Kirkland Conference: 2018
Table of Contents
Luke 12:1-12
Lessons From the Life of Moses
Address—Robert Boulard
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Let's ask the Lord's blessing in our meeting.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for the liberty that we have this afternoon to address the as our Father and to know as those that are sons, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, brought into relationship with thee all of the fullness of the blessings that were ours in Christ. And we just asked thee, our God and our Father.
That thought it's worked by thy spirit among us here, and each one, that each one, young and old, might receive a little portion for their souls.
And that we might be refreshed and encouraged to follow that one who loved us and gave himself for us. And so we thank thee, Lord Jesus, for thy love. We thank thee that so many of us here in this room can say, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so we thank thee that we're indwelled with the Spirit of God and have the capacity to be able to understand spiritual things.
And we just ask you to open up thy word and just give us a little portion, any that are not yet saved, those that are lost in their sins.
That they might hear the voice of the Lord, that they may be quickened by Thy Spirit, that they might come to know Christ as Savior, We ask thee for thy blessing. And uh, in these portions of scripture that we read, we ask thy guidance and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, I know that, uh, we've all had a good meal and, umm, maybe there's gonna be some sleepiness. So I'm gonna suggest we sing a hymn at 2:30. Hopefully I don't forget, but we'll all stand up, we'll sing to him, and then we'll sit down. So you can look forward to that. Meanwhile, I have it on my heart to just take up some little passages of Scripture that are familiar to us in connection with Moses, and we might start in chapter one of Exodus and just read verse 22.
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In the 1St 10 verses of chapter 2. And then we'll look, that's really the beginning of the life of Moses. And then we'll look a little bit at the middle of his life. And then if we'll trust the Lord for time to do it, to just look at the end of his life. And umm, we know that in the Scriptures that these different ones that are given to us.
As examples, as models, you might say as role models.
My Moses is called a mighty prophet and, uh, God used Moses in a mighty way, but he came from very, uh, difficult circumstances. So we face many difficult circumstances in the day that we live in. And I just like to encourage you young people, particularly this is a young people's address to continue on in the path of faith.
And service to the Lord, it's a worthy cause. The world, the cause of Christ is a worthy cause.
And so here we read in Exodus chapter one verse 22, Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save a life. And there went a man of the House of Levi, and took the wife, a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bear a son, and when she saw him.
That he was a goodly child. She hid him three months.
And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime, and pitch with pitch, and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to wit, what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along.
By the Riverside and when she saw the ark coming among the flags.
She sent her maid to fetch it, and when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept, And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews children. And she said, Then said her sis his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to the nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go, And the maid went and called the child's.
And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses. And she said, Because I drew him out of the water. Well, that's one of the passages that I wanted to read this afternoon.
And I'd like to notice several different things.
Perhaps umm southern several different things, perhaps five or six different things that are characteristic at the beginning of Moses life. And the first thing we know that umm these might just say that her brother umm Eric gave a little outline as to some of the ways that we could look at scripture, the Old Testament and the New Testament and the Old Testament was written.
Really. And it described, you might say, God's relationship with man before the cross.
And then after the cross, we have the New Testament, the relationship of God with man based upon the finished work of Christ. And so we have the New Testament. And so the Old Testament is that picture book. And we have illustrations given to us that teach us different aspects of life and our relationship with God. And so in this picture we have Pharaoh. He's a type of Satan, and he charged all his people.
Saying, every son that is born you shall cast into the river. Every daughter you shall save a life. Well, the fact is this, the first point we want to make here this afternoon, dear young person, is this, that you have an enemy, a very determined enemy, You have an enemy and he will never give up trying to destroy your life and trying to destroy your testimony. If you have been walking with God, if you have taken Christ as your Savior, he will do.
Thing that is possible within his scope, his sphere of operations to try to destroy your life. I just think oftentimes as I read this umm in Exodus this last verse, I think of the Revelation chapter 20 we might just look at verse two there Satan is told is presented to us in Revelation a couple of times in this his completeness.
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Of evil, his character.
In verse two of Revelation chapter 20 it says he laid hold on the dragon.
That old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him 1000 years. Well when it speaks of the dragon, it speaks of his character as a destroyer. I think it's in Chapter 9 of Revelation. It calls him a Baden or Apollyon. Both of those things mean a destroyer. Those names. Satan is a destroyer. He doesn't create anything. He doesn't bring blessing. He gives an illusion perhaps of.
Pleasure and so on, but he's a destroyer. And then when it speaks of the old serpent, he's an experienced deceiver. He knows how to deceive the hearts of men and doesn't matter whether you know the Lord or you don't know the Lord, He's a deceiver. He's an old, experienced deceiver. He's been out at 6000 years and he knows how to do his work. Young people, you face an enemy like this, but greater is the power that is in you, greater is He.
New than he that is in the world. And then it speaks of the devil. Now it speaks of the devil. Remember when the Lord Jesus was tempted, he was tempted of the devil. In Matthew's Gospel, I think it's chapter three or four. And so the devil speaks to us of the tempter. He's going to tempt you to disobey God. He's going to tempt you to set aside the wisdom of the word of God. He's going to tempt you to defy.
God's authority and the sin against Him.
We have a determined enemy. Then he says he speaks of Satan and his name as Satan is the adversary. And we have that in the book of Job, chapter one. He's an adversary. So all four things. And so Moses was born in a time when the enemy wanted to destroy, literally, physically throw him into the river of Egypt. Now the river of Egypt is a little symbol for us as to the pleasure system.
What nourishes this world, what keeps them going is the sport, the entertainment of this world. All those things, they just go in the current of what feeds Egypt, but it leads to death. And so Satan, the character here of Pharaoh, the picture he wanted, the destruction of the people of God.
And so here you are this afternoon and you have an enemy. And it's good to recognize that we have an enemy and we don't have others. We don't have time to go into other passages, but it's good to know this. Then in verse one that we read in chapter 2, there went a man of the House of Levi and took the wife, the daughter of Levi, and the woman conceived and bare her son. She saw him that he was a goodly child. She hit him three months. The second thing that we want to notice is that this man.
And Moses had parents of faith.
A man in obedience to the wisdom in the word of God. Now they didn't have the written word of God. You know, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. I think of the blessedness of the heart of God to use this man who was born to slaves. His father was a slave in Egypt. His mother was a slave in Egypt.
God uses the sun of a slave.
To write the first five books of the Bible, God's ways are past our finding out and uh, so this man, he was a man of faith and he married a woman of faith of the same tribe. And uh, you know, it was the institution that God had instituted at the beginning of the creation for the blessing of man that a man might have companions. A little picture of Christ in the church in the Old Testament they.
Understand that type, but you and I understand it. That is a little picture of Christ in the church. Well, this man, he wanted a companion, and he sought a companion of faith. He sought a companion that would have a fear of God, and he married this woman. We have other details given to us in the Scriptures.
And I want to just say this, that God records their names, He records some of the things that they did and he gives us the history of Moses life in these first 10 verses, the 1St 40 years of his life. And then from verse 11 down to verse 25, he gives us the next 40 years of his life and then for the rest of the book of Exodus.
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Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. He tells us many things.
That he used Moses to do and to tell of his love and grace for his people to deliver the law, all those things.
And we have mentioned as well in the in the New Testament in a loving, a kind way, and not only in in a historical way. And so God knows your parents, your young people.
There's no mistake that Moses was born to a slave father and a slave mother. It was no mistake that you were born into the family that you're born into. It was no mistake that you were born, I trust, into a family where the mother and the father are.
Parents of faith and they may be mistaken in many different ways. Maybe, umm, they just don't have a perfect understanding of the Scriptures, whatever it is that you may see, uh, cause to have less of an opinion of them than you should. But you know, God delights in children honoring their father and their mother, he says in the Scriptures, in the New Testament.
He says, uh, children honor.
Thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment, with promise that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. Moses.
I believe was brought up with a reverence for his parents. He didn't perhaps know them like you know your parents. He was removed from his household very shortly after he was born.
Others were removed from their households. Joseph at 17 years old.
We could go on in different, uh, different little histories that God gives. So don't feel sorry for yourself because of the circumstances that you were brought up into. That's the second point, that you were born in very favorable circumstances in the day of grace. And don't feel sorry for yourself, but have a respect for your parents and honor them and obey them.
In as much as you can according to the word of God, and the Lord will bless.
Well, this woman conceived she had a son and uh, she saw that he was in Acts Chapter 7, fair to God.
She looked at this little boy. He had descendants of death on him. She was commanded by the king of Pharaoh. King Pharaoh. He was commanded to throw him into the river of Egypt that his life might be lost.
But she saw that he was fair to God. When you were born into this world, your parents looked upon you, and they looked at this little miracle, and they saw you in the light. In some measure, I believe they saw you as one that was going to be blessed of God. And by faith they wanted something for you of the blessing of God in your life. And God has taken an interest in your life.
From the time that you were conceived, I might save from before the foundations of the earth.
He looked upon you and he thought about you and he is interested in every detail of your life.
So this woman had a son.
She was a woman of faith and she hid him from the eye of Pharaoh for three months. That's the Third Point I want to make. And really, from the point of view of the parents, are you hiding your little ones from the eye of Pharaoh?
Hide them from Pharaoh, don't immerse them into this world system.
You will forgive me for giving a personal illustration a personal story.
When I was 10 years old, we were, I was not brought up in the assembly, but an imitation of the assembly. And umm, at 10 years old, my parents moved into a home and the man that was living there left his television set in the corner of the living room. And I grew up the next 10 years in that home with the television set in the corner of that living room.
And I still to the day.
Wish there there were some things that I had not watched on that television and I cannot erase, I cannot forget.
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And so when I got married, in the mercy of the Lord, my wife and I made an agreement that we would never have a television in our home, that we wouldn't expose our children to Feral and his system of entertainment. And I just want to encourage you this afternoon that if you have been immersed in the river of Egypt.
That you might just get rid of that electronic piece of equipment, whatever it might be, that is hindering you and that is immersing you in that worldly system. While these parents, they hit him for three months and she couldn't hide him anymore. You'll notice the faith of the mother says she saw him that he was a goodly child. He hid him three months.
I know in.
Hebrews Chapter 11. It says they, but here it says she. She could not longer hide him. She took an arc of gold rushes and dogged it with slime, with pitch, and put the child there, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off.
This was a young woman that had a young child, a son.
He was the heir. He was what the future would be built on for that nation.
And she believed the promises of God. She didn't have it in writing perhaps, but she believed what God had told Joseph. She believed what God had told Isaac. And Abraham, she believed it. She was a woman of faith. And as she took this son and knew she couldn't hide him, she took him. And she put him into that little ark, and she laid him in the flags by the rivers brink.
She didn't throw it right into the midst of the river in the current of it. You know you and I.
Dear young people, as we grow up in our parents home, sooner or later we're going to have to go out into the world to earn a living, perhaps to, uh, go and get our education and so on. But isn't it marvelous in the grace of God, the mercy of the Lord, that we don't need to be cast right into the midst of it, just in the brink, at the brink of the river and in faith, that woman did this.
And so your parents have sought to protect you from the eye of Pharaoh for justice a little while.
And they have sought in their way to bring you into the knowledge of the truth of God, brought them, brought you to the meetings, perhaps.
Taught you the scriptures in the home sooner or later.
They have to allow you to test the waters, so to speak, at the edge of the river of Egypt.
But you know, this woman of faith, she trusted the Lord for circumstances. That's another point that we want to make. She wanted to have that sun for the future generation, and she trusted the Lord for all of the circumstances after she put that child into the river's edge.
Your parents are trusting the Lord to preserve you. They're trusting the Lord for the circumstances that will surround you as you go out into this world to get your education and to do your work. And so we have with this backdrop, this little picture given to us of Moses birth to a couple of.
Slaves with promises from God, promises that they had faith in.
I'd like to just turn to Hebrews Chapter 11 and look at some of those things that took place in Moses heart, the decisions that he made.
As a result of that beginning.
Hebrews Chapter 11 and uh verse 23.
By faith, Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents.
Because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the King's commandment by faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.
Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith He kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood.
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Lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.
Which the Egyptians are saying to do. Were drowned.
Well this is in the second part of Moses life. Moses was 40 years.
It appears most of 40 years in the palace of Pharaoh. You know, it's interesting, isn't it, in the word of God, how this man Pharaoh wanted to destroy the children of Israel, and the safest place in the land of Egypt was in the palace for this sun, and God was going to use him to deliver.
His people. And so here we have Moses when he was come to years, or when he had become great.
He had to make his own decisions. He had to be exercised before God and I believe that, umm, it was after, perhaps after he was weaned, that he was brought into the palace of Farrell. His mother had perhaps two or three years, we don't know how long she had this little boy.
Some of us have had children leave home before. We would have liked to have them leave home before they were ready to leave home perhaps.
And they have gone out into this world and, uh, we trust the Lord for them as they go out.
But Moses was brought into circumstances.
From the worst circumstances possible as a slave, as the son of a slave, into the very best possible circumstances of prosperity in the civilized world. You might say, I say civilized. They were an idolatrous nation. But he went into the most prosperous civil home in the civilization that he lived in.
We're not told God passes over all of those.
Things in his word. Very few verses of scripture. We're not told of the details of his life in that way, but it says that when he was come to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You'll notice that these words are words of action.
But there is a determined exercise that's necessary on the part of every one of us in the world that we live in. And so Moses, he was living. Somebody used the term this morning that Ananias and Sapphira were living a lie. And so this young man grew up, Moses, in the palace, and everyone thought that he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He dressed like Pharaoh's.
The son of Pharaoh's daughter, he spoke like the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was educated like the son of Pharaoh's daughter, but he wasn't the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was a Prince with God. That's what Israel means, a Prince with God. And you may look like an Egyptian today. You may dress like an Egyptian. You may speak like an Egyptian. You may like to watch the entertainment that the Egyptians.
Watch, but you're not an Egyptian.
If you really know the Lord Jesus is your savior, you're a Prince with God.
You're an heir of God, joint heir with Christ. You have a heavenly prospect before you that is beyond what even the angels have. You're going to be blessed, and you have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. Let's sing a hymn.
#5 in the appendix.
Let's stand and sing this hymn.
Uh.
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They promised me and considerable.
Deserves.
All.
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Dangerous.
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Well, this is the word of God, and it says here God gives his snapshot. You might say a little approval, a little umm.
Picture perhaps of the government of the judgment seat of Christ. He gives a little snapshot of his approval of Moses life.
And you and I, each one, are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. He'll review our lives with the eye of love.
And the desire to bring us, to give us a reward and you know.
I think often times that little verse of Scripture in the umm first Peter chapter five, I think it is, it says it speaks of Sylvanus the faithful brother. Mr. Darby's translation, he says Sylvanus the faithful brother. He sums up his whole life in three, three or four words, the faithful brother, but here in connection with Moses.
We have the pictures given to us in the Old Testament and then the teaching of what he did and how he acted and how God saw.
And what he noticed. And God, as I said before, has seen you.
Even before you were born, but even at your conception and at your birth, and he has taken a great interest in your life personally, individually, and he has personally arranged your circumstances in this world.
Whatever they might be.
And each, each one of us has different circumstances. You'll forgive me for a personal comment, but I wasn't brought up among the brethren. And I used to feel sorry for myself. Never having met Brother Harry Hajo, never having met umm, Brother Chapter Brown and some of these dear brethren.
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But you know, I drive along in my little vehicle and I put ACD on and there's chapter Brown.
Where I put ACD on and there's another brother and I thank God for the ministry that has been recorded and I enjoy it. Well, you know, Moses refused.
A position, a false position that this world wanted to impose upon him. He was groomed, perhaps to be the next pharaoh. We don't know. And this world wants to impose upon you something that may not be honest in the sight of God, may not be really what you should have. So the point here is that you need to know how to say no to this world.
Do you know how to say no to this world?
I know of more than one young PE person. I can say this truthfully. I won't name any names young person that was offered.
A new position in the company and expected to work late, long hours and that they would not be able to on occasion be in the presence of the Lord on the Lord's day on occasion they would not be permitted to be at the.
Weeknight meetings in the little assembly where they were and had the courage to say to those that were offering the position no.
I think that would take too much of my time and I would like to be in the presence of the Lord on the Lord's day. I would want to be in the presence of the Lord and didn't take the position that was offered them. If I named some of the names that I know, you would be surprised at how God has intervened and in His mercy and His kindness has blessed those different individuals. God is no man's debtor and if.
And so Moses refused. Learn to say no, act on principles. Moses was a principled man. It's not that he didn't fail in connection with trying to defend his brother and so on, but he was a man of principle. He knew what he stood for. He knew what he believed, and he stood for what he believed. He refused.
There was a beginning. Have you begun? Have you begun?
To say you're no to this world if you haven't begun to say no to this world, and to receive its accolades and to try to be swept up in its current.
It's time to be exercised about these things. You know, it's just, uh, in connection with the, the different ones that I've met in Brazil, It's interesting to see how they look into my face sometimes and they say, brother, we're already behind. We only have been saved and gathered by the Spirit of God to the precious name of the Lord Jesus for months. There's a little assembly and umm.
Different places.
They say we're, we're behind already and we don't know what we need to know. And they try to devote their time to learning the truth of God, to reading the ministry that is available to them. Have you begun? Have you said you're no to this world and then become began to search out the things of God? Well, the next thing we find is that he had to choose. And perhaps these two things are connected. You could read the little notes in Mr. Darby's Bible and some of his ministry.
On this passage refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, he made a choice.
And you're going to have to make a choice. You're making a choice as you sit here this afternoon. We all choose, you know, we all choose. We choose the clothes that we're going to wear in the morning. We choose. You went down to breakfast this morning. Perhaps if you were at the hotel and you chose something to eat, you're going to make a choice. And your life is going to be the sum total of all of those choices that you made.
And you're writing history today.
What we're reading is history. Yes, it is what God saw in Moses life, but he made a choice.
What was his choice?
He lived in the palace.
He lived in luxury that is unimaginable.
He didn't have an electric fan to cool him off, he had someone fanning him. I mean, he could have as many people fanning him perhaps as he wanted. He was an accomplished general, apparently, and had got military victories and so on in Egypt.
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He probably had the best chariot.
Some of you have very good Chariots, Egyptian Chariots, very nice shiny Egyptian Chariots, very electronically connected as well. Not like Moses chariot, but Moses had a very good chariot, but he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God.
And to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
When he left Egypt, he left that chariot behind, he left the opulence of that palace, he left the bed that he had, he left the servants that he had, he left the best food in the country. He left it all and he chose instead of having the friendship of this world.
And all of those that were supporting the system that it was, He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. You know what affliction is?
Sometimes I forgive me. It's the engineer coming out of me. Affliction means abuse.
Moses said it was worth choosing to suffer abuse with the people of God.
Than to live a lie.
And he walked out of that palace for the last time. You know, why did God allow him to to live in the palace? Couldn't have God used him to? If he was the next Pharaoh, couldn't he have decided that the state religion would be Judaism?
God doesn't work that way. No, He works with those that are on the principle of faith. He brings them into blessing, and he exercised Moses here and he decided to suffer affliction with the people of God. We read this little passage of Scripture this morning or quoted it in Hebrews chapter 13.
Verse 12 It says, Wherefore Jesus also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him.
Without the camp bearing his reproach, his reproach is his shame.
But you know, if you suffer something of the shame of what Christ suffered, you're going to suffer some abuse by this world.
Moses knew what it was to suffer abuse with the people of God. And have you chosen?
Have you chosen to suffer affliction with the people of God?
That personal exercise? You're gonna have a good life and identify with Christ. The two don't go together.
You're gonna identify with Christ and have less of what this world appreciates.
Well, it says here that he also he didn't want to have these pleasures of sin for a season. That's what stamped over all this world sin pleasure, but only for a season.
There's pleasure in sin.
But it's for a season, and when that season is over, it brings bitterness. So the eternal prospects that.
Moses had, he says he had he. He had an estimation of things in verse 26. He esteemed the right reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
Now I've seen some of these riches in Egypt.
But we've all heard of Bitcoin.
We've all heard of economic collapse 1929 in this country.
The wealth of this world is not going to last forever. The prosperity of this world is not going to last forever. I want to just say this as a little bit of a warning. You and I live at the end.
Of Western civilization, we're not living at the beginning of the collapse of Western civilization. We are living at the end, at very close to the end of the collapse of Western civilization.
The Lord Jesus is going to come and ****** us out of this scene, and approximately 7 years, maybe a little longer than that, the Lord Jesus will appear with glory and glory and great honor, and he'll come with all of his Saints, everyone that is redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Old Testament Saints, right from Adam, right until the last martyr during the Tribulation period, they'll all appear with him.
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He'll come with all of his Saints.
And when He comes with all of His Saints, every chariot, every home in the Western civilization, the wealth, the bank accounts will all be in collapse. God is going to judge the opulence of the Western world and leaving him out and rejecting His Son. And so he had an estimation of the value of this reproach of Christ and Moses.
Said it was worth suffering reproach with Christ rather than having that treasure in Egypt. He had respect for the recommend recompense of the reward, and so he valued God's approval.
Do you, young person, do you value God's approval?
It's the fear of God. Moses was a principled man and he could have the approval of Pharaoh or he could have the approval of God. And he said in his estimation, he said he valued the approval of God more than what this world would give him.
You know what the fear of God I just thought this afternoon of the Proverbs chapter.
Let's read in chapter 4 of Proverbs.
Verse 23.
Keep thy heart with all diligence.
Or you could read it, Mr. Darby's translation. Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded, for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from the forward mouth and perverse lips. Put far from the Let thine eyes look right on. Let thine eyelids look straight before the Ponder the path of thy feet. Let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand, nor to the left.
Remove thy foot from evil. You know this word. Ponder is used five times in the book of Proverbs.
And it's used once in the book of Luke in connection with Mary. She pondered these things. You know what it means to ponder. It means it's like I've pictured it this way. You have a globe and that you turn it very slowly and you in your hands, you rotate it, you look at it, you look at every detail, every possible detail.
That's what God tells us to do. He says guard the heart above everything, that anything that is guarded. And he tells us to ponder the path of our feet. And so Moses, you know, he pondered the path of his feet. He pondered these things and he had respect. He valued God's appreciation of God's approval. I wanna ask you, dear young person.
This afternoon, have you sought God's approval for the relationships that you have?
Have you sought God's approval for the work that you desire to go and do? Have you sought God's approval in the things of the ordinary things of life? Seek his approval. You know it says in the Proverbs, it says, commit thy way unto the Lord. That's the the 37th Psalm. But it says their trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he found erect thy path.
And so don't you see Moses perhaps in the palace before leaving?
Kneeling down in the presence of the Lord and crying out to God for strength to take this step that he needed to take, that his conscience told him he must take. And as a principled man as he sought the approval of the Lord rather than the approval of the world and had to leave this place of opulence and luxury. A false position that he had.
