I want the scripture would teach me if money is going to be the object of my life, Scripture says I'll go all the way to murder to get that which is my object. I'll let nothing stand in the way of it. And so just in very simple but important way, the beginning of this chapter is rejoice in who the Lord.
And that's the first, you might say, point that we have to come to if we're going to find Christ, the object of our lives.
00:15:13
Not only is it helpful to notice the context of Scripture, as we often say, but I found it helpful to my own soul to also notice the context in which God placed the writer to give moral weight and impact to what they wrote. And when the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians and exhorted them to rejoice in the Lord, it had, I believe, moral weight because they could remember a time when he was in their very city.
In a very difficult circumstance, his back bleeding, his feet fast in the stalk with silence, and they rejoiced in the Lord at midnight, at the darkest hour, they prayed and sang praises. And so when Paul later wrote to them and told them to rejoice in the Lord, oh, they could say he knows what he, what he's talking about. Paul said to the Corinthians, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Joy in the Lord doesn't mean that we don't feel the circumstances.
It doesn't mean that we don't shed tears. No, we do. And we never want to become indifferent or callous to our circumstances.
When Paul was in prison in Philippi, he felt, I'm sure, the cold damp floor of the prison, the weight of those shackles and his back bleeding. It wasn't a pleasant circumstance, but he found his joy not in blessings and not in things, but in a person. Notice it's not joy and blessings, joy and what we have in the Lord, but it's joy in in the Lord. But again, I think it's interesting to see when Paul wrote to the Philippians here.
He was again a prisoner. It wasn't just that he'd been a prisoner in their city, but he was again a prisoner. Now let's suppose that Solomon had written this Rejoice in the Lord back in the Old Testament, you'd say, well, of course Solomon didn't withhold himself from any pleasure. He had it all, naturally speaking, if he had written Rejoice in the Lord or something. So you'd say, oh, I could understand that. Now suppose Paul.
He was a prisoner of the Romans. He, he didn't have his freedom. But isn't it interesting? It's just the opposite. Solomon, who had everything of this world, Israel was at its pinnacle, humanly speaking. He had his throne of ivory and his ships and his Navy and the silver was counted for nothing. It was so plenteous, every pleasure, all his vanity and vexation of spirit.
Paul had nothing. He'd given up everything of this world. Rejoice in the Lord.
Because he had a permanent joy. He had the truest joy, the truest happiness that a person can have. An unbeliever can be happy when things go well. They got along at school, they got a good grade, they got their, they got a promotion at work. Everything was going well at home. Unbeliever can be, on the surface, happy, but only a believer has this true, deep joy.
Of which it says, Your joy no man taketh from you.
A lot of where?
Remembers, I'll say, as kids.
That mother dad said to us, don't do this, don't go there, etcetera. And we heard it many times and eventually we got maybe at times tired of hearing it. You told me that before. I know I'm not supposed to do this or that. And, uh, we, we get tired of the no side of it. Scripture warns us and does give us the no side of it and we need it. But I just wanted to know here in this first verse.
Paul's talking about something that preserves a soul, and it's the positive in this case. It's rejoiced in the Lord. And if we truly are finding our joy in the Lord Jesus, it will act as something that preserves. It says for you it's safe.
You know, if you are positively in the enjoyment of something that is good, then it is that which helps keep the mind in the right direction.
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And it's also that which reduces the attraction of other things which are not good and which can be harmful for us. And it doesn't matter what the age is, it's true for all of us. And so Paul says here I'm going to warn you about some things. And he does in verse two, warn about, you might say some of the negative side of it, but he begins with the definite statement of that which is a preservative.
To us. And so it's not so much can I say this weekend that we learn one single thing that's new that we haven't heard before. But if our enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ personally is warmed up in us, it's been a good weekend and it has been a preservative weekend to our hearts to be occupied in that way with themselves.
Just go back to a little comment that Don made earlier, because I think it's important. And of course, as we've been saying, we have the Lord Jesus as the perfect example. But you find the Lord Jesus, we often refer to him in his pathway as the Man of Sorrows, and that's certainly true. But we find the Lord Jesus had a joy in his pathway as well. And what was that joy? Well, it goes back to what was said earlier.
It was the joy of doing the Father's will. And if you and I own the Lordship of Christ in our lives and seek to live in His will, there's going to be a joy. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy. We don't promise. Scripture never promises that the path of obedience, that owning the Lordship of Christ in our lives is going to be the easy path. But it and it doesn't. He doesn't promise there won't be tears, but it will always be the happy path.
And it's interesting with the Lord Jesus that there's one time, and I believe only once, that we read of the Lord Jesus actually rejoicing in his pathway. You can look it up. I think it's the 10th chapter of Luke. But it's on an occasion where he looked around on the cities he had come to bless and he had to pronounce judgment on those cities because of their rejection of him. And he felt it, and he felt it very keenly. But it's very interesting what it says. It says in that same hour.
At that very time Jesus rejoiced in spirit. You say, how could He do such a thing? Well, the very next verse or statement gives us the key. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in my sight, perfect submission to the will of God. His Father gave him a perfect joy even at a difficult time. And the Lord Jesus left several things with his disciples before he left, before he went back.
To heaven, one was his peace, but another was his joy. You know, you and I can walk through this world with the the joy, with the same joy that the Lord had. And that joy was a joy of being in the path of OB of faith and obedience. And of course, as we said earlier, He never digressed from it. And so there there was no interruption to his joy amidst the sorrows that he experienced. The difficulty for us is things come in.
There's not always that.
Focus on the Lord. There's not always that obedience, that owning the Lordship of Christ in our lives. Sometimes we get off the path of faith a little bit. So we lose that joy for a time, but we can walk through this world with the same joy. My joy, he said, calls it my joy and you and I can have that same joy. But I, I want again, I, I think what Don said, it's so good for us to get a hold of in our souls. That joy is only going to come, brother.
As we own His authority, His Lordship, and as we walk in the path of faith in the conscious sense of His presence with us.
Don't you think it's amazing, brethren, that we have to be reminded to have our joy in the Lord?
I I mean the things that are that follow you say, OK, I can understand, yes, we need to be reminded to be aware of certain things and to do and not do certain things. But do you and I have to remember, be reminded to rejoice in the Lord? Paul said, yeah, you know, in Philippi there was a little problem coming into the assembly. And in the next chapter he's going to delicately take up a little controversy, a little problem that was developing between two sisters.
00:25:11
You know, that was gonna spoil the the joy, their joy individually and the joy of the assembly collectively. Satan is so busy, brethren, to spoil our joy in the Lord individually, as families, as those gathered to the Lord's name collectively. He does not want us to have joy in the Lord. He doesn't want us to be a rejoicing, happy people. And he's gonna come in, in one way or another to seek to spoil that joy.
Paul says, I gotta tell you again, rejoice in the Lord, don't let something come in.
Amongst you that's going to spoil the joy of the Lord, individually or collectively.
And brethren, do we need to be told, reminded to rejoice in the Lord? I'm going to tell you again, rejoice in the Lord.
Is it grievous? Is it irks them to tell you again? Paul said, no, I'm gonna tell you again and again and again. And so we need to be reminded. And brother, there's so much that the enemy is allowing today to cast us down to spoil that joy again. We don't wanna be indifferent to it, but let's be reminded. Rejoice in the Lord. And how often are we to rejoice in the Lord? Well, in another portion in the spirit in the next chapter, he says.
Rejoice in the Lord always, just sometimes, just when things are going well. No, we need to rejoice in the Lord always. And then he says, and again I say, rejoice. Was that irksome to tell him again? That's about three or four times he's told them to rejoice in the lawyer. We said, I'm going to tell you again, brother, let's remind ourselves and let's remind one another as we go about together. The Lord leaves us here a little longer. Rejoice in the Lord.
People to find the thing they're passionate about and do that and you'll never work a day in your life. And, uh, there is, uh, some sense to that. If you have an occupation or something you really enjoy that work doesn't seem like work and the difficulty doesn't seem like difficulty where there's a real sense in which the joy of the Lord that we can enter into, no matter the circumstances, it's something that we can let go of. We can relax and, uh, get our eyes away from that, but it really, it's something that cannot be taken away.
By circumstances, we can be in whatever circumstance and enter into that and it changes things. We can feel, it's a cloudy, rainy day, a dark day, and then enter into there, this place, uh, the, uh, and enjoy the Lord and the joy of the Lord and it all fades away. And you can still be in the same circumstance. When you were talking about Paul and Silas being in prison, and I'm sure, very sure that there was some of the moment along the way where, like you said, they felt the, the damp ground and they certainly hurt from the wounds that they had.
And then there was a moment where they began to rejoice. And it's when the chains fell away too, you know, not until they begin to sing to the chains. They didn't fall away before they rejoice. And then they fell away. There's a real sense in which the the change is a metaphor in this life. And the things that that imprison us can fall away when we enter into that. So whatever circumstance, they can be in a literal prison like Paul and Silas. It can be in the darkest corner of the earth. It can be in a hospital bed, It can be wherever.
And someone can enter there and then all of that begins to fade away. And there's strength in that too, you know, just that simple entrance and enjoy this little communion that you have with the Lord Jesus and to look upon him with a fresh eyes again and just enter into that. And it, it, you're in another place. You know, they try to do all kinds of things in the world to encourage people to even meditate and imagine themselves in a, in a beautiful place when they're depressed and so on. Well, we have a very beautiful place to go.
And that's, you know, to, to have some communion in time and to really enjoy him and remind ourselves of the relationship that we have and what's been done for us, the price that's been paid. And, you know, the joy starts coming back and, uh, you, you have this moment, you know, we enter into those things in, uh, you know, relationships we have with husbands and wives and, uh, uh, where we have joy in one another's company. And, you know, and when I was driving up, uh, to the conference here, I was missing my wife and wishing she could be along and every, we, I saw some things. So I'd call her on the phone and, and, uh, feeling missing her. And then we had that little moment and talking on the phone and enjoyed that. Uh, there's a real sense in which whatever circumstance we're in.
00:30:04
We don't have to let go of that and it's it's us who let's go of it.
Connection with this uh, read Romans chapter 5.
And verse 11.
Romans chapter 5 and verse 11. And not only so, but we also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement.
Because we're sinners by nature and by activity.
Natural men we had a point in which we feared God and.
The Old Testament gives us very many examples of people that were very afraid of God. And you might say, do you enjoy God? They'd say, of course I don't, I may enjoy some benefits. But God himself is fearful. And Moses, you talk to him, but you leave us out of it and you come back and tell us what he says.
But we don't wanna have anything directly to do with God. We might die. Uh, sadly.
The present era has lost the fear of God as they should have it and man mocks the very thoughts of God. It's only shows how far down he's gone but in the proper sense of the word and what was presented to the Romans, God was feared and.
Yet as it said here, we join God through our Lord Jesus Christ through the work that the Lord Jesus did to bring us into a suitable rela relationship with God to remove sin that separated us. Now through him we not only joy in our Lord Jesus. But it's been said this is the high point of this whole epistle of Romans is this one verse with joy in God also.
We can now find our pleasure in our hearts and in our thoughts and our joy in God. And to me more wonderful brethren, is to turn it around. Turn it around.
Before this world was ever created, the Lord Jesus Christ had His joy in you, set on you. He knew you by name. You were a gift of the Father to Him, and His heart became set on you before eternity. And He finds His joy in your happiness.
And your happiness with his Father God.
So the other side of it is God also finds his joy and his pleasure in us. His creature. The Lord Jesus is from eternity past, has found us the center of his own joy and the object of his own heart for God's glory.
So.
It we're encouraged to make it mutual.
When you love somebody and you find that they're happy, it's your happiness. And so when we joy in our God, when we joy in the Lord Jesus Christ, it becomes a way in which God himself finds a pleasure.
And He is doing a work with us that will eventually remove every single hindrance to the fullness of joy between us.
And we'll enjoy one another for eternity. And the Lord Jesus who did that work that would make this happen, he shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. He'll say it was worth everything that I went through in the work of redemption, that God now can rejoice in man, and man rejoice in God, and I can rejoice in the delight of my heart.
And they find their joy in me. So if I could put it another way, you're destined to find your joy in the Lord. Let's not wait. Let's get started and grow in it now.
00:35:01
12:43.
Verse 3.
Says they'll send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, unto thy tabernacles. Then will I go on to the altar of God.
Unto God, my exceeding joy. Yeah, upon the heart will I praise thee, O God, my God.
Well, we see, see, it's Old Testament. Why art thou cast down on my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance.
And my God, David looks forward.
To for the psalmist whoever wrote it.
But God.
Noticed the new translation. Is God the gladness of my joy?
Beautiful, isn't it? OK.
Like the verse in Romans you brought out, I was thinking of John chapter 5 where the Lord Jesus.
He heals the man at the pool.
A Bethesda and the Jews.
And answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I sin to you. The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do. For what thingsoever he doeth, these also doeth the Son. Likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that Himself doeth, And he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
When you think of this wondrous relationship, we you were mentioning brother Don the thing of.
Being Lord to each of our souls and this relationship of father and son is marvelous to see in, in, uh, John's gospel, particularly, I've noticed this relationship that I, I imagine times when I'm in sometimes a foreign country and you see someone sitting there begging and maybe they're blind, maybe they're crippled.
And the thought goes through my mind.
Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful?
The father was saying reach out and heal this person.
That happened between the father and the son, didn't it? There was the father's will was set forth.
And if that aspect of lordship.
He was completely subject man for the blessing of mankind. I was thinking of Acts Chapter 9 where we get solid Tarsus converted and we get the Lord.
So.
The lighting and turning him around, but in first.
Ten, it says, and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
You know when we follow this story.
We see him submitting to the Lord. We see him countering the Lord. I heard about this guy, Saul Tarsus. He's done some awful things.
But he's listening to his Lord, and he goes to him.
And he's not. He's fully trusting the Lord. He says there's.
12 verse 15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.
To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake. And I went his way, entered into the house, putting his hands on him, said.
00:40:00
Didn't say I distrust this man. He had listened to his Lord, said brother Saul.
The Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou minest received thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. You know what a what an interesting this relationship, this conversation between the believer and his Lord, and I need to know more of that each of us need to know.
Something more of that relationship that.
Gives us the joy of seeing faith.
Between us at work.
Because God is still working today.
Somebody might say, well, what if I don't feel like that very much?
Do it anyway and it'll change you.
You know, it doesn't take long for a believer to begin to think about, well, what kinds of things can we rejoice in the Lord about? You might not even feel like it. You might be in circumstances where you don't. But if you begin to count them and begin to rejoice in those things that we've been brought into and the things that we have, it will change you. You know, Scripture says that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me. So in a very practical way, if you're not enjoying the Lord and you're not rejoicing in the Lord and and you want to be there.
May the 1St place is that fixing your mind upon him. And then peace comes and it's there that you can begin to rejoice and it changes you, Uh, and there's plenty to rejoice about. You know, one of the things that I think, uh, one of the reasons I think the Lord has the remembrance, uh, to be every week is that we need to be reminded of those things. We can get used to them. We can get where we don't see those things or enter into them like we should. But he had it so we'd be reminded, so that we would, uh, not forget. And, uh, in the, the grind of life sometimes in the daily circumstances, get our eyes taken away to be reminded of just how much.
Uh, was done for us and you know, Don goes all the way back before the foundation of the world. When you start thinking about those things, how can you not have your heart to change and how can you not begin to rejoice? But, uh, that's we can very practically do that kind of thing and pretty soon it changes us.
To the 119th sum for a verse in connection with what we've been saying and in connection with what took place in the 16th chapter of Acts, Psalm 119 and verse 62.
At midnight I will arise and give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment. You know, I've often wondered when Paul and Silas were in prison, You know they didn't sing praises till midnight. I don't know what time of day they were thrown in there, but I suspect it was sometime before midnight. It might have been quite a while before, maybe not, maybe a short time, but at midnight they they sang, prayed and saying praises. And I've often wondered if they didn't have this verse brought to mind from the Old Testament.
At midnight I will arise and give thanks unto thee. Why?
Because of thy righteous judgments, they didn't, couldn't sing praises until they realized that what the Lord had allowed was right. And that's another thing that I think hinders our joy in the Lord. And that is so often we think, well, why did this happen to me and why did the Lord allow this and why this circumstance? And did I really deserve it? But I believe Paul and Silas came to a point in their life at midnight.
Where they realized that what God had allowed was right now. If I had been there, I don't know what I would have been doing.
Probably complaining and saying to myself, well, Lord, I I thought I got a vision to come over here and to help someone and to preach the gospel and what good am I doing with my back bleeding and my feet passed in the stalks and Lord, why did you allow this when I tried to be faithful, but that's not what they did. They realized that what he had allowed was right and realizing that they could sing praises. And what was the result why the jailkeeper got saved. They there was.
Joy in a prison, no doubt it was the beginnings of that little assembly that Paul later wrote to I I can just and I don't wanna read in the Scripture. Mine is that but can't you just picture the jailer sitting in the assembly and this letter arriving from the apostle Paul and a letter of joy and the the jailer having a smile on his face saying I know what Paul's talking about. I thought it had has moral weight with me. You don't have to convince me when Paul says.
00:45:11
Rejoice in the in the Lord. But the point is, brethren, our joy in the Lord.
Is often a testimony to others because, as we said earlier, the unbeliever can be happy on the surface, they can sing their light songs when things go well, but introduce something adverse and their happiness depends on circumstance. But a Christian who rejoices in the Lord and shows happiness in his life amidst adversity often is a great testimony. And I believe, and I've heard stories and.
No doubt you have too of people who have been turned to the Lord, people who've got saved, not because of something someone said or preaching or whatever, but because they saw a joy in a believer's life in a very adverse circumstance and they realize that that believer has someone and something that they don't have. And so if we have go about with that joy and brother, let your face show it.
Are you a believer? Yes, I know there's tears. I I understand that, and there's times to be sober and so on. But as we go about do our neighbors, our coworkers, our fellow students, those that pass us on the street, do they see something of the joy of the Lord radiating from us? If we are in the enjoyment of God the Father, in the enjoyment of the person of Christ, it's going to radiate from us in some way. We're not going to be able to help it.
When Moses was in the presence of the Lord, his face shone. It was just the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God on the mouth. When the early disciples left the council after being beaten, why they rejoiced that they were able to suffer for Christ, and there was a real testimony and blessing as a result of it.
Success could say of his own life.
I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
That is, the Lord Jesus found his joy in daily life in doing the will of another.
That is God's will.
And in doing it, we also see in his life that his will.
The Father's will was his will, and having a common will was a basis in which there was shared joy.
The difficulty we often get into that robs us of these things is God has one will in a matter and we have another, and because our wills in the matter are different then we can't find a common joy in the circumstance. We want it this way and God has chosen to do it that way and as a consequence we often don't find.
Find we, we lose.
That sense of oneness with God in something and it robs us consequentially of the joy. And so when it says rejoice in the Lord. I know it's been the whole meeting on that one point really, but the fact is that when we submit ourselves.
Wholeheartedly to the will of the Lord, we are changed to share in a common will, and having a common will brings the common joy.
But if the wills are opposed to each other, we can see it in natural things. We have, we'll say, a husband and wife and they have a child, and there's some decision that has to be made with respect to that child. And the husband sees it one way and the wife sees it another. And they don't have a common will or common mind in that matter. Is there joy in it? No, there's not. There's not. There's a struggle sometimes to see the matter the same, to be able to act in unity in it, that there might result in a.
Peace and a joy that comes from that oneness of mind and thought and, uh.
The practical side of it is, until we got saved, we never could find joy in God because our will was always different than God's will. But God by giving us eternal life and a divine nature, that nature in US can also it be said of it that it delights to do the will of God and the same things that God finds its joy in, that nature finds its joy in. And so it's by living out the life that God has given us.
00:50:23
In contrast to verse two and beyond, which comes to the things of the old nature, Then we can, practically speaking, walk in that joy.
The man who ran in the Olympics and ran for Scotland, I remember how he said that he was his sister was concerned that he was getting too occupied with that and should be thinking more about going to the mission field in China. And he had a discussion with her where he said, you know, God may be fast.