He sought the grace of God to do it well. It says that he first took Egypt in verse 27 by faith. He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
Now you know and I know that the children of Israel walked out of the land of Egypt. If we looked in the Book of Exodus, it would say that not a dog barked as they left Egypt. It was a very orderly departure. They left Egypt, but it says here in our King James Bible that Moses forsook Egypt.
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What's the difference? You know what? He forsook every advantage that this world could give him. And Moses.
Had every advantage presented to him, he could have been at the top of the ladder rather than at the bottom. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And he forsook Egypt when he walked out of Egypt.
In his heart he forsook it. He said, I never want to be there again. I never want that for myself ever again. And so we need to seek grace from the Lord, don't we? To forsake Egypt, to forsake all of its advantage, to forsake it and to walk out, to turn our backs upon it, and to seek the blessing in the favor of God instead.
Well, here it says that umm.
He endured as seeing Him who in is invisible.
There are different powers that we've been Speaking of in connection with this, these passages, the power of Satan, We have, uh, the power of faith, We have really the power of God. And so here, you know, in his faith he endured and the Christian pathway is a pathway of endurance and patience. If you look in the book, the little epistle of James that uses this word.
Oftentimes it's the word patience. And so the Christian pathway is a pathway of patience. You know, the Lord Jesus is waiting, the patience of the Christ. We read of it in the New Testament and he's waiting for his bride. He's patient, He's patiently waiting and the moment.
He's given the word to come. He will come for his bride. He's waiting. He's patient.
And this world is impatient in all of the aspects of it. We have drive through food, we have drive through banking, we have road rage, all kinds of things. But one of the things that God values in His people is patience and endurance.
Patience. Patience to wait for him to watch and to wait for him. You know, I have, uh.
Three daughters and a son and I used to, when I was in business, go on a little trip and I would go.
To come back, fly into Toronto, phone the house, say I'm going to be back home in approximately 2 hours and Janet would tell the children, dad's home, he just landed in Toronto, he'll be home in two hours.
They would go to the door, glass door, and they would watch. They would watch and they would wait and then three of them, generally speaking, would get disinterested and go and play and run around. But there was one.
Who would watch and wait, watch and wait? And the little face was pressed against the glass when I came down the hill and drove to the house. And that's the one that got the little treats in my pocket 1St and the hug 1St. And dear brethren, we're living in a day of impatience when people are giving up, when it just doesn't seem worth the hassle of going on in a small company of those that are gathered by the Spirit of God.
To the precious name of the Lord Jesus. But oh, how God values patience as we wait for the sun to come from heaven. And we know that the Lord Jesus is coming very shortly. While we know that, uh, Moses was used of God to introduce the Passover, that feast, that look back or look forward to the cross. And then now we have the remembrance of the Lord.
To look forward that looks back to the cross, let's look at Deuteronomy chapter.
The last chapter there 3334. I'd like to read the end of Moses life.
We've read and commented very feebly upon those little, those major decisions that Moses made.
And got God noted that each one of us have to make he forsook Egypt. He refused a false position. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. He had an estimation of the value.
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Of God's approval.
AE God values a life of faith and God always rewards faith. Make no mistake of it, God always rewards faith. And you read the end of Moses life. I'm going to read this chapter, verse 30, chapter 34 of Deuteronomy. Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo to the top Pisgah that is over against Jericho and the Lord.
Showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Naphtali, in the land of Ephriam and Manasseh, and then all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea and the South, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees unto Zor.
How would you like to have the Lord show you the land of Israel?
He made it. He knew every detail.
I would have liked to have heard that conversation.
You know, it's a little picture to us. The Spirit of God wants you to know all of the blessings that you have in Christ. He's told us in the epistles of all those blessings that we have.
We're forgiven in Christ. We're redeemed in Christ.
We're given the sonship, a position of sonship in Christ. We're brought into the riches of everything that God could give to a man. He's blessed you with all spiritual blessings. He wants to show you. Will you let him show you?
If you have not read the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, you have missed doing something that is incredibly profitable. You have a God who loves you, who is interested in every detail of your life, and has, from the time that you were born, being working in the circumstances of your life, to give you a desire to buy the truth and to come into the knowledge of it. And he personally is willing.
To show you the whole breadth of the land and if you will read the word of God from front to back.
In a reverential manner and in a prayerful attitude, he will show you the whole land. Well, it says here that, uh, the Lord said unto him, This is the land that I swear unto Abraham and Isaac unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he married him.
In the valley, in the valley of the land of Moab, over against Beth Pure. But no man knoweth of the Suffolk, or unto this day.
How would you like if you had to leave this world? How would you like it to have the Lord bury you?
To take with his own hands one who had been such a faithful servant.
To dig the grave himself and to bury that man.
Moses was honored of God. It recorded in God's Word. This is what took place. Moses was in 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dimmed, nor his natural force abated.
He spent 40 years learning to be something in this world. He spent 40 years learning that he was nothing. And then he spent 40 years learning that God was everything.
And at the end of those 120 years, he was as strong as he was as a young man.
There's a little picture to us that we can be strong in the faith that we can be strong.
In our understanding and our discernment, eyesight, often times a little picture of discernment. His eye was not dimmed. There was discernment, spiritual discernment, in this man Moses, at the time he died.
It's a good thing to have a good beginning, young people, a good beginning and good beginning in the things of God. But make sure you have a good ending. Moses had a good ending. And then it says here that the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Mohammed, 30 days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. Joshua, the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel.
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Unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses, there arose not a prophet, since in Israel, like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
I tell you the end of the story with Moses is a marvelous story.
And we could read this chapter and comment on it and, uh.
It's rich.
Dear young person, this afternoon I'd just like to encourage you to go over those points in connection with Moses life and the decisions that he made in the fear of God. And just think of where that palace is in Egypt. Think of all the glory, that palace that he grew up in. You can't go to it, it doesn't exist. But if you please the Lord, if you walk with the Lord, if you devote your life to the cause of Christ.
There's going to be a record and there's going to be a reward, and there's going to be that fruit that was worthy of a life lived. For His glory and honor, let's commend ourselves, our loving God and our Father. We thank Thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. We think of how Moses had that eye of faith and saw Thee, the invisible one, and by faith.
Set aside, walked out of Egypt, and forsook all of his prospects in that place.
And, uh, walked in affliction with the people of God and we know that we walk in a day of weakness spiritually, while it may be a day of prosperity. Help us to.
In our hearts forsake Egypt and to be devoted to the cause of Christ while we wait thy coming blessed Savior. So we ask you for thy blessing upon these young ones, each one, that they might leave this conference in a different way than they arrived, that they might leave with a desire to live for Thy glory and honor. We ask that our God and our Father and give thanks in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Luke 12:12-21
Reading
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Lord and.
His heart was strong.
MMM, one drinking water.
For the dinner.
When I was born.
To work.
For a dream. For a dream.
Ask for help.
Our godfather, we are so thankful.
Here this afternoon that we have a blessed quote.
We can look forward to an internally with.
We're so thankful for the teaching and direction that we've been given.
So far this conference.
Now, we don't live our lives in the view of eternity. We've counted the call.
That's now going to come forward. We would continue to have this proper perspective contended before us.
This one also will continue to have our hearts gone out after Price unless it would live a life that is looking view of eternity and not giving to tomorrow.
We just ask these things in the name of Python, the Lord Chief of.
Reading and, uh, Luke chapter 12. Somebody will, uh, help you with where to start.
Brother Byrne, you suggested it. Where should we start?
Oh, you've got.
Well, we kind of discussed up to 1212, but we didn't complete it. Uh.
Luke chapter 12 and verse 12.
For the Holy Ghost, she'll teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.
One of the companies said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divides the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge, or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists of not in the abundance of the things which he possessed. They spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully.
He thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barn from build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, Thou hast much good laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required to be.
Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat.
Neither for the body what you should put on. So life is more than meat, the body is more than Raymond. Consider the Ravens, for they need their sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better than the fowls? And which of you was taking thought can add to a stature of one cubit? If you then be not able to do that thing which is leased, why take ethos? For the rest, consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spend not. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If then God so close the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things did the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
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Fear not, little flock.
For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Cell that you have and give all provide yourself bags with wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
So Bruce, maybe you could give us that outline again? The 1St 4 verses were uh, like hypocrisy.
That's the 1St 4 verses.
And 1St 3 verses the AMPI, the, uh, of the expectation there is that we should not try to be something that we are not. And so he's kind of, we need to be free of hypocrisy. The verses 4 to 12 is, is to be not afraid to speak the truth. We need to be free of the fear of man.
And this is the third covetousness is that.
Yes, that's right, Don FiOS if I was material impress, uh possession. So we need to be free of want, which is reduced covetousness.
The illustration is given of the man who has a barns and he choices down to make more, yet his life is cooperative in each of these plans and showing us how worthless it is to be playing laying up for ourselves on earth treasure when we should be laying up in heaven.
I'd like to ask you a question how you've gone into the, uh, discussion here before we start to speak about chapter 12 verse.
Virtual. Excuse me, I wonder if someone could explain what it means in verses 8:00 and 9:00.
When you talk about the danger of not confessing the Lord before man, we will be denied before God. What? What ways is He, What is He speaking out there?
We have all failed to profess Christ at times and feel bad about it afterwards. I should have brought up the Lord at that time. You know what I'm talking about.
But he says if you fail to confess him before men, you're gonna be denied before the angels have gone. And what does he mean there? Could someone help us with that before we go on with the chapter?
Should we make thought on it, Bruce would be that.
A true child of God doesn't deny the Lord from his heart, does he? Peter certainly denied the Lord in the strongest possible language, but his heart was right, and all it took was one look from the Lord to restore him, or begin the process, I should say, of restoration.
I well remember, uh, in the city of Oxford, England, uh, I happened to have been there a few times. And uh, there's a plaque there on the front St. commemorating three men who were burned at the stake back in 1553 for their faith in Christ. And one of them was a man by the name of Cranmer, who.
Uh, under pressure of persecution, recanted and gave up his faith in Christ and caved in to the then powerful Roman Catholic Church. And after some time he was totally restored in his soul and came forward and very clearly and definitely confessed his faith in Christ and was burned at the stake for it. And so.
I believe that this really refers ultimately to an unbeliever. Uh, but you and I, and I just say this, uh, because it's not the only place in the word of God where we get it.
Sometimes God puts a scripture in which primarily refers to an unbeliever, but which can have an application to you and me as believers. For example, we get one in Philippians chapter 3 where it talks about those whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things and so on, and it says whose end is destruction. Clearly an unbeliever.
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But can we mind earthly things?
We can can't be, Robert, you just spoke about that. Our God can be our belly too. And so I would suggest that for those who take heed to it, there is a warning here that.
I will lose a reward if I fail to confess Christ in this world. Uh, that is not in the same sense as a believer will receive from Christ who denies the Lord, uh, in both in his heart and externally. But, uh, I suggest that a believer can take the application of it in the sense that there will be a loss in the coming day. Does that, does that commend itself?
Yeah, indeed. Yeah, very good.
It's not what's characteristic of a real believer to deny, is it? And I think it's it's true that we could be caught up in a moment of pressure and give in like Peter, but it's not what's characteristic of a believer. We have it also in Second Timothy chapter 2.
Pretty clear. It says if we deny him, he also will deny us. So it's characteristic of a of a person who's an unbeliever.
Let me put there to exercise.
Edward Dennett says that's absolute.
Apostrophe.
In his book on First Timothy, page 31.
But it's put there for our exercise too.
It's good to remember if we read the beginning of that first, that you quoted Brother Bob, it says that if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. So there is a special place of honor given to one who will suffer with Christ and for Christ. So it's something that is, uh, we select, you might say, by grace and sovereignty of God. We choose to identify ourselves with him.
But he.
A little bit further on, it says in verse 13, if we believe not yet he abideth faithfully cannot deny himself. So if we really are believers.
He may have to deny us a reward at the end of the, uh, at the judgment seat of Christ. He's not gonna be able to reward us for denying him the opportunity to give us the reward. So when he speaks to the judgment seat of Christ, he speaks of loss because there will be loss at the judgment state of Christ, not loss of our eternal salvation that's securing Christ, but there will be loss of that which he can reward for. And I believe that's the principle we learn here and that the principle is that everything in our life has a consequence.
Whether we're it's an unbeliever, the the end result, of course, is the lake of fire to be completely denied by the Lord and taken at the great white throne and cast into the lake of fire. But for the believers, there's going to be a denial of that which he can reward for everything has a consequence in your life and mind. It may be a consequence for good. It may be a consequence for bad. And he's writing up the people today.
He's keeping a record, brethren, of those things that He can reward for. So it's like those in the end of Malachi, they spake off in one to another. There was a real testimony as they encouraged one another and spoke of the Lord. And what was the result? A book of remembrance was written before him for those that thought upon it, thought upon His name. And so there was faithfulness there. They honored His name, and He made a jotting of that in His book of remembrance. And that's what He's doing today.
So I really believe that's the overriding principle we learn here from this portion. And I say it again, and I think it's a serious thing for us to consider as believers that everything we do in our lives has a consequence for good or for. I'll just say this too, that well, we, a true believer will never deny the Lord from his heart or in his heart. He can do it out of fear. And I think that was part of the problem with Peter and even the other disciples.
Because they all forsook them and fled. Why? Well, no doubt they were afraid. They were afraid that as the Lord Jesus was taken, they were going to end up in the same, with the same consequences. And so often, like Kramer, who was mentioned, there was a fear. And I say that because before he takes this up, we took up at length in the last Reading meeting the subject of fear and not being afraid. But if you and I become afraid.
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Of the enemy, if we become afraid of those around us and what they might do to us, whether it's just a reproach or physical persecution, we're gonna deny him in certain situations. Brother Vernon and I were talking about this at the dinner table and we're saying, you know, it's, it's like the man who went off to, uh, the, uh, the army. And when he came back they said, well, what happened when they found out you were a believer? I said they never found out.
Well, the Lord couldn't reward him for a faithful testimony amongst his fellow fellow soldiers. He was a true believer, but out of fear of reproach from his fellow soldiers, he decided he wouldn't confess the name of Christ openly. So our brethren, may the Lord give us the courage that's needed. Again. What? What consequences are there in the Western world? We don't fear the headhunters. We don't fear to be taken out and shot at dawn.
By a tribunal or something like that. Uh, may the Lord give us the courage then to confess Him and to know that He values it so much that He confesses us before the Father.
Why does he bring in right after that? Why does he bring in this, uh, forgiveness of, uh, no forgiveness of the Spirit of God?
Why is that brought in?
He says, And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man shall be forgiven him, but unto him the blasted against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven that connection.
Is it not the rejection of the gospel of the grace of God? The Spirit of God brings Christ before the soul, brings Christ before the conscience of man, and presents Christ as the source of all blessing, as the Spirit of God that weighs upon the conscience and presents the only remedy for sin. And the sin against the Holy Ghost is really to reject Christ and reject the strivings of the Spirit in connection with Christ offered as the Savior of sinners, and to blasphemy against that holy Name, and to reject Him.
Is really to be damned for eternity?
Really what we have in the beginning of the book of Acts, the Jews were not condemned because they crucified the law. Now understand what I mean by that? It was certainly a condemnation of character of man, the ultimate condemnation of man and his character. But the testimony in the book of Acts, we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit. And if you look at the end of Act 7 where Stephen before he's modded, we find that they rejected.
Also nationally, the testimony of the Holy Spirit. So the sin against the Holy Ghost was really a national thing, really brought upon them by the leaders of in Israel, because they had, as you say, the testimony of the sun as he walked here in this world. They rejected that. They set it across. We have no king but Caesar. But then they sent a messenger after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us.
I don't believe that was fulfilled at the cross. The messenger after him was culminated in the stoning of Steven. That was the message after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. Because it was really the leaders there in Act 7, the religious leaders that sealed the final condemnation, so to speak, of the nation of Israel. And that's why in the first seven chapters of Acts, the gospel only goes out to the Jews.
Because they hadn't sinned against the Holy Ghost yet. But when they stoned Stephen, a man full of a Holy Ghost, a man who spoke in the power of the Spirit, as it tells us there then, as it were the Lord who was standing on the threshold of heaven waiting to come back and bless the nation. I believe if they had received that testimony at that point, so to speak, the Lord sat down. And when Paul later writes to the Hebrew believers, he doesn't write of the Lord Jesus standing on the threshold of heaven.
He writes of the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God four times in the book of Hebrews as the resource for individuals who have now stepped outside of the guilty nation by receiving the gospel of the grace of God, by receiving the Lord Jesus as their Savior. And I think it's helpful to understand that because people struggle. I've had people struggle with sinning against the Holy Ghost. Maybe I've sinned against the Holy Ghost.
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Maybe I've blasphemed against the Holy Ghost and there's no chance for me to get saved. But really, the sin against the Holy Ghost was a national sin, I say, propagated by the leaders of Israel. And while God will take the nation up again on the grounds of pure sovereign grace when Zion is addressed in the coming day, yet at that time He had nothing more for that nation. They rejected the sun. They rejected the witness of the sun and the power of the Holy Spirit.
And God said the Lord sat down, uh, on the right hand of God, he will rise up and bless them in the coming day, but on a completely different ground. What do you think Bruce does that tremendous self? Very.
Is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost in Luke 12 The same as blasphemy and Holy Ghost in Matthew 12?
I'm thinking of is Matthew 12 and verse 31 and.
And this is when they attributed the works of the Spirit of God manifested in their absolute perfection in the Son of God. And those works that the Lord Jesus did were attributed to Bales above. Matthew 123031 Wherefore I send you. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh the word against the Son of man, and shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against.
The Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven him neither in this world.
Neither in the world to come.
As yet, back in verse 28, this the Lord Jesus and the power, the perfect demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God, cast out demons and they said that's the power of the devil, not the power of the Spirit of God. That seems to be a little bit of a different aspect than what our brother is saying, and maybe we could have some clarity on that.
Well, I would suggest, Bill, that it's, it's the same in one sense, but the emphasis is different in loop. Uh, in Matthew's Gospel, as we know, we get more of a dispensational view of things for the particular emphasis on Israel. And in the coming day, we know that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached and there will be those, sad to say, uh, during the tribulation and in the world to come, which is the Millennium.
Who will attribute the work of the Spirit of God to the devil and who will blasphemy against him in that way? And the Lord says there was no forgiveness for that here in Luke, which as we said earlier, is really more of an introduction to Paul's ministry. It doesn't bring all that in. It doesn't mean that Israel was any less guilty for ascribing the miracles of the Lord to the power of Satan. But I believe it has a broader application here as we've been bringing out.
So if we go on here from verse 13, we find, as Brother Bruce was mentioning, a serious warning against being taken up with the things of this world and with covetousness.
And of course, it was ultimately not a good thing if in fact one brother was taking all of the inheritance by whatever means and not being ready to share with his brother. And, uh, that has been an ongoing difficulty, uh, probably since, uh, man has been on this earth, the world has a say. You never really know someone until you have to share an inheritance with them. And, uh.
Sad to say, there's a lot of truth in that, even among believers. But uh, it's striking here to see how the Lord Jesus.
In his time on earth was not here as a judge and arbiter of these problems, as the rightful king. Had he been accepted, that would have been a legitimate cause for him to take up. But no, he doesn't take it up. He's the rejected 1. And So what does he do? He points out to them. Just what is the general theme of this chapter, I believe.
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That everything down here is temporal and the Lord would seek to turn our eyes to that which is eternal. And, uh, So what a, what a telling story this is. I believe you exemplified it this morning, Bruce. You're a man. All these wonderful plans, which from the human side looks so good and he's cut off right in the middle of it. And someone else.
Gets to enjoy what he had taken the trouble to put together.
In verse 15, Lord gives a warning of covetousness, doesn't He? He says take heed and beware of covetousness.
So it's something that creeps up on us. It's not something that, umm, we fall into, so to speak, immediately, but it's, uh, something that grows and, uh, and the heart becomes engaged with things, uh, very subtly. And then it becomes overcome by, uh, a characteristic. And so there are people that are characteristic, uh, characterized by covetousness. And it could be cars, it could be homes, it could be electronics. It doesn't matter what it is, but it's what displaces.
The heart displaces Christ in the heart. And so as Apostle John says, uh, covetousness is idolatry. I think maybe that's the Apostle Paul that says that in Ephesians. And John says beware of idolatry or flee idolatry. So the Lord Jesus says beware of covetousness. It's something that just creeps up and we don't notice it and then we're overcome by it.
So the man that was complaining about his brother was as guilty as his brother that didn't want to share the inheritance.
It, uh, shows how those things creep into the heart. And it's so important that last part of verse 15. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesses. Material things occupy such a major.
Part in our lives. And I must say, brethren, those of us who've had the privilege of going to visit our brethren in countries that are poor so often find that the measure of joy in the things of God is great. Greatly. It's a lot greater in those countries because they're not so occupied with material things. It's not what we have. That's not what life is about.
Its relationships first of all with our God and Savior Jesus Christ and then with all the others as well to have.
If you might have much, you might have little. How long is that gonna be for?
A few short years and you will leave it all behind. It's it's tragic. I I like to read it in the new translation because it gives a little different focus and it's quite something to meditate on. It says for it is not because a man is in abundance that his life.
Is in his possession.
So people think that because they have abundance of possessions that their life is in their possessions. And so he gives that, uh, parable of that man that had so much and right in the middle of it, he's called away and leaves it all behind. Oh, brethren, Lord, help us to be delivered. I honestly believe rather than that material things.
Don't have to hinder us in our spiritual lives, but I have to confess for myself and I do believe it is a major problem in the United States of America, North America, that it does have a negative effect on our spiritual lives.
Ken, I've told the story before, but I I was so tremendously impressed one time in the Dominican Republic.
Uh, dear old brother who had so little, he was very poor. His house consisted of sticks stuck in the ground for the walls with the appropriate place for the doors, the banana leaf roof. You had to sit, situate yourself carefully because the roof leaked when it rained and we went in there.
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In Columbia, Canada and I were invited for a meal and the only place to sit was.
At the table, there was no other place to sit in the house. And we sat down there and that dear old brother got his Bible out and opened it up at the head of the table. He didn't have any nice house to talk about, didn't have any nice car. But he opened that book and I can still remember the joy that radiated from that black face. I thought he was reading. I learned later that he didn't know how to read.
He was quoted from memory those things that were engraved on his heart. The enjoyment of it, it's just so impressive. I just put my head down and said, Lord, please help me not to be so deceived by material things that I miss out in the enjoyment that there is with this dear brother.
Lord help us, brother, and I would only add to what you say, Bob, if I could. And that is that, as you say, there is a solemn warning for those in abundance. But the way the J&D translation reads shows us that we don't, and I believe it's accurate.
We don't have to be in abundance to be taken up with material things.
Those of us that have been occasionally in poor countries have seen some more taken up with something very, very simple there than someone over here who lives in a house that's worth $500,000 and yet just, well, that's the house I live in. That's where it costs in this area to have a house and uses it for the Lord. So we can't hide behind poverty to say that covetousness.
Can't overtake us. I believe that's the thought. But I agree 100% with you, Bob, that the access to material things and the means of acquiring them certainly presents a greater temptation in Western countries than it does in many other parts of the world. And a believer is is told specifically to provide for his own house. And if he doesn't, he's worse than an infidel and is denied the faith and so.
We have to be occupied with material things that don't deny that. The point is, brethren, let's be simple in our living habits. Still remember Brother Lundin saying the characteristic of Pilgrim life is simplicity? Oh, that's a beautiful thing to think about. When you think about our Lord Jesus, what did he possess when he passed through this world? It's not wrong to have things.
But he was almost had almost nothing when it came to supplying the needs of others. He was always had the answer for them. But he didn't have a house. He didn't have even an animal to ride on to fulfill the scriptures. He had to borrow Adobe and the fall of a donkey. And I sometimes think, why was it that? Why was it that the Lord Jesus didn't have?
Anything down here except the clothes on his back. And I have come to think, brethren, that he came from the Father's house and as he passed through this world, there was nothing that corresponded to that house. And so he just basically wasn't really interested. It wasn't that it was prohibited. And oh brother, may the Lord help us to focus on what's beyond this. Life is way to breathe.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
Paul says that we ought to possess as though we possess not.
And so we have a light touch upon what we have. I think one of the older brothers that I never met used to say that Christianity, as Christians, we ought to be distributors, not accumulators. It's a question of what we set our heart on too, isn't it? Because it says in SEC First Timothy 6 say that will be rich. They fall into divers temptation. They Pierce themselves through with many sorrows. And so we see in Scripture a number of individuals.
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That God gave wealth to and position, you see Daniel, Nehemiah, different ones, but they didn't set their heart on it. God put them in that position. Joseph, God brought him from the dungeon and put him in a position of wealth and and so on and power. And we see those individuals, how they use that for God's glory and for the blessing of souls at the time. And brethren, we're thankful for those that God has given means to.
Much of the ministry that's for sale on the back, uh, shelves here, that was written in the 1800s. It was the result of God raising up wealthy men and women who provided resources and trust funds to print that material. And some of those trust funds are still providing material today. Good solid Christ exalting ministry for us. Lady Power Support opened her home so that they could have.
A Bible conferences there and prophetic truth was brought out and so on.
And so we don't want to despise the mercies that God has given us or given any other believer. But I say again, it's a question of the heart. What are we setting our heart on? Brother Robert was telling us about Moses and he esteemed the riches of Christ more than the treasures of Egypt. And any of us who've been to Egypt know what the treasures of Egypt were. Go through the Cairo Museum, tour some of the tombs of the kings and and the ancient sites. Egypt was not a base nation in those days. It was a glorious nation.
It was the center of the world, so to speak, in that way. But he saw something beyond the physical treasures of Egypt. He was being prepared as the the son of Pharaoh's daughter, not the son of Pharaoh. Pharaoh's the raw side of the world. Pharaoh's daughter's the nice side of the world. And so he gave all that up. Was he ever disappointed? Not for one moment. When you talk to Moses another day and say, Are you sorry you gave up?
Being the son of Pharaoh's daughter and all that you enjoyed there, they'll say, look, first of all, I stood on the land on the Mount of Transfiguration. I did get into the land eventually.
I stood on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus and now look at what we're sharing together.
The glory we're sharing and the inheritance we have with Christ and as he, as he reigns over this world and so on. No, brethren, if we give up anything for Christ in this world, we're going to wonder why we didn't give up more. Another little story. I remember visiting a brother who had a large family in one of these poor countries we have the opportunity to go to. We sat down in this home and they struggled. They, they really struggled.
To keep their family together financially. We sat down in this home. I sat on a chair. I wondered if it was going to hold me. And the first thing he said is let's talk about Christ. Wasn't anything else to talk about. Couldn't talk about something new. He just got let's talk about Christ. We had a wonderful time. Your father-in-law, Robert. I remember one time we were visiting on one of those islands. There was a sister. She knew we were coming that morning to see her. You ever saw her home? It was a one room little clot board house with a thatched roof.
She was sweeping her front step and at the top of her lungs she was singing I have Christ what want I more when you when you experience something like that, it does something to your soul and like Bob says, it makes you realize the value that we place on material things brethren is far more than they're really worth and remember the things that we have in a material way God-given us. They are they're not our own. They're only loan to us. We're to be stewards, good stewards of what he has given to us what we have that is our own.
Are the spiritual blessings that are given to us that we're going to enjoy for eternity, But He's just committed to us for a little time. Those temporal things, may we use them for His glory.
In Leviticus in connection with the year of Jubilee.
Things All the land is mine.
And I remember as the year of Jubilee came, the price got pretty low. Remember Clarence Lundig's savings price?
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What are we doing?
The Lord never had the best in this world, did He?
He never had the best and umm, it's a privilege. I believe in this world as we live through it to not strive for the best. I just, uh, have an underlined in my vial, maybe you have it in yours, but uh, in this next little story about the rich man, he said.
And then I have underlined, But God said, he said. But God said.
And there's two different perspectives, Mann and his wealth and his prosperity, what he says and what he sees.
But God said, and so the end of it all is going to be his perspective. And so let's, uh, uh, what we have, may we hold it lightly and have a sense of having to give an account of how we held what we had.
And that is really the point here, isn't it? Humanly speaking, there was nothing wrong with having a good crop. In fact, in Israel that was a mark of God's favor. And if he were going to have a good crop and keep it, a larger barn might be a very reasonable decision to make. It was the leaving God out of all his calculations and all his plans that was a real problem. And so we know, and I have known and still do, rather than have been successful in business.
And who have used what they had for the Lord, who have managed their business wise, wisely. But at the same time, the Lord was always 1St. And we can look back even to those in past generations perhaps, who weren't gathered to the Lord's name. Some here may know the story, but we still use His products today. Products that bear the name of Colgate. Colgate.
You can still buy Colgate toothpaste.
William Colgate, who founded the Colgate Company, was an immigrant from England, came over with his family at the age of 12 in 1795, and 11 years later founded the Colgate Company. And it's a very interesting story that when he first had the need to hire an accountant, the accountant came to him and said, I've, I've got a question here. I don't understand one thing he said there's.
There's a column here called God's Column, and 110th of all the receipts right from day one have gone into this column. What's all that about? William Colgate said. That's God's part of the prophets, and you see two of them God has never cheated to.
There was a man of God. He was never, as far as I know, gathered to the Lord's name, but he was a believer and the Lord prospered his business, but he lived for the Lord. He believed in giving the Lord his part right off the top. And I just mentioned that as as a story of how God has worked in hearts of successful businessmen. And there's nothing wrong with that or what this man did. But he had no place for God in his thoughts, no heart for the Lord at all, no thought even of.
What lay beyond this light? And that was the serious harm in what he did. And that's another point. Good point, isn't it? Let us eat and eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And that's really the spirit of the age, brethren, isn't it? Living for the moment. Everybody's just living for the moment. You pull a credit card out and you, you Max it out, but you're not thinking about the day of reckoning when there's going, you're going to have to start paying back on it. And interest is accumulating at an alarming rate.
You can buy things on time so easy today. The spirit of the ages, Live for the moment are sometimes told. I travel with uh, Air Canada is my main carrier and their frequent flyer program is called Aeroplan, and their slogan is Live for the Moment. Now I realize that's just a worldly slogan to get people to fly and to accumulate air miles and enjoy some of the perks of Air Canada and the Star Alliance.
Airline network. But it really does sum up the spirit of of the age, doesn't it? Living for the moment. Now, brethren, as believers, whether we realize it or not, we can get caught up in the spirit of the age, perhaps without even realizing it. And so it's a warning, isn't it? Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. He said he was just living for the moment, not thinking of God, as Bill said, not thinking of each of eternity.
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Now, of course, for a believer, every one of us are going to end up in the Father's house eventually. You know what lives for the moment. He chose the well watered plain of Jordan. He chose that which was for present advantage and he lived as it were just for time and for the moment. Now we know we're going to see lot another day. But he had a lost life. He had no little if any fruit for God in in his life. He had a lot of sorrow in his family and he lived for the day.
When he saw it all burned up and destroyed.
Because, Brother, everything we accumulate down here, Peter tells us, is reserved under fire. It's going to pass away. It's not our own. It's not what we're going to have for eternity. And I was thinking when Brother Gordon was speaking too, about the day of the the year of Jubilee, again, what placed the value on the things that the children of Israel bought and sold was the nearness of the year of Jubilee. Because when the Jubilee came, as was said, they had to give it all back.
And so in other words, if a man bought a field in the 49th year, he obviously didn't pay much for it because he was only going to be in possession of it for one year, and then it had to be returned to its original owner. Rather than our jubilee is about to break, the Lord Jesus is about to come. And if you and I can keep that before our souls, it's going to place a proper perspective and a proper value on the things that we have down here. Again, we don't despise those mercies that he's given us, but we need to place a value on them in light of eternity.
The love of money.
Is the root of all evil. Heard that so many times. Man of the world will quote that misquote. It managed to reduce about 3-4 days ago. He said, you know that uh, money is the root of all evil. And I said, well that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all you.
That sin is not a sin of Richmond, only many a poor man to be accused of having the love of money, wanting it, never getting it, but wanting it, lusting after and all the rest of it. This man asked a question here when he had excess for 17. He said what should I do? Why didn't he ask God what he should do with his excess?
Had he done that, the answer would have been given to him in verse 33.
So to have to give home and provide yourself safe, it's Black's not old, a treasure in the heavens that feel it's not where no thief approaches, neither moth crops. Put it into the service of the Lord.
Hmm.
So if I have much down here, is it right, Bruce, that I will be held more responsible whether I use it for the Lord or not? Indeed.
And that's where it hits US here in Western countries, I believe, because if we have more, I believe the Lord expects us to use it for him. And we get that principle, don't we? That it's in the 21St chapter of this same gospel that to whom, uh, men have committed much of them? Will they expect I'm not quoting it accurately. Expect the more. And it's the same principle with God, isn't it?
And so if God gives us more, he expects more. You get that same principle in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the man with five talents was.
To, uh, and did render more than the man with two and the man with one. So I believe there's a solemn responsibility on us if God just does choose to give us more of what this world has. It's a far greater responsibility, isn't it?
I think we might say, too, that.
And a great danger in this country, I think, is that data, financial irresponsibility. Uh, there's so much grasping after these things, which is really covetousness, isn't it? And living beyond our needs. That's a great scourge in this country and a great scourge among Christians that is covetousness is that verse says in first Timothy, umm, the, the love of money is a root of all evil. In other words, the love of money can be a root.
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It's not just the love of money as the root of all evil, but it's a root of all evil.
Rich, poor and indifferent. And so financial irresponsibility is also a type of coverage, isn't it? Living beyond the means the Lord has given to us. And that's a real scourge in this country.
There was a man that was speaking one time in conference and he was talking about someone who was going to give him $1,000,000 and he said, well, if I had $1,000,000, I'd give $100,000 to the Lord and.
We looked at and said I'm not so sure.
Your question is, how are you faithful with it? Do we hold it with an open hand? Do we? Do we hold it as consumers? We're not the real owner. And so often we think in our minds, well, if the Lord gave me this, I would be faithful. And that's backwards.
The Lord is distracted when he guarded him into US.
$100,000 so lost 20 grand for it to get the place up.
It is longer, you give the time, it's not sometimes.
So that's a good point, because our hearts are tricky, aren't they? And sometimes, as Brother Matt has just said, we can say, well, if I had more, I could do more for the Lord. But if the Lord wanted us to do more, he'd give us more.
And so the man who had the pounds or the talent, it wasn't a question of how much they had, it was a question of how faithful they were with what God had entrusted to them. And so don't sit and say, well, if I had more, I could do more to propagate the Lord's work, or I could go here and there and encourage the brethren and that kind of thing. No, do what he has for you. Use the resources. I just want to echo what Matt said because I think it's very, it's very good. And it's another form of covetousness.
And it seems like a good motive, but I have heard of those who have really strove after more with the thought that they could do more for the Lord. When they got more, it only LED them astray. And they ended up not only not using it for the Lord in the way they first had thought they would, but they used it in a way that was actually dishonoring to to the Lord. So rather than these things are very practical and they're very serious if God puts a dollar in your hand.
Realize that, say it's from him, it's temporarily loaned to you and use that dollar. If he gives you a three room bungalow, use it. If he gives you A7 room mansion, use it. And everything we have, we ought to be exercised to use it for the Lord's glory, our car, our home, our dollar, whatever it is. And then, and I know it's not so much society, but even our time, our energy.
These are all things that are entrusted to us, not to covet after more of them, but to use what He has given us. Isn't that what we have in Luke 16? Just reading in verse 11? If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammoth, that is the things to do with this world, Mammon being a Aramaic word for riches, for treasure, who will commit you, your trust, the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man, for things that we have are not our own, who shall give you that which is your own? So we are to be faithful stewards in the material things that we have received.
The The unjust Jewish is commended here because he sacrificed the presence for the future.
Mm-hmm. MMM.
And in our chapter you notice it says the ground of a certain rich man.
He didn't bring it forth, the ground brought it forth, but he took it as being hit.
And when we give, it's not 10% like has been mentioned. It's all sometimes find in Latin America. They, uh, speak a lot about tithing and 10% belongs to God. But, uh.
01:00:03
Israelite could say that 10% for God, 90% for me, but if the New Testament we have to say we practice tithing, we're robbing God 90%. It's all his and so we're responsible to use it all As for him.
Yes, thank you, Bob. And I didn't mean in telling that story about William Colgate to imply that 10% was all we should give. Uh, so that's, that's a good comment.
You're bought with the price being not the servants of men.
We belong to another. I think it's your father-in-law used to say it had a little expression that the day that I got saved, I gave up my right to choose. I gave up my right to choose. I gave my rights to another to choose for me. So this man, he wanted the fruit. He had a real appreciation for the fruit of a cursed earth. But when it came to the fruit of eternal things, he had no interest. And so he says in verse 21, so is he that latest up treasure for himself.
I find it a help personally, not to seek after the best of what this world has. It's necessary perhaps to have a vehicle. It's necessary to have clothes. But I can share some, if you'll forgive me for a personal experience. Very recently in Brazil and I was wearing these shoes and I had uh, umm, I think, uh, very common clothes. But I was ashamed of myself as I sat in the home.
Of a brother we had almost nothing in his home.
And I was dressed better than anyone else in that home, but I didn't think I was really well dressed. The next visit, I went in my jeans and, uh, some tennis shoes and that sort of thing. I'm not suggesting that we should come into the meetings address that way. We need to show reverence for the Lord, but there are those that, uh, have an appreciation for the things of God and have nothing, have very little in this world's goods. And so many, we actually strive for those things. And it, you may say that this is, uh, umm.
Really not applicable to us. Well, it is, I know, I know of uh, more than one brother, a young brother graduated, got a very good job, very good position and he had a, he has a job that is very well paying. He bought himself a very modest house. He's married, has little family and I went to visit him for the first time that I went to visit him several years ago and I said, brother, why do you, I know you have a better income than this and uh.
You've chosen to live in the, uh, this kind of a home and so on. Why do you live this way? He says, I wanna do a work among these people, a work of God for God. And I would rather live like they live than to live in prosperity. And God is blessed is exercise. It's personal. It's not just for people in South America.
One more first in that connection, we won't turn to it, but in Agar's prophecy in the 30th chapter of Proverbs, in the eighth verse of that chapter, he says, give me neither poverty nor riches. In other words, he wanted just enough to get through and do what the Lord wanted him to do. Riches could perhaps make us complacent. Poverty could make us bitter. But he says, Lord, just give me, give me what I need. And that's a good prayer for us, isn't it, To get that the Lord would give us what we need to provide for our family.
You know, the Lord hasn't asked us to live like they live in some poorer countries. We couldn't with climate and and it, it wouldn't be a good testimony if I had a house in Smith Falls like some of the Adobe Facts Group houses I visited in March in the southern tip of Guyana. It wouldn't be a good PO. It wouldn't be a good testimony. I couldn't be a testimony to my neighbors. We, we need to operate within the society in which God has placed us. But he gives us, he will give us the resources then if we prayerfully seek his faith.
To live and be a testimony in where he placed us. I was reading just this week of Robert Chapman, that great man of God in the 1800s, it was referred to as the apostle of love. They said he didn't just preach love, he he lived it. But he chose, he was a man of wealth and physician, but he chose to live amongst the poor of London because he wanted to be able to minister to his poor brother and to preach the gospel to the poor.
He, he, he realized God had given him something to do and he lived in a way and in a meet with a means that was acceptable where he where he was at the time. So we need to be exercised, brethren. Where has God placed us? He hasn't placed us in poorer, poor country, hasn't placed us in the tropics where you can live in a bamboo house. No, he, he gives us common sense and wisdom in that regard too.
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But the question is, are we seeking to live beyond our means? Are we seeking something He hasn't given us? And I just bring us back to what we said earlier, brethren, it's a question of the heart. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also? Are our hearts attracted to Christ and what is ahead and the true riches, or our hearts occupied with this world and what we can accumulate for the moment?
Gonna make another comment here too before we leave this section, but in verse 19.
The end of the verse that says this is what the rich man says take sign E eat, drink and be merry. Not just things, is it but there's a danger and pleasure seeking isn't there in this country particularly takes on eat, eat, drink and be merry. It says in the in the first Timothy speaking about somebody who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. And I think that's a scourge too in this country, isn't it particularly the danger of pleasure speaking now I don't say we don't.
We are thankful for mercy's of course we are, but we need to keep things in perspective and I think sometimes there's a great danger that we are seeking pleasure and let's be honest with ourselves and and and the Lord that that we don't make pleasure in our object. At the beginning of the church period, the disciples that says being let go, they went on to their own company. I think there's a real safety of finding our social life and our.
Uh, desire for fellowship among those who are believers, those that are gathered to the Lord's name and, uh, to make the assembly a, a center and a focus of our lives being let go. They went under their own company. And So what the world does is go after pleasure. They don't have that kind of fellowship. They don't have the, uh, spiritual food for their souls. And so they have an emptiness and they're trying to fill that emptiness, that darkness.
But the believer can be found in fellowship with those of his own company.
But that doesn't mean we don't enjoy a little re relaxation once in a while and take our children out for a hike or maybe to the beach. And I know Eric didn't mean that there are those little times of relaxation that he gives us. But I often think of the disciples. When John the Baptist was beheaded, they came to tell the Lord about it and he drew them into a desert place to rest a while. And we sometimes stop there with the story.
But they really didn't get a rest because the next thing you know, 12 disciples, 12 men are distributing food to thousands of people. Didn't sound like much of a rest to me. Because what the Lord was teaching is that this is not the Sabbath. When the Lord was here, there were many reasons he gave for healing on the Sabbath day, he said. But the best one perhaps is my Father too, and I work. The Lord was not here for a rest. The only time you read of him sleeping is on a boreal pillow and a boral boat for a few moments.
And he still didn't get much of a rest. They woke him in the storm and said, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And so he was not here for a rest. And brethren, we're not here for ease. Yes, there are those times and our children need diversion and so on. And those times we can relax a little bit and and whatever. But brethren, there's plenty of work for us to do. The disciples, the Lord had more work for the disciples to do. And so in Mark's gospel particularly, they go from one busy service a non and forthwith and straightway from one busy activity.
So much it says they didn't even have time to eat. I'm not saying we should shouldn't take time to eat and take care of our the natural, but the principle is brethren, we're not here for ease. We're here to serve the Lord for his glory. This is the working time and the verse that they and I take great comfort in. Is there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God? It's not here, but there is a wonderful rest awaiting for those that seek to follow and serve the Lord now.
3746 in the appendix.
That I am undescribed to be who follows her and wait to see.
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My God.
It must be made.
My spirit.
Life.
Enjoy our world.
My new hair.
I pray for the beginning.
Look like my name.
Good. Thanks.
Our God and Father, we thank You for the opportunity that has been honored this afternoon to sit under the sound of Thy word, and we feel rebuked. We feel that Thou has said something to us this afternoon with regard to the pursuit of life here in this world.
And we trust that each one of us will exercise about our pursuits.
Our focus may be centered upon Thy Son, the Lord Jesus.
01:15:00
And we use our energy and our time and our money are increased to further His cause in this world.
Help us to not be like this rich man. We've only had a focus upon things in this world and lost it all. Help us to use our time, our God, for the glory of Thy Son in some way. So we just thank you now for the fellowship that we've enjoyed together. We asked each for a blessing. And as we continue these meetings, we thank you for the privilege of being here. We give you our thanks to the neighbor, thy Son, and Lord Jesus.
Amen.
The Man Christ Jesus
Gospel—Jim Hyland
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I'd like to start the Gospel Meeting this evening with Hymn #4 on the gospel hymn sheet. Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me. You know I love this Him because it makes it so very, very personal. And for most of my life I have been able to sing this hymn from my heart. Christ is the Savior for me. How thankful I am to be able tonight to present once again as we have presented.
On many occasions, Christ is the savior of sinners. He's my savior. He's precious to my soul. And before this meeting is over, I trust that every person who rises out of their seat can say that he is their savior and that he is precious to you. And tonight we hope to present the person and work of this glorious person. But I trust that as we sing this together, we think about it.
And that everyone can sing. Christ is the Savior for me. Let's stand up to sing this and if someone will please start it.
No, I can't say I am bored.
For a dream work.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are tonight for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're thankful for everyone in this room who can sing from their hearts, Savior of sinners like me. But our hearts are solemnized too, as we think of the reality of this time before us.
And the internal issues that we have to discuss and to consider, that there may be someone in this room who is still lost, and in their sins our God. We pray, if there are such tonight, that they might be arrested in their course, that they will open their eyes to see beauty in Christ and draw them to the Savior. We pray that the gospel might be presented clearly and simply. We pray that thou at work mightily. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
00:05:27
Amen.
Like to begin with two portions of scripture this evening. The first one is in Mark's Gospel, chapter one.
Mark's Gospel Chapter one.
And verse one.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then I want to read a couple of verses in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
With the Lord's help this evening, as we seek to present the gospel of the grace of God and the Savior of sinners, we're going to turn to a number of Scriptures. But we introduced it with these two portions of the Word of God because we want to stress at the very beginning that what we have to present tonight is not a theology. It's not a philosophy. It's not Reformation.