And when I run, I feel his pleasure. The people used to ask him, he ran with an abandoned with the joy on his face. And he said, it's because I feel the pleasure of God and what I'm doing. And he felt that at the time that God had for a purpose for him that it uses, uh, gift in athletics to be able to preach Adolfo, which he did for a time. And then the testimony that of his life when he, uh, went to the illicit games and he stood up for what he believed. And later he, he died in China in mission fields. But I often think of that, that.
In a very real way when we run the race.
And according to his will, and in His will, we can feel his place.
35.
135.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Sam Ludvicek
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This thing #1.
Recently, uh, there was uh.
Pretty interesting event that took place in France where there was a terrorist who?
Pulled out a weapon and was going to shoot a bunch of people on a train and uh. Three young Americans stood up, ran into the into danger, subdued the man and stopped what could have been a massacre.
And I was thinking about what took place afterwards. There was an interview in America with the family of one of the young men, and I was watching the parents.
How proud they were of their son and the praise that the news media and others were giving for their son.
And how they knew that we're proud of their son. And but now others were saying good things about their son and how they beam to hear that. So I was thinking tonight, most everybody in this room tonight knows the Lord Jesus as their Savior. So when you hear the gospel, you're hearing somebody talk about somebody you already think well of. And to hear another person speak well of the Lord Jesus is always a happy occasion. And if you're a Christian and you're a little bit discouraged, what do you need?
More of Christ To hear of Christ, if you're lost, you need to hear about Christ. Paul said. He came to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. The first thing I would like to do is read several verses in Mark's gospel.
Chapter 9.
Some Solomon versus.
Beginning at verse 43.
And if I hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life, Maine, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched, Where their worm dieth not in the fire is not quenched. And if I could offend, they cut it off. It is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Where their worm dieth not.
And the fire is not quenched, And if an eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better to the for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire, where their worm dieth not.
And the fire is not quenched.
I was speaking with a Jehovah's Witness once, and we were talking about this idea that they teach that there is no such thing as a place where men will go that are lost in their sins. That is the lake of fire or a fire of hell. They believe and teach that men will be extinguished out of existence in a moment, in a flash. But the Scriptures don't bear that out. So I turn to this Scripture and I read it to him.
00:05:19
And he said, well, that's just talking about the worms in the dump outside of the city of Jerusalem. I said it doesn't say worms.
And it's Speaking of men here, and it says their worm dieth not.
One brother said it like this, He said. Imagine your body like a cocoon around a worm.
That part of man, whatever they want to say, whatever they want to declare about what happens to mankind when they die, there's part of man that does not die and can exist in eternal flames of hell and never die.
That part of man, his soul, that which survives beyond the body.
Will be in a place where the worm dieth not end of fire is not quenched. It's a solemn thing to think about. We were talking and we were getting ready to pray for this gospel meeting about how that someone who grows up in a Christian home like I did.
Can tell somebody how to be saved and not be saved. That was true of Maine until I was about 11 years old. My brother said that Albert Hayhoe, I'd never heard this before, was 12, said he would have argued with somebody in the street about the gospel, that it was true, yet was not yet saved. We can be so familiar with the gospel and not have come in. So that's what I'm thinking about tonight. If there's a stranger who came in that is not saved, the gospel is for you.
But tonight, if there's any in the room that are young people that have grown up in Christian homes.
And you're not yet saved. I'm speaking to you. It's a solemn thing. You never know. You read the newspapers, you see people that are in the obituary and a lot of times it's old people, Gray haired people. But you read down through those and then there's young people and there's babies.
And they're gone.
We don't know how much time we have.
Also, if you've been raised in a Christian home, you've been taught and you know that the Lord Jesus is coming back and if he comes and you're in your sins, scripture tells us you'll be turned over to a strong delusion to believe a lie and some explanation will be made that you will embrace. Don't know how it's possible having been raised under the gospel, but we know that Judas was around the Lord Jesus the same amount of time as the others, and yet he did not believe in the Lord Jesus. He did not embrace him, He did not have faith in him as Messiah.
And for a few silver coins, he betrayed him.
So if you reject and do not trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and the Lord should come back, you will believe a lie, a delusion that will explain away why your mother and father and others that you know knew the Lord Jesus are gone, but you will believe a lie.
As well most of mankind that has heard the gospel and has not received the love of the truth. It's a solemn thing to think about.
If you've been a Christian for very long, you've probably read about Jonathan Edwards in the early days of this country preaching a famous servant called sinners in the hands of an angry God. The Spirit of God powerfully wrought upon that audience when that sermon was preached to such an effect that men and women grabbed the backs of the chairs in front of them. The fuse for fear that they slipped through the floor into hell, that the fear of this terrible.
Horrible place.
Was so real to them as the gospel is preached, and the Spirit of God made it true and real to them.
So the prayer, my prayer and the prayer of others in this room is that in your heart and mind and soul, the reality of hell and the reality of what took place at Calvary's cross that can help you escape, that would be so real that you would come the final way.
You know, to believe that God exists is a good thing. To believe that God exists and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him is the first step.
But it puts you in the company of demons. They believe also that far, but they do not embrace the Lord Jesus. He's their enemy. If you've come that far, that's good that you believe that God exists, but that doesn't save you. The Scriptures make it very clear that the gospel that Paul preached is the gospel that we must embrace. It's a preaching of the cross that God sent his Son into this world, that he went to the cross, He died.
00:10:20
He shed his blood.
He was buried and he rose again and he offers you full and free salvation. Salvation is trusting that this message is true and trusting that the message is true. The gospel message that we have in the Gospels that you go one step further and trust in a person who lives and is alive today at the right hand of the Father. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. So people have often asked me, why do you say?
That you've trusted in the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior. What does that mean?
Well, first of all, it is a personal thing. You can't get group salvation. You're not saved because your mom and dad aren't. You were born in that family. You have a blessed privilege of being born into a family that has Christian parents, but that doesn't save you. So it must be personal, but it also must be personal, and it's between you and the Lord Jesus. No one can do it for you when you come and you trust Him. If you ask the people in this room who know the Lord Jesus, there would be many stories.
About where it took place, maybe next to their bed. I know one whole family back in Cedar Rapids where when we began to hear the stories of how they got saved, it seems like everybody got saved in the bathroom because it was a quiet place that they could go. Doesn't matter where it is, but when it does take place, it's between you and the Lord Jesus, where your heart comes all the way in. And trust Him that He will do what He said He'd do.
The gospel says that he will save you.
Then He will give you a new life, that He will take away your sins, That what he did on Calvary's cross paid a penalty and a price for you. That He wants to redeem you.
That's what the word of God says, but he asks you to trust Him.
If you believe that God exists and you believe that Jesus was real, that's great.
But that doesn't mean you're saved.
You still need to come and trust in Him, the living Savior that seats the city at the right hand of the Father.
I want to tell you a story.
I was. I flew out to.
Pennsylvania, when I had met Zebo and had been engaged, went out to ask her parents for their daughter's hand in marriage. And I flew out there and I had a Bible case that I took with me that Heinz Brinkman had gotten for me from somebody that was very elaborately tooled, a beautiful Bible case with leather. And I had it on my lap on the plane back, and I was in the aisle seat and next to me on my right was a Jewish man.
A wealthy businessman from Chicago and his wife was next to the window. And he asked me, what is that that you have? It's a beautiful piece of leather work. And I said, it's a Bible case. And he said to me, oh, you're a preacher. And I guess, I guess you could say that. Umm. And he said that he starts telling me. So it's interesting. People have so many beliefs. People interpret the Bible different ways and everybody has their own ideas. And I said, well.
There are simple things in the Bible that are pretty clear. I said, he said, what do you mean? I said, well, there's things in the Bible that that are easy to understand. I said, for instance, you tell me what this means. So I quoted to him, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I said, what does that mean? He goes, well, that means people don't measure up. It's pretty simple, isn't it?
So I quoted other verses. I said what does it mean when the the scripture says that all have sinned? Well that means everyone.
I said what does it mean?
When God says that whosoever will may come.
Well, whosoever means anybody, I guess. So what does it mean?
When it says for God so loved the world that whosoever believeth him should not perish, but have everlasting life, we said that's talking about your Christian Jesus. Yeah, but what does it mean if you just read those words? Well, sounds like it means that.
If you believe, anybody can come. So we went through some questions like that. And his wife kept saying you need to talk to rabbi, go talk to a rabbi. She didn't want to hear it. But he kept saying, no, no, I wanna talk to this young man. So I said I did this.
00:15:10
Isaiah chapter 53.
I says here's one more thing I want you to tell me. You tell me what this means.
If you'll bear with me a moment, close your eyes as I read this and just go there.
Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected man, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before shears his dumb soul. He openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. And when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the grade, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin to many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Those are words that we've heard read in gospel meetings and in Breaking of Bread meetings many times.
But I read that to this man, and I said, tell me what's that about? He says, well, that's about your Jesus. That's in the New Testament, right? I said, no, that's your prophet Isaiah. He says, really, That's about Jesus.
This is what profit, I said Isaiah, he said. I've never heard that before. I says I know they don't read it in the synagogue, but it is about Jesus. And as a Gentile I have believed on this Jesus, this Christ, this Messiah.
I said, you know, in the Old Testament it said of the Gentiles that the future Messiah that would come.
That the Gentiles would believe on him. What man and all of human history. What Jewish man and all of human history.
Have the Gentiles believed on?
Well, there's some men, there's other men, but in a big way, in a vast way. What man, Jewish man that claimed to be a Messiah have the Gentiles embraced and believed on? There's one.
There's one.
We got to the airport and we were getting our bags.
His wife kept saying go see a rabbi, go see a rabbi. He walked up to me and he shook my hand and he said, young man, you've given me something to think about.
I've never heard these things before. I think that man got saved. I've never met him since.
I wrote his name down. I prayed for him over the years, but that was a moment that God ranged his life. Didn't wanna hear it. She's responsible for saying no. Way away. Go talk to a rabbi. He's wanted to listen. He wanted to talk.
And he had objections.
But I simply asked him if he would explain these verses, and he did. He had them right. And as soon as he heard this, he said, that's Jesus. He's responsible for that. Well, I believe that God maybe brought others. God works that way along his path, and I'll see him someday. But what about you? How many times have you heard the gospel? Are you like me? When I was up to 11 years old, you could have told somebody how to get saved, but we're not.
00:20:15
There's a story I read about a heart surgeon.
Who used to have patience on the table that would tell stories later about near death experiences?
And this was back in the 80s, late 70s, I think it was maybe early 80s. There were some books written about people going into the lights and all this kind of thing with near death experiences. And he like other professionals and scientists and doctors that it's just chemicals giving, uh, illusions in the mind and, and just having these chemical reactions and you kind of see whatever you want.
So one day he has a man who has a heart attack and he brings him back. He works on him desperately. And the guy comes back screaming and he says don't let me go, don't let me go. I see the flames.
Downy goes, brings him back. Tell me how to be saved. How can I be saved? I see the flames. I don't want to go down. He goes again. The doctor's telling the story, and he says he remembers from Sunday school.
The verse Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He remembers that much. The guy comes back again and he says tell me how can I be saved? And he says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
He went down one more time and he brought him back.
This time peaceful, and they repaired his heart, and he lived.
I don't know if that man ever really got saved, but the doctor did because after that moment, he said there's something here, there's something more. And remembering Sunday school versus that, he learned just part of one.
He was brought back to those things that he learned as a young child and he came and he studied the word and he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote a book called Beyond Death's Door, and it's more about that kind of thing and things that have happened that he experienced that how that he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior because he trusted in him. The gospel message tells us a story. We believe the story.
You know, I was told as in my 20s by others that I talked to about the gospel. You believe what you believe because your parents raised you that way. If you were a Hindu, you'd be a Hindu.
And there's some truth to that.
But at some point, whatever age you are teenager in your 20s.
There's a time where you believe for yourself.
And yes, you can come and trust the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. But he says, why do you believe the Bible?
Why do you believe this book? Because that, after all, is the message. The gospel message you're telling me is from this book. Why do you believe it is full of contradiction?
Whenever I'm asked that, I always ask people to show me one. I've never had anybody show me one, but there are some things in this book that appear to be contradictions that are not. With a little study, you can. All of these questions have all all been answered thoroughly many times.
But people have that kind of idea that it can't be trusted more now than ever.
So I remember the first gentleman I was talking to about that. I said to him, I said, what if I came to you tomorrow? And I said on your way into work, you're gonna be driving in and a red pickup is going to hit you in the side of the car and drive you into the ditch, but you're both going to live. You would just laugh at me now, what if that happened?
I said you might be angry at me and wonder how I arranged that and are you going to pay for my vehicle because you would believe that somehow I tricked it and made it happen. What if I told you the next day that you're going to find $100 bill in the grocery store and you'll be made $100? Ritual be on the floor. It'll be right next to the Cheetos.
He kind of laughed, and he said, well, I'd probably ask you, OK, Sam, where are you? This is a pretty good trick. I said about the third or fourth time, if I told you something, you would be either afraid or happy according to what I was telling you, because you would start to believe that. A record of being able to predict the future, you would start to believe that I could do it. I said, you know, the word of God. This book has a much better record than that, and it's never failed once. That's why I believe it. Yes. I first believed it because my mother and father told me it was true.
00:25:05
I learned in Sunday school about these things.
But when I got to be an adult and I looked at those things for myself, I began to realize that the evidence is so overwhelming for the truth of this book that I cannot believe otherwise. Now, when it comes to knowing the Lord Jesus as your Savior, how do I unknown somebody I know?
When I trusted him as my savior, as an 11 year old boy, I didn't know.
All about the Bible. I'm still learning, but I came to know the Lord Jesus and I've grown to know him more over the years. How can I unknown Him? I know a person. I've known Lemoyne Smith most of my life. He was there in the meeting when I was a baby. I think not much after that, maybe as a young boy.
You are older than I am, but.
How can I somebody convince me Lemoyne doesn't exist? You can't.
You know I, I, I know the Lord Jesus. You can't convince me he doesn't exist. I know him.
Once you know him, you know what you do with that and how much you know him. We were talking earlier about the joy of knowing the Lord Jesus, entering into it, how much we can appreciate those things. Those all have to do with how we walk in the faith that we have. But faith I, I remember I struggled with the idea of faith and what it meant to believe as a boy and confused. And I'm sure that there's others that sometimes do as well.
But I remember those verses in Ephesians.
Where it speaks of those who first trusted in Christ.
And it was using that word, the Lord using that word that got me over the hump with the idea of what it meant to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the difference between believing about something. So I've explained it like this. When there's an election, there's one coming up now, but when there's election, you can always see when when news reporters interview people.
You could go in the street and ask people this question.
So let's go to the last, last one where Obama and McCain were running against each other. If you were to go into the street and ask people, do you believe there's such a person as John McCain? I don't care who you ask, Independent, Republican, Democrat, if you ask that question, they would look at you like you're nuts. Of course, I believe there's such a person. He's on the TV, he's in the newspaper. I've heard him speak. Some people may say that. I've met him. I've shook his hand.
If you ask the same question about Obama, do you believe there's such a person as somebody named Barack Hussein Obama and he's running for president of the United States? Yeah, it does sound pretty amazing. But they would look at you. Yes, of course I do. That person exists. He's on the TV. He's been interviewed. I've seen him at a rally. Now ask the second question. Who do you believe in, who you trust? Now you get a whole different answer. Some will say, oh, they trust this one. Some will say the other one.
That's what it comes down to with the gospel message.
The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and died and paid a price, and He offers full and free salvation to those who will receive it.
And he's saying, now you believe the story. You believe that God exists, You believe that Jesus exists. That's history.
Now he says, trust me.
Trust in me.
And that's the final step.
Or you trust India. There's something that God does in the heart and mind of a human being.
Where that wall is broken down, where you come all the way in and say, Lord Jesus, I trust you. I trust you that you did what you did on the cross for me. I trust you that you can save me and wash them by my sins. Do you know how that all works? I don't. I can't explain how it all works, but I trust Him. I believe what he said.
'Cause sometimes in Sunday school I will, I have done where I will say, uh, to kids, I'll have I've done it with money, I've done it with candy. I'll say, uh, reco re quote that versus says, come unto me all your labor and our heavy laden and I will give you rest.
And I'll say, come on to me, all you that have deed of candy and I'll give you some.
And I, I the last last time in Cedar Rapids, I was there. The last time I was there, I think not for a funeral.
00:30:05
I did that with all the kids and they start looking at each other and I'll repeat it. Come on to me all you that have need of candy and I will give you some and they start looking at each other and usually it's the youngest one will come up.
Now why? Because she believed me. It was Kurt's little girl that came up. She came up.
She believed what I said.
The Lord Jesus is asking you to trust Him. Believe what He says, believe what it says, and if you believe what it says, you'll do what you believe.
SO1 gospel after gospel meeting on one Sunday night when I was 11 years old. Misbehaved in the car, got a spanking that I deserved. My mother and father used to spank us and send us to our rooms to think about what we've done. Often they would come in later and talk with us.
This time was different.
My dad came into the room and he was crying and he sat down with me and he said, Son, your mother and I don't know if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
And he said if you die in your sins, you'll go into a lost eternity. And he left the room. Oh, man.
I just heard the gospel preached. My father was weeping and left the room with this solemn message. I heard the gospel many, many times, and it was like the Spirit of God at that moment made it very real to me that, yes, that I was in danger of being lost if the Lord came back, if I died. And it was like there was no more moments to go past, no more reason to put it off, no more almost persuaded.
It was now, yes, and I got down by my bed and I trusted the Lord Jesus to do what He promised to do, and he did what he did.
There's a man named Josh McDowell that some of you may have read his book More Than a Carpenter or Evidence in the man's verdict. He was an atheist. He grew up in an alcoholic's home.
He hated his father. When his friends from high school would come, he would tie his father up with ropes in the barn. So an embarrassing he hated his father, brilliant guy who went to university. He decided for his thesis he would write a book disproving Christianity once and for all, and he become famous and rich. So he began to investigate. The resulting book was a book called evidence that demands a verdict because he said, you know, nobody tells you that there really is evidence.
Evidence that can be examined and looked at for the truth of Christianity, the resurrection, those kind of things.
But through his investigation, he became a Christian.
And he said there were Christians on the campus that had witnessed to him, and he always just laughed them off.
But after he did this investigation, he's looking at this and he's heard the gospel from these people. He's seen what he thought was just wackos, but he noticed that they had something, and the joy we were talking about, they had that. They had peace too. He noticed that. So like the thief on the cross, did the thief on the cross know what he was even asking? Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom? He got so much more, but he came. He trusted him.
He trusted him.
He trusted him, Josh McDowell said. He said something like.
Well, if you're real and it's really true, then, you know, save me, do your thing, whatever he said. Here's what I noticed. I was changed from within and that change showed up on the outside. And one of their most dramatic things was I lost the hate I had for my father.
He said. That's real. That's a true thing. It either works or it doesn't.
And it does work.
So he trusted and he saw this change that was not him turning over a new leaf, not him learning some new practice or whatever, though he did begin to study the Bible. But he said I saw a change within me, in my being, in my very innermost being.
And the first thing he said was I lost my hate for my father. His father got in some kind of an accident and he was in the hospital. I don't remember what happened. He went to see him.
00:35:01
And he spoke with his father and he forgave his father and he shared the gospel with his father. His father got saved. And he said the reason why is if you can forgive me for all the things I've done.
Then what you have is real. It's true, and I will believe too. And his father believed he lived a few more years in that town. He was the guy that they saw in the gutter sleeping on the sidewalk after a night of drunkenness.
This man now walked through the town with joy on his face, joy in his heart, telling people about the Lord Jesus who saved him from a drunkard's life that would have ended in a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's hell.
You know, if you've been raised in a Christian home, you've had a lot of privileges, but once you go out of that and you go into your own life, there's a lot of dark roads that people go down and they can end in death and hell.
And you cannot control all the things that take place, no matter how much you think. And those who reject Christ end up in all kinds of places and then dead. And you can go back through some lives that end up in a horrible, horrible, terrible way and find out that they once were in a Christian home. They once were in a place of where blessings surrounded them, and they turned away and rejected it all. And they died terrible deaths. There's a story told about three young men.