It's not turning over a new leaf. It's not a turn around in life. We have to present to you a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to speak of Jesus Christ and we're going to speak of Christ Jesus, the same person. But it brings, they bring before us in the scriptures that we hope to look at two very important aspects of the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
On the one hand, we're going to speak of Jesus Christ, and that has to do more with his life down here in this world and the work that he took up for the glory of God here on planet earth. But we're going to talk, too, about Christ Jesus, which brings before us the aspect of where he is now and what he is doing now, and the fact that tonight he's the savior of sinners, not here in this world, not on a cross of shame. He's not dead in a tomb. No, he rose from the dead and he returned to the Father's right hand, and there he is as that savior of sinners and will speak of this.
As we go along. But we began here with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We use that word gospel. And yet, you know, I am surprised in talking to people today that people don't really understand that word gospel. If you say evangelical or something like that, they perhaps get the concept. But the word gospel is being lost in the vocabulary of the Western world today. And you tell people that there's the gospel of Jesus Christ and they often don't know what you're talking about.
And so tonight we want to make things as clear, as simple and as simple as possible. And the word gospel, as many of us have often enjoyed, is simply an old word for good news. Tonight we have good news to tell you. There's very little good news in this world, and I don't have to tell you about it. You just listen to a newscast. Just read a corner of your newspaper and you will soon find out.
That there's not much, if any, good news in this world. In fact, Scripture teaches us, shows us that as things wind down in this age of grace, in this dispensation, as things wind down for the judgment of God, there's going to be less and less good news in this world as far as the world system is concerned. Because this is the day when, if we're honest with ourselves.
Men's hearts are failing them for fear and looking for those things that are coming on the earth. And you talk to men even in high places today, all they might put on an outward bravado. They might try to convince you and themselves that things are getting better, that there's going to be an upswing in the economy, that they're going to get to the root of terrorism and all those kinds of things. But if they're honest with themselves and you look into their eyes, you can see.
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That there is fear and men are even in high places, are beginning to confess.
That they are dealing with an interplay of economic, political and social forces that are far beyond their control. And it's not. If the elastic is going to be, is going to snap. It's when they realize that things can't go on, but they don't have the answers. Why? Because they're not turning to the word of God. They're not turning to the Lord Jesus Christ. But tonight we have the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Son of God. This word comes from an old word that was used in Greece back in the days before Greece was a united country. And there were cities walled cities, sometimes a great deal a great way apart. And there would often be battles feuding between these cities. And those battles were often held out on the plains, a great distance from the cities that were feuding. And history tells us that those cities would have Watchmen on the wall of the city.
And they would be watching for a runner. They'd be watching for a messenger. And as they saw that messenger begin to appear on the on the horizon, running towards the city, they would be listening for his message. And sometimes a great way off. They could hear him shouting gospel, gospel, gospel. It meant that there was a victory for that city. And the people would rejoice in the city when they heard that word, gospel and all. Tonight we can rejoice in this world.
Because there is good news. There is a victory that has been won at Calvary's Cross. Some of us delight to sing that him his be the victor's name who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim his conquest was their own. Oh, what a victory. There has been one. And now there's good news. Good news to the to lost sinners. But all we trust is that the light of the glorious gospel by a work of the Spirit of God tonight will penetrate into any dark soul that there may be here in this room.
I know there are just hundreds of us here tonight who thrill as we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. But maybe there's someone here and you're kind of squirming and you're watching the clock and you're saying, well, good thing it's only 45 minutes tonight, and it'll probably be over in about half an hour. Yes, it probably will be over in about half an hour. But tonight, no gospel meeting is just another gospel meeting. It is a glorious opportunity to present the Savior of sinners.
But we want to be faithful too. Because when we talk about the Savior of sinners, when we use that word, sinners, it's you and it's me. It's every one of us born into this world, born with a sinful nature, sinners by practice, and Christ Jesus came to save sinners. He is the Savior of sinners. Do you realize tonight that you are a Sinner before God?
And do you realize that there is nothing you can do to rid yourself of one sin? Oh, tonight we want to impress upon you that sin has its consequences. It has its consequences first in this life, because the way of the transgressor is hard. And some of us have been to places where we see the ravages of sin in a very real way. Just go down to the inner city. Just go down to some of the inner city missions.
Just go to some countries where sin is practiced in a very real way, where it's not so glossed over as sometimes it is in the Western world, and you see the effects of sin. But more than that, sin has eternal consequences. If you go on in your sins tonight, I want to warn you before we go any further, that you are on the the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. You are on your way to hell tonight.
Yes, you are. You might try to tell yourself you're not that you're not so bad as the other person, but you know, it tells us men measuring themselves by themselves and amongst themselves are not wise.
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You know, you might go and give a gospel tractor, speak a word in the gospel to somebody who's an upright, upstanding citizen in the community, always there to help out, always comes home to their wife and family with their paycheck, good father, good husband. And that person may say, oh, now just a minute.
That's the right kind of message to take to someone else, but not to me. I'm a good, upstanding citizen in my community.
Why don't you take that message to the thief, someone who steals. And so you take the message to the thief and he says, whoa, now just a minute, I steal a little bit, But you know, everybody's dishonest and you gotta survive. And I don't really hurt anybody. I may take their stuff, but I don't hurt them. Why don't you go down and talk to the person who's been abusive, someone who has raped or mugged, And so you talk to that person.
And after a while, they say that's the right kind of message. I I've hurt people, but I've never killed someone. You take that to the murderer. You see what I mean? You can always find somebody worse than you, and you think the message is for them and not for you. But Scripture clearly tells us tonight that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's not a man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, Solomon said.
It's the great Leveler.
It brings us in all in on the same ground. But I want to impress upon us before we move on to that Not only are we sinners, but there is nothing we can do to get rid of our sins. Because I think there's people who will recognize that they've they've sinned, they've done wrong things. But to recognize that they're helpless sinners with nothing they can do to better their standing before God is quite another matter. In fact, I think if we went out on a busy street corner in Kirkland tonight.
And ask passers by if they've done wrong things. I think most people, if they're really honest even today, will admit that they've done wrong things. But to admit that they are helpless sinners, lost and guilty before God is quite another matter. Don't misunderstand me when I use this illustration. I'm not against home remedies, but if you're sick, as long as you think there's something you can do yourself.
The better your sickness. You're not going to seek the advice of a doctor if you think there's some home remedy that you can administer. You're not going to go to the physician. But as soon as you realize that your case is beyond anything that you can do or administer, then and only then, do you seek the advice of a physician. And tonight we're presenting the great physician because every one of us have a disease, the disease of sin.
And apart from Christ and the work of Calvary, it is absolutely incurable.
There's nothing you can do, not by works of righteousness which he hath done, but according to his mercy he saved us. I'd like to read 2 verses now, two portions now that bring before us Jesus Christ. Let's go first of all to John's Gospel, chapter one.
John's Gospel chapter one and verse 17.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and then turn over a few pages to the 17th chapter of John.
John's Gospel chapter 17 and verse 3.
And this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. We find here first of all that the Law was given by Moses, and the Law was given to show really how far short man fell of God's standard.
It was God's yardstick. It tells us that the law entered, that the offense might abound.
Because when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, sin came into the world through his Adam's disobedience. It says by one man's disobedience sin entered and death by sin. So death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. But God came in then and gave his standard to show just how far short man had come to show really the depth of his sin. And so the law was given by Moses.
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But the law never saved the soul. The Law never promised eternal life.
It promised life in this world and obviously no one's kept it or we would have some ancient here amongst us today.
But the law was never given as a passport to heaven. The law if a man could have kept the law.
He would have lived forever in this world, but he could not keep the law. He fell short, completely short. And so God brought in something else. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Truth. Yes, because God has never lowered his standard to reach out to man in his sin. No. God is holy, God is light, God is just, and God's righteousness, God's holiness, must be met.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We talk about this present age as the age of grace, the dispensation of the grace of God. Because God has found a way that he can reach out to us in grace and in mercy, a way that he can reach out to us. So we do not have to end up in a lost eternity because of our sins, grace and truth.
Came by Jesus Christ and it tells us by grace are ye saved through faith.
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast, I stand here tonight saved by the grace of God, not because there was some spark of divinity within me that was fanned into uh, in in some way, or placed in a certain environment, and it flared up into something wonderful. No, I was dead in trespasses and sins, but thank God he has reached out to me in grace.
Imparted divine life to me.
Eternal life. And that's what he wants to do for you tonight. If you're still lost and in your sins, he wants you to come into relationship with himself as the Lord Jesus prayed in the 17th chapter of John. Do you know God as your father? Do you know him as a savior? God, do you know the Lord Jesus as your savior? This is the great question tonight in the reading meeting we talked about.
Amanda, A Man's Life.
And how it's not the things he has in a temporal way that are really life or give substance to a person's life. But that boils down tonight to not what do you have in a temporal way. I don't care if you have a mansion or a Hut. I don't care if you have a late model car or an old junker. I care whether you're saved. I care whether you're on your way to heaven. And that's what God cares about.
That's what the Lord Jesus cares about. That's why God sent his Son into the world.
He sent his Son into this world that we would be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? God is a giving. God the wages of sin is death. It's true but all tonight. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God wants you tonight.
Not for what he can get out of you. Christ wants you tonight. Not for what He can get from you, but for what he can give you. He's a giving God.
He gave his son the greatest gift ever given to mankind.
The greatest gift this world has ever known. That which Paul referred to as an unspeakable gift.
And as a result of that unspeakable gift, he's offering many more gifts tonight.
Not the least of which is eternal life. To know God, the true God. You know, I have the privilege of going to other countries and a few weeks ago I was in Guyana, South America. And just about everywhere you look you see a Hindu temple. I plan, Lord willing, early next month to go to Trinidad. It's a Hindu country with a Hindu government and on every corner there's a Hindu temple and these hideous looking idols.
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Not idols that are smiling and looking happy, but idols that are frowning. And people come and they spend their whole life trying to appease these idols and those who are very poor, materially. Why they'll go hungry to bring some food to the idol temple for this idol that can neither see nor hear or speak or help them. It's a solemn thing, but you know, it's so beautiful when we go to the word of God.
Like the Thessalonian believers, they turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
And to wait for his Son from heaven. Do you know the living and true God tonight? Have you brought, been brought into relationship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you have eternal life this evening? I say this is the crux of the whole matter. This is what everything we have spoken of today really boils down to, you know, I don't know why you're here at this gospel meeting. And I suppose if we were to go around the room.
We would get various answers. There's boys and girls here because your parents have brought you. There's young people here. And I think if we were honest with ourselves, there's a variety of reasons why you're here as young people. Maybe some of you have come for the social aspect of things. Some of you are looking forward to the activities later this evening. Certainly nothing wrong with that. Some of you I know well and have come because you want to learn more of Christ.
You want to encourage your fellow believer. Maybe there's some here who feel they've been forced to come. Maybe there's someone here tonight who came as a result of an invitation from a friend. But I know one thing. While there's perhaps a variety of reasons that have brought us together, a variety of what we might call second causes, the first causes, the Lord. The first 'cause is God. God has brought you into this room and His grace and mercy tonight.
So that you can have one more invitation to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ and all he wants to impart to you divine life, bring you into relationship with God the Father and with himself for now and for all eternity. But now I want to read some scriptures that bring before us Christ Jesus. As I say, Jesus Christ his title is Jesus Christ has more the thought of his work up until.
His ascension, his work here in this world which was completed to the glory and the satisfaction of God. But we're presenting the Savior tonight, not here in this world as we were saying. Let me just recap again. The Lord Jesus came. He went to Calvary's cross. He there died and shed His precious blood, wonderful truth, the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanse us from all sins. He was laid in the tomb according to the prophecies of the Old Testament.
And then, according to the word of God, he rose from the dead the third day.
And then, when he had remained on Earth long enough to give ample and complete testimony to his own that he had bodily risen from the dead, a moment came when his feet left planet Earth at the Mount of Olives, and he ascended back to heaven. We've quoted this verse, but I want to read it in its context in First Timothy.
First Timothy chapter one.
First Timothy chapter one and verse 14.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And then notice the verse in the second chapter.
Chapter 2 and verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified.
In due time and then just one more portion for now in second Timothy.
Chapter 3.
And verse 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures.
Which we are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith.
Which is in Christ Jesus. Oh, what a wonderful thing that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I know we've told this story before, but I can't help it because this story comes to mind every time. I read this portion in First Timothy chapter one. The story I heard long ago, and I actually just reread it not very many months ago. Story about two elderly men on a that lived on one of the mountain sides.
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In Europe. And they lived up in a cabin way up on the mountain above a certain village they'd worked. They'd lived up there and worked together for many, many years. And one morning these men woke up and one of them was gasping for breath. And he said to his friend, he said, uh, I've got a problem here. He said, uh, I think I might be taking a heart attack and I'm not ready to die. And it is interesting that people will.
Rush aside the gospel when things are going well.
But when they face eternity, they want some answers, and so they he said to his friend. He said, Uh, can you tell me the way to heaven?
Friend said, no, I'm afraid I can't, he said. Well, can you go down to the village and get me a preacher? I don't want to die like this. Well, his friend was really concerned and so he hastened down the mountainside and as he approached the village he thought, you know, I I don't know a preacher, but.
He did remember that there was an elderly lady who was always sitting on her front veranda reading her Bible. And so he thought, oh go and I'll speak to her. I'll ask her if she can come up to tell my friend the way to heaven. And so he rounded the corner of her St. and there she was, sure enough, sitting with her Bible, reading it, looking very happy and contented. And so he stepped up to her veranda and he said, ma'am, excuse me, but he said I've got a friend up the mountain in the cabin. And uh, we've been friends and coworkers together for many years and I think he's taking a heart attack and dying.
He asked me to get a preacher, but I don't know any preachers. Could you come up, bring your Bible up and tell him the way to heaven? Well, that Lady looked up that mountain. She was fairly elderly. She shook her head. She said there's no way I could make it up the mountain. But I'll give you a verse of Scripture, and if you take this verse to him and he accepts the message of it, he can die in peace knowing he's going to heaven.
And this is the verse she gave him. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and she got him to repeat it over and over and over again. And when she was sure that he remembered the verse, she sent him back up the mountain. He got near the cabin. And he thought.
You know, this guy has been a good friend of mine, and I don't really want to walk in and call, Tell him he's a Sinner. And so he opened the door and his friend was really short of breath, now, gasping, nearing the end of this life. He said that. Did you get a preacher?
He said no, but I got you a verse from the Bible. What is it? Christ Jesus came into the world to save folks.
The man said. What was that? Christ Jesus came into the world to save folks. All the old man just broke out in tears.
He said. I'm sure I heard that somewhere before in the days of my youth because I thought it should have said Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I wish it did say sinners because if it said sinners, I know it would mean me. Oh, now his friend was really distressed. He said I'm sorry.
He said, I have lied to you, I've deceived you. It really did say sinners. He convinced his friend that this was indeed the language of Scripture and his friend rank in those life giving words. And not long after he went from that caught in the cabin to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Oh, what a glorious truth. And as we sometimes think, there is a Savior on high in the glory.
That's Christ Jesus, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree.
A savior is willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty, his love great and free.
Does that touch your heart tonight? If that doesn't touch your soul tonight, I don't know what goes on within your soul.
What the God would melt your heart heart tonight that you would realize that there is one who loves you so much. He's bending low from heaven. Tonight to hear one Sinner whisper, I come to confess that they are sinners and receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior. You can do it right in your seat. You don't have to utter one word aloud. He knows what you think and what you say in your heart, even though it doesn't come out of your mouth audibly.
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Oh, I beseech you to come to the Savior. Don't put it off. Don't delay. There's one mediator between God and man, The man Christ Jesus. That's the man in the glory.
Sometimes when we present the gospel or we talk to souls, the question is raised Have you made your peace with God?
I could never make peace with God. If I had eternity to do it, I couldn't. But there's one who's made peace through the blood of His cross.
He's given himself as a ransom. And again, I want to stress that it is the blood of Christ that stays tonight. It's the blood of Christ that cleanses. I have the forgiveness of my sins, but on the basis of the blood of Christ, I'm justified. I'm sanctified, I'm brought nigh to God because of the blood of the Lord Jesus. I still delight to sing that that hymn what can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fountain. I know nothing but the blood of Jesus. Is the blood of Jesus precious to you tonight? It's precious to the heart of God. It's never lost its value or luster to the heart of God. I trust it's precious to every soul tonight. You can't make peace with God, but you don't have to because the Lord Jesus has stood in the breach, as it were. He's taken up the question of sin. He has satisfied God.
He could say, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
And now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. But again, we want to make this very, very personal. You know, Timothy was a man who knew the Lord Jesus as his savior, And when the apostle Paul writes to him in the second chapter, he reminds him that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures.
You know, I see a lot of children here tonight, a lot of boys and girls and young people.
And some who are not so young, who have been brought up hearing the word of God.
You know, sometimes we have the privilege and opportunity of presenting the gospel to a crowd, a group of people where you feel most have perhaps not heard a clear gospel before. And that is a real challenge before the Lord, to seek by the grace of God, to put things as clear and simple as possible. You know, the gospel is not complicated. We complicate it. But the gospel is not complicated. It's very simple.
But it is a challenge to put the gospel simply. I have the privilege recently of having gospel meetings in the interior of Guyana, South America, where whole villages would come out to hear the word of God. And you felt that perhaps many of them at least, had never heard a clear gospel. Wonderful, tremendous opportunity to present Christ as the savior of sinners. But I feel perhaps even a greater burden here tonight.
When I look into the faces of most who have heard it many, many, many times.
Because if you have heard it many times and turned away, your heart is just a little bit harder than it was the last time. Now I am thankful that the word of God in the power of the Spirit is like a hammer that breaks the rock in twain. And I am thankful that God can save anyone, whether they're hearing it for the first time or whether they're hearing it for the umpteenth time.
God can work, but I believe that it is.
Harder sometimes, in an with an audience like this to impress upon souls the need of salvation, because you hear it so very often and you become dull of hearing. You harden your heart, you harden your neck against God, and it's a very serious thing. And if there's someone here and you've heard the gospel like Timothy from a child.
And yet you're not saved all tonight. Would that you would come. You would come to the Lord Jesus.
Timothy had a point in his life where though he had heard the word of God from his youth, he had to make it good in his own soul. This is a very personal thing tonight. You're not saved because your mom or dad are saved. You're not saved because you were born into a Christian family. No, we don't inherit salvation in that way. Timothy had to come. The day came when he had to put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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But that day came in Timothy's life. Oh, tonight you've heard for a few minutes the word of God again. You've heard us read and quote these precious scriptures.
But are you going to turn away again? Oh, how sad. You know, there was a little girl one time and at the end of a gospel meeting like this, she was asked by the preacher, when is the best time to be saved? Oh, Sir, she said the best time to be saved is the first time you hear about Jesus. I thought that was so good. The first time you hear about Jesus. Maybe there is someone here. I don't know. Maybe there is someone here. And this is the first time you really heard the gospel.
The first time you've heard about Jesus as the savior of sinners. But I believe that most in this room tonight as I look around, have heard it time and time and time and time again.
But have you come? Do you know Christ as your savior? I want to read one more verse in closing in Ephesians chapter 2.
Again to stress a very important aspect of the gospel, Ephesians, chapter 2.
And verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Sin separates when Adam sinned in the garden, it immediately separated him from God, and with a conscience he hid himself. He and Eve hid themselves in the garden, sewing together fig leaves, the works of their own hand. And it tells us your iniquities have separated between you and your God.
But oh, there is a way back to God tonight. It's through the Lord Jesus and the blood that he shed on Calvary's cross. And in closing, I want to impress something else upon our souls as well. And that is that time is short. The Lord Jesus died, he wrote. He was buried, He rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures, he went back to heaven, and he's the savior of sinners. But he is coming back very soon.
To take every believer to be with him in the Father's house. I can't tell you when the Lord Jesus is coming, But one thing I do know, the coming of the Lord draws nigh. And one thing I do know that at the end of this Gospel meeting we are 45 minutes closer to the Lord's coming than we were when we sat down.
It's very close. And when the Lord Jesus comes, it is going to close every door, the door of mercy and grace. There will be no more opportunities to be saved for those who have heard it over and over again. If you've heard the way of salvation, you will have no more opportunity when the Lord comes. And if the Lord comes before, I'm done praying tonight and you look around and you're the only one left in this room.
You will realize, at least initially, what has happened. It's true that you will be sent a strong delusion that you'll believe a lie, but I believe initially you'll realize what has happened. You know, it's a very solemn thing when you read the story about Elijah being caught away to heaven, who was it that missed Elijah? It wasn't the call the general populace in Israel. It was the sons of the prophets.
I find that very searching because the sons and daughters of Christian parents, when the Lord comes, are going to realize what happened and that it's too late. How solemn. But tonight we present Christ as the Savior of sinners. Oh, come tonight, receive the Lord Jesus while we bow in prayer and go on your way to heaven. Have a Have a joyful, fruitful life here and a happy eternity with the Lord Jesus there in the Father's house. Let's pray our God and Father.
Again, we are so very thankful for Jesus Christ.
The one who came into this world to give himself. At Calvary, we're thankful for Christ Jesus, the one who lives as the Savior of sinners, ready to welcome and pardon all that will come to him. So we pray for blessing tonight. May no one leave their seat unsaved and lost tonight, but may every soul turn to Christ and receive that gift of eternal life. We ask thy blessing now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his glory.
00:45:28
Amen.
This Is A Faithful Saying
Luke 12:22-40
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
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Remind ourselves of these things in chapter 2012.
That are to characterize us. Are you waiting for a return. We would pray Lord that there might be a million years. I don't want to be here to be by the word of God is founded forth and be careful and we seek him understand it help withdraws to implement it in our lives.
They might really be there right below your device and build out a policy.
I would ask this amount of processes and training to be a significant day and then.
For those that were not here yesterday, we have been reading in Luke's Gospel chapter 12.
Would you say Verne verse 22 would be a good place to start? Is that about right through 41?
OK Luke chapter 12 and verse 22.
And he said unto his disciples.
For I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat neither for the body what you shall put on. The life is more than me, the body is more than Raymond. Consider the Ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are you better than the fouls? And which of you was taking thought can add to a stature of one cubit, if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least.
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Why? Take ethos for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not. And yet I say in view that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If Vanguard so closed the grass which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will it clothe you? O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what you shall eat or what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have any of these things, or rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom cell that you have. And give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupted.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves likened to men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them, and he shall come in a second watch, or coming in the third watch.
And find them so. Blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour. When you think not. Saint Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all?
We had said yesterday that this chapter is the Lord's work in preparing his disciples for the time of his absence, the 9th chapter onward in Luke's gospel, He's seen as rejected and he's going away. He'd have his disciples to be here in this world to be a witness for him. And there are things that would hinder that witness from going forward that we've taken up already. That yesterday, the fact that they needed to be free from hypocrisy, first of all.
And secondly, free from the fear of man, so that they'd be willing to confess Christ in this world that hates him.
And then thirdly, we had yesterday being free from covetousness and is seeking material things now where we began reading in verse 22, we have another warning and that is to be free from anxiety or worry.
He does not want us to be found all wrapped up and, uh, consumed. We're trying to make a living in this world. It'll be a distraction to us and we'll fail to bear witness to him like we should.
So He puts their hearts to comfort here, showing them that He's got it all taken care of. The father up above cares about every single thing we need to have to live and move and have our being in this world. So it has a very practical application for us because we all have responsibilities to take care of as far as livelihood is concerned, but we don't want to be consumed with it. That's the point of the expectation here. So it's good for us this afternoon, this morning to be looking at these things.
Do you agree with that? Yes. So there's the thought of contentment here too in our situation because he really takes up two aspects of our practical life. One is the things we eat and one is clothing. So he brings before us, first of all, the Ravens. They're an unclean bird. That interesting. But he feeds the Ravens. And if he feeds the Ravens, how much more is he going to provide for us? And then he talks about the lilies and how he closed them. And I was thinking of it in connection with a couple of verses. Let's go to first Timothy chapter six, first of all.
Because I think there we see it in connection with these two things.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
And I'll begin reading at verse 6.
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. Now notice this and having food and raiment. Let us be there with content. And you know, in this world, in this part of the world where we live, God has given us plenty of food and clothing, plenty of covering. And so if God has provided those things for us and for for perhaps holding would be.
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Shelter, that kind of thing.
We have homes that we go to, comfortable homes and so on, and God has provided those things. But brethren, are we content with what God has provided for us, or are we anxiously looking for something more, trying to work for something more? When they came to John the Baptist, he told the soldiers to be content with their wages, to be content with what had been provided for them. But I want to go over to Hebrews chapter 13 because there you have a real key.
To being content with such things as God has provided for us. And so in the 13th chapter of Hebrews.
He says, uh, in verse five, let your conversation be without covetousness. We've taken that up at length and be content with such things as you have. Now if we it stopped there, that's an exhortation in itself. But he doesn't stop there. How can we really have true contentment with the things that God has provided for us? For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
Brother, if we have the enjoyment of the company of the Lord Jesus with us every day, whether he's given us much or whether he's given us little, we're going to be content with the things that we have. But maybe there's someone here and you say, well, I've got a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties. Well, he goes on to say, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I shall not fear what man shall do unto me.
So coming back to our chapter, as we said, we have these two things brought before us. They're important, we need food, we need covering, they're very important, but God has said that He will provide them and we don't have to be over anxious about those things.
God has created man to be a dependent creature, not independent, and everything in this world is designed to make us independent of God, but we are dependent. I was thinking of Genesis chapter 14 and the lessons that we get there in connection with Abraham after he came from the slaughter of the kings. He's the.
Melchizedek met him, but uh, first, but then afterwards the king of Sodom met him, and uh, in verse 21, chapter 14 of Genesis verse 21, the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the person and take the good to thyself. Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth.
That I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say I have made Abram rich. So I believe Abram was content with the provision of God, and he saw that God was the possessor of heaven and earth. And isn't it wonderful as those that are believers that know the Lord Jesus as Savior and know God is our Father, that we can open up our hand when we have a need and we can express our needs and we have a father in tender sympathy that desires to provide.
For us, I, if you'll forgive me from uh, for just expressing a little, uh, umm.
In Mexico.
Some of the brethren don't have a lot of food, and I have noticed when they give thanks for their food, they really give thanks for their food. They thank God for the food that's on the table, sometimes in detail. And then they pray for brother so and so in another place that doesn't have any food, and brother so and so and his family and brother so and so and his family. And they thank God profusely for the food that they have. And I believe it's normal for us to thank God.
With a real heart of affection and Thanksgiving for what we have. We live in a land of abundance and perhaps we take these things for granted. But isn't it wonderful to think of how our Father cares about how we eat and what we eat and we should do it? Independence of Himself. Read chapter 15, verse one brother.
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Of Genesis.
After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
He's called the friend of God. I think it's three different times in Scripture, the friend of God.
In the first that we began with, it says, therefore I sent you take no thought for your life. I think it's important to recognize it's not saying that we should be reckless. The word for life, uh, is at least 2 words used in these chapters, these portions. And this one is often translated soul. And it came up between meeting us, uh, spoken with a brother. And he mentioned the verse at the end of First Thessalonians in chapter 5 where it says.
And the very God of peace sanctify you holy. And I pray God, that your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless into the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Begins with Saul. I mean sorry begins with spirit and then Saul and then body. But the natural man and ourselves included. We like to think of things as body and then soul and then spirit. But you notice in our chapter it says.
Uh, sorry I had lost my pay, but it says there life is more than meat and the body is more than Raymond in Second Thessalonians. It makes it very clear in the last chapter that, uh.
Umm, those seven for yourself know how we ought to be follow us before we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither do we eat any man's bread for nor to grow with labor and travel night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. And so on in those ten for even when we're with you that this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. So it's not talking about abdicating of our responsibilities, but as has been brought out, what's the priority in our life? You know, when the Lord was tempted in the wilderness.
To that point, his life paralleled that of Israel's in the wilderness. And so it says in Deuteronomy 8 that the Lord tried Israel in the wilderness and He proved them in verse three of Deuteronomy 8 of says, And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna. The Lord in His temptations would not step out of that pathway of dependence upon the Father. He would not turn those stones into bread. God would provide for him food as when He needed it, just as He did with Israel.
But we know that Israel failed on the one hand, and the Lord, of course, he clearly did not fail in those temptations. The problem is often in our lives we look ahead and we worry about what is in the future. And when he takes up this same incident in Matthew, it says at the end of Matthew 6, Take no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for itself, sufficient unto the day as the evil thereof. And I believe what that verse is very simply saying is.
Live for Christ today, be dependent on him today. He'll provide for today, but don't worry about tomorrow. Now that doesn't mean we don't make plans and we, we, we shouldn't be circumspect as to the future and so on and and wise and the man who buried his talents and so on. That wasn't right either. But I believe what he was teaching is teaching us. There is that trust the Lord for today and leave tomorrow in his hand.
You know, I often have worried about things in the future because I'm tend to be a warrior by nature and, uh, I've tended to worry about tomorrow and what I'm gonna do or eat or whatever it might be. And when tomorrow comes, the Lord is sufficient. Did He provide for us today? Is He gonna be any different tomorrow? He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Sometimes we worry about something we think is gonna happen in the future, and when we get there, what we anticipated never happened. The Lord had already taken care of the difficulty.
It's just a little application, but I thought about it in connection with those ladies that came early, early to the sepulchre, because Mark's gospel tells us the subject of their conversation. Who of us shall roll away the stone? They were concerned about a problem they thought was going to present itself when they got to the sepulchre. But they needn't have worried, because when they got to the sepulchre, the stone was already rolled away. Not so the Lord could come out in resurrection.
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But it was rolled away. So the difficulty they anticipated was removed and so that there was testimony and that they could see that the tomb was indeed empty and empty. And don't we often do that? We worry about how are we going to take care of this or that? But another thing, brethren, tomorrow may never come. We may be safe home tomorrow. We may be beyond the exercises and the needs of the path of faith and service. So again, he's telling us, be content with what he's provided today.
Leave tomorrow in his hand. Yes, we all have a burden, we all have concerns, as Nick has said, but that's quite a different matter.
Just just so people realize we're not twisting woods to make this chapter suit us. Certain explanation notice in verse 29 in the King James, it says neither be of a doubtful mind that would probably be better translated be not have an anxious mind. So sort of being anxious for these things that the issue and in the portion in Matthew 6, the same thing occurs that should be the word anxious in there.
And there's many questions about tomorrow.
And so we have several questions. Where are we gonna eat tomorrow? Can I have to talk or how am I gonna do tomorrow? Am I gonna pay this bill tomorrow? But also Mann has spiritual questions. And it's interesting to see that the God who provides food and arraignment for temporal needs, he provides food and arraignment for spiritual needs. So men are actually also for tomorrow. Are they gonna meet with God? And so they have all these religions that they practice. So they would have a favor with God, I would say with favor with God.
But the garden provides food and raiment for our bodies, has provided food andrailment for our souls. We have the word of God, we have the Lord Jesus to feed on and we have the raiment of righteousness, which are the Ravens of Christ himself. But we can just be restful as to tomorrow. We know where we're going. Tomorrow we're going to heaven. We're going to be with the Lord and the one that provided this food and Ravens were so surely he's going to provide food and Raymond.
All this, of course, is very balanced in Scripture, isn't it? Because in the previous incident we learned how a man is to act when he has riches. Here we learn how we are to act if we do not have them. There is special grace, special wisdom needed in each case, and especially dependence on the Lord.
In each case. And so we in North America here, I doubt very much if anyone in this room is concerned about whether he'll have something to put on the table tomorrow. But in many countries of this world that is not the case. They literally live from hand to mouth. And sometimes they are really tested, really tested as to these things. But.
A testing as an old brother that some of us can remember used to say.
The Lord may test your faith, but He'll never disappoint your faith. And so sometimes we may not find everything appearing just in the time and way that we would like it, but that's a test. Are we prepared to trust the Lord and let Him work it out in His time? So all of this can be a real exercise, especially to those.
Who really are poor and who really do live from, as we say, hand to mouth. But that brings about a real dependence. And as Brother Robert mentioned, man is to be a dependent creature. And the danger in these favored lands is we lose that sense of dependence. We lose that sense of day-to-day dependence on the Lord. But how good it is whether we have wealth as the.
Rich man whose barns were too small had or whether we have very little.
How important it is to recognize our dependence on the Lord and our need for guidance and wisdom from Him in every circumstance. I think you balance that. You were alluded to. There are two creatures that God has made that illustrate how we're to live. One is the Ant. Proverbs 6, I believe it is, but He lays up for the future. He gathers, He thinks ahead, He provides for something ahead.
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And the other creature is the Raven. He doesn't worry about that, he just eats for now and worries about just worry about tomorrow.
Well, which of these two things are we to follow? They seem to be opposing one another. We live between the two, and it takes moral discernment to know how to live between the two.
I was gonna mention uh, Brother Bill in connection with the poor of this world.
In Galatians chapter 2, it's interesting when Paul was, uh, with uh, Peter and James and John in this chapter 2 and verse nine, they gave unto him the right hand of fellowship, that he should go to the heathen and then to the circumcision. And then I'd like to point out verse 10.
Only they would that we should remember the poor the same thing, the same which I was also forward to do. So, brethren, I think that's a real responsibility for us who have plenty in these lands to remember the poor.
It really exercises me, brethren, when I hear from Tim Roche of that sister and.
Malawi widow sis through at six children and to make sure that they got enough. She died of starvation. Sister in fellowship with us. Is there something we need to be exercised about doing? Brethren, I do believe that there is something we can be exercised about in connection with the poor.
Would that be Philippians 4 and 12 for us? I know it would have to be a base and I know how to abound.
And we were in all things, and instructed those to be full, to be hungry, both to abound, to suffer needs.
We need to be instructed.
In the circumstances of need and abundance as to how to behave in either circumstances.
In the book of the Proverbs it says, He that giveth unto the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and he will repay him again.
Well, in all of these things too, I believe, and I appreciate your comment, Michelle, that if I find myself in poor circumstances, I am to be instructed from the Lord. I am to look to the Lord.
And depend on him. If I am in a position to help the poor, then my exercise should be to keep my eyes and ears open for needs that are there.
Uh, the day there's a danger, and I like Bruce's comment, there's a danger on both sides because on the one hand there's a danger of withholding our hand when we have it in there in our hands to do good. On the other hand, there is also the opposite danger.
Of taking away someone's dependence on the Lord by guaranteeing something. So that instead of the Lord being the object of faith, we are and we're not a very good object for anyone's faith, are we? Because we may not be there tomorrow and our resources are limited. The Lords are not. And so it imposes a very real difficulty in the world as it is today, when you have some of the world that is very wealthy and the vast majority of this world that lives in a lot of poverty.
It it, it causes real exercise and, uh, the only I, I think Bruce, you gave it very well that the only way we can.
Live between the extremes of a balance that Scripture gives us is in fellowship and communion with the Lord. Is that right?
Versus James there.
Connected with Second Corinthians chapter, uh, eight of these.
Book of James, chapter 5.
And Group One.
Go to Minali, which Manwich and haul for your miseries which will come upon you. Your riches are corrupted in your garments.
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The gold and silver is conquered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it was fired. You have heat treasures together for the last day. We hold a higher of the laborers who have greeted down your field, which is which is a view kept back by fraud quiet, and the cries of them which have reaped our entrance into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath notified to us. But you know it's an interesting verse in Second Corinthians chapter 8.
As to the mana, you couldn't keep it for the next day or it's sacked. It had worms in it. And I just applied to myself saying if I'm accumulating and when others are starving and their brother was saying for tomorrow because of my lack of trust in the Lord, his provision, you know, and I think there should be an exercise to us that as it's been mentioned, we do have so much going back to your comment, Bill, I, I just, uh, would wonder if.
For myself.
If I saw someone in need.
How much of an exercise do I have?
To see that thought is putting this knee before me and how much that exercise do I have a really discerning that the Lord is testing him. You know my natural heart might conclude that the Lord is testing him. I'm just going to keep this for another occasion. I just I just mentioned this for us that if someone has a need and it's set before us. I should really have special instructions from the Lord not to give.
Well, and that's, that's, I agree 100% with that. Uh, and as we all know, there's a big difference between needs and wants.
And, uh, I don't think if we saw a brother or sister in Christ who was in want of daily food and clothing, that any one of us would have a question about whether we should help them out or not. That wouldn't be a, a difficultie at all. I merely say that it's very interesting that, uh.
Fact. We might turn to it. It's in Galatians chapter 6.
This has been a big help to me.
In looking at this kind of situation in Galatians chapter 6.
We find there in verse 2.
Very apropos to what we're discussing.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now that can include more than material needs, we realize, but we are to bear one another's burdens. But then go down a couple of verses to verse five. It says, For every man shall bear his own burden.
I'm not a Greek scholar, but anyone can verify this. The word for burden in verse 2 is not at all the same as the one in verse five. The word in verse five has the thought of the normal responsibilities of everyday life. I think Bruce was mentioning them Earning a living, providing for my family, dealing with my normal responsibilities.
The word in verse two has the connotation of a heavy, intolerable burden that descends upon me that is very, very difficult to bear. There's, there's quite a difference, isn't there? And so it's one thing to help a brother over a hump, as it were, if he's in tremendous need because of some specific difficulties and circumstances in his life. It's, uh, another matter if I could use the common term to put him on constant welfare.
And that's not what Scripture teaches, is it? And so again, I say, there's no substitute for seeking the Lord's mind in these things. I think it's really good, Bill, that you mentioned that we do not make brethren dependent on us when we do minister to them. And, uh, remember when we were in Bolivia at a time of economic stress? It was.
One year they calculated the inflation rate 40,000% almost has no meaning. But uh, brethren did send down funds to help out at that time. And I found it was a real challenge that the brethren would not get their eyes on the Americans to how we did it. And I looked into the scripture and it's interesting in Acts Chapter 11.
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How it was, uh, taken care of in the early days of the church. If you look at verse 27, it says in those days came profits from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabat and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dirt throughout all the world came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability.
Determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. I find that very interesting. I thought they would send it to the deacons. No, it was to the elders, to those that were in responsibility in that particular place, and they would know the needs better than I would.
Coming and not knowing the situation in that particular area, I think there is wisdom in that. Lord help us in that rather.
There's teaching given in Ephesians chapter 4 that might be helpful here as well. Christianity is very practical and in Ephesus they were going on well and it says in chapter 4 verse 28.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it. And so.
Christianity goes beyond what the minimum standard was under the law, so to speak. In the, under the law, they were to, uh, not to steal, but now we're to work with our hands, we're to do, to labor to provide for our own needs. But in our labor, the Lord will bless it if it's according to his mind and we will have something to give and it's according to the mind of God. I turn to the epistle to, uh, to the, uh, Proverbs again in just a quote, a couple of verses of Scripture that would be helpful. I believe in this matter.
Of giving it says Umm. In Proverbs Chapter 11, verse 24, there is scattereth, and yet increasing. There is that which withholdeth more than his meat, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fast, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him, but blessing shall be upon the head of him.
That sell of it, while not to belabor the point, but there are older brethren that used to remind us and we need to be reminded ourselves that Christianity under Christianity were not to be accumulators, were to be distributors of that which God has given us. And so we recognize here that the Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. And as just mentioned, it's not our wants, but our needs and we need to supply for our needs.
And then have the abundance to be able to distribute. So that's why Paul said my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. And there are many ways to give. And I just want to echo what has been said that we never want to in our liberality or giving. We never want to encourage a course of laziness or complacency. And so we need to be exercised has been said. So there are many ways that we give individually.
I think it's good in the family circle to teach our children that as well. And I'm thankful for families who are exercised as families to set a little bit aside and to teach their children to help out where there's no need and in the work of the Lord. But I want to just for a moment digress and make a comment or two in connection with First Corinthians 16. We'll turn to it because there's another way too, to be at that. We ought to be exercised.
And that is collectively as well as gathered to the Lord's name. And Paul brought this before the Corinthian Saints. And I just want to notice a couple of little comments that he makes in this connection. I'll just read the a few verses here, uh, first Corinthians 16 and verse one. Now concerning the collection for the Saints, as I have given order to the churches in Galatia, Even so do ye upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him.
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That there be no gatherings when I come, and when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters.
Then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem and so on. There's a couple of things that I think are important and perhaps sometimes we miss here. First of all, Paul was not soliciting funds for himself. It is a mark of a man of God in Scripture that he never solicits funds for himself. I know that in the in Christian circles today, there's a lot of it done, but Paul wasn't telling them to take up a collection every Lord's Day so that when he came.
There would be something to give him to support him in the work of the Lord that he was doing. And we'll notice that in a moment. But I want to point out this little expression too that has exercised my own soul and I pass it along for your exercise. They we take up a collection on Lord's Day morning based on this portion here and perhaps some other scriptures. And so tomorrow morning there's going to be a collection taken at the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.
But it says that we are to give as God a prospered us.
Now I I'm only gonna point the finger at myself, brethren, but my putting a $10.00 bill in the collection isn't giving as God has prospered me. And I believe if every one of us were exercised to give on Lord's day as God has prospered us, there would be really not many needs or any needs amongst the Lord's people. There would be plenty for us as an assembly to be to distribute as the Lord gave exercise and brought needs before us.
But again, I say Paul was not soliciting funds for himself because what he wanted was that they would be exercised when he came to give him funds to distribute to others that needs that they knew about, whether it was the poor Saints in Jerusalem or whatever it was that Paul would be able to take those, those funds from the Corinthian brethren and distribute them where where they were needed. So that again, there are many ways that we can give individually as families.
And then I believe as assemblies gathered to the Lord's name, there needs to be that exercise as well.
We have a perfect example, don't we? The Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. He gave and he went and sold all that he had, and bought the field that he might have that treasure. He sold all that he had that he might have the Pearl of great price. We have a great example.
There is a passage in the 5th chapter of Ecclesiastes that might have some bearing on this topic about savings and giving. Ecclesiastes chapter 5.
And verse 13.
There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely.
Riches kept for the owners thereof, to their hurt.
We've had in the Proverbs the importance example of the Ant that prepares for the future that is characterized by diligence and obscurity. So for when the hour of trial hits, the Ant is prepared, but here written by the wisest man and the richest man.
On earth, in terms of human wisdom, Solomon, he says there is a danger, in fact, it's a sore evil that you can keep too much of your riches to your own hurt, to your own detriment. Why is that? Strikes me that in the preceding 3 verses give us three reasons of the danger of holding on and keeping too much. Verse 10.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity.
All those goods, all those possessions, all that accumulation will not satisfy your heart. It's vanity. Verse 11. When goods increase, they are increased that eat them. And what good is there to the owners there of saving the beholding of them with their eyes? The more you have, the more people wanna go after you and get what you have. And what value do you have in all the materialism anyway, after you look at it?
Once it's done, everything he says beyond looking at it, what can I do with it? The third thing here in verse thir, uh, verse 12, the sleep of a laboring man is suite, whether you eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. The rich insomniac because he's worried about keeping what he's worked so hard to accumulate. People wanna take it. He's afraid he's gonna lose it to the next downturn in the stock market.
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Now I just thought of this too, to add the letter Y to the miser and you get misery.
So the lesson Lord said that he not it is more blessed to give than to receive. The selfish person is the unhappy person, the giver is the happy person. And God loves a cheerful giver because he himself is a cheerful giver.
Adverse circumstances can often also be a test of faith.
I remember at the time when those airplanes flew into the building in New York, I had friends in Germany they had.
Planned and paid for a trip from Frankfurt to Seattle. They had made plans and paid everything. They were ready to go.
And then all of a sudden these incidents with the airplane happened. So they got so scared and they got so upset they didn't go and they didn't even make.
Uh.
A request for getting the money back or anything like that. They just forgot everything.
And never got.
Uh, anything back?
And they never tried to get anything back. And I think the Lord tested their faith.
And another circumstance happened. The brother himself went to be with the Lord just a couple of months later.
And the that press confirmed to them that they shouldn't fly anymore.
They could have rated, Oh no, they weren't going to raise. They gave it all up and said the Lord wants us to lose all that money.
That's the rate.
It can happen, and it probably happens with just about all of us at certain times for small things.
We lose something, we can't find it and we just give it up.
And other times if we would have asked the Lord and waited.
The Lord put His give us back to us and show us where it was. That happened to me several times.
Just couldn't retrieve it, couldn't find it. And my first or second thought was I did we ask the Lord about it to retrieve it, or did we ask the Lord at all whether we should do that kind of a thing? If we ask the Lord first, we're gonna be ahead.
Because the Lord is over all these things.
Sodnet, lovely to see from verse 31 down to verse 34, the Lord Jesus gives instruction as to what we should seek for. So we might be worried and concerned and anxious, as their brother Nick has brought out here about those things that have to do with our natural, uh, needs. Raymond and food. But what should we be concerned about? Seek ye the Kingdom of God.
And all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Sell that ye have, give on. Provide yourself bags which wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that faileth not. Where no thief approaches, neither must corrupt us. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So the heart can be taken up with divine things. And when it speaks of the Kingdom of God, it speaks of our moral character, our moral makeup.
And that which would reflect the, uh, features of Christ in our lives. And so we need to be taken up with those things that are heavenly. And so he brings in, if we look at the Romans chapter, I think it's chapter 14, it speaks of the Kingdom of God. There gives a little definition, verse 17, Romans 1417, the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace.
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And joy in the Holy Ghost. So it's not those things that we see that are, umm, temporal, but the, those eternal things, those features that are being formed in us that reflect the character of Christ and the moral, his moral glories that are seen in his people. And so he brings in this relationship that we have with the Father. The Lord Jesus is the one that was used of God, the Son of God to bring us into the knowledge of our relationship with the Father.