We're out partying, wanted to have a night of drink, but they decided they'd have a little fun and they went to visit an evangelist who was preaching the gospel and they were cracking up in the back row and making fun and mocking and in this sermon, the preacher said.
Talked about a cup of the wrath of God and how that God had drank that up, the Lord Jesus had drank it up for sinners who would trust in that, in him as their Savior. But that what was awaiting for those who were to enter a lost eternity in their sins was a cup of the wrath of God and they would be required to drink it. These three young men left that gospel meeting. They went into a bar that they were used to coming into and one of them.
The most profane of all pounded his fists on the bar and said, Give me a cup of the wrath of God.
Everybody went silent, even sinners.
Can be shocked by something. Everybody went silent. Those sitting close to him kind of drew back, maybe thinking lightning would come out of the sky. The bartender hesitated a moment, but gave the man his usual drink and he slammed it back. Fell down dead.
You can reject and mock God to a point where he'll say that's it, you chose it, you got it buddy. The worst thing that can be done is for you to be left alone by God.
His two buddies went back to those meetings and got saved.
I wonder how many others went on to get saved that were sitting that bar that saw that.
God doesn't always act like that quickly.
Famous atheists in France many years ago went up on a hill and a rainstorm. It was announced in the papers and he shouted and yelled at God and said he was going to ask him to strike him with lightning if he really existed, and came back down and the papers interviewed him and nothing happened.
But a few days later, he died. He'd gotten a scratch from a Bush, got an infection, and died a few days later.
God always doesn't judge you for what you've done wrong immediately. God is gracious and long-suffering, but you don't know how long you have. You know, there's a verse in Revelation that says about Jezebel where God says I gave her space to repent and she would not. There's a lesson for Christians in that, and it's an important lesson for those who have not yet trusted Christ as their Savior. There is space to repent. Grace unmerited favor from God goes out.
The very fact that we can stand here tonight in a free country and talk about these things.
Is a wonderful blessing.
That I can stand here, one man said about being preaching the gospel, he says. One beggar telling a bunch of other beggars where the food is.
And that's what I'm doing. And I'm uniquely qualified to preach the gospel to you. You know why? Because I'm a Sinner.
And he saved me.
And I know him, You can know him too. Come, come now. Come tonight. Come before the prayer is over. Trust Him as your Savior.
Castle Stronghold Fortress
Children—Stephen Rule
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.
Why don't we start with a song to get seated on?
One of your children up front have a song you like to sing while the adults come and sit down.
We got one for us, Allen.
15 OK #15 We'll start with that.
Uh, uh, they were crying, sweetie. Yeah, I never get the room.
Granny crap.
Room.
Come away from me.
OK, let's sing some more songs and you can pick from any of the ones that are in here. I might shorten it down just a little so that others get a chance. That's not because the song you pick isn't a good one. So who else has one you'd like to sing?
OK.
Number two. Number two, we'll sing. We have a favorite verse in there, so we make sure we don't skip it. I don't want to think about two of the verses. You have a favorite? No. OK, we'll sing the 1St and the 2nd verses.
00:05:42
Another one.
Who else has one you'd like to see?
Should I call on somebody?
I don't wanna embarrass you.
Do you have one you wanna sing?
OK. You have one you want to see? Yes, missed it. OK. Thank you, Adam.
46, Thank you. Let's say 46.
Hi.
Hi. Hi.
Baby.
I'm asking all that you've gone falling behind.
Wonderful. How about a couple more?
OK on how?
47 Thank you.
I'll sing 47, maybe a little time for a short one after that.
10000100.
It's umm, OK.
One more, at least for now.
Someone wants a last song.
Oh 44 OK, thank you #44.
Where are Gypsy boy lay dying alone at the club.
00:10:09
Here nobody ever has fallen with me.
I will not change that again.
Las Vegas, NV.
I I am.
Sorry.
It down when I am.
Ready to jump, swell over, to breathe before I go.
Hello, how can I assist you?
I'd like to talk about the verse in a little bit, but if you memorize the verse during the week, I'd like to give you a chance to say it. So who has a verse that you're willing to say even though there's other people watching, maybe a couple more than usual? How many are willing to say the verse for us this morning? OK, thank you. You'd say it for everyone.
OK that's fine, double check. The Lord is good. A stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows him then that name 17. Good. That's the one I learned this week too. I'll refresh my memory on how about another person?
The Lord has got a stronghold in the day of trouble when he knoweth them that trust in Him. Name one second good, How about another one? Anyone else want to say it? The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in Him. Name 1/7 Thank you.
Anyone else?
There's no obligation, there's no requirement, but you can if you'd like.
All right, two more. We'll start with you. The word is good. A stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows and he knoweth them that trusted him. They have won seven.
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in Him and one's own anyone else.
OK, some of you might know it and choose not to say it. That's OK.
I wanna talk about part of this verse with you, but you're going to need to help me out. You ready? You didn't have to help me out with the verse, but you will help me have to help me out a little bit with the rest of the Sunday school. There's a part of this. There's three parts to this verse I'd like to talk about, and we'll probably run out of time.
Somebody I know and love tells me there's always too much, so I'll try to keep it to the most important part first. So we're going to keep down to castles and strongholds and fortresses.
How many of you have ever built a castle, a stronghold, or a fortress or a Fort really? Wow, that's all. Let me see that. Does that really all? I don't believe that because I recognize some hands. I know I built a Fort or a castle or stronghold. And in fact, by the time we're done, I think you're going to find that everybody here has built some kind of a Ford or a castle or stronghold or a fortress or something. I'll give you one example first. When I was maybe.
00:15:22
Seven or eight years old. Anybody here that's seven or eight years old? About 9:00 because I might have done it. OK, we got 19, uh, 654. I had one of these when I was probably 4 to 9. OK, well, my bedroom was upstairs in the house and you go up the stairs and then you turn, you come up to the top of the stairs and then you turn again to the right and you enter my bedroom and my parents room and my sister's room are further down the hall. So I was the first one on the top of the stairs.
And I had some windows that looked out onto the street. So when I went to bed at night for several years, I built myself a fortress.
Guess what it was made out of?
I got in bed over on the side by the wall, right in the corner, and there's a window over here and here's the corner and I laid over in the corner by the wall, and then I built myself a fortress. Guess what I made it out of?
How about as bad as that? It was pillows. I sacks some pillows there and maybe if there was an extra blanket or something I stacked up between myself and the windows. I didn't worry about the door for some reason.
How many think that's a pretty good fortress?
Oh, wow, thank you, thank you. Umm, I don't think it was a very good. Do you think that would have kept a thief out that wanted to crawl in the window? That's one of the things that went through my head. What if somebody came crawling through the window in the middle of the night? Well, I've got a wall between me and them now.
And I had a soldier for my wall. I put it over by the wall. I had a little stuffed rabbit about that big. And I put my stuffed rabbit over by that fortress wall.
How many of you think that was a really good defense?
Wow, you do. Thank you. No, you don't. Umm, nobody thinks that was a very good defense. That was pretty lousy, but in my mind that was helpful in being able to go to sleep. Well, you know what? I think that there's probably at least a little bit and everyone in this room that they built a castle or a fortress.
And I'm going to give you an example now before I give you an example so you don't get offended. All of these things are OK. It's using them as a fortress that's the problem. I think that there's some people here that probably arrived with a whole suitcase worth of vitamins.
And that might be OK. That's OK. Now, don't feel bad, all right? It's only if it's the fortress that it's a problem.
And some people maybe when they get home, they have a refrigerator full of vegetables and fruits, and that's their fortress. Somebody else has a bank account and they've got some money. And it doesn't have to be a lot of money. Maybe it's just a just the right amount of money. I don't know what just the right amount of money is, but that's their fortress. We can all have. How many of you have a fortress like that, something that you count on? In fact, let me give you another one.
I suspect there's at least a few people here that walked in with their Bible cases and they thought hum.
Where am I going to sit? And they didn't look at the 1St row or the 2nd row or the 3rd row. They wanted to have a nice wall of people in front of them because they didn't want anybody looking at them. Now everybody's looking at them. Turn around to see who's in the back row. See, they're not very good fortresses. We build ourselves fortresses to protect ourselves from the things we're scared of. Now what was the verse?
The Lord.
Is good the Lord is good say the rest of it a stronghold in the day travel and he know them that trust in him stronghold in the day of trouble. That's the fortress we're talking about. So I'm going to help you out. This is in the book of Nam and the book of Nam was written to the people are written about the people of Nineveh, a big city. So I'm going to give you an idea of a fortress and I need somebody, some of you guys to help me out who can push me off the steps over there.
You do that.
Jonathan, OK, You come on up, push me off the steps. I'll help you out. You stand up on that step there and I'm going to keep my feet together. I'll stay right at the back here. And that makes a little easier. You push on my chest and you see if you can push me off. I'll try not to. Hey, thank you. Thank you, Jonathan.
00:20:06
OK, so he pushed me off the steps. I wasn't strong enough, at least standing like that. I wasn't. I really was trying to sink in with my toes and keep from getting pushed over. Now Jonathan, since you helped me out with that, I need you to put something else over.
I want you to push on this pillar right here and push it over there.
You can't do it. You're not even gonna try. No. All right. Thank you. He won't even try. I wanna show you how big some people say the walls of Nineveh were because that was a stronghold. I think even if you don't like my pillows as a wall, you would think this was a stronghold. You would think this was a good fortress. I think so. We're gonna you're gonna help me out, and I need one volunteer first. The rest of you are gonna have to get out of your seat in a minute. All right. Thank you. Anna, you come up and I want to start you out right by this pillar, right at this crack. And I'm gonna have you walk.
And I'll tell you when to stop. You'll walk to the far side of justice, the outside wall of Nineveh, at least according to some historians. All right, walk about as far as the wall of your room.
How many think the wall of your room makes a good, good wall? Go into your room, close the door, lock it if you can. Is that a good fortress? Some of us go to hide in our rooms, all right? And that's a good fortress because nobody can see us. And it's at the wall of her room. Now walk about as far as the width of your dining room. You don't have to get it right, just about right.
OK, so from where I am to where Anna is, that's about how wide our dining room. Does that make a good thick wall? How many of you have a wall at your house that's that thick? How many of you have walls to your house that are thinner than that? That means everybody. So you gotta raise your hand. All right? You're gonna raise your hand for the first one. You have to for the second one. And I'm going to keep walking to the edge of the thickness of the wall of Nineveh. Keep going, Keep going, keep going. Keep going, keep going. This is not at the edge of the wall in any of them yet. A little bit further. Little bit further and keep going. Yep. You're not there yet. You move to your left a little bit. So you line up with that doorway because you're going to need 2.
All right, move just a little bit further. A little bit further. A little bit further. OK, just up. That's that's about right. That's good enough. That sounds thick. They say the wall of Nineveh was.
Is that a thick wall? You want to come back up and push that wall over? Jonathan? No. Huge thick wall. Now I want to show you how tall it was. All of you have to come up. The adults are left out. Those of you in the front row, you have to come up. We're going to have Anna. Anna, you're going to have to keep walking until you get to the top of the wall in Nineveh. I can't have you go up this high. There's no building in Mayfield big enough.
OK, you watch Anna and I'll tell you when she gets to the top of the wall of Nineveh. OK, keep going and I'll tell you when you get there. Keep walking. Walking, walking, walking, walking. Walk. Go, Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.
There you are. That's good. Stop right there. Anna's now at the top of the wall of Nineveh. Do you think she's at the highest point in Nineveh yet? Nope. Nineveh had towers on their walls. So we're gonna send Anna down to the top of the one of the towers on the wall of Nineveh. Now, you keep walking in a.
Keep going. I'll tell you when you get to the top of the tower wall, you watch Anna imagine she's getting to the top of the wall.
That you have to keep going off the dock. Going to that yellow tape. Yep. You're you're loud. I'll let you go. I'll talk to Mr. McClure later. You keep going. Keep going.
Good. Keep going. You're not there yet.
Thinks he's there yet, Adam? No, no, not far enough.
Alright, that's good. Yep, you're there. You're at the the hallway, right?
OK.
Now we're gonna talk to Anna. She's on the top of the tower, and then she's at the far hallway. By the way, for those of you who can't see her, most of you, Oh, maybe not quite far enough yet. Uh, Adam, can you call her back?
No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait. Call her from here. I just wanna see from the bottom of the wall if you can even talk to her.
Oh, she moved.
Oh, she's coming back. OK, great. Come all the way back, Anna. Thank you. All right, now you can take your seat.
I'm going to ask you a question. Montana gets back. But does that sound like a nice tall tower? Sound pretty strong. I think that's a pretty nice tall tower. How would you like, how many of you would like to climb all the way up a ladder to get to the top of that tower when the people up top don't want you there and you're trying to attack that castle? How would you like to climb up a ladder all the way toward where Anna was at the far hallway? Would you like to do that? The people on top maybe have boiling water or they add arrows or they had rocks and they're dropping them on your head. Does that sound nice?
00:25:34
No.
Lifting the water.
Oh, yeah, that, that, that boy fire at the top of that tower. I'd lift the ladder. I'd push that ladder off, too. I no, I wouldn't want it to lean against my wall. But that sounds like a pretty strong tower, doesn't it? You know how many of those some people say they had at Nineveh?
Jonah went through that city, right? And he walked through Nineveh and in that city that some people say they had.
45 good guess. That'd be a lot, wouldn't it? No, it's more than 45. Two more guesses.
Yep.
75 Another good guess. Those would be a That would be a lot of huge towers, wouldn't they? One more.
55 all of those are pretty good guesses. Some people at least, I don't know the real number, I don't suppose anybody does but the Lord. But there, the historian said there are 1500 of those towers on the wall.
Is that a stronghold? That's a huge stronghold. And a whole bunch of enemies of Nineveh came up against that stronghold and they surrounded it. There were Chaldeans and there were Medes and there were Babylonians and there were Sumerians, and there were others that I can't remember. And they were all the enemies of Assyria. And they surrounded that wall and they couldn't get in. And one year passed and two years passed and I couldn't get in.
Is that a strong law?
Some people here, maybe they've got a really strong wall. Is it too strong for the Lord?
No, let me read you the next verse. I suspect you didn't memorize this one in Sunday school ever. Even if you're 93 here today, I suspect you've never seen the next verse on the Sunday school paper to memorize. So turn if you can, if you know where to find it. Jonah, Micah, Nayam in your Bible. Jonah, the prophet that spoke to Nineveh and Micah, and then the story of Nineveh in the book of Naam.
In the next verse says.
This sentence.
He knoweth them that trust in him. The next words say Fox.
But name one verse 8. But with an overrunning flood, he will make an utter end of the place thereof. Fought with an overrunning flood, he will make another end of the place thereof. You know what?
Nineveh is on a river.
You know the name of that river? It's in the Bible. Nineveh. You know the name of the river. Not sure. Should we get an adult, somebody a little older, tell me the name of the river that Nineveh faces. Nineveh goes right up to the shore of the river, and there's a modern city in Iraq that comes right up to the opposite shore, that same river.
No, not that one.
Nineveh comes right up. We'll take somebody that's 20 or older and they'll help me out.
Nineveh is right on Mr. Sector, the Tigris River. It's right on the Tigris River, and that's in modern day Iraq. And there's a city right there today, Mosul, and it's right on the opposite bank from where Nineveh was. And that river got the third year of the siege, became an overrunning flood and it made a breach in the wall. It was so powerful of water, it broke a section of the wall. And the enemy went in and the king of Nineveh burnt himself to death in his palace.
And that was the end of Nineveh. And you know what?
That was 2600 years ago. Has none of it been rebuilt? To my knowledge it's never been rebuilt. Mosul's on the opposite bank and they've rebuilt a gate at big fancy gates. They rebuilt the gate, so that was it. Is that a good stronghold? You want to guess how long it lasted?
00:30:15
One from when it was built. The Bible tells when it was built. One more G Go ahead and guess.
Two years. You wanna guess when it was built to when it was destroyed? Three years, 1400 years. It's not a long time. Yeah. And you know, if we're just people and we think we've got a pretty good stronghold and maybe it's lasted our whole lifetime and we've got a little bit of faith in it.
Is it too strong for God to tear down?
When the year came, the destroying in about 120 years before Jonah came through and Jonah preached to the people in Nineveh and he talked to them.
And they repented, but they went back to their old ways, and when it was time to destroy, God destroyed Nineveh.
The minute he needed to.
I want to warn you, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, maybe you've lived for five years.
You heard last night about personally trusting in the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and you understood it.
But.
You didn't.
And maybe there's somebody in the room that's 10 years old or 12 or 20 or 40.
Maybe God has waited 40 years for you, or 50.
But Nineveh was around for 1400 years. It had a huge wall with lots of towers and the day it came when it God said with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place and when his time came Nineveh was wiped out.
They think the people around there learn their lesson.
One of the groups that came to destroy it were the Babylonians. You've heard of the Babylonians, right? The Babylonians came to destroy that place, and they came and destroyed that place, and then they went and they learned the lesson, didn't they?
They built a bigger wall.
Their wall is even taller and their wall was even wider. You think that's good enough?
God prophesied the destruction of Babylon and has it been rebuilt?
No, Babylon was destroyed and it hasn't been rebuilt. The only stronghold is the one in this verse it says in our verse it says the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble. So who do you trust in in the day of trouble? One more verse from this chapter at the beginning it says in verse three, the Lord is slow to anger.
And great in power, and will not at all acquit the Wiccan. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. So when God's time of judgment comes, there's nothing that can stop it.
Want you to help me.
I've got three things here. First part you can help me with is.
Putting these in the order they are in the verse. So for those of you in the back, this one is a castle, a little castle with a drawbridge. This one is the classic stylized heart, and this one's somebody's head with a few gears in it. All right, so I'm going to give each of you the three of them, and I want you to put them in the order they are in the verse.
And then we're going to find a verse for each part of this. I'll give all of you in the front, the rest of you.
You have to do it in your head. Which comes first, the castle of the heart or the head with the gears? OK, give each three. I want you to put them in order in the order they are in the verse. Most of you memorize it. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him.
Yeah, put them in and that's might be kinda hard. So you can double check with your brother or sister or somebody next to you if you think you might need a little extra help.
See if you can put them in order. The Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him. I'll give a verse for each.
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OK.
Just give you a brief moment of time and double check your answer with the person next to you. That's not cheating in this school. It's good to help somebody next to you. So you can ask the person next to you and see if they, uh, agree with you, if you think you've got them in the right order. And I see at least one that I agree with the order on. And I think there's a couple, I think there's several that I agree with the order on. OK.
Who wants to help me out? You put up the first one, you hold up the first one.
Now you think those first in the verse and you tell me why? OK.
OK, he held up the heart and he says the Lord is good. I agree. How about the next one?
What would you put next? Yeah, you've got it. Just about everybody's got your fortress there next. I agree. A stronghold in the day of trouble. And that's the one we spent most of our time talking about. And the last one says, yeah, OK, I see lots of them with the head. I didn't know. How do you illustrate Noah? Sam, how do you illustrate? Know somebody? So I, I took the head, but, umm, that one, that was a little harder. OK, I want to illustrate the last one. We'll read a verse and we'll illustrate the first one in read a verse.
How many of you know?
My middle name. Raise your hand if you know my middle name.
OK, I got 123456.
That's all 789 Good. Ten. Wow. 10 of you, 11 maybe. OK, about 11 of you know my middle name.
You know a lot about a person when you know their middle name.
Maybe not so much, but when you really know somebody, you know, can I hear the things about them? You know their first name and their middle name and their last name and a whole lot more. And I'm gonna read to a verse that tells you what God knows about you. In a minute. I'll tell you about somebody, because this is the way we are. I wanna encourage you to not only let God know you, but to, you know God. So in earlier this year, Paul and I were at a Bible conference in Ecuador.
And there was a boy there and I was trying to learn his name and it was easy to learn his first name. His first name was Sebastian.
And it was easy to learn his second name. His second name was Alejandro. But I couldn't get his last name right. I kept pronouncing it wrong. So I had to have him spell it for me so I could hear it. If I can see it, I can hear it and make the right sound. But if I just hear it, sometimes I just can't get it right. And he was getting all frustrated, no.