And that now we should seek to be just like the sun.
How to make a flop?
Who is this little flock?
Don't say the gathered chains, please.
Well, tell us who it is then, Bruce. What? What's the little flock referring to here?
All of his own.
Would you say, Brother Bruce, that it wasn't all Israel? We are as people? And the sheep of his pasture the psalmist could write, but the disciples there were had that gracious word to their master. They're just simply a remnant of that nation of unbelief. And there are those graces who are sure not little flock. It is a father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. It wasn't the nation at large in unbelief, but they as disciples of the Lord near himself, could appreciate, uh, that remnant character of things of all Israel.
I think that's why we sing in the hymns of the little flock.
It was a recognition by brethren when they got back to the truth of the assembly and took no thought of being the assembly, but they were simply a remnant of faith that would act according to the truth of it. And I think it's a gracious provision for us in weakness and need to re realize the Lord's tender care.
And we're on transitional ground here in Luke's gospel because, as Brother Bruce mentioned earlier, from the 9th chapter of Luke on, Christ has looked at as rejected. And as we said earlier yesterday, Luke's gospel, more than any of the others, is the introduction of Paul's ministry. But the Lord is very careful not to bring out the truth of the assembly. He leaves that for Paul.
But many of the expressions here, while perhaps in their context in which they were given, would apply to the godly ones of Israel, as you say, Bill, uh, yet they have a broader application when you and I can see what the Lord was looking forward to. And so the Kingdom of God has, has been brought out as a moral state, which is in keeping with God's Kingdom.
Here were Israel.
Here were Israelites, perhaps I should say, who looked for the Lord to set up an earthly Kingdom, and many were extremely disappointed when that did not take place. Even in the first chapter of Acts they asked, Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom under Israel? And the Lord very wisely said, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the fathers kept in his own power. Why? Because Israel was going to get another chance.
From a risen Christ in glory. But the Lord himself knew they would refuse it.
And then he had something even more wonderful to bring out, which was a mystery hidden in God from before the foundation of the world. And so here I believe when it says it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, I would suggest that while it's in the first case in verse 31, it's the Kingdom of God, which is a moral state, when the Lord says it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
That's a broader statement because it's not merely a moral state in keeping with God's Kingdom, but there is going to be a Kingdom for you and me. But it's going to be on the heavenly side, isn't it? It's going to be a heavenly Kingdom.
Here, of course, the instruction is given to a godly Jewish remnant, and in that sense some of the language bears out on this, and in verse 39, for example, and verse 40.
00:55:09
It's really the Lord's appearing that is primarily in view. But at the same time, the moral import for you and me is that, yes, if we are not going to have a Kingdom in this world, there is going to be a Kingdom on the heavenly side. And God expects in you and me a moral state in keeping with the one who is the rightful king, but who is now absent.
So in this section, he sets before them the future, doesn't he?
Because faith always needs an eye for the future. How are we going to? What is going to give us the characteristics of those who are not anxious, of those who are content with such things as we have? What's going to give us the characteristics of one who is a stranger in a Pilgrim in this world? It's to have an eye to the future. And so how could he encourage them in the previous verses to be anxious, not be anxious and worried about temporal things and so on?
These disciples, they surely felt like a little flock. They probably felt their their weakness in in many ways as well as in number. Well, we're just a little company trying to follow the Lord. He says, don't worry about it. You might be feel like you're a little flocked now, but there's a day coming and brethren, that day is coming when it says in Thessalonians, he's coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all of them that are about him in that day.
And when he comes back to establish his Kingdom, we're gonna come with them. The heavenly host is gonna come with him. And it's going to be a glorious time for earth. And it's gonna be a glorious time for you and for me, who have the privilege of reigning with the Lord Jesus when He takes the throne of His glory. Because as I say, faith always needs an object, an eye to the future. In fact, when you go through the Scriptures, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, you find God always did two things for his people.
He always gave them a present portion, provided for their present needs, both temporally and spiritually. We've taken up that in the previous verses. But He also gave them an eye to the future. I'll give you an example. You remember when Israel entered the wilderness, they became so very quickly discouraged because they started looking back and they started hankering after the things that they had thought they enjoyed in Egypt, the fish in the LA, the melons and the leeks and the garlics and so on.
And Moses cried to the Lord. And what did the Lord tell Moses to do? He told Moses to tell the children of Israel to turn around. They were looking in the wrong direction. They were looking back. And when they turned around to look out over the wilderness, what did they see? They saw the glory of the Lord in the cloud. In some way, Jehovah was pleased to reveal himself to them. And with that in view, they could press on and say, we're going on to something far better.
And as long as they kept that before their souls, they were encouraged. If they started looking around and back at or at present circumstances, they became discouraged. They murmured and complained and so on. And brethren, what is going to give us the courage, the moral courage, to press on in the day in which we live? It's a difficult day. There's a lot we could be anxious and concerned about if we let ourselves go. But what is it that's going to encourage us? It's what's ahead, brother.
It's to be with Christ. It's the portion that he we're gonna share with him. It's the coming Kingdom. It's to not only look for his coming for us, but the blessed, the the glorious appearing. It's to love his appearing. As Paul exhorted Timothy, we are. The love is appearing. You know, the Kingdom is really part of our hope. We're looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing. It's all part of it, brethren. And in the measure I wish you and I keep that before our souls.
In the measure, in that measure, the practical things that we have spoken of previously in this chapter will be true of us. That's why when the Apostle John explains in first John three that we're not only going to be with Christ, but like him, what does he say? And every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. In the measuring which you and I are looking forward to, that which is ahead, it will.
01:00:01
Have a practical purifying effect on our lives. There's two prayers that are proper for the believer. One is Lord Jesus come and the other is thy Kingdom come. We wait for both, don't we? Like you say, I was thinking in Second Timothy chapter one that that day of the Lord's appearing was always before the soul of the apostle. Paul knows what he says.
In this chapter he tells Timothy verse eight, he not thou therefore ashamed the testimony of our Lord. And then he says in verse 12, And this is what I enjoy, uh, for the which 'cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and then persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed.
And the new translation says my deposit, uh, unto him against that day. So he had a deposit. And that's exactly what relates to what we have in our chapter in verse 33. It talks about a treasure in the heavens that fadeth not. And then verse 34, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be awful.
I still enjoy contrasting Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and says again and again, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. He was the richest man at that time, I'm sure, and had everything he could possibly want. And that's the conclusion that he came to vanity of vanities. And we have the apostle Paul and he.
Lost everything.
For the love of Christ and but he talks about his deposit, his treasure on the other side. Brethren, what a important thing to keep our focus, right? You dear young people, so ingrained in our American way of life to build up storehouses down here. Keep your focus on that day, not anything down here.
We read in James chapter 5 your riches are corrupted and when you read about the economic situation of the United States and how easily it could go down completely.
Set your mind on things above, keep your focus on that day concerning the appearing. I was thinking in connection with the little flaw that's mentioned here.
Delore is going to appear with his things and you're going to appear to his face.
Where we don't sink on the earth and during the great tribulation waiting for them and you can appear to them. And so we have in a 36 verse he says in yourself like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding. It's not detail what kind of wedding it is, but there's going to be a wedding in heaven and when the heavens open, as we was mentioned from Second Thessalonians chapter one, He's going to appear with his Saints, but he's also appearing to his Saints, isn't he? And I believe that would fit in with this little flock that are being prepared here.
I've enjoyed the little expression. It's not used very often in Scripture, but here it says in verse 32, the Father, your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. We don't think very often of the pleasure of God, the pleasure of the Father, but it's going to be the pleasure of the Father to give the Kingdom to his Son. And we know that he's risen. He's gone into heaven to receive a Kingdom for himself and to return.
But it's the Father that gives the Kingdom. It's going to be his pleasure to see you and I enjoy what his Christ and his inheritance. And we're going to share that inheritance because we're a part of that new creation race. We're sons, we're members of the body of Christ. We're brought into such rich blessings. And here the apostles and the disciples were a little picture of that little company, that little remnant, and they had a blessed hope that was going to be put before them of waiting.
For his waiting and watching for his return, as we find in the next few verses. But isn't it wonderful just to think of the Father's pleasure to give the Kingdom? It's going to be a pleasure for him to see his Son reign over all, brought into subjection to himself. Every need to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and you and I will be associated with him. And I think we mentioned earlier that he's going to come with all his Saints.
01:05:26
Not one missing all of his Saints and he's going to come and assert his rights in this scene.
And it's going to be the pleasure of the Father to see them receive the Kingdom.
We got 7 minutes to do it from 35 to 41. Maybe we should move on or pick that up later.
What seems the secret here to, uh, all these things, the, uh, deliverance from hypocrisy we spoke about, the deliverance from covetousness, from anxiety we've been speaking about and then the future watching and waiting we have in the following verses is to have the mind of heaven, isn't it? We're so a, a TR, we're so affected by the mind of earth. But what loop lies before us here is the mind of heaven.
To further the dispensation of God. And so that's what we have for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. And so in verses 35 and 36 burn, uh, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning ye yourself like on demand that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding, not the wedding of the lamb. Is it there? We're not it's not said what wedding it is. I suppose that's what we have in Matthew 25.
But we're it may be for some of the suggested, possibly the wedding with, uh, Israel.
But again, it's not, it's not specified, but the point is we're to be watching and ready. And uh, verse 37 Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself. This is a wonderful insight into the mind of heaven. And shall make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. The Lord Jesus is going to serve us.
In heaven. What a wonderful prospect that is.
The present time is to be used for the future. The present time is preparation for the Kingdom and for eternity. That's the mind of heaven. We need to keep that in mind, don't we?
Returning from the wedding, I don't at all disagree with the applications made of it, but I do suggest that it's merely an indication here of the importance of watching in Eastern countries, and it's still done to some extent.
Weddings are quite an affair, and the revelry goes on quite.
A lengthy period of time and.
The servants who would perhaps accompany the bridegroom would be obliged to wait for him because they, of course were not part of the wedding, and they would be provided with a place where they could sit and, if necessary, take a bit of a rest.
So what's a bridegroom appreciated very much for those who were wide awake and watching and ready so that as soon as he came out with his bride and said let's go.
Then they would be immediately ready to get the, in this case in the older days, the horses and chariot ready and everything and be ready to go. He wouldn't have to go around knocking on the door and shaking them and saying wake up, it's time to go and so on. So I believe the emphasis here, I would suggest is not so much on.
Which wedding it is, but on the importance of watching and of the servants not going to sleep during the time of the bridegroom's absence. Luke is a moral group. Yes, moral lessons, moral principles, and it's not occupied with trying to nail down one company, a person. Let me look at this and say, is this the rapture or is this the pyramid? That's not the point. The point is it's moral and it applies to both.
The remnant of the Jews. In the coming day, and also for ourselves, we can take an application.
So there are three things that are to characterize the servant here. We sometimes talk about WWW and we know what that means in natural things, the World Wide Web. But I think of it in free connection with three WS we have here. We're to be waiting, we're to be watching and we're to be working. Those three things are what are to characterize us now as servants for Christ. We need to be active in what he has given us, given us to do.
01:10:16
But while we take up service for Christ, we're to be waiting. But even more than that, we're to be watching. I know our time is gone. I'll just give one little incident from my childhood to illustrate the fact that we are to be watching as well as waiting. When we were growing up, we had a large plate glass window in our my parents front room that overlooked the highway between Perth and Smith Falls. And on a day that we were expecting company in the home, especially if it was a company that we as children enjoyed having in the home.
During the day, we would be at the window looking down the highway, uh, in the, in the direction that our parents told us the company was coming from. And we would go, we would be there for a while and uh, then we perhaps would get tired and we go back about our play or our chores or whatever we were doing. And then pretty soon we were back at that window. We were waiting and watching. And we always counted it a great thing if when we, the, we finally saw that car pull along the highway, slow down with its blinker on to turn into our parents driveway.
We always counted it a great thing just to be there when the company company arrived. And brethren, as we go about our activities and God has given us responsibilities in the natural realm. He's given us work to do each one in in his service. You and your small corner and I in mind. But are we really waiting and watching sometimes tell about a young man and he had a little motto on his bathroom mirror. Perhaps today.
Why? Because he wanted to be reminded every day when he got up and looked in the mirror that this might be the day of the Lord's return. He wasn't just waiting, but he was watching for the Lord to come. Could I just mention four things? 4 words that are mentioned in this series of verses. Verse 36 says wait for their Lord. Verse 37 watching and we have that in 39 as well. But then in verse 40 it says ready.
And then in verse 43, doing all four things should characterize those that are waiting for the Lord.
We sing. 23 in the appendix. Oh Jesus, precious Savior, oh, when wilt thou return our hearts with woe familiar to thee our Master turn. Our woe is thine Lord Jesus, Our joy is in thy love, but woe and joy all lead us to Thee in heaven above. 23 in the appendix.
Mm-hmm.
Thy Lord Jesus.
Our joy is a joy of God.
I'm sorry you know we're so far that free flowers from one day and woke we lost my appearing thy presentator for us we bring thus and God together you bring.
Give me where they were ever.
Where they go and turn on.
His behavior.
01:15:02
Who is grace that burns and will look for good relations?
With the old forever.
Of her soul shall be considered.
Could we also sing the last three verses of 170?
The last three verses of 170, that is beginning at verse four. Israel's race shall now behold him full of grace and majesty.
Nsnoise.
Than for the last 30.
Dollars.
Let me know what I'm afraid. I'm far from the Lord and the Lord.
Thank you for the practical things that you have. You have to do it in the morning.
And we might see help along the pathway.
Thank you too for filling our hearts once again with hope that I've soon returned.
01:20:04
Pray for that you would help us to keep our eyes focused on the to be waiting and watching.
And working while we wait for your return. Thank you, Lord.
For your many mercies and your grace to us, and we pray in your precious and worthy name. Amen. Amen.
Service In the Workplace
Address—Bill Brockmeier
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's open with #52.
Lord, we are lying like that passage in First Chronicles chapter 12, when David is, uh, in a stronghold and certain men of the private and Benjamin come to him, and the chief of the captains have a shot, Abashei says to him.
Thine are we David? I like that. Apply that to ourselves, we can say nine. Are we Lord Jesus? Let's sing 52.
Lordly are the.
He slaves us. Sin by thou rings.
Back to you and wish like you hear a swallowing him.
Lord of the Rings before I'm ready for rainforest.
Blessed and Savior, we thank you this afternoon that we can sing that we are vying. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for going into death, suffering for us there in those hours of infinite suffering, that pressure shed blood that cleanses from all sin For that present place of favor now, our God and Father, we stand before thee as sons. We thank thee, our God and Father, for the liberty Thou has brought us into.
That we might know thy thoughts, and share with thee thy love and thy delight, and thy beloved Son in our God and Father now as we.
Intend to open Thy precious word. We, uh, tremble as we do so, for it is Thy word. Grant our God that it might be spoken in faithfulness and in clarity. Grant that what should be said this afternoon will be said, and what should not be said will not be said. We seek thy help, Thy guidance for us, our God and Father. We do pray for each one. We pray for our younger brother in a particular way, younger ones in the workforce and in this world that thou's grant guidance, instruction from.
Precious Word, and for indeed we need it. We ask it now, our Father, committing thy word to thee for blessing and the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd ask you to turn first, please, to 1St Corinthians Chapter 7.
But before we read a few verses in the middle of this chapter, I'd like to make some general comments by way of an introductory, uh, sense.
I have a letter at home. I value it very greatly. It was written to my grandmother.
By a man by the name of JT Armand and my grandmother. She and her husband were inquiring as to the path of the truth as to the assembly, and the brother Armand had some correspondence with them. And in this one letter that comes to mind, he spoke of seven different authorities that the believer recognizes, 2 supreme authorities and five subordinate authorities. The two supreme authorities are God.
And Christ, you say, well, is not Christ God, Indeed He is. But we have God dwelling in His absolute essence, and then the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who became man. And we find in John chapter 5 that all judgment has been committed to the Son, And later on we find that all judgment has been committed to the Son, because he is the Son of man.
00:05:20
All judgment, indeed all judgment, is being committed to the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus.
And so we find even whether it's the coming day of his appearing, when the Lord Jesus and those warrior judgments levels, all that share that defies him at this present hour are those times when he brings the nations before him and he judges as a judge sitting upon a throne or even at the great white throne. You know, on a King James version that says I saw the dead small and great stand before God. I wondered why is it say stand before God? Is not the Lord Jesus there and his character the Son of man and just?
Side it's interesting it says in the Darby translation stood before the throne and yes, it is the Son of man, the Lord Jesus himself that will sit on the throne supreme authorities, but there's five subordinate authorities. I want to take up one of them this afternoon, but we'll briefly mention them. The 1St is the government. Two things were to do for the government. No, not complaining criticized, but to pray and submit First Timothy two. I will that men.
Everywhere pray for those that are in authority, that we might live our lives in all godliness and honesty. We're to pray for the powers that be. The other thing we're to do?
Romans 13 were to submit to obey them that are over us. That's the government. There is the sphere of the assembly.
There's already vested in the assembly and again the assembly, the authority is vested in it. In a local setting, you could not have it in a universal way. It would just would not work out. Where does the assembly get its authority? When it makes an action? It is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a very sobering thing.
Very, uh, heavy to consider taking an action, failing men taking an action in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the assembly? Very serious. It's even more serious to resist an action taken in that name.
There's two authorities in the home. There is the husband in relationship to the wife. There are the parents in relationship to the children, fathers especially singled out for instruction. But there are two authorities there as well, subordinate authorities that were to honor and respect. The last one I'd like to mention. You say perhaps that's the least important of them all, but it's what I have before me this afternoon and that's the the thought of the employer and having.
Uh, recognized.
That subordinate authority in our life.
You know, sometimes we have a little disagreements at the dinner table and, and umm, we often hear this and I grew up here and it maybe you have to oh, you don't wanna be over the young people's head.
No, we don't wanna be, Paul said. I'd rather speak 5 words of my understanding than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Or in other words, I would rather speak 5 words than people understand what is being said than 10,000 words in eloquent tongue. And no one gets it.
But my greater concern often times is we do not wanna speak down to anybody because what I have this afternoon is not deep and it's not complex. It's rather straightforward. And you know, at the end of the meeting, it's nice that we can learn something, not just have an expectation of something that we already know. I recognize that.
But you know, there was something that, umm, came before me, uh, of light. I've, I've shared this with some over 25 years ago. There was an older couple in the assembly and, and, uh, the brother was really a career military man or connected with the military and his wife were not young when they married. They had no children. They're an older couple in the assembly and they were celebrating their 50th anniversary and they effectively had no family. So the brother and put a little meal together for them on Saturday afternoon.
As you said, they had no family with one exception. The the other brother had a sister who came to this get together and was a happy time. And the brothers spoke briefly. He said, umm, he said very little. I mean I can remember him giving him number six out and the breaking of bread frequently. Jesus, how much thy name unfolds. But other than that they were very quiet and as I say, they carried themselves in a quiet dignity.
So I walked them out to the car.
And the brother said, Billy, there was something I wanted to say to the dear young people this afternoon, but I didn't say it.
00:10:03
And I said, what was it, Brother Walter, that you wanted to say to the dear young people?
And I'm getting prepared for a nice rich response, something along the lines of Barnabas saying to those in Antioch that the purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord.
But he said what I wanted to tell them is your boss is not in business to give you a job. Your boss is in business to make money. That's what I wanted to say to the dear young people.
I was a bit disappointed, but over the years I realized the brother had something there. And so this afternoon, what I would like to address and as we've witnessed things over the years.
We speak of a sphere of service. We pray for the work and the reasons beyond. We're thankful for that. We recognize the importance of a mother's care within the home, with a marvelous sphere of service, that is.
But to consider the workplace as a sphere of service for the Lord.
There is more in scripture, more in the New Testament than perhaps we assume that relates to this relationship. I'm speaking specifically of servants and masters, and perhaps in an ancillary way. Stewards are really managers that have the care of another's goods and responsible to hold it properly.
And so as we read through perhaps six different references in the epistles, I would just like to make some comments on them.
And I just lay it out in the spirit of some of these things have been a help to me. I simply would pass them on to you, especially those that are getting into the workplace that may be of help to you.
First Corinthians, Chapter 7.
Start with verse 20.
I'll let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Are thou called being a servant? Care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called. And Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman. Likewise also he that is called being free, is Christ's servant. We are bought with a price. Be not E the servants of men. Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein.
Abide with God.
As I say, I would like to take this thought up with respect to the workplace as a sphere of Christian ServiceNow. Some of you might be getting a little bit nervous as to where I'm going with that, so let me state a couple things up front. Your boss is not paying paying you to evangelize.
But I would say this, we need to take off our employment in everything that we do is unto the Lord, that there if there is opportunity to say a word that all the weight of our work stands behind it. This world does not want to hear a lazy employee exhort them about the Savior. I was just young at the time, barely 20 years of age worked.
At working, uh, at night and I will admit my lack of.
Faithfulness in the gospel was more out of fear than, uh, anything else. So I appreciated the remarks about Timothy of having the spirit of courage, not the spirit of fear.
We can look to the Lord to help us to overcome our national weakness. I worked with the man.
He looked a lot like the president at that time, Jimmy Carter. He'd come into the room and the, the the store and people would say here's the president that's here. He was a very nice man, a dynamic individual, really good worker. He was nothing but kind to me, helpful to me, Give me, give me things. He was, I love to work with this man. Never did I hear him say one off colored remark, but consistently I have if rarely have ever heard a man so blasphemous.
Taking God's name in vain.
Encouraging the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Time went buyers run by. I didn't work with them frequently, but I did and I just didn't have the liberty or I did not have the courage to say something to him. But time comes. I was moving on to a new opportunity. I cared for that Mandeep Linus. I've got I've got to in some way given to speak to the Lord.
Name is Sheldon. I'm 40 years old and I am, I suppose he's long dead now. Call him Shelly, I said. Shelly, I said, you've given me a lot over the last few years. I want to give something to you and I would like to give you this gospel track.
Tells of God's love in the way of salvation.
00:15:02
Looked at me.
I'll take it. I'll take it from you, Bill. The only reason I'm going to take it for you from you is because you work. There was a woman I used to work with. She was preaching to me constantly. I have no use for that. I'll accept from you. Thank you. That's all that went. I just say that because there's an observation that the world has for you mention was made in the meetings about a man that went over to is in the military and came.
Never, never. I guess read the scriptures about on his knees and pray anything and people didn't know that he was the Lord. I will say this.
You may never have said anything to anyone about the Lord, but the world has a way of finding out the believers.
You may be hiding your light under the bushel, and all the time the world knows you're a believer.
You may think they don't, but they do. Many of them do.
And so I see that in the regard that the Lord will give us wisdom because we have a watching world here now First Corinthians 7, What's the point here? This chapter really has to do with marriage. It has to do with the unmarried state. It has to do with the marriage state. It has to do with a married one may be an unbeliever. It has to do with abandonment if one leaves to separated state. It has to do with widows.
But in the middle of this.
Chapter It speaks about let every man abide in the calling warnings we called with God.
Now I think I could speak for all of us here when I say we thank God.
For our brother who have given up much to serve the Lord, and sacrifice and labor and word and doctrine in the gospel, a great sacrifice to themselves. Thank God for you, brother.
So it hasn't called everyone to that.
Majority of us are gonna spend basically if we're in the full time workforce, 25 to 50% depending on the week of our time and our life in the workplace. So it's important that we hear what the word of God would give us instruction here are the slaves. There's nothing they could do. And in these verses, with the exception of when we come to when it comes to the word servant, it's really bond slave. They didn't have a say in where they were working.
But he said, don't be concerned about that, don't be concerned about it. You're the Lord's freeman. We sing a hymn, and bonds are perfect liberty. They weren't free to come and go as they will, but they could do the will of God from the heart where they were in their service. They could serve the Lord and look beyond the eye of their master. On the other hand, he says, if you may be made free, use it rather.
There might be an opportunity for a slave to be made free for use it rather. Thank God for the opportunity to move on. Use it rather.
I think some of my family might be tired of me using this expression, use it rather, but it's been very helpful in the sense of Christian liberty. Sometimes we come into discussions and say, well, with respect to technology and the abuse of it and so on, we use it rather.
Questions come opposition, especially in this day and age, about benefits and insurance and all the rest. Use it rather.
Delivery before the Lord about it. Let's not be overly consumed by these things. If God has granted a provision, use it rather. Now here's the freeman. You're not a freeman. You're the Lord's bondsman. There's no free agents in the work of God, in the service of God. We all have a Lord. We all have a master that we report to. And what is the ultimate overriding challenge and exercise for us? He says you're bought with a price.
Don't be the servants of men.
We sang it twice. We sang that him this morning, uh, by Christ redeemed the cost, his precious blood Lord, we are thine bought by thy blood. I recognize there's a difference between purchase and redemption. Change of ownership versus change of condition.
Redemption goes beyond purchase, but I would say this, when it comes to purchase, when it comes to being bought, there is an emphasis on the cost. That merchant man and went and sold all that he had to buy that Pearl of great price with a price that love has bought us. He said don't be the servants of men. We may be outwardly in the place of servitude to men, but our servitude is to the blessed Lord.
Be not the servants of men, rather than let every man where he's called therein abide with God.
Are you in work where you can abide with God? Don't, don't necessarily try to get out of it sometimes, or maybe those have been saved and they're in a situation to work that they say, I don't think I can honor my, uh, the Lord in the situation. They need, need to move on. So the point that we want to bring here is that we, whatever place the Lord has put us to abide with God. You see, yes, but it says a calling.
00:20:07
Isn't that beautiful? Here's the poor slave who did nothing but born into the servitude. But God says it's a calling. This is what you've been called to do.
And as you're in that place, you serve the Lord. Now go on Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 5. Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart is unto Christ, not with I service has been pleased as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good due willing services to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
Any masters do the same things under them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven.
Neither is their respect of persons with him.
I mentioned this, the thought of bond slaves. It's interesting. There are 7 words in the New Testament that are translated servants and seven words that are translated master.
I appreciated what Brother Bill said this morning.
It's very interesting to get I like to use WE vines New Testament book of New Testament terms. Read the words you get a sense and you get a a depth and an understanding and appreciation for passages and scriptures that you might not have otherwise had. So I mentioned this is again, this is bond slaves, but here he says to be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh.
With fear and trembling. Remarkable, isn't it? With fear and trembling. Why would that be fear and trembling in the workplace? You know, Paul writes to the Philippian assembly. He says that they had a little, a little contention that sprung up there in an otherwise happy, wonderful little assembly there. And he said to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because Paul wasn't there.
In my absence and they had to work these things out and often our local assemblies we have to work things out.
And sometimes there's some rough sledding. We deal with fear and trembling.
And James says, and many things you all often offend, who of us is not offended with a tongue? I don't even like to think of how many times they've done that. So we're to do with fear and trembling. Paul, when he preached the Corinthians, he says, I was with you in fear and in much trembling. He recognized the gravity of what was at stake as he preached to them. But here we have fear and trembling in connection with the workplace.
Fisel Well, I'll give you suggest a few different areas and the first I would like to address is the matter of integrity and honesty and truthfulness.
For all that's said in the media and exposing this, uh, this chicanery and this scam and that fraud that the heart of man is, is the same. And the believer may be called upon in certain situations to compromise. Not like our brethren in foreign lands that are faced with physical violence, but there is and there may be in the workplace, real pressure brought to bear for you to fudge.
For you to go contrary to what you know is right before the eye of God with a wink and a nod from your boss.
We serve the Lord Christ.
There's three men, at least in the Old Testament that's spoken of is their integrity.
Once Himalak told God, he said I did this thing in the integrity of my heart, taking Abram's wife that he didn't touch. And God says I know that if you hadn't, you'd have been a dead man this morning.
He did it in integrity. I love the thought of Nathaniel there. And the Lord says, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile doesn't mean, in whom is no sin, but in whom is no dial. He wasn't a deceiver. He wasn't misleading, He wasn't deceptive Integrity. David said I will walk within mine house in the integrity of my heart. I think that's beautiful because we know there was a time when David did not walk.
And integrity before his heart.
And Joe, we know this is my integrity while I hold fast. He was a man of integrity called perfect by God himself. The problem with Job is he was proud about it. But integrity is so important, you compromise.
You lie, the world knows about it, and you just undermine your testimony for Christ.
We have the president of the company for some time. He's a very mad he's man. He's towered over everybody, you know, presence as they say and all the rest. Boss said I have got no use for him and his little fish on his lapel. I know the man and he went on to tell me some things about him. The world knows the little fish on his lapel did not, did not compensate for the things that he'd done. Fair and trembling integrity. Next thing is our word.
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Our word says in First Timothy 4 that were to be an example of the believers in Word, in conversation or conduct and charity and spirit and faith and purity. The world watches our words, what comes out of our mouth.
Uh, remember occasion one time and there was something that came up that angered me, frustrated me. And let me just say this too, feelings are not wrong.
I was impressed with the verses read this morning. We have such a high priest that cannot be touched with a feeling.
Of our infirmities. Perhaps you'd like to. I I operate in the realm of thought and of logic. I don't capitulate to mere feelings. But it says of Elijah, he was a man subject to like passions as we are feelings, we have feelings. And you don't leave your feelings at the door when you go to the workplace. All that said, it was something I spoke too vigorously on.
Wasn't I'm saying it wasn't blasphemous, but I I used a stronger expression. I remember what it was right now than I should have.
My boss comes out of his door with that Cheshire cat grin from ear to ear with a twinkle in his eye and said, I never thought I would hear that from you. I made his day. I looked at him.
But it is that was a reminder. This world is watching the words that come out of your mouth. Be careful with fear and trembling. The words that come out of our mouth mention one other thing and this is delicate slide. In the workplace, there are things despite all the HR rules and guidelines and all the rest, there are sometimes relationships that develop that are not appropriate.
I don't like to say too much, especially when everything gets.
Put out in the, uh, in the, uh, Internet nowadays, but.
I worked with the man and I worked with a woman. They were both married.
She's not bashful about the Lord versus on the Bible, uh, scripture verses in her in her workstation and all the rest and.
Uh, just is starting to bother me a little bit, but every time I was going back one of the conference rooms, the two of them are on the opposite side of the desk. I'm seeing this day in, day out, day in, day out. I understand we have to work with people. They didn't have to work that close together. And it bothered me. It bothered me a lot, especially it bothered me when I heard the man who I didn't know that was the Lord talking pretty rough to his wife on the phone. So well, the nice if you could speak to her the same way that he spoke to this woman there at work.
I would say this matter ultimately got it resolved thankfully.
But you know, once again, the world watches and the world comments. They may not comment to you, but they will comment behind your back. They observe and pick these things up. We have to be careful. And he that trusted his own heart is a fool. You've heard that before, but you haven't heard it as often as I did from my father. He that trusts of his own heart as a fool. Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord.
You're gonna trust what's desperately wicked and is deceitful.
Perhaps not one other area, and that is on those occasions. There are times.
When we need to speak, speak a word from the Lord.
When I think of this verse of fear and trembling, I think of one incident in particular.
This again, this goes back to, you know, 2-3 decades where we were on the cutting edge of technology. We come up with this audit department and this new machine, fangled machine that we're gonna, you know, we're gonna report in real time data and all the rest. And, and umm, anyway, it was being used as I against that against the team I was managing.
And I was bubbling this information back to Boston. This isn't right. I don't care how, what the, what the, the advancement in technology is, it's no garbage in, garbage out. So it's OK, we'll document it. And, and you just feed that information to me. So I fed the information to him. And, uh, so he said, well, one day he came and he says, well, you got a meeting with so and so one of the new high, you know, one of the hired guns that he comes into executive management level, they take big money to bring from someone else who's heading up this department. And he said, are you gonna go have a meeting with him?
Oh, I said you're going to come along and says no.
Always have your people's back when you're a boss. But anyway, so we went up there. I'm, I'm, I'm pretty nervous. I'm, I'm just young. Family is young. I don't, I don't wanna, I don't get sideways with this new, with this new, uh, executive. And these are the auditing, which is one person, my former boss, a woman who is a Mormon.
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So we got, we got into it. He stated his piece, I stated my piece. He starts ratcheting up the pressure.
He says at one point, because I wasn't budging, he says, look, he swore and he said even Jesus Christ sinned.
We finished the conversation up and even my former boss turned white as a sheep.
Versus that we had before us about denying the Lord yesterday came with real power to me. Like the Lord said, if you leave this room without saying something about what was just said, you're gonna deny me.
I said, well, I said no. I said I think I agree with everything that's been said except one thing.
I looked at demand. I said Jesus Christ never sinned.
He blubbered and he sputtered and said something unintelligible.
I walked out.
I thank God if there's anything I've ever done for the Lord, I believe it was that cannot deny our Lord, but it was with fear and trembling. There are things that we cannot let go, or else we will be denying our Lord.
With fear and trembling also takes up about masters.
You know.
Some of us or some of you own your own business and, and, uh, that's, that's, it has to be a unique challenge. Sometimes we've been in the place of being middle managers, but when you're in an owner or an ownership or a management role, there is a real responsibility connected with that.
And there's one thing that we're not to do. It says here forbearing, threatening. The Darby says giving up threatening, not just moderating it as we have in the in the King James. Giving up threatening, you say it's a mighty convenient tool. It's not a tool, it's a weapon and we're not to use it.
And I see these things right now because I've looked back and I've had, umm, had some marvelous bosses.
And some horrible ones.
Some may have been the Lord's others not. Just because you're a believer does not make you a good manager, does not make you a good boss. My brother the other day for lunch, we were talking about this. We're, we're, uh, actually we're a little visit one evening. And you know, I said, there's something that's really struck me of late. And you remember Nam and the Syrian, the chief captain there, he was Syrian, he wasn't Israelite, right? And.
As he went there to Elijah to, uh, be healed of his leprosy.
And Umm, Elijah has served and go sell, go washing the Jordan 7 times and and they haven't loses it. He's enraged at this insult to a man of his stature. But what I find most instructive in that passage his service.
Said we, we, we can't let him go back down without being healed. And so they went and then treated him as a father and they said my father, if you would have been to do some great thing once that not have done how much rather when he said wash should be clean.
He listened to his servants. There must have been something care they had for him, and there must have been some reason they wanted to see their master clean. And he listened and he got the blessing. He was a Syrian.
We know later on he embraced the God of Israel, but he was a Syrian. For our purposes this afternoon, it was an unbeliever. Now there's another man, not Naaman, but Navel.
You remember Nabal, he's the one that when David is on the, on the run from Saul and, and David and his men protected Nabel's men from harm and danger. And they said these like, uh, it was at the like the surroundings with fire and they protect us there. There's no harm. They'll look after us. Naval said. Who then is David, who's the son of Jesse? He had no regard to David and David was, David was on the warpath.
What was the reaction or the response of naval servants?
To this man who was of the tribe of Judah, who was a Calibite, the descendant, I take it directly from Caleb. Good heritage, huh?
They said.
00:35:01
So talk to Abigail. Why, they said of Navally as such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak unto him. I'm not wasting my breath. He'll enable about anything, even if his life is on the line, because you can't say anything to him.
What a horrible position to be in a man that was a calibite of the tribe of Jude and his servants that don't even save your breath because he won't listen to you. Is that the character a Christian can have in the workplace? Save your breath. It's troubling when I see maybe I've had my own part in and I'm sure I've had Christians, brethren, believers that love the Savior that cannot take correction.
You're not right on everything.
Some point you're wrong. Hide the defensiveness and we carry that into the assembly. Sometimes, well, I find these masters here, the character of threatening. That's not what God has put us in place. Well, the servants, to be fair and trembling, go to Colossians 3.
Colossians 3.
Verse 22 Serve and sobe in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with ice services, menplezers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And what serve you do, do it heartily to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall recur, receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of persons masters given to your servants out which is just an equal, knowing that He also have a master in heaven.
He said, well that sounds very similar to Ephesians, and indeed it is similar to Ephesians, but there are a couple of differences I'd like to point out.
You notice back in verse.
17 It says in a more general sense, whatever you do in Word or do, you do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him. And here we have in verse, uh, 22 That was uh, that were to do and singleness of heart fearing God.
Obeying all things. I like the little story of the, uh, brother. He went to an older brother and said, uh, do you think we should encourage the young people to do something for the Lord?
The older brothers didn't know.
I believe we should encourage them to do everything for the Lord. That's Colossians 3.
He opened the door of the office. You leave the door of the house. Whether you're in the field or in the factory, or on the road or in the home, whatever the sphere might be, we're there to do. What we do is unto the Lord, and we're to do it heartily.
References made this morning to the proverbs. References made to the end. I grew up with a steady diet of proverbs, Proverbs, proverbs, proverbs every morning, proverbs at some of it. You know what? There's other parts of the scripture. You know the proverbs.
And we did read different, different places in the evening and, and we've kind of followed that same tack ourselves, though, you know, the progress. It's interesting. You can get these different characters, the 26 chapters, very interesting, all these different characters that are brought in. But you can trace out a line of things. And one of the lines is the slothful. You know, he even is slothful in his work, his brother to him that is a great waster.
If what I am doing, I'm doing it hardly unto the Lord. I'm not gonna be slothful. I'm not gonna be a sluggard. I'm not gonna be lazy. I'm not gonna be in the LE. I'm going to be a productive, energetic worker.
Who can tell me where that verse is cursed should be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently. I see you're quoting Darby. Yes, it's deceitfully in the King James. Curse should be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently. And in our context this afternoon, the work of the Lord is everything that we do. Well, I will say this Jeremiah 48. I had to look it up, but what I was intrigued about is it came right to another verse. I was thinking about Moab.
Remember Moab? It was a son of Lot, but the descendants what characterized Moab says in Jeremiah 48 he has been at ease.
From his youth, he's not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Therefore a scent remains in him. In other words, the sediment of the wine soaked out without being emptied from vessel to vessel. The Sten should just become stronger. His scent remained in him. Lord puts us through trials. That is less than what we are naturally in crisis worked into us. But the point is about Moab. There he's been at ease from his youth. It's the picture of slothfulness and laziness.
And proverbs condemned slothfulness and know uh UN uncertain terms.
We need to speak heartily unto unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord, you shall retrieve the reward of the inheritance. You know, I just mentioned this is a side because we are humans and I do find and it it it's it's frightened me because we are vulnerable to the same things that those in the world are of. Sometimes you may have an employer of boss that does you wrong. Sometimes there's things that work against you and we don't need to spin it and try to say it's it's understandable. Wrong is wrong. We don't want to be defending the.
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Sensible but these things do happen but the danger that we can fall into one of the things we can fall into is if something wrong happens is we develop a poor me attitude self pity self pity is disastrous because it brings us down OK well even the score of them but I will not work as hard I will not work as diligently as I should back off a little bit you want to play ball that way then we'll fine we'll play ball that way very dangerous to get the spirit of self pity seeing it where those that are backed off and then you get into situations where they've.
Perhaps not handle things as properly and upright as they should. It's not a good thing. We want to always keep our eye on the Lord and do heartily into the Lord even if the masters have done us wrong. Notice chapter 4, verse one. In other words, masters given to your servants, what is just and equal or just and fair. A lot of comments today made about being fair. Well, for the Christian master, that is what the desire is to be.
That we are fair. It's not like husbands love your wives. It's not that we're to love our employees, but we are to be fair with them and do what's right before God in that context.
What is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
Ephesians 6 I believe the point is that their MA the the master, both theirs and yours. Now we have the same master. And so important these things are because you just can't flip the switch. You and I can't flip the switch from being godly and honorable in the home or in the assembly and not on the job doesn't work that way.
So we find these instructions within the within the within the workplace. Go over to first Timothy now chapter one. I wanna move along here.
Led as many servants, chapter 6, Verse one. Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. Like to read that second verse in the Darby translation.
It says, but let them the rather serve them with subjection because they are faithful and beloved who profit by the good and ready service rendered servants who are under the yoke. All you say, I thought were not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I knew a brother and umm, it was his position. Don't agree with it. I'll leave it scripture, but that was his conviction before the Lord. He believed that working for someone wasn't unequal yoke, but they were.
Sure, I don't see that how these servants bonds lays that unbelieving masters. How that would be considered a yoke or under the yoke, not in a yoke.
Thank you. Old Italian property that has a partner, has a master. You go into an unequal yoke with an unbeliever. There's only one way you can go and that's down. Despite the strategic wisdom of these out of these decisions, at least in an outward way. Talk about servants that are under the yoke and it says Lamentations Chapter 3 that it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Two things on that. The first thing is we need to learn when we're young to be able to take.
Orders and instructions. We're not calling the shots, we're following through on what we're instructed to do. Also, a yoke is not generally just one. You work with others ability to work together.
You know, I've sometimes thought of this. Why does it say in, uh, about the, uh, the, uh, the elders and their wives, if they've brought up children and say a child, this is children. And I thought it's this way is because they know how to need to have some experience in handling disputes within the home.
But that's in the side. At any rate, he says that we count them worthy of all honor, respect.
I don't need to tell you the disrespect that there is to authority and that extends even in the workplace, for the word of God tells us that the masters to become worthy of all honor.
In chapter, the prior chapter speaks about those elders that O overseers that rule well. They're to be counted worthy of double honor. Honor because of their age.
00:45:03
Double honor because the way they carry out their responsibilities here, the employers to be treated with all honor. Why?
That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. If we do not treat those that are over us in the workplace with honor, all honor, it will reflect badly on the name of our God. It will reflect badly on the teaching of the Word of God. So that's what your Bible reads like, huh? No.
We need to bear in mind a report ex directly on the name of God, Hawker, right? The Jews there in Romans two or three, who I guess it is that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, because they're ways who got blamed for their ways. God did. But then it's just about believing masters. And this is another delicate matter. Sometimes you're working for a brother in Christ.
Well, this is, this is excellent because they'll cut you some slack. They will be more understanding and they will appreciate, uh, uh, some of the challenges you, you have.
Well, there's a danger that we despise them, but it says, but rather do them service. And again, as a who profit the faithful and beloved, who profit by the good and ready service rendered.
Well, if I have a Christian employer or a boss, it is just one additional reason to work harder because of my good and ready service. It's good to Titus. Chapter one, please.
Again, one of my.
Desires is not to get in the way of what the scripture says, to let it stand, let it speak for itself and be exercised by and as I was, as I was struggling through this, is this really a topic that would be appropriate? What is the word of God? And uh, it is appropriate, but as I just read the scriptures themselves, I was convicted.
In reading some of these scriptures, let the word of God just search this out. Titus chapter one and verse 9 Exhort servants to be obedient.
Onto their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Once again, the importance of being obedient to our masters, to please them well in all things. All you say, I thought we just read, were not to be man pleasers. I'm a God pleaser, not a man pleaser, but it says here to please them well in all things or to make ourselves acceptable to them.
We can't control their reaction and response, but we need all to do that we can to make ourselves an acceptable servant. I'm not talking again about compromise. We've already gone down that path. But to do what we can to to be a good employee for their benefit. Not answering again.
Back talk.
Has no place in the home. Has no place for the Christian in the workplace.
That's not high truth, but how many of us have failed in it not answering? Again, that's not showing all honor to the boss. I'm not talking either about having a reasoned conversation. I'm thankful for bossing to sit down and have an honest disagreement. What happened to the day of having an honest disagreement?
And talking through it and working through it, but not the spirit of backtalk not prolonging what's that that's appropriating your master's good and using it for yourself. In First Corinthians 4:00 we we read that in stewards it is required that amount be found faithful. Oh, you say the references there is into the mysteries of reference to the mysteries of God. We need to be faithful in the mysteries of God and that spiritual heritage that we have.
Verses quoted this morning or yesterday. It was this morning that he that is faithful and little doubt, which is another man's.
We're to be faithful and little before we're faithful and much we're to be faithful in these small matters, but here to not prolong, not to appropriate.
What is our masters for our own benefit? Call it stealing if you will.
But showing all good fidelity. One of the thing about stealing, you know, I, I, I don't wanna bring everybody down with these marvelous meetings that we've had and just drag things in from the world. But we're in the world, you know, these things. And how do we face some of these challenges?
Challenge we've had the company just clamping down because, you know, the productivity of the American workers just shooting up and up and up. I haven't heard that lately, but I know that's not the challenge we're faced with is what is with Netflix and people using social media on the boss's time. That's stealing from your boss, especially if you're on the clock. You're not paying you to watch movies.
00:50:09
Uh, and, and the companies had to clamp down and you think people would learn, but no, people are losing their job, stealing from the company, purloining, but showing all good fidelity. What's that? That's loyalty.
He said, well, I don't believe in blind loyalty, no, but we need to be loyal, loyal to the person, company that gives us our paycheck. Have you ever thought there in First Corinthians or Galatians, 5I should say the fruit of the Spirit, Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering and so on. And then we'll fly right past that little word faith. Faith. That's how faith and God, let's force that word faith.
Or fidelity, our faithfulness or loyalty as part of the fruit of the Spirit.
Isn't it refreshing to see someone that's loyal, someone that says I'm standing with, well, there's wonderful in marriage.
What's in the workplace, wherever it is to see someone that is loyal and that's what we have here and why that we might adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
We won't want the world to say, would we? Well, if that's Christianity, the way you conduct your business, I want no part of it.
Were to adorn the doctrine. It isn't the doctrine, but our manner of life and again whatever spirit is we just singled out this one area of the workplace this afternoon. Wouldn't it be nice that the way we carry out our affairs of life and and and in the workplace that it adorns the doctrine that it makes it attractive. See I like that I want that.