That was wrong. So I learned his name. His name was Sebastian Alejandro Cortez Patty. Excuse me now I'm getting his last name wrong. Umm, Sebastian Alejandro Cortez Patino. The last name is the one I kept messing up before I kept putting AD in there and I almost, I did do it again. Sebastian Alejandro Cortez Patino. That's about all I know about him. I know what he looks like and I know a little bit about what he's like, but I know his name. And when I was done, this is what I want you to remember.
When I was done and I practiced on it for a few minutes and I had to ask him three or four times and he finally you got it right. And I said what's my name?
He didn't have any idea at all. And you know what? Sometimes we're that way with God. Sometimes we want to make sure that God knows us and he knows what our problems are and he knows where we're having difficulties and we're all done and we know that he knows us. We say fine.
And we don't know a whole lot about God. I wanna encourage you to take your Bible this today and this week and to learn what He has for you to learn about him. But let's read one verse about Him knowing you, Psalm 139.
So I'm 139 and we'll read just a couple verses maybe.
Read verses 15 through 17.
My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, And in thy book all my members were written.
Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. Isn't that nice?
How many of your parents have a picture of you before you were born?
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Maybe you don't know how many of you have seen a picture of yourself before you were born. You have you have a few people night, you have an ultrasound and they take a picture. Is that picture as detailed and colorful and nice?
As the one your parents maybe took on their phone in the last week.
Now what's the picture of you before you were born look like?
Swirly and black and white and Gray and the doctor or the baby, the nurse or somebody who knows how to read those, They .0 there's and you say, and you're not really sure if that's what it is or not, but they've seen a lot of them and they probably know. And then they point to little hands and feet and you can recognize those and they go ahead. It's, it's a kind of a funny picture, isn't it? But this is a picture of what you were like that God saw and knew before you were born.
In fact, before the world was created, he knew everything about you.
How many of you have a parent who never misunderstands you? They always, they always get it right?
I gotta get my hand down too. Sorry. Not a single one. But we do have God. The Father knows everything. He knoweth them, the trust in Him, not only who they are, but everything about them. God knows you perfectly, and it's a wonderful thing. Sometimes we have misunderstandings with other people, even ones that love us. But God never misunderstands us, and it's a wonderful privilege to come and not misunderstand Him.
It's good to know him too. One more verse. This goes with the first part. The Lord is good. There's so many verses in the Bible that would show that. We'll turn to one first. John chapter 4.
John, Chapter 4.
And verse 10.
If you have your Bible, turn to 1St John 4 verse 10. This goes with the heart part of the verse.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now in one minute, I want you to understand just a tiny bit of the love behind that propitiation.
That means God satisfied. So I want to illustrate it for you real quickly. Suppose that.
Umm, can I borrow you, Adam and Ellen? Can I borrow your names? You don't have to come up. Is it OK if I use your names in this example? All right, suppose Adam, Alan Adams will say Adam's doing a job for his mom, Adam's doing a job for his mom. And Allen comes along and he looks it over and he says, I don't think you did that part right. You need to redo that part. That wouldn't happen, would it? We'll just pretend. So Alan asked. It says, Adam, you didn't do that part right?
And maybe you don't agree on it for a little bit. Who gets to decide whether it's done right or not?
Your mom now if your mom comes along and she looks it over and says no, I think Adam, you've done a really good job there. That's that satisfies me.
Do you think you'd keep arguing?
No, it's settled because your mom says that's good enough.
And you know what? When the Lord Jesus Christ did a work to put away sin, he did a work. And it's nice if Alan's satisfied that it was good enough, but what really matters is that his mom satisfied that it's good enough. And you know what? When your Lord Jesus did a work on the cross, it's nice if we're satisfied, we should be.
But what really matters is that God is satisfied with what the Lord Jesus did, and that's part of the love that's in the verse we just read.
Romans 7 - That's Me - I Can't Do This
Death First Then Life in Christ
Philippians 3:2-9
Reading
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156.
Nsnoise.
16 The words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word wasn't to me. The joy and rejoice of my heart. Only considered the first verse of Philippians chapter 3 yesterday, so I would suggest.
The mind of the brethren, that we read from verse one again, but then go on to the subsequent verses.
Philippians chapter 3, verse one.
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 safe. 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.
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Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man think it that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise 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. What things were gained to me? Those I counted loss for Christ a 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 to count them but dumb, that I may win Christ.
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 under 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 not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything, you be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where do we have attained already? 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 you 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 end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, will 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?
Today that the apostle in writing to the Philippians, he didn't find it an irksome or grievous thing to write and to remind them to rejoice in the Lord. And we spoke at some length on that subject, but now he's going to remind them of things that they are not, that they ought to be aware of and that ought not to characterize them. And so we are to be characterized as a people.
Who rejoice in the Lord, have the joy of the Lord in our souls, as we said yesterday, to show it on our faces and in our lives. But then He takes up these things that we are to be aware of or to see, to be aware of. Dogs beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. And then there's some exhortations that follow. And so these things are, I suppose, really that which characterized Judaism, and they were not to go back to that which had been.
Set aside in Christianity. And so, brethren, we need the positive, but we need the warnings too. First of all, he encourages them to rejoice in the Lord. Now we're going to find today, give them some warnings.
And some exhortations concerning those things that ought not to characterize them.
The Doctrine.
Particularly presented to us in this chapter, it's assumed, and this is the walk that, uh, we're to have consistent with the teaching that has been given to us. And in that connection, the basis of this particular set of exhortations, I think that we see the teaching of it a little easier. And I'd like to turn to it for a moment in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
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Umm. These verses which follow are based upon, you might say, the truth. That's the teaching being presented to us. More here in 2nd Corinthians 5.
He says in verse 14, For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
That they which that he which died for all try again, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth?
Know we no man after the flesh? Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth.
No, we have no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.
Here there are several things presented to us that are, I will say, assumed in the chapter on which these our chapter where these exhortations are one is.
We once were children of Adam, as was presented in the last meeting, but we have died with Christ.
And we are a new creation in Christ Jesus before God.
The Lord Jesus Christ was once known.
As a man on earth, among men.
But our chapter in Philippians 3 and here says we don't know him that way anymore.
We are when we say Christ is our object and we want to get to know Him as we had him in the last meeting. It's really not the His object as a man here on earth. It is Jesus Christ as he is this afternoon.
A glorified man at God's right hand. And it's that in that way that we want in an everyday sense, to get to know Him. We will never leave going back and seeing His life here on earth and what he went through and learning from it and seeing lessons to be gained from it. But the way we want to know Him in an everyday, personal fellowship sense of the Word.
Is the living man who has passed through death and is alive forevermore and further than that, he is seated at God's right hand in the glory. That's the object. That's the person which is to be the object of our souls. And consequently, in our chapter, the exhortations beginning in verse two are don't go back to the old.
Don't go back to those things which were in Judaism.
That are now not God's way for us and we are going to get into a wrong path if we try to go back and please God in the manner in which the Jew tried to please God before the Lord Jesus died and rose again. And so he says beware, you can't please God according to that man in the flesh.
And it's not just you can't please God in the evil that's in the flesh, but the whole idea of trying to please God in Adam is past.
Audience is seeking for anything in Adam's race anymore. Adams race is a race that you were born into has been condemned.
There's nothing, there's no future to Adam's race. It's been condemned. It's facing certain judgment. As it says in Adam all dies. And if you live according to the pattern of Adam's rice, even if you live on the clean side of Adam's race, the end is death. But in contrast to that, we're a new creation in Christ Jesus, and in Christ Jesus all live. And so he's telling us.
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Here and Christ is our object as a man in the glory, and don't go back to try to live the old life.
Well, I think it's help. Go back to the 56th of Isaiah to see what he says.
That connection, just go back there for a moment, at least part of the thought.
He's talking about the leaders in Israel, those that should have been having a care and a watch for the people of God. And let's see how he characterizes them. Verse 10 of the 56th of Isaiah, his Watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. They are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand.
They all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, his gain from his quarter. You know, they often talk about a dog in the Manger. That's an old expression. And a dog in the Manger is a is describes a person who wants some something for themselves in spite of whether anybody else gets what they need or or not. And so we find that the the prophet Isaiah, he describes those who should have had.
A care for the people of God as greedy dogs, only taking that position for themselves and for their own gain. And we see it when the Lord Jesus was here. We see the religious leaders in Israel and they only wanted a position for themselves. They were the ones that should have been standing for rectitude and righteousness and pointing the people to the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But not only did they not want him themselves.
But as they said, they sought to hinder those who would enter in. That's a dog in the Manger, if I can use that expression. And I suppose what he's warning them about here in in the book of Philippians is those Judaizing teachers who would rise up and they want a following for themselves or a position for themselves without desiring the blessing of the people of God. So the the apostle warned he used a little different expression. He used the the.
Uh, analogy of wolves, the wolf comes to, to get something for itself, to, to kill and to steal and and so on. And Paul said after his departure, grievous men would, uh, there would be those who would come from without, but then there would be of the own, their own cells, men arising, speaking perverse things. Why? To draw disciples after themselves. Again, those are greedy dogs. And don't we see that so often?
In Christianity.
Those who rise up and take the position or place of being leaders in spiritual things and Christianity and religious circles, and in the end they only want something for themselves. That's why Peter warned the elders in his epistle that to take the oversight was not to get some position or something for themselves, but for the good and blessing of the people of God. So a dog only has its own interests at heart.
But we're to be aware of those who come along, put on a good front, but they only have their own interests at heart. Maybe you have another thought too, Bob. I just noticed that, uh, in Galatians it speaks of, Paul says, uh, those that bite and devour one another. And we can get that way if we're not careful. We can't wait. I mean, you and I might have some differences, Jim, but I don't think I'm gonna bite you about it. That's not.
The Christian way to do it is it.
But sometimes we get into that. We need to be do be aware of that.
Pray in the shame of another.
Sometimes you see, while I remember a dog we had on a farm and she had a litter of pups and they got nearly her size and they would romp and play and.
Tease back and forth, but it always ended with the mother's jaw wide open on the pup's neck on the ground. It was kind of interesting to see, but if you look at Second Corinthians.
Chapter.
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11.
There were those who.
The question Paul's apostleship, but the one thing he says there.
Verse 18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a man bring you into ******* if a man devour you, if a man taketh you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
It's pretty serious, isn't it? Pretty heavy language, but here was really their spiritual father that had LED them to Christ and this thing of someone that.
Comes into.
You might say another man's territory where he's labored for Christ and seeks to exalt himself as a leader and bring them under *******. It's really quite a serious thing.
Beware of the dogs. Beware of evil workers.
Beware of the concision, you know, the idea of bringing under law and maybe shaming the Gentiles because they were Gentiles. We could see how easily Peter came under the influence of those that came down from Jerusalem. But it wasn't of God, wasn't Paul had to withstand that.
We also have the first two they set in contrast to verse 3.
And I think it's important to see that contrast to get a sense of verse 2. Verse three says we are the circumcision.
The world was a filthy place.
And God set apart a people for himself.
He sanctified them. He set them apart. The Jewish people, when they were established through Abraham, were done so by separating them from the nations which lived filthy lives.
Ungodly lives. And so God set apart a people for himself, and in part of that act of separation, they were circumcised.
And recognition of that place in which they had been set apart, and in the denial of the working of flesh.
They were put in a clean place.
But.
Man in the flesh, even if physically separated, even if given a law which was wholly and just and good, it didn't change the nature of man.
As, using the example that's often been made, you can, uh, take a pig out of the.
Mud and you can clean it up all you want, but if you let it go to have the its own nature, it loves the mud and it'll go back to it because that's what it loves. In other words, you don't change its heart by cleaning it up. And God separated a people to himself, a circumcised people that were in a clean place, but it didn't change the heart. He gave them a perfect law.
But the law only exposed what was in their hearts. They didn't change the heart, even though it was holy and just and good.
It needed what we had in 2nd Corinthians 5 to take place, That man, to be truly morally circumcised, morally separated from the filth, was to be a new creature in Christ Jesus with a new life and a new nature. And so he was separated to God not only externally, but internally, which was more important even than the external.
And in fact, God didn't separate Christians physically, as he separated the Jew from everything around them.
And so in chapter verse three, we are the circumcision, that is, we who have embraced Christianity and the change that has taken place.
In it, but the danger that they are being warned of here is to go back and try to please God in the old way. It's not. And so he says you be aware of that.
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The dog's a filthy creature and you're not going to set up a set of religious activity like the Jew had. And that was the particular.
Danger for them that they would introduce, as Christianity has done, a whole kind of set of religious activities which are intended to help men draw near to God, but in fact they only hold man without a conscience being involved in the presence of a holy God.
And so you can go through a set of activities, religious activities that might make you feel good because they you can keep even though it doesn't change the heart, but they're outward things very often rituals that man can keep that makes them sort of feel good. And he's saying here you be aware of that. Don't go back to a kind of a modified Jewish.
Take your Christianity back to a kind of a modified Judaism. Uh, that's like the concision and imitation of circumcision, but not true circumcision of the heart and.
You be aware of it. The only life we have to live that is holy, and the only constraint on that life, the old man is in 2nd Corinthians 5. I'll go back there one more time. It says the love of Christ constraineth us.
It does not constrain the flesh. It does not constrain the atom life. The life of Christ does not constrain it. And that's important to recognize. If we live it, we will not be constrained by the love of Christ. But the new man, the new life in Christ is constrained by that love. It can't be otherwise. And that's the life to be lived, but to go back.
By the things that are mentioned in verse two is to go back to things to try to constrain it or gratify it or take pride demand and some of the examples given of the leaders was you go back there and man well I'll automatically go back to what he's governed by his gain his pride, his self-interest even in preaching and religious things. He's he's controlled by that.
If he tries to appeal to man in the flesh.
It's helpful to realize, too, that the Gentile was never under the law or the Jewish order of worship. That's why when the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, he marveled that they were putting themselves under something that was never intended for them in the beginning. Because as Dawn said in the Old Testament, there was a people that the Jewish people, and they were set apart and they were given the law and the Jewish order of things.
But it was not for the, for the Gentile. And that's why in the early church, when Peter, uh, went down to take care of the matter of the Judaizing teachers who were seeking to make Jews out of the Gentiles, he said it was something that neither we nor our fathers were able to keep. Now he said, do you want to put the Gentiles under that *******? We couldn't keep it as a people. The Jew was, if I can put it this way, a specimen of humanity placed in the best of circumstances.
To show what all humanity really was, let me say that again. It was a specimen of humanity.
Put in the best of circumstances to show what all humanity was.
And so Peter says neither we nor our fathers were able to keep it, but that again I say the the Jew, the Galatian brethren, we sometimes say they were going back under the law. Well, that's not quite accurate.
They were putting themselves under something that they'd never been under to begin with.
Christian Jews who were saved in the early days of Christianity and were going back to the old order of things. They were going back to something that had been for them in the beginning. And that's why you have a little contrast with Galatians and Hebrews. In Galatians he comes down pretty hard on them. He takes up the matter and calls them foolish and.
He's very concise and very abrupt with them when he writes to the Hebrew believers.
He's a little more patient with them. He goes takes 13 long chapters to go over every segment of the old order of things and to explain that now they have something better in Christianity. That those were types and shadows, foreshadows of what they now had in Christ, that which was better 13 times. He uses that. So again, I think it's important to understand.
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That the Gentile was never under the Jewish order of things.
And so to put ourselves under that which was never intended for us is very, very serious. And it brings us into a place of ******* that I say is not, is not Christian liberty. We have liberty in Christ now in Christianity. And as he says here in these verses, we now worship God in spirit. I wanna just take a moment and go back to what Don said and add to it a comment earlier about what characterizes Christianity.
Because there are two great things that set Christianity apart. One is a risen, glorified head at the right hand of God, as Dawn has pointed out. You know, I remember the Bible conference just like this. Someone raised the question, what is Christianity? And someone said, well, Christianity can be summed up in one word, Christ. But that needs explanation because as Dawn said, it's not Christ the way the disciples knew him when he walked here in this world.
It's not Christ the way his earthly people will yet know Him in a coming day, when a shout of a king is amongst them, and so on. No, it's Christ that's true, but it's Christ in glory. But there's something else that could that is unique to Christianity, and that is we are linked. We are connected to a glorified Christ by the Spirit of God. Something, brethren, that never was true before the day of Pentecost.
So on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came down to unite those believers, those about 120 believers who were gathered together in the upper room in obedience to the Word of the Lord. It united them together, formed the Church of God, came to indwell them individually as well, but also came to link them with the man in the glory. And so we have the Spirit of God now, something they didn't have under the old order of things.
And so there's not only the new life, we not only now are the possessors of eternal life, not only do we have our head in glory and link to Him, but now we have the power to live for God's glory. It's the power of the Spirit. The new man has no power of itself. The new man is the power, the the Spirit of God is the power for the new man. And so in the Old Testament it showed they had no power.
In under the in in the flesh to live up to God's standard. Man failed utterly. But now we have everything we need in a glorified Christ and in the power of the Spirit to live for God's glory here in this world.
Just like to mention.
Verse 2.
Circumcision verse three. Decision means cut.
Concision means to cut at.
Circumcision means to cut off, and I think that helps to understand what Judaism is, is cutting at the flesh. It was meant to control man in the flesh. The Christianity, we start with man in the flesh being cut off completely. It's all the way around. That's what circum means, cut off. And so then it goes on what you mentioned, Jim.
Uh, we wor which worship God.
In the spirit or worshipped by the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. There it is. The flesh is cut off. How are we going to have any cut, any, uh, confidence in it if it's completely cut off? That's been a help to me to see concision is cutting at the flesh. It recognizes that the flesh still something to be controlled.
But circumcision is the flesh completely cut off and no more confidence in it at all. Quick question. Verse two speaks of dogs, evil workers and the concision is that three things describing one group of people or.
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Something else?
Or three different groups of people or.
I think it's three different ways in which we can try to go on before God in flesh.
It's not so much groups of people, all the groups of people do it and may lead us astray or we may lead ourselves and other people astray by trying to do it, but it's the generally speaking, it's the effort of man to continue before God.
On the old ground and it's a bad teaching. So he says beware of evil workers. Anybody that tries to teach you to do that, reject it. It's only going to harm your Christian life because that's not the way of the new man and the old man will never submit himself to God. He's got he's before God been proven to be.
Unfixable.
And as has been said, the flesh in US never changes even after we're a believer. It stays the same as long as we've got it in US. And so he's saying beware not to try to go back and introduce any kind of principle of life or manner of seeking to come before God that was.
On the principle that was OK in Judaism.
But Judaism showed it was a teacher that God used. It was a method God used to teach us the true hopeless condition of flesh before God.
I'd like to refer in this connection of what's before us to, uh, one more verse in the book of Romans, chapter 8.
I think it's connected with our chapter and I think it's connected with what was brought out in the last meeting.
And it's already remarks been made in this meeting about it.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 2.
For the law, or it'll help if the thought here is the principle, it's not the law of Moses, but the principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Hath set me free from the law, or the principle of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, that is, the law of Moses could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in US who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The important words that I want to emphasize here that Jim already commented on.
Is the Spirit.
The eternal life that God has given to us is a perfect life, and it never once wants to sin has no desire to do anything but to please God.
But that life in itself is not the power of the Christian life. And the Lord Jesus lived the perfect life according to verse two of chapter 8, and we are being taught to live on the same pattern of life, and that is the lower principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that life.
The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus it is.
A life lived, a new life lived according to the will, direction and power of the Spirit of God. That was the life of the Lord Jesus. And I'll remark something that helped me to see it a little bit as this, ah, I got now the power of the Christian life. I got the Spirit.
00:40:19
But we often get frustrated in that direction. In this way. We think the spirit's gonna work for us. Like I get a real powerful car and I get behind the steering wheel of a real powerful car, and I say, boy, I've got power. And I try to control. I do control that car by my own control.
And consequently, I can go real fast and I can do this and I can do the other, and I'm in control. The spirit of life in Christ Jesus doesn't work that way. You and I don't control the Spirit of God. We don't sit in the steering wheel of our Christian life and say, OK, Spirit, I'm going to do this and that and you're going to be my power. It doesn't work that way. And consequently, we're not.
Told to taught to focus on trying to run the Christian life by directing the power of the Spirit of God. Only God by His Spirit can direct our life.
And He directs it by teaching us to be obedient to His will, and gives us the power to fulfill that which He teaches us to do. But He doesn't put us in control if we try to live the Christian life as it should be lived in the power of the Spirit, as if we ran.
The matter We're doomed to frustration, and constantly.
Not being able to walk as we should.
Ways that man tries to run the show on his on his own and what happens to him the dogs that's The Dirty, unclean, greedy side the evil workers their intelligence and so on and then the concession those that SE pretend to get victory and in their own strength and they think they're they're walking wholly and good and.
And they often end up in disaster.
And we often see that in the.
Gospels with the Pharisees and scribes, don't we in the Sadducees.
They tried to control things in a natural way and what happened, there was a division amongst the Jews, there was a division amongst the Pharisees and that's the concision, isn't it? It's that mutilation. It's there was the one division after another and they were divided on different issues concerning the Lord Jesus and so on. But it was really the result of trying to control things that by the natural man and by the by the law and by rules and regulations.
But when we're LED of the Spirit, brethren, there's unity. You know, if you were taught of the Spirit on everything at all times, and I was taught of the Spirit on all of all on all things at all times, we'd be in perfect unity and harmony, practically speaking, because that's what what the Spirit of God does. But if you'll allow me, I'd like to go back to the illustration of the car for a moment, because I think it's very helpful. You know, you might have in your.
In the parking lot out here, the best engine in your vehicle that money can buy the best engine that Mercedes or the top uh, car dealers can put in your, in your vehicle and you go out after these meetings and you turn the key and there's no power.
What do you need? You need an unseen commodity in that vehicle. You need gasoline. There's something that gives that car vehicle spark. You say, well, I, I've got the best engine money can buy, but there's got to be gasoline put in that engine if you're going to have power. And so the Spirit of God is the power for the divine life. As John said, it's a perfect life. It's the very life of Christ, but the power for that life.
Is the Spirit of God. But then to go on with Dawn's illustration, it's not just to have power to go where we please. And so we're gonna suppose for the sake of illustration, you have a certain destination in mind. And so you're gonna go home tonight and you don't know the way, and it's a dark night. What do you do? Well, you turn the GPS on, and that GPS is going to guide you.
00:45:27
You know, we're told to be led by the spirit and that GPS is going to guide you if you are willing to avail yourself of the power and to follow the instructions on your GPS screen. But what happens if you don't? I was coming out of Gasport, New York some weeks ago, some months ago, and I know the area very well. I go down to Buffalo to do some shipping on and on a regular basis.
And I was coming out of the full wells home and I thought, well, just for interest take I'll turn the GPS on. Don't really need it, but I'll turn it on. Well, as most of you know who know me best, I'm directionally challenged and I got to AT in the road and the GPS told me to turn a certain direction. I was convinced it was wrong and I turned the other direction. And what did that GPS do? It kept telling me to turn around at the nearest possible opportunity and it told me for 10 miles.
For 10 miles and finally I realised the GPS is right. I'm the one that's wrong and.
But yes, indeed. But, but I finally had to turn around and I lost about 40 minutes of time getting home. I was headed home and all I wanted to do was get home. And brethren, we're headed home too. We're headed home to heaven. But we're gonna get frustrated if we're not led by the Spirit of God in accordance to the Word of God. And what happens? We get frustrated. We get off the the track. We're not walking in the spirit. We're not led by the Spirit.
It's just gonna frustrate us, as Dawn said, it's gonna cause us all kinds of problems and difficulties. Did I get home safe? Yes. I finally listened and I followed the directions that were given to me. So I just say that perhaps that helps us to understand what we're talking about. Brethren, we have everything we need. We have divine life, perfect life. We have the Spirit of God as the power for that life. We have the word of God as our direction.
But let's not take matters into our own hands. You know, how often do we hear those words recalculating? You know, we often have to recalculate in our Christian life. We have to turn around sometimes. I heard of a couple who went to Europe and they rented a car. When they came back, the sister did a scrapbook with photos and account of their trip. She named the trip recalculating. I thought that was pretty appropriate. And maybe sometimes our Christian life we have to put over recalculating.
But, brethren, if we would take heed to these exhortations, we wouldn't have to recalculate as much as we sometimes do.
This word, confidence in the flesh, is repeated twice. That's built into us, brethren, and I have to recognize it in my own life. But like you say, it's the Spirit of God that should be the guide now and to be sensitive, brethren, as to His presence with us.
Living within us, He's there to guide us. And if there was anybody that had confidence, reason to have confidence in the flesh, it was the apostle Paul. He lived an exemplar light in Judaism and he lists it out here. Circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching. The law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church touching.
He was blameless. Oh, brother. And that was quite, a, quite a list to glory in, to have confidence in. And and that's built into us and people in our American way of life, we say have confidence in yourself. You've got it in you.
That is not Christianity.
So he says that in verse seven. What things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ. What a change, what a switch.
00:50:14
Bible. Well, maybe more than two, but I umm, in one in the Old Testament and one in the New. In the Old Testament, it's King Saul.
And in the New Testament, it's Saul who here we know is the apostle Paul, and both men are examples to us as to how far the flesh can go.
There are two prime examples in the whole of the Word of God as to the extent to which man in the flesh can go in a way that fellow men may admire.
This.
Man saw that describes his confidence here in the flesh by his fellow religious men was considered tremendous, fantastic. Wish we had more such zeal of young men as this man. That's man's view of them.
Saul stood head and shoulders above others. Saul was a man. If you read his life, he had a lot of.
Natural courage. He went into war as he went into war with a lot of courage and so on. But.
In Saul's case, we see what he did or what his against David, but you have to remember David, there is a picture of Christ and that man. Saul's enmity was enmity against what represented the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul, who in this way I'm speaking with Saul, he his enmity ultimately was against the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's the ultimate of how far man can go.
And the farther he goes, the more he is against what is of God.
And Paul rightly calls himself the chief of sinners. We would never have said that about him.
Even the fact that he was putting people to death, but if you stop and say who was he putting to death? He was putting to death those people that were identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the exposure to us of what man in the flesh really is.
So that we as believers don't try to introduce that manner of life even a little bit.
Into our Christian lives, recognizing that.
God says you do that and you're going to end up on a course of conflict with me and my son. And so Paul is saying all these things that we would to how many people in this room?
Would dare to stand up here and say I stand with the saw in that there wasn't one outward thing in the law that I could be condemned by.
Never lied have you or have you you ever cheated? You ever stolen?
Have you ever been a false witness in some matter? Paul could say, no, I haven't. He he went as far as the flesh could possibly go and what we would think was a positive way. And yet God says, I'm going to take the chief of sinners and show my grace in that life. Because the farther you go down that road of self, the more you will stand in enmity to God, that is.
In conflict with what God is. But in the Matriman will never say that you know you. You'll never look at it that way unless you have a life of Christ and can see it as God sees it and recognize that.
Man in the flesh has no place before God. And then as Paul did say, I looked at all that and I say that doesn't get me anywhere. It's worthless in my relationship to to God. So I treat it as loss, waste. I wasted my life up through all that point. It was worth nothing. And now I have something that's worth something.
So it wasn't hard for him to give up those things that he once counted dear and so on. You say why, because he found something better. He found Christ. You know, I was thinking of another young man in Scripture in in Mark 10. And he came to the Lord as well and he had reverence and so on. And the Lord quoted to him the man word part of the law. And after hearing it, the young man said all this have I kept from my youth up. And I don't think that was just an idle boast. I think if you had gone to his neighborhood, talk to his family.
00:55:37
Talked to his coworkers, they would have told you he was a good neighbor, a good husband, a good father. He was a good worker, always held up his part of the team at work, never cheated on his timesheet. I think outwardly things were impeccable as far as the men were part of the law. But the Lord said to him, one thing thou lockest, He locked the thing that he needed most. He needed Christ and salvation. And you know he never got it as far as we read.
He went away sad because he had great riches. He had things he counted dearer than coming to know the person of Christ. But when Paul was brought in contact with the person of Christ.
He found by a work of grace and the Spirit of God, he found something that was far, far greater.
Then all those things that he once counted dear. So we sometimes use the illustration when our children are little.
If they have something in their hand or they're playing with something that we feel is dangerous or we want them to give up, what do we do? Why we offer them something better. If a child is holding a sharp knife, you can try to pry that knife out of their hand and you may cut them and cut you. But if you offer them an ice cream cone or a candy, what are they gonna do? Why? They're gonna drop the knife and they're gonna take the ice cream cone or the candy because they recognize there's something better, something sweeter than hanging on to that which is going to hurt them, even though they may not realize that the knife is going to hurt them. And that's the way it is in Christianity. And I like to just make a practical comment in that regard for all of us, brethren, you know, the more.
We taste of the sweetness of the person of Christ, the more we too are going to be able to set aside without any regret or any difficulty to set aside those things that are not of Christ, those things that are of the world, those things that are a detriment to us in following the Lord Jesus in our Christian pathway. Why is it?
Sometimes those things seem so good and we want to hold on to them because we haven't in our own souls enjoyed more of the sweetness of Christ. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And I say, the more we have the sweetness of Christ and what He's done for us and where He is now and what's ahead, the more that is a reality in our souls, the more we're going to not have place in our hearts.
For that which is not according to his mind, you fill a glass with water to the brim. There's no room for anything else.
Fill a cup of wheat of wheat to the brim. There's no room for the chaff, and that's the way I believe it is with us.
You mentioned confidence, the idea of confidence. You know, the world does push for that and that, that we have confidence and build confidence up to do it. And you, you know, in order to accomplish things, uh, whatever skill you might have in a job, uh, it's hard to do it right if you don't have some kind of confidence, uh, in the ability to do so. And you can see people who, who lack confidence, who are unsteady and approaching whatever task that they are and they, they don't accomplish very much. But I thought about it in this way when you become a Christian.
You can have Christ confidence and I use it like this. My wife has a tremendous ability and talent as an artist, but she recognizes that it, it was God who gave her the gift and that through hard work, she has developed her talent, but it still comes from God And the, the success she's had with it, she recognizes still comes from God that he has helped her along the way. So you can have a skill or develop a talent, uh, that has to do with your job or your career.
And you can say, if you recognize it, that God is behind that and has given you that and it has helped you along the way to develop it, you have a confidence that's based in Christ. And the interesting thing about that is, is that is unshakable.
01:00:09
Men can and a challenge to some ability. You have your job or whatever, you can have something happen that may have you question your confidence and men can take that away or affect it. But it's hard to affect the confidence we have.
If we recognize whatever talent ability that we have is being rooted and grounded in the fact that the Lord Jesus gave it to us, has helped us with it, has developed, then we can approach a task and say, I trust the Lord to help me to do this. Yes, I've gone to school. I've developed a home disability, but even that the Lord helped me with. That's a kind of confidence that a Christian can have. It's based in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I noticed here in Acts 9 where the Lord appeared to Saul on the way to Damascus. That says he saw light, but it's interesting what Ananias says to him in verse 17. Ananias went his way, This is Acts 917 and entered into the house.
And putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way, What was it that caused such a remarkable conversion in this man? It was saying, the Lord Jesus, He appeared to him in the way. And really that is what does it, brethren.
It is replacement of that self-confidence with confidence in the Lord. Everything changed, all those things that were gained to him, he says now they're lost, not only lost in verse 7, but in verse eight he says they're done. Get them out of here. You don't keep that in the around in the house and some special place.
You get it out. And so, brother, those things don't have any place now in the Christian life.
Wonderful conversion of this man.
There were two things that the apostle Paul then had before him in connection with the Lord Jesus.
That he came to know as his Savior on the Damascus Rd. One is in verse eight and then not to skip over, but the other is in verse 10. I just want to point out a little difference here, a little progression because in verse eight he speaks of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Then notice in verse 10, he says that I may know not about him, but I may know him. Now both are important brethren, but you know, it's one thing to know a lot about a person.
It's another thing to know that person personally. I'll repeat an illustration I've often used, but growing up in Canada, we learned a great deal about the British royal family. And to this very day I'm interested, as many of my fellow Canadians are, in information concerning the British royal family. And when there's a new Prince or Princess born, we read up about it and we're interested and we could, I could probably to this very day tell you many things about.
Queen Elizabeth and her family. But I don't know Queen Elizabeth personally. I know a lot about her, but let's suppose it'll never happen. But let's suppose, for the sake of illustration, that I get an invitation in the mail and everything is provided to fly to London. A limousine will meet me and usher me through the gates of Buckingham Palace to spend a month with the Queen of England. And so for one month, we sit down to tea together.
We walk in the royal garden, we commune together. When I leave Buckingham Palace now, I don't just know about the Queen of England. I could honestly say I know the Queen of England personally. I know things concerning the Queen of England that nobody else knows. I have a sense of her personality that you don't get from reading about her on the pages of the British press.
And so, brethren, it's wonderful. And Paul had a desire to have a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he hadn't even far greater desire, and that was to know him. Just go back to a book, a verse that was read to us, I believe in the prayer meeting at the beginning of the conference in the book of Hosea that perhaps sums this up in a very wonderful way.
01:05:25
Back in the book of Hosea, I think it's the 6th chapter.
Yes, Hosea, chapter 6, I believe this verse was read to us at the beginning of these meetings. But verse three, and I know this is in connection with the revival of God's earthly people, the Jews in the coming day, but I think we can apply it to ourselves. Then shall we know? Verse 3, then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord? Again, it's one thing to know about the Lord, and if you're gonna know about the Lord, you've gotta read His word.
How are we going to know about his person? It's the Bible, it's all Christ.
How are we going to follow on to know the Lord personally? We've got to walk in his company.
You'll never know the Lord personally. You'll never be able to say that I may know Him.
If you don't walk in his company. I knew something about my wife before I married her. But after 30 years I know my wife because we've lived in company with one another for all those years. Brethren, there's nothing we ought to desire more than not just to know about him, but to know him. This summed up Paul's whole life. That I may know him. You say, didn't he get to know him on the Damascus Rd. Yes, he did. But his whole, the whole desire.
Of his life was to get to know him in a better acquaintance.
That's interesting and.
Sale, they teach you to if you're going to meet an executive or some important person to do a little research 1St and get to know about them. It makes the getting to know them easier when you finally get there. If you know the man that coaches Little League and he's involved with these children and activities and this and that club or this and that thing, it makes getting to know this person in in your area of the sales meeting or whatever.
Uh, to know about them first, you get to know them, uh, quicker, better. It gives you an egress in to know, getting to know them when you finally meet them and it makes the whole meeting go better and you get a lot further by doing that. So it's interesting that it puts it that way. We can know what we know about him and then we get to know him, but our journey and getting to know about him and getting to know him is ongoing.
It's the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Notice this little word, brethren, in verse eight. My Lord, you know when Saul of Tarsus was saved on the Damascus Rd. He said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He didn't say Jesus. He didn't say Christ. Not interesting that immediately he recognizes him as Lord. And here he says, my Lord, and I know we spoke of this yesterday in connection.
With the will of God. But can we say My Lord? It's one thing to say Jesus Christ is Lord and He is Lord, but is he my Lord? Is he your Lord? Can you say that you desire to know more about my Lord? Brethren, that's going to make the difference, as we said yesterday.
He talks about counting in the past tense.
So we had a set of verses of what Paul could take pleasure in in his own life and how far he advanced in his zeal for God. Mistaken zeal, but zeal. And so he comes to that Damascus Rd. experience and at that point he might say verse seven comes along and he says I counted.
He looks back at all those things that his life had been up to that point and he said I counted that as lost for Christ, and he enters into his Christian life.
But when you get to verse eight, it's the present tense I count.
So just think about it a moment.
You might have had a little conversation with Paul now and it's up to this point in his present tense. And you say, uh, how things been with you lately. Paul haven't seen you for a while. And he says, well, last four years I've spent in prison and I'm waiting now to see whether, umm, Caesar takes my life or not.
01:10:12
Oh, sorry, brother, that's awful sad. I, I'll, I'll pray for you. Uh, you, you've got some problems in your life now. How, how do you, uh, is the Lord abandoned you or what's, what's the problem in your, your life that you've spent the last four years in prison and you were honoring the Lord Jesus and being a great evangelist and a teacher of God's people and so on. Well, he says what?
No, I count all things.
Didn't change the tiniest bit. In fact, I believe, brethren, it reinforced those years that he was going through of what we would call severe persecution for the name of Christ were reinforcing in Paul what he had. He probably could have said it this way all the last four years. I've got to know the Lord a lot better.
You know, I, I understand better now some of the things that the Lord Jesus went through because I've been going through in a tiny little way, some things of suffering for his namesake. And I know how he suffered. And he goes on farther in a verse or two and he says, you know, if getting to know him better by shared experience, I would die and experience resurrection, I'd be happy to do that too.
So it was not very many people would look forward to death in the sense of a shared experience of what the Lord Jesus went through so that he too could know the Lord Jesus better as one who went through resurrection, physical resurrection, as the Lord did. So he says, umm.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection in verse 11, by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. That is, if that helps me to know Him better, that's good. And I will say, brethren, I believe that very many of the difficult experiences of life that we may go through are those experiences that we will look back on and say it enabled me to know the Lord Jesus.
Better. And in that way, we'll say it was worth it.
100% And when we look back and and get to have said now we know even as we are known.
That word has the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. My Lord, brethren, Christianity, I should say eternal life is just that. John 17 verse three says it so wonderfully. This is life eternal that they might know the the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast said not an amazingly wonderful thing, you and I can say we know the true God, the Muslim people of this world. The Muslim doctrine says God is unknown.
And unknowable.
And you tell me you know God.
We know him because we have come to know the Lord Jesus, and so he calls it the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That's what Christianity is, to get to know Him more and more.
And that I might win Christ. Interesting expression, isn't it? We so often mention how the Apostle Paul speaks of the Christian life as a race or an athletic event. People are out to win different things in this world. We're gearing up for an election next month in Canada and politicians are flooding the media trying to win votes. That's what a politician wants to win. He wants to win votes.
And a runner goes out and he's seeking to win the race and people are out to win. People are out to win popularity contests. As they, as they say, Paul was once trying to win a popularity contest too. He wanted to be great in this world and in the, under the Jewish order of things. And he was climbing up in, uh, as far as the, as the man, as man would this world would be concerned. That's what he was out to win, But he gave it all up. Why? Because he had a better prize.
01:15:24
He had a better goal. He had Christ and glory, and when he got a vision of that, like Bob said, when he got a vision.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ by that eclipsed everything else. Now there were and he's going to speak of it later on in the chapter pressing towards the mark the prize. The prize is Christ and that I say eclipsed everything else. Why would he want the things of this world. You know when Paul speaks spoke of departing to be with Christ and what was ahead. You know that's more than if anybody else had written about it. Why he'd been caught up there.
He knew what was ahead. He'd seen Christ as the glorified man. He'd been in paradise, he'd been in the 3rd heaven. He knew what the goal, he knew what the prize was. And so it eclipsed everything else that man would ever set his heart on, whether it was religious fame. And that's really what he's talking. It's really what it's talking about. It's religious fame. Uh, re re religious recognition in this world meant nothing to him. He had no, he didn't have religion now he had Christ.
But it can apply to anything we set our hearts on. What are we trying to win? You know, a young man tries to win a young lady's affection. Nothing wrong with that, certainly proper in its place. But overall, brethren, are we seeking to like Paul to win Christ?
Few things will.
Give up a lot for something they value.
There are people that spend years and years of self denial.
For 10 seconds on a track to be the fastest person in the world if they can, and the honor that will come if they are successful. But they deny themselves many, many things for the sake of what they're going to gain by it. And there is, if we can use this way, a price to be paid to gain Christ. It's not free.
In that sense. And so the apostle Paul evaluated what he was gaining and what it was costing him and what he suffered the loss of.
To mention a few moments ago he lost his freedom, spent four years in in prison at this point, and that's what it was costing him to have Christ for his gain. And he said I've evaluated it on the scales of value and he said I don't even treat what I'm losing as worth anything. I treated as dumb, as something worthless, useless, but nonetheless.
Umm.
Uh, just in a tiny practical way. I'm gonna use one, just one example of of of the principle of it.
And whatever it cost.
Are we willing to give a little time every day to the Lord Jesus to be in His presence alone, speaking to Him and listening to Him in His Word?
Is gaining him worth that much to us? We haven't suffered a lot. Nobody in this room suffered in the loss of all things to the same measure, the apostle Paul. But but even in a tiny little thing by comparison, are we willing?
To gain Christ, even though it involves time in His presence each day, these are the things that we need to be.
Faithful in or can I say value?
Versus Boy I there's the the world to rob us of that I forget like people that own cell phone, 60% of them.
Look at their cell phone before they ever get out of bed.
There always seems to be a moment for this or that or the other, which may be OK in its place, but we have to evaluate sometimes those things that.
To gain one thing, you're gonna have to give up another. You have only so many waking hours in the day, and they're gonna be spent one way or another. Does gaining Christ have a value or an importance in the evaluation of the choices which ultimately are going to mean?
01:20:18
Giving up something else in place of that which you're seeking to gain. And we may never go to where none of us were the Apostle Paul went, but he's an example to us of somebody that was willing to sacrifice, if you will, everything that didn't contribute to gaining Christ.
Was mentioned before about the judgment seat of Christ, uh, the reward that is waiting. You know, some of us were talking and uh, uh, we're talking about how we know the end of the story. We win, we know how it all ends. We know so much about it. If we'll, we're finding out things, uh, at meetings like this, I and, and we know what's there and what is to gain. I mean, we, we have the story, it all laid out before us. I remember, uh, in the Old West, there was a man who was put in prison wrongly.
And he had a ball and chain put on his ankles and he had no foreknowledge that he might get out someday. He was sentenced for life, but he did, it was discovered he was wrongly sentenced and he was relieved. And the governor that granted his pardon and said new evidence has come forth, said that for the years of trouble that you had, we're going to give you, uh, weight in gold equal to the ball that was around your ankles. When he discovered that he wished it had been bigger. But while he had it and going through it, he, he suffered with it and hated that thing.
But if he'd had foreknowledge that he was going to get out, maybe he would have said, well, this fall isn't too much of a deal. And looking back now, he wished it was bigger. Well, we get to look in. We see. And if we'll just look, we know what's coming.
And is it worth it? We've been given a peak. We didn't get a peak like Paul did, but we have his record and we have others that, uh, you know, we have foresight and insight that, uh, uh, you know, we wouldn't have otherwise. We have such a privilege with having this book in our hands. So no one will be disappointed, will they, if we give up anything for Christ here when we talk to Paul in the coming day and say, well, Paul, are you disappointed that you gave up worldly advantage and all that was at your feet, at your feet.
Oh, he'll say, not for one moment. And none of us, whatever we give, feel like we give up here. Why, when we stand there, we'll wish we'd given up more. Whether it was time or resources or whatever it was. There'll be no disappointments. An athlete may get a reward here. It may last for a little time and a little splash of glory, and he's forgotten. But we're strive. We're living rather not for a corruptible crown, but as Paul said in Corinthians, an incorruptible crown.
And it's that which will never fade away.
Which would divide my heart with ease.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening.
Let's say #14 on our hymn sheet.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Have you?
Always in the world.
In the world.
What are you like? You ain't love. You're in love here in the world for anything. Love all of our lives, all your life, all your life as far as 200 and 3500 and 8500 and 12:41.
So I'm not gonna give one.
But when the bridegroom comes with your flaws being wine, you're a boy against the world.
Whoever's hopping, ready for the man turns right. Everyone's in the fall of the world.
I'd like to turn to Romans chapter one.
In John 17, the Lord Jesus said.
Thy word is truth.
When he uses that word truth in that way, he's speaking about something absolute in value. And I just like to reaffirm that at the beginning of this meeting, what we say is not up for debate. I might mistake what I have to say, but God's word is final. It is absolute what I find the increasingly today.
In our world is that people think they have the rights to their own religion.
I just want to say that in the end, what is going to evaluate everything is God's Word. It is the truth, absolutely.
So that's important to think about as we read God's Word.
Chapter one of Romans, verse 16.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1St, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written. The just shall live by faith.
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For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.
And unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them.
For God hath showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.
Being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful, but became vain.
In their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
And change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.
And a birds and four footed beasts and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to.
Uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this 'cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use.
Into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men.
Leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust, one toward another.
Men with men working what is unseemly?
And receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That word reprobate means, void of judgment, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness.
Fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God despite full proud bolsters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, Covenantbreakers without natural affection.
Implacable, unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God.
That they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure.
And then that do them.
Oh, what a picture we have here in this chapter of the natural condition of my heart, Your heart without God. This is the picture that Scripture paints, Chapter 3.
Verse 10 As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way. They're together, becoming unprofitable. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of ASP is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.
And the way of peace, have they not known there is No Fear of God before their eyes?
Now we know that what things that so over the law says, it says to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped in all the world, may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For the by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
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Being witnessed by the law and the prophets this wonderful, there is a change, but now there is a way to be righteous with God. I think we've read enough to show that our natural condition is without hope before God. I'm not talking about anybody out here in the audience. I'm talking about myself. Naturally speaking, this is the condition of the human race.
And so I dress you in this way because it is true of all.
There are no exceptions. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. You know, you and I may form our judgments of different people around. And sometimes you have a neighbor that might be a pretty good person, relatively speaking. Relatively speaking.
But as much as you might be a good person, relatively speaking, still there are things that you have done in your life that God is going to hold you accountable for.
God's standard of justice is complete perfection. Is there anybody?
That wants to stand up and say I'm completely perfect. I've never heard in anything in my life. I'm sure there's no one that's gonna do that. We're all guilty before God. That's important. If you're going to appreciate the salvation that God has, you're gonna have to understand that a man that is drowning, if he doesn't know he's drowning.
Will not grasp the lifesaver. He has to know it. And so you and I, it's important that we understand that sin is a very serious thing with God. We make jokes of it. Sometimes people laugh about it. They have programs that promote sin.
It's serious with God because sin destroys people.
Sometimes I speaking to the men at the prison in Lawrence County, I say Adam lived 930 years old. Have you ever known anybody that's gotten close to that? Of course, nobody has.
Sometimes, you know, somebody that's gotten up to 100 heard about somebody the other day that died about I think it was 124 years old.
Pretty impressive, but whatever happened between Adam and that person, why is it so reduced?
Sin Rex people, it wrecks your life. It takes away your health. It wrecks families, it wrecks nations. That's why God takes it seriously. And you and I have to take it seriously too, because even though you may not have done anything dramatically wrong, you still are guilty before God.
Of.
Line of deceit, of anger, Things in your life that you know are wrong before God.
And God takes every single sin seriously.
Every single sin that has ever been committed by man, woman and child.
Will receive from the hand of God is just judgment.
God is righteous. He cannot Passover sin. If he would Passover 1 little sin, it would call in question his holy character. Absolutely impossible. Won't happen. Don't ever think so.
But now there is a way to be righteous.
How in the world, if we've all sinned so grievously, can we be righteous? Let's read this again, verse 21. Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
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Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness.
For the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare.
I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
So here it tells us how God can at the same time be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
And it's through what it speaks about in verse 24, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let me.
Tell you about that redemption.
God.
Standard of justice is perfect.
Cannot allow anything less or it would wreck heaven forever. Absolutely impossible that God could allow it.
So God sent his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world born of a virgin.
Since he didn't have a human father, he was without sin.
When he was to be born, the Angel that announced it to his mother to be the Virgin Mary said That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. The Lord Jesus was born holy. You and I are born sinners. We've inherited a sin nature from our parents all the way from Adam down.
There are no exceptions to that except the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born not of a seed of the man, but of the seed of the woman. Interesting.
And the Lord Jesus in all his life here manifested His Holiness in every side, not only His Holiness, but his compassion. Because God is not only light, God is love, and he loves his creation. God is love, and he loves you because he is love. And so the Lord Jesus manifested his love in coming into this world.
He cured the sick. You would think people would want somebody. He could go to a hospital and completely empty all the sick folk out. Wouldn't she kind of like somebody like that? They didn't want him. He fed the hungry. There's so many hungry people in this world, and you hear about places in this world where they don't have very much to eat.
Hear about those over in Malawi that eat one meal maybe every two days or every three days.
They just don't have any enough food. Wouldn't you like somebody like that?
You know, it was the religious people that joined together to ask Pilot to have him condemned to death by crucifixion, the most awful death they could possibly give to anyone. So the Lord Jesus, even though Pilate recognized that they were doing it for envy.
And he objected at first, but simply later on he gave in and the people had their way and Jesus was let out as a lamb to the slaughter and the sheep before her shears is done. He didn't open his mouth.
Oh, the story. What a story. The chief priests are the ones that are said in Matthew's Gospel that they came up.
And they spit directly in the face of the Son of God. Was there any reaction, any retaliation? Nothing.
Why?
Because he came to save. He loves. And so they took him outside the city of Jerusalem, his head crowned with thorns.
His face disfigured with the blows of the Roman soldiers, there they stretched out his hands. There they nailed him.
There they hung him between heaven and earth.
00:20:02
And he cries. Reproach has broken my heart.
He said prophetically in the Psalms.
Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted and that it's deliver him. They trusted in thee and were delivered. But I'm a man. I'm a worm and no man. God didn't come down to rescue his own beloved Son.
Why not?
The reason why is because he loved you and me.
And so he hung there and then in three hours of darkness.
We heard this story last night.
God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all, and God's holy wrath poured out for three hours.
And that man on the center cross, I'm Golgotha's Hill.
No complaint is registered in Scripture for three hours until the very end.
And he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The one who was his strength and stay. When the billows and wrath of God were were rolling over him, He did not complain, but when God turned his face and forsaken there is nothing else to do but cry. He paid the price in full. God's holy character has been fully vindicated in the death of His beloved Son.
Jesus.
Say it again, it is finished. He bowed his head.
And gave up the ghost. He died. Soldier came.
Afterwards, to make sure that the three had been crucified, died that day. Crucifixion could last. A person often live 2-3 days on a cross. Crucified Jesus gave up his life, but the soldiers broke the first legs of the first malefactor and the other one. When they came to Jesus, they saw his.
That already.
And the soldier took his spear and pierced his side, and outflowed blood and water.
What cleanses from sin is the blood of Jesus Christ.
No other thing will do before God but that precious blood of Jesus.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Remember, in the Old Testament God had a people in Egypt, the Israelites, and God wanted to deliver them out of the land of Egypt, and so he sent plagues on the land of Egypt.
One after another after another Pharaoh, supreme leader of Egypt.
Hardened his heart. Sometimes he would give in a bit.
But then he would harden his heart again against God.
I plead with you not to harden your heart with God. God is looking down into your heart. He knows exactly how you're taking His Word.
I can't tell how you're taking it, but God knows exactly.
Anyhow, the time came when there was the last plague, the plague of the death of every first born in the land of Egypt.
And since death is the wages of sin, God could not exempt the Israelites in this plague.
They too were sinners, just like the Egyptians. But God makes the provision.
He tells them to take a lamb without blemish.
On the 10th day of the first month and to keep it for four days to make sure it had no blemishes.
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Four days because man's history from Adam to Christ was 4000 years God was looking over.
The course of human history. And there was none that didn't corrupt his way. Absolutely none.
Until one day, the Lord Jesus being here, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, John the Baptist says, behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
And so the Lord Jesus was that lamb.
And on the 14th day of the month, they were to kill that lamb and to take its blood.
And to apply it to the houses where they lived on the outside, on the two side puss, and the upper door post of the house. And the Lord said, When I see the blood, I will Passover you, and the plague shall not be upon you when I pass through the land of Egypt.
So the Israelites killed the lamb. They put the blood on the door. It was not enough to just simply kill the lamb. It was necessary to apply the blood to the door. And I know many of you children or young people maybe know about Jesus dying. I ask you, have you applied the blood to your own heart and soul? That is so important.
It's not enough that your parents have done it, you must do it yourself. And so the time came at midnight when the Lord passed through the land of Egypt, and there was one question asked. Is there blood on the door?
If there was blood on the door, he passed over that house. That's why it's called the Passover. The next house. Is there blood on the door? No.
No blood. He went in. The first born died.
He didn't ask is there nice people who live here or they're bad people who live there. He didn't ask that question. Only one question. Is there blood on the door? That was the only question. When we come down to the judgment of this world, there's only one thing that can protect you from the judgment of God, the blood.
Of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus shed his precious blood, and that's the only thing.
That can protect you from the wrath of God that's coming on this world.
So there was no house in Egypt where there was not one dead. You know, I often think there is case of my family. I'm a first born, my wife is a first born and we have our first born as well. Three would have been dead in our house.
So there was death in all the land of Egypt. The only thing that would protect them from that destroying Angel was the blood of the Lamb. God provided that, and God has provided that for you.
The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us.
From all sin.
It says that we are redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. It's the blood that will protect you from the wrath of God that's coming on this world.
Do you know?
The Israelites were saved from the wrath of God by the blood of the Lamb, as we've been speaking today, and.
Sam, I think, brought it out last evening to God not only saves us from the guilt of our sin and the punishment they deserve, but God also delivers us.
From that very sin nature that we are all born with, that's part of God's salvation as well, and I'd like to speak about that as well. Let's go over to the 8th chapter. Brother Don read these verses today, but I want to read them again because they are so important to understand.
00:30:24
Again, I say I can put it this way.
What saves me from the wrath of God for my sins is the blood.
Of Jesus.
What saves me from myself that old sin nature is the death of Christ. Notice this verse three of chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 verse 3 for what the law could not do, and that it was leaked through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And.
For sin condemned sin in the flesh.
I hope you can hear me carefully.
God Forgives our sins, those unrighteous things we've done. God never forgives the nature that produces those sins. That nature is condemned. Here's the Lord Jesus, the sinless, spotless Son of God in here in this world. How did they treat him? They gave him the most absolutely miserable death.
They could possibly think that God says in effect, the test is over for mankind. Mankind failed the test.
Sin in the flesh is condemned. I'm talking about myself, you understand? I'm talking about everyone else here today.
Sin in the flesh is condemned by the coming of the Son of God. Notice it says in the likeness of sinful pleasure, didn't say in sinful flesh.
Because he was not sinful flesh, He was holy flesh. But through that God has condemned sin in the flesh. And as we were talking about today, God not only looks at us as condemned in the flesh, but we are.
Dead and buried with Christ.
It's a terrible condition. Notice in verse seven speaking about this sin nature that we all have because the carnal mind is enmity against God.
If I allow my carnal mind to act, I will act as an enemy of God. That goes for anybody sitting here.
For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Notice verse 8. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God. Pretty conclusive, isn't it?
Tremendously serious to understand these points. That's me, naturally speaking. That's why the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus.
You must be born again.
You couldn't understand that, he said. I'm a religious, I'm a good Jew and he evidently was religious man. But he says.
That won't work. You must be born again.
He says how can a man be born when he is old?
And the Lord Jesus clarified it in saying if you're not born by water and by the Spirit, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Water is the word of God, and the Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it to those who hear His word. I want to speak as clearly as possible. I see sometimes young people, children.
That are sitting in meetings, but they're, I don't know if they're listening or not. They're busy scribbling in a little pad. OK, I understand the kids are that way. But I want to encourage you. I grew up in meetings like these and I must say I didn't understand a whole lot when I was a kid.
00:35:13
But little by little, I started listening.
And it's so important to listen, especially when it's God that speaks. I can understand if you don't want to listen to me. I can understand that when God speaks.
It's your eternal blessing at stake. Listen, the Lord Jesus said when he was here, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Later on Book of Revelation it says he that hath an ear to hear.
Let him hear, oh, how important it is to listen to God. You may not understand everything that's said, but listen, it will be a blessing to you. Listen. So that is the case of our nature. And I want to go back again to speak a little bit more about the children of Israel after they were saved. Maybe we can go back to it a bad in Exodus chapter.
Umm, 13 or 14? It is Exodus chapter 14.
They left Egypt.
And they were marching toward the Red Sea, and they came to the Red Sea, and of course it was quite a barrier, and they stopped there and they encamped there.
Verse eight it says, well let's read from verse 5, Exodus 14, verse five. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people. And they said, why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. And he married bread is chariot and took his people with him, and he took 600 chosen Chariots.
And all the Chariots of Egypt, and captains over everyone of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of the Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel, And the children of Israel went out with a high hand.
Just to stop there a minute to speak about this, the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
I just want to plead with anybody here who is resisting the call of the Spirit of God tonight.
About your eternal salvation.
Listen, please don't harden your heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart again and again and again.
And what happened?
The Lord finally hardened Pharaoh's heart because he had already taken to that decision to go that direction.
Pharaoh is a testimony to the power of God to judge.
God wants to show you to be a a testimony to His power to save. But if you reject, if you continue to harden your heart again and again and again, time will come when God Himself will harden your heart.
Oh, how solemn it is.
The Lord hardened his heart. Verse 9. But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Pay High High Roth before bail Zephan. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. The children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
If you were to ask the children of Israel at that moment, are you saved, what would they have said?
No, can't you see here comes Pharaoh with his armies to take his captive again.
Yes, they were saved from the wrath of God by the blood of the Passover lamb, but there's salvation in another aspect. God completely takes them out of their circumstances to a new position.
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And so there they are. And they think that they're going to be taken back, but notice?
Verse 11 Let's continue to read. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it had been better for us?
To serve the Egyptians, then that we should die in the wilderness.
It's like Brother Sam said today, sometimes people that have professed faith in the Lord Jesus.
You're in such a state because of the oppression of sin in their lives that they wish they would have never gotten saved in the 1St place just like these people.
There's salvation.
Verse 13 And Moses said unto the people.
Hear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you today.
For the Egyptians which ye have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. For the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore Christ, thou unto me, speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward, but lift up, Lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it. The children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
And I behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians.
And they shall follow them, and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts.
Punished Chariots and upon his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten the honor upon Pharaoh, upon his Chariots, and upon his horsemen. The Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them. The pillar of cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel.
And it was a cloud and darkness to them, the Israelites, But no as to the Egyptians, they gave light to by night to these the Israelites, so that the one came not near the other. All the night Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong E wind. All that night made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground.
And the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea. Even all Pharaoh's horses and his Chariots and his horsemen came to pass. That in the morning watch the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels. That they drove them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel.
For the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon Egypt, the Egyptians upon their horse Chariots, and upon their horsemen.
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared.
The Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians.
In the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, covered the Chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.
There remained not so much as one of them. What a tremendous victory the Lord won. Can you just picture it in your mind? There is the children of Israel, all having passed over to the other side.
Here comes the Egyptians, and Moses stretches out his rod, and the sea completely covers them.
There is Pharaoh and his army, the bottom of the sea. The Lord Jesus the Lord completely delivered Israel, not only from the wrath of the God in the blood of the Passover lamb, but He completely took him out of that area.
00:45:11
Where they were enslaved as slaves of Egypt. So God has not only delivered us from the wrath of God by the blood of the Lamb.
But there is deliverance, and I think it's so wonderful to realize that. And I want to encourage the dear young people, especially. It seems like some have not really understood.
The question of deliverance. We have deliverance. And as I said this afternoon, I remember how I struggled with it myself for quite a while until the Lord showed me that I was dead and buried and risen again. And that's what the Red Sea signifies, the death of Christ for us. Sometimes I'd say as a young person, I don't feel very dead and I feel kind of alive when the temptations come around.
But what the Lord convicted me about, am I going to believe my feelings or am I going to believe God's Word? You know, feelings change and sometimes you might have good feelings and sometimes you might have bad feelings. Don't base your faith on your feelings. Feelings are very real.
Face your faith on facts. The feelings will follow. The right kind of feelings will follow. But don't base your faith on feelings. Base your faith on the facts that the Lord Jesus has won the victory.
In the cross of Christ, the Lord Jesus died. He rose again.
Now he is offering free and full salvation, not only the forgiveness of all our sins.
But he's offering that eternal life, that new life in Christ that we were talking about today.
That's what He wants us to live, that new life. May the Lord help us to understand.
The victory that he won at the cross, not only delivering us from the wrath that is surely going to fall on this world.
But delivering us from that slavery.
That, I fear, has some of God's people don't understand that very well and they're enslaved still and the feeling that they are under *******.
Remember, the Lord Jesus has delivered us from the slavery of *******. We belong to Him now and so believe God's Word.
Don't believe your feelings. Feelings are very real again, I say, but believe the facts that God sets before us in His own precious Word.
Philippians 3:10-21
Our Eternal Life in Christ
Liberty for the Spirit of Christ in Our Lives
Open Mtg. 6
Open—S. Ludvicek, R. Thonney
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29 in the Bank of the book.
One OK.
I was.
Down.
I want to.
I have to get in my life once now.
#26.
Fixed on this ground we must remain, though heart may fail in flush decay.
This anchor shall our soul sustain, when earth and heaven shall pass away #26.
I usually don't feel afraid when I get up here, but I do right now. I have a sense in my soul that there's someone in this room that's in the midst of despair.
And I remember as a young person.
A teenager drifting from the Lord.
And I remember looking at those around me, especially my older brethren that I respected and looked up to.
And thinking, how in the world do they do it?
And to me, living the Christian life as I thought it should be lived, and as I saw it demonstrated around me. It seemed like a distant mountain range that I could see, but I had no clue how to get there.
When I read the Romans Chapter 7 and looked at the experience that's described there.
And the truth is the vast majority of Christians, true Christians.
In this country or anywhere in the world, the vast majority when they read that.
See, that's me.
00:10:02
Some have been taught even that that's a normal Christian experience.
That somehow we have to settle for what is described in Romans Chapter 7.
Turn with me to that.
Let's start at.
Verse 7.
What shall we say then is the law of sin? God forbid. May I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by commandment, brought in me all manner of concupiscences. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came soon revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy in the commandment, holy and just and good Wasn't that which is good made death unto me? God forbid.
But sin that it might appear, sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by.
The commandment might become exceedingly sinful, for we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would that do I not.
But what I hate that do I If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good which I would do not I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that, I would not, It is no more either do it but sin that dwelleth in me. I fend in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh.
The law of sin.
How many people have felt?
For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but that what I hate that do I?
How many have found, how many Christians have found that to be in their experience?
And even overwhelmed by the experience.
Finding things that they hate, having such power over them. I remember reading the scriptures.
And hearing the scriptures quoted like sin shall not have dominion over you.
That's what the word of God says, and I would say to myself, but it does.
What's wrong? Well, one of the things the devil likes to do with you, especially if you're a young believer, is to tell you, well, you must not be saved well.
If you weren't saved, you probably wouldn't be too concerned about this.
That's one of the things he would bring up. So what's the problem?
What is the problem?
Someone will say to you which is a good instruction. Keep your eyes on the Lord.
Yes, very important. Back when we read the story of Peter who walked on the water, when he took his eyes off the Lord, he began to sink. And there's a very real lesson in that for us in our Christian life, where our eyes are are set.
And I've said to people, I understand now that living the Christian life is very much like Peter walking on the water. You cannot do it of yourself. Nothing in Peter's experience, life, strength, willpower, had anything to do with the fact that he had his feet on top of water and was walking. It had everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our brother prayed that what takes place might draw our eyes back to him.
When Paul said he preached Christ and him crucified, the reason is.
Everything, every answer for everything is right there in what took place on the cross. We very readily know, and we talked about in the gospel, it's often talked about if you're saved, you know that the wonderful thing that took place on the cross was when the Lord Jesus shed his blood. He paid a price that paid for your sins, and you know you're forgiven having trusted in Christ as your Savior. You've got that far.
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And you rejoice in that at times. But if you're in this condition, there are many times where you don't have joy because you see this kind of conflict and you're caught in it.
And you can't seem to get out. I remember being in such despair.
Saying I can't do this. Actually, that's kind of what the Lord wants you to get to.
Because it's true, you can't. But in my experience I can't do this. I see other people doing it seem to.
I don't know how to get from here to there.
And so in the discouragement of that kind of situation, the devil starts to draw you away.
And if I can't be joyful as a Christian, maybe I can have some fun and distraction.
And that's exactly what happens. So the the devil will draw you the way to seemingly innocuous things to have joy with or happiness with doing things and activities.
Because you come to the place where you feel like I cannot live the Christian life and I can't figure this out, and then you end up getting away from the Lord, which is not the answer.
But there are people who are in that condition.
And someone may come along and tell them, well, that's just the way it is. It's a struggle we all have to go through until we get home with the Lord. We're always gonna be like this. And they actually settle down in their sin. And I've had people say to me, well, this is my proclivity.
That you may have a different one and we're just all gonna sin anyway, so they just settle down in it.
And they go through the motions of going to church and maybe doing a few religious things. That's not what Christianity is. It's not. That's not what the Lord wants for any one of us. He wants us to be free. We often use the word deliverance.
And when the brethren wrote about these subjects in their writings, that's the word they often used as deliverance.
And it is deliverance being delivered from that kind of *******.
Turn with me to Galatians 220.
This has become and became years ago, one of my favorite versions.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I've had conversations with people where I've said, if you figure this verse out before the Lord, if you get with him and you're in that struggle, maybe nothing I'm saying to you really you get. But if you look at this verse and you study this verse and you trace out everything that's in this verse to the other portions of Scripture that relate to it, you will get free. The Lord will do it and help you to get there because he didn't intend it to be a secret only known by a few elite super Christians someplace.
That's not intended at all.
I don't know who first told the story, but I I enjoyed it and it was time during the time of Eric Smith in South America. Maybe Brother Bob could tell me who who told this story, but I remember it being repeated when I was a young child and it was on the subject of baptism. Someone in South America was taking a group of new Christians down to a place to be baptized and on the shore.
People were changing clothes and there were towels and this one brother went over to a stump and he pulled his wallet out of his pocket in the comb and whatever he had, and he pulled some tobacco out and he put it on the stump.
And the baptism went forth and several people were baptized, and when they came back on shore everybody was joiching having a nice time around this baptism.
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And this gentleman went over to this company, picked up his wallet and his comb and his ring, and he left the tobacco there and he walked away and someone ran over and said, Sir, you, you, you forgot this and picked it up and chased him down. He said, no, I didn't forget anything. He said that belongs to the old man that I was.
There's a secret in that.
Recognizing that when we get saved, when we're truly born again.
The act that the Spirit of God performs, that it is new birth, has nothing to do with anything that we can perform, but when we believe in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, this work that the Spirit of God does in US.
We become Co crucified, Co dead, Co buried, Co raised with Christ. Scripture has these ideas and little bits and pieces here and there in some places directly.
That when we come to know Christ as Savior and we're placed in Christ, that what took place on the cross becomes the reality for us.
So when I heard things like.
Sin shall not have a dominion over you.
I remember one of the first light bulbs that came on was.
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
So I knew about my sins being washed away, but that didn't wash away the sin nature. The thing that I inherited from my parents all the way back to Adam. That thing in me that does not please God, cannot please God, can never please God, doesn't know how to please. God can be religious. You can spackle it and paint it up and make it look to outward appearances like it's the right thing, but it's phony.
And it's a phony Christianity that comes out of that.
But when you see what really took place, God at the cross.
When he says you died with Christ, he's also saying I'm done.
With the old Sam.
I want Sam to be done with the old Sam. Don't pick it up.
That part of you and me that we inherited from Adam doesn't get to go to heaven.
It's going to be left behind, and every single Christian who's ever lived is going to be happy to leave behind that sin nature that we still have. It's still there.
Sin shall not have dominion over you. That's what that's talking about. And if that sin nature has dominion over you, something's wrong in your experience.
So how do I get free from that?
What will set me free? Well, it's the cross. It's what took place.
The finished work, everything that took place, if you go back and you read from Romans chapter 5, verse 12 Through the end of Romans 8 and you study that with all your heart and mind, you will get free.
But we don't know anything else but who we already are. So the moment you get saved, all you know is what you've done before. You know the person that you've been. You may begin to sense a relief from the sins that weighed you down. You may have a joy in your heart because now you know Christ is your Savior. You know the forgiveness. You begin to know this person. But very quickly, every Christian in this room can say the same thing.
That sin nature shows its ugly head.
And you wonder even if you're safe.
I don't think I've ever talked to anybody that has told me that they've had that experience when they first got saved, but then they understand from the word of God that no, no, if I trust in Christ, he says he forgave me, the blood's been applied, I'm forgiven, but there's something still wrong.
The light bulb that came on for me was one day when the Lord opened my eyes. It is no more I that do it.
But soon it dwelleth in me.
Do you know that God does not see you anymore like what you were? It's we who do that. It's the devil who does that. It's it may be even though they're Christians who pointed out.
The old you, the sin God sees me as in Christ.
I am in Christ. If you're born again, so are you.
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We are supposed to think of ourselves in that way, not as the old person that you were.
But as the new creature in Christ Jesus, does it not say that we are new? That which is born again did not exist before that born again you?
That new nature is so closely entwined with the Person of Christ.
And the Spirit of God who dwells within.
There it is.
And then we have in Scripture, Paul in Galatians saying that we should walk in the Spirit.
When you see somebody who is walking in the spirit.
You know, you recognize it and no one always walks in the Spirit and that's on us because it's a walk of faith. So when you go back to Galatians 220 and you look at those words, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Then there's there it is yet not I, but Christ who liveth in me and the life I now live in my flesh, in the body, not the fleshly nature, but in this body. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
And that's a wonderful thought. We sometimes connect it in the gospel, which is OK.
But the Lord Jesus wants us to understand that what he did on the cross wasn't just to take care of our sins. Our Father wants us to understand that what happened on the cross got rid of the old me.
Got rid of that nature that I have that I inherited from Adam. Put it to death.
A story that helped me understand a little bit about this is 1A brother who somebody had talked to him about this was in a Bible study and he's at home and he's struggling. Lord, what does this all mean? I, I believe there's something in this that I need to get my head around to grasp because I do feel this way. I'm stuck in Romans Chapter 7.
And in the morning he goes to bed at night, praying and asking the Lord to reveal to him, to show him what the truth is.
He wakes up in the morning to a terrible stench.
And what it was, he suddenly realized what it was. They had a horse that had died on the farm. They had taken it out behind the barn and they had buried it. And a few days had gone by and he knew right away that the dogs or some creators had dug it up. And sure enough, this beloved animal they loved and cherished, and it was a pet and it was a valuable animal in their farm, was ugly and decrepit, filled with maggots, since the stench was terrible.
So now they have to go back. He digs a deeper hole and he puts it in and buries it again.
Couple more days go by, same event takes place, wakes up in the morning, there's a terrible sting and he does it again.
And the Lord spoke to his heart, and he said.
That dead thing.
Leave it in the ground.
That dead thing You.
He was put in the grave. When the Lord Jesus was put in the grave, he was raised up unto a new life.
We've been raised up onto a new life. The old life has nothing to do with Christianity. It has everything to do with interfering with it. It has everything to do with what we left behind.
And he realized the thing that stinks in his life, this thing that stinks in my life.
Is with whatever digs that whole thing up in its spell and we have scripture tells us uses the word mortify.
Those things that have to do with the old, what does a mortician do? He has to do with putting things in the place of death, in a coffin, in the ground, and so forth.
So what happens? Well, I heard one brother say. He says when that old corpse throws an arm out of the coffin, I shove it back in and nail the lid pipe. There's a sense in which that is part of what true Christianity is, is that we have nothing to do with that, and we cannot take it up for a spacklet or change it or anything.
So I remember as those thoughts are going through my mind about it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
It changed how I began to perceive things.
I'm not that thing that the devil was telling me all the time. I am that.
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No, I'm not, Christ says. I'm in him and I'm not. That thing and that old thing that I was has been dead and buried with Christ.
Turn with me back to Romans.
Chapter 6.
It's verse 11. It's the idea of reckoning.
Says likewise, reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Remember the last time you saw somebody baptized in a river, a pond, or a horse tank or whatever it was?
Think of that person being buried as being a corpse that's being buried.
Down under the water they go, then they raise them up out of there. The water is streaming off.
There's a new life on the other side of that watery grave. There's a new life.
Peter says that baptism is a picture.
A figure.
Even says we're saved by baptism in this way, in the sense that it's a picture, a figure of it. What went down in the water and what came up or to be looked at is two different things.
So I learned that in my habits and my practice in my life to begin to say to myself.
And testify even to any demons or devil listening or whatever.
I reckon myself today, Lord Jesus.
To have died unto sin with you but all I've been raised up unto a new life.
In you and that life now that's the one I want to live. That's the one that I identify with that's the one that I am in Christ this new thing and when you quote Galatians 220 to yourself yet not I but Christ. That's the life that is true Christianity yet not I but Christ. Earlier in this conference we talked about our brothers were talking about how the will that submitted so the will of God and our will is.
In two, yet not I, but Christ.
Submitting to the will of another. The Lord Jesus did that with His Father.
But our will.
Yeah, not I, but Christ.
Yeah, not I, but Christ every day, alway, every hour, every moment, to think of that and to begin to adopt that kind of thinking that I am not that old thing, I am the new thing that Christ says I am, and I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. The Spirit of God dwells in me, and the power to live the Christian life has nothing to do with any power of will that I have or effort I can put forth any human strength I can muster. It has to do with faith.
Last part of Galatians 220.
And the life which I now live, I live by the faith.
It's that body of truth.
That we're talking about.
It's the preaching of the cross not just about sins, but the other part of the preaching in the cross that has to do with sin.
That God dealt with that too.
But he didn't forgive it. He put it away.
You and I can learn to put it away as well by faith through the exercise of Scripture.
That's briefly what I had on my heart and the sense that there was at least one in here that's in that condition and feeling the despair. You don't need to keep feeling the despair. Actually, your despair is part of God bringing it to the place where He can set you free.
Study Romans chapter 5, verse 12 to the end of chapter 8. Ask God to show you. It's the only way it happens. That's the only way we really get a hold of truth anyway. Even somebody can tell you something, you still need to receive it by the Spirit of God and take it in to that place where the witness of the Spirit of God is that this is the truth.
Become a Galatians 220 Christian is still by faith, yet not I, but Christ.
Very important thing our brother has spoken to us about and.
I have found it.
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Something that verse Galatians 220 has been a real blessing to me as well. I'd like to point out the the few verses in Romans 6 that perhaps will compliment a little bit more what their brother has said. Because I have to say I went through some of the struggles as well. And I think those of us who have been brought up in Christian homes.
Tend to go through the struggle of Romans 6 after we perhaps have accepted the Lord as our Savior.
Because we don't distinguish, like you said, Brother Sam, between.
Sins and sin, the nature that is inside of us. But look at the first verses of chapter 6 just.
To take the context the end of chapter 5, notice it says verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin had reigned unto death, Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we're soon abounded. Grace did much more abound. Why, we might take that then? Why shouldn't we sin more than if grace abounds more? When sin abounds, why don't we continue to sin? And so we take up the first verses of chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
He's using that as a launchpad for what's before us in these next verses. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Like our brother has mentioned, once we have accepted the Lord as our Savior, God sees us identified with the Lord Jesus. And that's what baptism does. It identifies this with the Lord Jesus.
In his death and in his resurrection. And so have you ever seen a dead man sinning? Here's a man lying dead on the floor. That man was a drunkard in his life. He did a lot of stuff that was bad. He was always fighting.
Let's offer him some alcohol now. Is there gonna be any response on the part of that man for that alcohol? Absolutely none. What happened?
He died. Let's go over and give him a catch. So you're gonna get mad?
No, there's not gonna be any response. Why he's dead now. That's what God says is our position. What do you do with dead people? Well, you take them out and bury them. And so he says in verse three, know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him.
By baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Interesting. The life that we have from our parents is a life that ends in death. That's the way it is down here in this world. You might live 20 years, you might live 60 years, you might live 100 years, but there's always death at the end. But you know, the life we have in Christ begins with that.
We die with Christ.
Were buried and now we have a life that can never, ever die. It's an incorruptible life. It's called eternal life. That's the life that you and I possess in the Lord Jesus. And So what do you do with that old you bury it.
And like our brother was saying, that old horse every time came out to the air. It stunk.
Once you bury something, you leave it buried. You don't go out there once in a while and uncover the dead corpse that was there and see how it's getting along. You leave it right there buried. Because if you try to see how it's doing, it's going to get worse every single time. And so it is when you start being occupied with what you are as a man in the flesh, let me tell you.
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This flash never gets any better. I used to think when I was a young brother and the meetings look around at the older brother sitting up in the front. Oh boy, it must be nice to get up to that point and have the flesh all taken care of.
Let me tell you, the flesh doesn't get any better. It's probably worse an older brother than it is and younger brother. And if we can say it, it's all bad. But it's probably worse. It doesn't get any better. No, we are.
To end baptism, we express it to recognize that we are dead with Christ, We are buried with him.
And we are risen again with him and that wonderful to think and I just like to encourage our young people to.
Concentrate on that life that we have now in the Lord Jesus, that life that begins with death and will never, ever die.
You know the challenge that comes to me and I'd like to go over to.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 to read a couple of verses that have really challenged my life.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus, notice.
It's speaking here.
In verse 10.
Just want you to notice it speaks of death and it speaks of life, but you'll notice that life comes after death, not before. Notice it in both verses, always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. There's the dying that the life. See life comes after death. Also, Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, so that life comes after death.
And brethren, in a practical way, if we do not know what it means to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, neither will we experience practically in our lives the wonderful reality of that life that we have in the Lord Jesus. Wonderful, wonderful thing, you know.
In the United States of America, so much.
Is concentrating on having a good time?
I just want to say, young people, life is not about having a good time in this world. That's not what it's about.
Life is like we had in Galatians 220. It's about Christ living in us now. It's not the concentration on me, it's him. And it's such a tremendous secret. And I think we get distracted in our country when there's so much emphasis made, and it can happen even in Christian circles.
Doing lots of interest, interesting stuff and having a good time. I don't have any problem with playing games and having a good time, don't get me wrong. The point is, it's not me, it's the Lord Jesus that has to be the object. And if I'm concentrating on myself then I'm not really looking at myself as God looks at me.
As dead, buried and risen again, it's.
Christ in me now, and that's on the other side of death. And so verse 10, I would say is what we ought to practice.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus died to deliver me from this question of sin.
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Tremendous to think about that awful, awful death he experienced. And it's so important for us to go back to the cross and the breaking of breath. That's what we do to think about it. How can we once we have seen what the Lord Jesus suffered on that cross?
And the terrible agonies of those three hours of darkness when those waves and billows of divine judgment rolled over Him and all their fury. How can I be content them to get up from remembering the Lord and go out and just try to have a good rip roaring time? It just doesn't fit into the picture. No, sorry, I'm not interested.
So we'll talk to somebody else. That's not where I am. Oh, brother, And may the Lord help us.
To know what it means to always there about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. And I would say that's proper normal Christian living.
But you know, we get distracted.
I have to say that for myself and I forget these things. And so we have verse 11.
You notice it's a little bit different. There's a lot similar between verses 10 and 11. But verse 11 I really believe is something that is outside of our control. It says we which live is our normal life to hear.
Are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in. And here it puts not our bodies that are mortal flesh. In other words, there are circumstances in life that we are given to.
Somebody gets cancer. Did he go looking for cancer? No. You know he didn't. He was delivered to that. Somebody has a bad accident. Did he go looking for that accident to happen? No.
He was delivered to it. Why does God allow these negative things to happen in our lives?
You know why?
So that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I think it's such a beautiful thing to witness some of our dear brethren here in the States, in Canada.
That have gone through the experience of losing a loved one with cancer.
I must say I have been severely challenged in my own soul to see how.
The triumph with which they met it.
It's been a challenge to me, brother.
I don't think we realize how much our good old American life has robbed us of our real life in Christ. It's a life that is not with me as the center of attention. No, that's all gone now. That was dead and buried.
No, my life is completely on the other side.
I'm crucified with Christ. Is it nice to be crucified? Do you find that really nice and comfortable? I don't think anybody would.
Nevertheless, I live. What are you talking about? Crucified and living.
Yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me. Isn't that amazingly wonderful? It is a whole different focus.
Brethren, as we're living in a culture that is increasingly centered on man and his world, let's be challenged not to give away to those kind of thinking patterns that is not Christianity.
Christianity is.
To be crucified with Christ and that can be excruciating. To deny that old sin nature. You know what that old sin nature says? Come on, don't be so strict. Give way. A little bit of attention to the flesh is not going to hurt anybody. Come on, give away.
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No, sorry, can't do it.
Can I nail yourself from the cross where you're crucified to have a good time for a while and then get back up there again? That's not the way it is.
But there's life there, and that life is.
Christ in US and to me. It is extremely beautiful to see it. You know a lot of our brethren.
In Arab countries, Muslim countries are undergoing severe persecution. I really believe that our brother and over there know what Christian living is a lot better than we Americans do.
We think we have our rights to our place, our.
Pleasures and everything that we want to have nice comfort.
God never meant this world to be a comfort zone.
You never met it.
Because He's preparing us for what's beyond. He's preparing us for the Father's house. He's preparing us for that coming Kingdom. May the Lord help us, brethren, to realize that our life, our real life, is beyond the tomb. It is beyond death, and it is Christ in US who lives. The Lord help us, brethren, I just.
Feel that we so often are robbed of our real life because the concentration on myself, me, myself and I Lord deliver us. That's a good word. Deliverance is what we need from that kind of thinking. Lord help us spread.
Open Mtg. 11
Open—D. Rule, P. Jennings
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325.
Verse three says we wait for these without in here at one our hearts affection 325.
We wait for.
You.
I don't know why.
You're getting it in the end of the day. You're all over the tree and everything.
Turn with me, please, to Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3 and verse.
22.
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us.
00:05:04
To know good and evil.
And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of life, and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life.
It's a very sad day in the history of the world.
God had placed this creature, man on the earth and made every provision for his happiness and his joy, and for fellowship between God and man.
And had come down in the cool of the day to enjoy is the one that he had given a spirit to that they he might know God and God could communicate and share with him.
But as we know, Adam and Eve had disobeyed and brought the sentence of death upon themselves.
And while there were tests, that came later for man.
From God's perspective.
The race of Man.
Was finished.
Very early in its history.
The race about him had no future except that.
Very painful thing for God.
And uh, yet in his holy character here, we see he drives the man out.
From Paradise and further than that, he bars him from access to the Tree of life.
He had death threatened upon himself, and he's now barred from any opportunity that he might have in himself to gain access to the Tree of Life.
In the condition in which he was, God could not righteously have him partake of that tree.
But that is, uh, a little background. You'll see why later. Turn with me now to Psalm 40.
Psalm 40.
And verse 7.
Then said I Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. I delight do thy will, O my God.
Yeah, thy law is within my heart.
We know these words speak prophetically of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus came into this world.
With life he came into this world with a life that had existed from all eternity. He came into this world with eternal life in his being.
And here as a man in this one verse.
Eight, we see that life in its perfection.
As it would be lived on the earth.
Two things characterize it.
The first is.
As a man, man is to do the will of God.
Adam and Eve had lost their lives by disobedience to God's perfect will when he.
Gave them the prohibition of not partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Here it says in the first of the two sentences or parts of this verse, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, that's that's perfect life.
Here's a man as a man.
Who found his pleasure?
In doing the will of another of God.
I delight to do thy will, O my God. The only thing that would have been almost intolerable to the heart of the Lord Jesus is if there had been something that would have.
00:10:14
Enabled him.
Stopped him from doing the will of God.
It wasn't.
Onerous to him, and that is it. It wasn't a problem to him, to his heart.
In every single circumstance of his life to.
Do the will of God. He found his pleasure in that.
The second that's connected with it here, it says thy law is within my heart.
I believe the sense of that is this.
I'll illustrate it this way.
You can take a father and a mother and they have a young child and, uh, they train that child to obedience.
And uh, so when mother, father says do this or don't do that, the child is an obedient child will do it or not do it.
But the very fact that the child requires that kind of teaching and training is due to the fact that the child has a will of its own.
And so it has to be trained to submit its will.
To the authority of its parents.
But don't do. This is something that restrains.
That will that may be present in the child that might otherwise do that.
God had a perfect will for man, and it was expressed to teach man something in the law.
And so man was given the law, and he was told certain things he was to do and other things he was not to do.
Don't steal.
Why? Was there any question about it?
Because there was a will in man that, without the restraint of God, may have chosen to steal.
And so God set forth that which was consistent with himself, God being righteous, and gave him this statement. Don't do it.
This little expression concerning the perfect life of the Lord Jesus says, Thy law is within my heart.
That is.
Every single thing that God required of man under law was already perfectly consistent with this life of the Lord Jesus.
When it said don't steal, he perfectly wanted not to steal even before that prohibition was there.
He really, if I could put it this way, he didn't need a law.
Thy law is within my heart.
Don't you wish you were that way?
Perfectly.
That every single desire of your heart.
Was to do the will of God.
And whenever that will of God was made known to you, that is exactly consistent with what your heart would desire.
That's the life.
That the Lord Jesus lived among us on this earth.
In connection, one more passage in connection with his life that we find in Isaiah chapter 50.
Teaches us a little bit more about the character of his life.
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Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 4.
Again, these are words which.
Present the Lord Jesus to us.
In a prophetic way.
Lord God Verse four Isaiah 50 Verse 4 Lord, God hath given me the tongue of the learned.
That I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
Awakeneth morning by morning he waketh us. Wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned.
It's been said, and rightly so, the Lord Jesus had no will of his own.
He, His will was perfectly expressed through the will of the Father, is of God.
But we also noticed something else about the Lord Jesus here that's important, and that is.
The always and ever.
Waited upon.
Instruction from God for every step of his life.
Every single morning, I believe of his life, he got up morning by morning to hear.
To receive.
Instruction for the day, for his life.
Perfect life.
Actually an eternal life.
That was being manifested, as in manhood, in the place which he had taken as a man.
Would you like to be like that?
Did we practice that in our lives this morning? Did we get up this morning to hear?
From himself.
For our day, in every detail of it.
Umm, let's turn over to averse in second.
And Titus I think it is.
No, it's not just a moment.
Yes.
Titus found it. Titus, chapter one.
And verse 2.
In hope of eternal life, which God, which cannot lie promised before the world begins.
Not the emphasis. So we'll just make a few remarks rapidly here.
Lord Jesus had his interest in you and I, His desire for you and I before the world began and, uh.
God in response to that desire.
Gave us.
Individually to the Lord Jesus.
Because we have in John 17.
But here we have something else in connection with that that was determined before the world began.
God said to his son, Son, I promise.
That we will give to those that I give to you your life.
Eternal life.
You just heard a description of that life.
That's your life.
You as a child of God.
Have a life.
But the lights to do the will of God.
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That does seek direction.
As to how you are to go, you do have the law of God written in your heart.
We find that we'll come back to it, perhaps.
Uh, but just I wanna refer to one verse in first John chapter 5 connection with that life.
The Epistle to 1St John is a five chapter description of the life we've been talking about very briefly.
And umm, at the end of that outline of the life that has been given to us, uh, wanna notice one point in connection with it?
Verse 18 of chapter 5 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one, that Satan touches them not. And we know that we are of God in the whole world, lieth in wickedness, or in the wicked one.
The life that has been given to you is a life that Satan can't touch.
Because there is absolutely nothing in that life that responds to Satan or to lust of any sort.
That's your life.
That's your life. That's my life.
Satan can't touch that life because there's nothing in that life that responds to Satan.
That's one of the characteristics of the life.
That you and I possess in Christ.
Now turn over to John's Gospel, Chapter 15.
To get just to where we wanna get to I wanna read the very end of verse 11, the Lord Jesus speaking to his disciples here and he says to them that your joy.
May be full.
His desire for them was we've had joy before us this weekend was that their joy be complete, be false.
So to that end, to that purpose.
He says to them prior to that statement.
Verse 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue, ye and my love.
If you abide in My commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
These things I have spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
We often rightly speak of the Lord Jesus as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
His life was full of grief and sorrow because he lived in a world full of sin and the great sensitivity of his love.
Constantly being exposed to the effect of sin upon mankind gave him a life of sorrow.
And, uh, constant need to be occupied with grief. And he felt it when he went out to the grave of Lazarus. He wept.
As he saw what sin had done and the effect it had brought upon a person he loved.
But that doesn't mean that he was not also a man of joy.
His first state said.
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Here it says my joy.
My joy.
The Lord Jesus in his perfect life.
Found Daily Joy.
In doing the will of God.
I delight, as we read in Psalm 40, to do Thy will, O my God.
There was a constant positive pleasure.
In his soul.
To do the will of God.
That was his joy.
As I say, I'll say it again, The only thing that, if you might say, might have robbed him of that joy was if something had happened that would not enable him to be able to do the will of God.
That's your life.
You sit in this room with that light.
Engine given of God.
And the Lord Jesus here expresses to his disciples, and he would express it, I trust to you this afternoon if he were physically present and would say to you, I want you to have that joy in your daily life.
I want you to experience that joy as I experienced it.
And so to get on, if you will, to little to the practical side of it.
He first of all outlines a couple of things that are essential to having that joy.
The first one that he says.
Continue in my love.
I continue in the Father's love.
Each day of my life. And if you're going to have that joy, you too are going to live, if I can put it this way, in the sunshine of my love for you.
I want you every day.
To consciously know my love for you and live in it.
He also says here.
Keep my commandments.
And you shall abide in my love.
If you don't keep my commandments, then we can't have fellowship in that. And you won't enjoy my love to you, you won't continue in it.
This joy.
Is inseparable from obedience.
Lord Jesus, life was one of perfect obedience as a man.
And.
We have already seen his life, that he delighted in obedience, and this points out the essential importance of that.
Obedience, but he also mentions commandments.
We can illustrate it in his temptation.
For Satan.
Satan presents three different temptations to the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord's answers all begin with three words, at least in some of the passages that present them.
What are those first three words that he responded to Satan in every instance?
When presented with something that would take him out of the will of God.
Which would have him do something that would be disobedience.
To his Father's commandments or God's commandments.
It is written.
It is written.
Our lives.
Our eternal life that's in US is to be lived by those 3 words.
It is written.
Every activity of our lives.
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Alright, I think I would say at least from practical side of it.
It's impossible to live the life without feeding on the word.
It's the food of the life.
It is written.
Thy word.
Just the food on which we feed. We had lunch, we had breakfast, most of us I suppose, and so on, and anticipate supper is the food of our natural lives.
The life that's been given to us takes food as well, and it's it is written and here the Lord Jesus.
He is saying to his disciples, I want you to enjoy.
He then goes on on the matter of law and, uh, part of his command is love one another.
Lord Jesus came into this world with a law that perfectly loved every man that he ever met.
Lord Jesus never met a man in his life that he didn't love.
Every single soul, including Judas.
Was loved intently and personally by the Lord Jesus.
He has given you a life that loves every single person that you meet.
You'll never meet a man. You'll never meet a woman. You'll never meet a child that you don't have a life that doesn't love that person.
That's fine, and it's the life that brings joy.
I'm not gonna go too much on the other side of this matter, which is very, very important and was brought out in yesterday afternoon in Romans Chapter 7, particularly in chapter 6 as well. So I'm not gonna repeat that. I'm not trying to say something to counter that at all.
It's absolutely vital and important what we had yesterday afternoon.
The difficulty we have is that we still have the deadline.
In US and it's in conflict with what we said and our experience. We experienced that conflict and it's real and it can be very depressing and all the rest of it, but it's it's important to see the life we have and enjoy that aspect of it. I just want to add a few more remarks we said yesterday and it's I believe the truth of God, the power.
Of the life that we've just described this afternoon is by the Spirit of God.
But I wanna say a little more about that.
As was mentioned yesterday afternoon, it's very easy for us to try to think about the power in the way of we control it.
We do not.
The Spirit of God is not controlled by us and is not subject to our control.
We are to be controlled by the Spirit of God and subject to that control.
But I would just like to make a few remarks into the manner in which.
The Spirit of God works with us in power.
And they're not things that we associate in our minds with power, but they are, they're tremendous power. The 1St is given that I'll remark on and we won't take the time to turn to it, uh, in Rev in Romans chapter 8.
And the the Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are the children of God, and we cry ABBA Father.
That's a work of power.
The Spirit of God working in our life gives us the conscious realization that we're God's children. That's the work of the Spirit of God in US.
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Taking the Word of God and the statements of the Word of God, the Spirit of God makes it a conscious reality.
That we say Father.
And we live in the sense of that relationship that is maintained as a work of God.
And so that's one aspect of it.
That the Spirit of God works for us.
The Lord Jesus and John with respect to the Spirit of God said I'm going away, but I'm going to send.
I'm gonna use the word the scripture says comforter. I'm gonna use the word life manager.
I think it gives something of the sense of it.
It's not comforter in the sense of when you're saw when you're all those Spirit does help us in that, but it's not the primary idea that when you're sad, the Spirit of God came to make you feel happy or to comfort you in your sadness. But it has more the sense of one that will direct the affairs of our lives for us because we're not capable properly of doing it ourselves. And so one of the ways that we need.
Provision for is we need understanding and knowledge of things, and so he's called the spirit of truth.
And one of the ways that the Spirit of God works in power in us, I'll illustrate it by something I appreciate, Gordon Hayhoe said at Otter Lake many, many years ago. He said, if you say something and I'll say in a meeting like this, he said, and someone else says something that's not in agreement with it, don't contend about it.
No, my thoughts, right, He said. If they can't both be consistent with the truth of God. He said the Spirit of God and each person is the one that will give affirmation to their soul of what was the truth.
Not you.
That's a tremendous work of power of the Spirit of God in your life and mine. The Spirit of God works in our lives that when we are exposed to truth.
The Spirit affirms that's true, and when we are exposed to error, the Spirit of God does not affirm it.
Thank God for that work of the Spirit in US.
In addition to that, the Spirit of God works.
To guide us into truth.
Brings the Word of God to us.
And gives us the understanding of it. That's a work of power.
You can find people that are the most intelligent people in the world and they can open this book and it makes no sense to them.
They have no idea what it means.
But you can take a simple believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and they can read a word of scripture and the Spirit of God says that's what it means, and they can respond properly to it. He shall guide you into all truth.
A little illustration of it to my own heart was that I saw that, probably heard me say it before, but there was a place in England and they were having a group of people together. I don't remember for what reason, but some very accomplished Shakespearean actor was present, and someone on that occasion suggested that he read to the audience the 23rd Psalm. And he did.
Beautiful rendition of words, I suppose.
There happened to be present at the same gathering a rather humble man, not very educated.
And someone asked him to read the same Psalm, and he did.
And it had a totally different effect upon everybody present. And, uh, what the actor had been able to do was put totally in the shame shade, if you will, with what this humble, I think it was actually a shepherd, uh, Don. And someone said to the actor, why did what he have to read mean so much different upon us than what you read? And he said because he knows the shepherd.
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He knows the Shepherd.
That's the work of the Spirit of God.
To help us to know the Shepherd, to know God through his living Word.
And uh, consequently to direct and I suggest to you it's a mighty work of power we find in also in Romans chapter 8.
It says the spirit of health, the Spirit itself helpeth with our spirit, Uh.
Uh, and things that we can't even express.
I'll just put it this way. The Spirit of God works in us in a way that we can't even be conscious of.
Helps us in our affirmative.
But God has said the Spirit never occupies us in in his his work in us with ourselves or himself either. We don't consciously say, oh, that's the Spirit of God doing that in me or something like that. That's not the way Scripture teaches us. And consequently, you might say in that sense, we're not conscious of the working of that power and it's not intended that we be so.
But it is that work.
Which and one other aspect of it.
When we're obedient.
The Spirit of God brings us joy and fellowship with God.
When we're disobedient, our fellowship is broken, and then the Spirit of God works in us to occupy us with that which is hindering that fellowship, so that we would recognize it, judge it, and that enjoyment of abiding would be umm.
Restore.
Thank God for the Spirit, brethren, because without it.
We would never get back to fellowship once we send.
We would be never in ourselves. He restoreth my soul, and it's a work of the Spirit of God to produce that in US. It's a work of power.
And it's a needed and blessed work of God. Well, there are other things too that could be added, but.
It's the perhaps the positive side of that which lifts us out of ourselves to live the life in spite of the fact that we do have in us that awful thing called sin that's been condemned and is in constant effort to bring us down in the other way.
But nonetheless, let's enjoy.
I'd like to add two more thoughts re regarding the Spirit of God. Enjoyed so much what Don brought the course and have just remained in the same chapter that he was in in Romans 8.
Umm, Romans 8 and verse 9. Something that is meant a lot to my soul.
And uh, just wanna since we just haven't met it or two here, just like to share it with you.
Umm, Romans 8 and verse 9 says that ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It should be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
It's really instructive here how the the Spirit of God.
Umm.
Starts with the Spirit of God and ends with the Spirit of Christ.
And the the subject of Roman Romans 8 is the is the power of our new life.
And that is the Spirit of God.
But the effect of the spirits working in our life produces the spirit of Christ.
And so how important it is for us.
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I speak to myself.
To allow liberty for the Spirit of God in our lives.
Because if he has liberty, then what is going to be produced from our lives will be the Spirit of Christ.
And that is the only thing that can bring God any glory at all.
Is for our lives. Display the glories of the Lord Jesus. And as Don was saying, that is a wonderful, powerful thing for us to be able to display despite who we are and ourselves.
Despite how we may fail.
The Spirit of God has liberty.
Price is gonna be seen, His Spirit is gonna be seen. So that's the effect of the Spirit of God in that verse. We turn over to 1St Corinthians. There's another very similar verse that I've enjoyed in First Corinthians chapter 2.
What was going on here in Corinth?
Was.
There was something hindering the Saints of God.
And it was the spirit of man.
They didn't understand.
That they had their eyes on man.
And one was saying I am of this man, and another was saying I am of that man.
And what was resulting was division.
And Paul, in his love for them, he instructs them in a way which which turns their eyes away from man, and he places himself in that same.
Place of get your eyes off of me.
Chapter 2 He's Speaking of the importance of, not what he said or how he said it.
He gives, he speaks to them of the importance of the teaching of the Spirit of God.
And he says no man. It says in verse 11, For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man.
But this but the Spirit of God, so he's diverting the attention of these believers that have had their focus taken away from Christ and their focus shifting to man and what was possibly palatable.
About each one of those servants of God they were starting to.
Be attracted to men. They were starting to decide, well, this man has this certain quality and I like that certain quality. So I'm going to I would like to associate myself with that person.
The apostle Paul says, you know, I came to you and I spoke to you.
But I just preached the cross. I just sat before you how the cross has.
Taken man out of the picture.
And.
Set Christ before you, and you haven't learned anything because of me. You have learned that which is of God because it's the Spirit of God that knows the things of God.
And if the things of God have been communicated to you, it is because the Spirit of God has communicated them to you.
And that's the way it is. That's what Don was telling us.
That if we sit here this this this afternoon and we've taken in the things of God.
It's because there is a power that has been given to us. Who knows God?
He, he has his spirit, he understands the things of God and it's, that is the only reason why the things of God are ever communicated to us is because they're communicated to us by the Spirit of God. I'd just like for us to look at verse 16.
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This says, For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
That he might instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. We learned in Romans 8 that the Spirit of God produces the Spirit of Christ in each one of us. That's the only reason. That's the only way that Christ can be reflected through your life and mine is because the Spirit of God produces the Spirit of Christ and us.
But this verse speaks about the mind of Christ.
How do you and I?
Come up with the mind of Christ.
While the Spirit of God is the subject of this chapter, First Corinthians chapter 2 Spirit of God is the subject of this chapter. And if you and I.
End up knowing the mind of Christ.
Is it is because of the activity of the Spirit of God?
What a wonderful thing it is to think, you might say, to think as he would think, the mind of Christ. I know there may be other thoughts with regard to these things. I have a tendency to see things in rather simple ways.
But.
I I can't tell you how encouraging it has been to me to understand a little bit of the importance of the Spirit of God. You know, sometimes we feel like we.
We, we, we just don't know very much or or we don't know how we're gonna, we're gonna make progress in our souls what we have the resources.
That are limitless.
We have limited unlimited resources in the Word of God and in the Spirit of God to teach our souls to give us both His spirit and His mind.
We Know
Precious Things That You As Gathered to the Lord's Name
Philippians 3:10-21