One final verse in first Peter.
Chapter 2.
Verse 18. We'll read verse 17 as well. Modern All men love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward or to the ill tempered.
So we see there is that honored all men. Those are authority so on, but here in servants be subject to your masters with all fear.
That this really is a state and sometimes the verse has to do with displaying that attitude and the occasion arises other it has to do with the state. But here were to be sub submit ourselves, or rather umm be subject to our masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. This is extremely difficult. We've had a few comments about.
The Christians behavior in a managerial role or an ownership role?
But sometimes we are faced with a situation like this where we're faced with the scripture says unreasonable men and the ill tempered and how we need to seek real grace from the Lord that we, that we're subject to that one. They, they need the Savior. And sometimes we see those that are virtually out of control, but we're too, too, uh, to be subject to them, even if they're all tempered.
Now it says in verse 15.
It's a relationship with the government. But the point is this, for so is the will of God, that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
No, there are there are times.
That.
You may face the opposition of this world, uh, they because you belong to Christ, not because you're a bad employee, not because you've had a bad attitude, but because they hate Christ. And these things are very challenging as well that there is, there may be a reproach.
And so how important it is for us to accept that as, as, uh, as, as, as honoring our Lord in that situation.
I worked with a young man.
It's not young man anymore, but umm, he always had very capable, very capable and, and what he did, but he always had a joke corny send something and uh, there are some, there are some opportunities, there's some promotions to be had and he was certainly qualified in certain areas and.
Now the man that had the decision, I didn't deal with much, but he wanted to share something with me just by the way.
He said, well, I called him in my office.
00:55:00
So you're not getting the job because you're the company clown?
Man's a believer. That's not the testimony to have. It's nice to have a sense of humor. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves. We need to go with the flow at times and enjoy it. But we're already here to spend the time of our sojourning here in fear not to be a jokester, not to be, uh, one that's constant, uh, Lee, trying to find the, the joke in the situation or the levity. We have a, we have a responsibility to serve Christ.
In the workplace.
And so I do recognize that what we brought before us this afternoon, as I say, it's not deep and it's not complicated, but I am convicted that it is critically important in our testimony for the Lord.
Well, may the Lord give us grace to act for Him where we are and umm, you know, when we make mistakes or when we fail, you'll find even with the world, an apology and acknowledgement that I've done wrong is generally received very well and can often open an opportunity. Let's say #13 in closing.
And I recognize that scripturally we don't have the expression child of God. It's consistently the collective children of God that without the recognition, it's still a nice him. Let's sing 13.
Child of God by.
Sourcing and fear and fear and curve. Joy to find in every day.
13 in the appendix.
They must be red wounds and red mirror today. Today's white covers white.
Breaks last year the dying to win the windy.
Glory.
Oh, now turn into your black women.
They couldn't find anywhere to run it.
God and our Father, we thank you for Thy word. Thank you for the instruction that gives us in our very fastest of life. Help us serve God, not to explain away, but to receive Thy word and seek to walk in the good of it and instruction of it, that we might bear testimony for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the one who loved us, who gave himself for us. Now bless the Lord, we desire to live for Thee. Help us in these things and that precious name we pray, Amen.
Luke 12:42-59
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Let's try it all I did never I progressed upon.
The night.
Two quarters, three at the glow from drawing around.
What I've ever made everyone.
We environment so.
Dangerous.
I am in Lamb.
Who we ask the Lord's blessing.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank thee that we are heavenly citizens. We do not belong to this scene. We're strangers and pilgrims strangers because our citizenship is above and as those that are part of the new creation race, we belong to the Lord Jesus and we know that we're going through the enemy's land. And as we read these portions of scripture together in this reading meeting, we pray that those.
Work in such a way.
By Thy Spirit, that we might be more conformed to the image of thy sun, and that we might walk in a consistent course as we walk through this world. We thank Thee for thy love and grace in permitting us the liberty to read of Thyself, blessed Savior, and these words that I would speak while thou is here. And so help us give us a sense of heart and, uh, an ear to hear and a desire heart to walk in the truth that we know, and to buy the truth to pay the price that is necessary for us to.
Walk in a path that is consistent to the calling that is ours. We ask thy blessing. Commend ourselves to the known, the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:10
Both and verse 42.
And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom is Lord, shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Plus it is that servant whom is Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But and if that servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men's servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.
The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him as portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he then knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes front. To whomsoever much is given of him, so much be required.
And to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more I've come to set fire on the earth, and what I will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straight until it will be accomplished? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there should be 5 in one house divided 3 against two, and two against three.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And he said also to the people, When you see a cloud rise out of the West straight way, you say there cometh a shower. And so it is. And when you see the South wind blow, you say there will be heat, and it comes to pass.
Ye hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time? Yeah, and why even of yourselves? Judge ye not what is right? But now goes with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he held thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer caste into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart since till thou hast paid the very last might.
We didn't comment on the coming of the Lord really in connection with the rapture. I know in this chapter in verse 39, it really he speaks in detail, perhaps, uh, of the appearing. But as we have already commented, the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke has, uh, a moral side of things. And so he speaks in a way that we could apply this waiting and watching to the rapture as well as to the appearing. But when it speaks of the appearing in the Scriptures, it speaks of the thief.
And then it also speaks of the Son of Man. Verse 39 it speaks of the thief, and verse 40 it speaks of the Son of Man. And that's the title that the Lord takes. As a judge. It's important for us to understand the distinction between the rapture and between the appearing and the error that the church fathers fell into and those that were translating the King James Bible. They didn't understand the difference.
And the distinction between the rapture and the appearing, let's just look at Matthew chapter 24, right at the end of that chapter, verse 42. And I just point out a couple of verses so that we understand that there is a real distinction. And the Lord Jesus himself taught the distinction between the rapture, when the Lord Jesus will come for his church, and then when he will come with his Saints at his appearing. There's a very real distinction, so.
Chapter 24 of Matthew verse 42 wherefor watch therefore for ye know not what our your Lord does come, but know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in what what the thief would come, he would have washed and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. He's Speaking of the appearing and the appearing will take place after the tribulation period, which will be a seven-year period. He calls the beginning of the tribulation period the the 1St 3 1/2 years, the beginning of Soros and then the last part of the 3 1/2 years he calls the great Tribulation. The Lord Jesus used those terms.
00:10:18
But when it speaks of the rapture in chapter 25, it's the uh, parable of the umm, or the similitude of the Kingdom, the last similitude of the Kingdom, chapter 25 from verse one down to verse 13, he's Speaking of the rapture when his, the Lord will come for those that are real and will ****** us up out of this scene. Now in verse umm 12, he says, uh, he answered and said, verily I say unto you, I know not ye, I know ye not.
Those are their professing believers that go on through the professing time, uh, during the tribulation period. But he's Speaking of the in verse 13 of the rapture. Watch therefore, for you know, neither the day nor the hour. Now, the last part of that verse doesn't belong in the text wherein the Son of Man cometh. He's not going to come for the church in the character of the Son of Man.
And so I just have brackets in pencil in my Bible and a little line. So A bracket before we're in and then A bracket after cometh. And I just put a little light line through so that I know that it doesn't really belong in the text. So you read it this way. Watch therefore for, you know, neither the day nor the hour that's referring to the rapture. So we have the distinction, the appearing of the Lord Jesus in verse 42, chapter 24, verse 42, verse 43.
And then we have the rapture spoken of in chapter 25. So as we said in Luke's gospel, morally both companies are waiting for the Lord to come. The godly remnant are going to wait for the Lord to come to deliver them after the tribulation period, after that time of judgment. But you and I are waiting and watching. We should be waiting, watching and mentioned those words. Wait, watch.
Be ready.
And then doing in verse 43, we should have that character. So there's two things that characterize the thief. He's unexpected and unwanted. And that's why you never have that expression in connection with the rapture because for us, we are to be expecting him and we, I trust each of our hearts want him to come that we're saying Even so come Lord Jesus. So that's why it's never in connection.
With the rapture, but it is connection with the appearing because there's a day coming when he's going to appear in judgment and he's going to be in that sense, by many, unexpected and certainly unwanted. So it's good to keep these little expressions in their proper context lest we become confused and tangled in our in our, in our doctrine.
So what we get next year then is.
Really, Peter says in verse 41.
Thinkest thou this parable unto us, or unto all?
And what the Lord gives is very typical of Luke's gospel and the way that things are presented, because he gives.
What you and I can take in and understand and apply to ourselves, even though the truth of the assembly and the truth of the Lord's coming for His own, and the truth of the rapture versus the appearing had not yet been made clear. But here we have that which you and I can take very much to heart in the day of the Lord's absence. It could, I suppose, in that sense, if they wanted to take it that way.
Applied at the godly ones in Israel, but it is particularly important for you and for me in this time of God's grace, isn't it? What are we to do in view of all these things that we have learned? Not to be covetous, not to be anxious, and not to be.
Two faced or hypocrites and so on. If we have learned all those things, then the Lord says to Peter.
00:15:01
Here's what a faithful and white steward needs to do. Very, very important because we are stewards not only of material things but also of spiritual things.
You have a little title, Brother Bruce, of this next section, maybe from verse 41 down to maybe it's the end of verse 48.
No, not necessarily. Not just particularly freely to be free from the disorderly conduct and to be found doing a work of service.
Good, I like that. It's the parable of the steward, isn't it?
Well, as we had earlier, a steward is one who is given the responsibility to manage that which is not his own.
Thank you. Stuart is given the responsibility of managing that which is not his own, but he does so on behalf of another, and he is expected to do it both faithfully and according to the guidance and instruction of the one who owns the goods.
In old.
Manor houses and castles and so on in years gone by.
There was always someone who held the key to the stores and every day they would be responsible for opening those cupboards and producing that which was necessary to be used for the day's provision for the household. They kept careful tabs on what was in that cupboard, they kept careful records of what was bought and they kept careful records of what was handed out. And so it is with you and me, isn't it? We are to be faithful and wise stewards.
In order to use that which God has given us, whether material things, whether spiritual things for the good and blessing of others, a very, very great responsibility. And as has been mentioned before before, and it's mentioned in verse 48 of this part of the chapter. If we have been given more whether materially or spiritually.
We are more responsible. Very, very important to bear in mind.
Someone has made the remark. I thought it was rather good.
Uh, he said. If we have more.
Of either material or spiritual goods, we can use them in one of two ways. We can use them as a means to accredit or distinguish ourselves, or we can use them for the good and blessing of others.
That really went to my own heart and I believe it's something we specially need to remember here in these privileged lands. If we can meet together like this, if we have good ministry available to us, both orally at conferences like this or on the shelves, and the ability to get a hold of it, the means of reading it and assimilating it, walking in it, we hope then we are expected to be good stewards of it in this time that our Lord is absent.
One example might be what Paul told.
Timothy is the term with me, the first second Timothy chapter one you get a little.
Illustration of that with regard to the truth, particularly of the truth of Paul's doctrine. Second Timothy, chapter one.
He says in verse 13, Hold fast the form of sound words or have a sound outline of words which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Now the verse I was thinking of was verse 14. That good thing which was committed to thee, that word thing should be translated. Deposit that good deposits.
Which has been committed under the keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. So Timothy's first responsibility was to keep the truth, not in the arm of the flesh, but by the power of the Spirit of God walking in community with God. Then in chapter 2 and verses 2, the things we saw has heard of me among many witnesses. The same commit thou to faithful men who were able to teach others also. So he was to disseminate it too.
00:20:29
Keep it by walking in and communing with the Lord, and then to disseminate it, to spread it and to disperse it, to teach it and to others particularly who would do the same. That's stewardship in connection with Paul's doctrine. I enjoyed a little comment that chapter Brown made in that regard, and I don't remember him, but he made it on a tape and, uh, he said his exercise and desire was to pass on the truth.
With the same purity in which he himself had received it. I thought that was a beautiful exercise. And that's really what Paul was saying to Timothy. You've received the truth now. You passed it on. Not just anybody, but the faithful man.
Faithful men who will be able to then pass it on to other faithful men. This is perhaps the only Apostolic succession you get in Scripture is the passing on of the truth from one generation to the other. But let's be exercised, brethren, to pass it on, not by watering it down. The truth has its application to the day. That's true. And we want to be able to put it out in a way that is good for the the generation we're serving. But not to water it down, but to pass it on with the same purity in which we have received it. I'm thankful that growing up by sat in conferences and meetings like this.
And men who are now along with the Lord, they passed on the truth that they had received and that they passed it on faithfully. And so we need to be exercised. But I would like to say this too, that in connection with our responsibility as stewards, whether it is again those material things that are entrusted to us or whether it is the truth of God that has been entrusted to us, which is really, and Bill alluded to it or mentioned it in First Corinthians chapter 4.
There is stewardship in connection with the truth of God, the mysteries that have been revealed to us. And Paul again was passing on what he he was a steward of the truth he had received and he was passing it on. But brethren were not responsible for what God has, how, how someone else is using what God has given them. Now we need to be exercised to be a help to one another. But when I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, who am I going to have to give an account for? For how, how faithful you were with what God entrusted to you, No.
And I say that because sometimes the tendency is to look at someone else and say, well, they're not using what the Lord has entrusted to them. And perhaps even subconsciously or unconsciously, we use that as an excuse for something in our lives. Well, they're not being faithful in what the Lord has entrusted to them. And we use that for some compromise. Let's remember, brethren, when we talk about stewardship, we are individually going to be held responsible.
For what has been committed to us, we visit many of our dear brethren in other countries. You know, some of them have never heard of the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, but I believe they're walking in the light. They have, they're walking in, uh, they're being stewards of what has been committed to them. Does that mean I should give up what has been committed to me by the grace of God and what I have been taught? No, I'm going to be held responsible. They're going to be held responsible.
And I'd like to just read a little portion in the end of John's Gospel that perhaps has its application in this regard in connection with Peter and John. And it's in the 21St chapter of John's Gospel, little incident with the disciples, with the Lord, dealing with Peter and John just before the Lord leaves them, go back to heaven and.
Just to give the context here, Peter has been restored to the Lord privately and publicly, and now the Lord is talking to Peter, something of the responsibility that Peter is going to have in following the Lord.
Something of what is going to be committed to him after the Lord leaves. And as is a little typical with Peter, notice verse 20, then Peter turning about, see if the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's John.
00:25:05
Following which also leaned on his breast and suffer, and said, Lord, we Lord, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing himself to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? What's his responsibility?
What, what, what's, what's he gonna do? Jesus says unto him, If I will, that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Now Peter was saying to the Lord, basically. Now Lord, what do you, what are you committing to Peter? What's he, what's his responsibility going to be? And the Lord said to Peter, Peter, you follow me, you carry out your responsibilities that I commit to you.
And I'll take care of John, give you a little illustration that helped me to understand at least part of the thought in this verse. When we were children at home, for particularly my sister next to me, we were often given a task. Mother would sometimes leave us after the evening meal to clean off the table and do up the dishes. And after a while, she would come back in the room and she would usually have to say to me, Jim, you're not doing what I asked you to do.
And I would usually point to my sister and say, yes, but Jennifer's not doing her part. And my mother would always say, you do what I've asked you to do and I'll take care of your sister. And so, brethren, we have been made stewards of many things, both temporally and spiritually. Don't look at someone else and saying they're saying they're not doing their part or fulfilling their mission. Let's look each in our own souls this afternoon. Are we? Am I?
Faithful with what the Lord has committed to me, because I am going to have to give an account and there will be a reward or a lack thereof according to how faithful I was.
Wanted to read those verses again in First Corinthians four. I think they're so applicable to what we have before us says let a man versus one. Let a man so accountable as of the ministers or servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. I read a comment that Mister Grant made recently that I appreciate it. He said that New Testament is characterized by mysteries. And I think, uh, if we study it out, we'll see that there are 10 distinct mysteries in the New Testament. And we won't go into it now because it's a large subject, but uh, there is information and literature available on that. So the New Testament is characterized by mysteries.
The Old Testament is characterized by covenants. There's 8 covenants in the Old Testament, uh, at least I should say seven, and then one in the New Testament, Hebrews 13, if you wanna look it up. The everlasting covenant. And these are all part of dispensationalism, which is what was recovered about 170 years ago, which is really the key to the recovered truth of Scripture. So if you wanna get a hold of the scope of Scripture, it's been laid out in the last 170 years.
And I've often said, I was just saying it to burn today, that I believe that God has entrusted us with the highest truth of any of his creatures. I don't say us in the sense of we being special, but the retro, the truth has been recovered and our day and it's more available than it ever has been. Uh, we can go to good databases online. If we don't have books on our books shelves, we can go to stem.com.
Or to biblecenter.org or to Bible truth Publishers website. And we can get ministry. Uh, it's not uncommon, uh, when we take up the subject to read 6 or 8 commentaries on that very subject, that truth is available. And as we've been saying, privilege and responsibility are flip sides of the same point. But what a privilege it is, brethren, to understand that the highest truth.
That God has entrusted to the to the creature has been entrusted to us and made available to us in our day. That's a tremendous responsibility and a tremendous privilege.
Says in verse 42, faithful and wise.
So.
I quote chapter Brown again. He used to say that God is going to look us over when we get to heaven. He's not going to look us over for medals. He's going to reward faithfulness, and God values faithfulness. And the passage here records that he is going to review the faithfulness of service and our devotion to him and to his cause in this scene while we wait for his coming. But it's going to have to be in wisdom.
00:30:19
The wisdom of the Word of God, the wisdom of the principles of Scripture. And so God is not going to compromise his principles to get results. And so this older brother, I never met him similar to Jim, but have listened oftentimes to recorded ministry and used to say that faithfulness is what God is counting on for you and I. He's not looking for results, He's looking for faithfulness.
So let's be faithful to the truth that we know. And then if we're faithful and obedient, then it says here there's going to be a character of our service that's going to prove. We're going to prove that we're walking in wisdom according to His Word.
Find it helpful to go back to Matthew's Gospel chapter 24 in those two characteristics, faithful and wise, They're both mentioned there. And if you look at it, I'd just like to, uh, say that look at the end of verse 44, it says the Son of Man cometh. That's the appearing like you said before.
And from verse 45 on, it's a parenthesis that runs down through chapter 25 and verse 30. And notice verse 31 when the Son of Man shall come in his glory. So it connects in between those you have in verse 45 of Matthew 24 says, who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom the Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them need in due season.
And so you have in chapter 25 the parable of the 10 virgins, what is wise, and you have in connection with the parable of the talents from verse 14 down to verse 30, what is faithful. And so it helps to see what he's talking about, faithful and wise stewards. And so we get the.
Uh, reflections and it's interesting what you mentioned there, brother Robert in verse 13 of chapter 25.
Is the son of man cometh is not really there in the original. And so it's really kind of a double, uh, parable of this, the, uh, virgins and this on the, uh, faithful stewards of the talents. So.
It is important in, uh, connection with our responsibility in this present time.
So Matthew is from a dispens, dispensational point of view, but it's connected, isn't it? Yes.
Well, fair to say there will be those come in who are unfaithful stewards, and that's laid out for us here, isn't it? Beginning with verse 45, there will be a reward for the faithful servant. And as we have often been told before, and it's true, the reward is not the motive for service, no, but it's an encouragement to do so. But then from verse 45 on, there are those.
Sad to say, who are not real, and that has been a character of the Christian testimony which overtook it fairly quickly after the apostles left the sea. And there are those who with the.
Uh, idea of using the things that were given to them for themselves have said, my Lord delayeth this coming and once again, I believe.
This is something that is.
In its actual interpretation directed at an unbeliever, but in its application is something you and I can take to heart, because a true believer can say in his heart, my Lord, delayeth is coming.
00:35:04
I had a good friend where we used to live in Hamilton with whom I went to high school, who ran a dairy farm up the road from us and I remember visiting him less than two years ago.
I talked to him about the things of the Lord and he responded readily When I mentioned the Lord's coming 00, he, he brushed it off. He, uh, he said, well, I've got an awful lot of things that I want to do, yet down here I've got an awful lot that.
Needs doing down here.
Of course, I knew that he had just sold his farm for development for $22 million, and I can well imagine what kind of plans he might have had for down here. But the point is, even a true believer can enter into this attitude and spirit and can, in a manner of speaking, begin to beat the men's servants and the maidservants and to eat and drink and be drunken. That is the danger that we face today.
Especially in a world where a lot of things are at our disposal. So it's a very real exhortation that we need to take to heart, isn't it?
So important is first, uh, 42 at the end.
His Lord shall make ruler over His household to give to them their portion of meat and due season, to give God's people food, spiritual food that will help them to grow. Sometimes we speak about problems that is not food. Brethren, we need to be careful to give them food.
Into season and there's times for specific ministry.
And to discern that and to give it, we had mentioned of the Lord restoring Peter, and he said to Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. And so that's what God's people need is good solid food, you know, And traveling into the different countries of Latin America, I noticed that sometimes they have practices and customs that I don't know exactly where they come from.
But I've learned not to attack customs that they might have. If you just give them good, solid food, they grow, and they'll grow right out of those customs and realize that they're not that important. So it's important to give God's people good, solid food.
I think that's helpful. I, I'd like to read a verse in connection with that in Isaiah 40, because you mentioned with Peter that the Lord didn't just say feed my flock. That would have included the lambs and the sheep both. But he recognized that there were different needs amongst the people of God. And I'll just echo what Bob said because true ministry has to be directed to those to whom it is, is ministered. It's more than just putting out doctrinal accuracy. Now, brethren, don't misunderstand me.
When we minister the truth, we wanna be doctrinally accurate. That's true. But you know, sometimes I sat in meetings and there are many doctrinal accuracies put out, good as they are. But you come away and it doesn't seem like there's been real food, real edification. And again, I wanna be careful, but we can. And rather, please don't misunderstand me, I appreciate when someone qualifies a Greek word or something like that.
But we can put, we can go through a chapter and say that this means that in the Greek and this means that in the Hebrew and in the original this and that. That's all fine and well, but there has to be food for the soul in interspersed with it. Just let me read you about the, uh, the shepherd here in Isaiah chapter 40. This verse is really exercised my own soul in connection with what Bob has said. Verse 11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.
That's a general statement, but then he breaks it down. He shall gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and leave gently. Leave. Those that are with young. So even at a conference like this, there's a vast gamut of needs that a conference like this. There are those who are mature in the Scriptures, who've been reading the scriptures and walking in the truth for many years, but there are young here.
00:40:06
There are children, there are young people, there are those who are raising families, there's some who need to be carried and some who need to be LED. And as we minister the truth, whether it's in a setting like this or whether it's individually, whether it's in visiting our brethren in their homes or in the local assembly, is there an exercise to discern the need of those that we are ministering to so that there is a the proper result in in the end?
Not everybody is up to the same level of spiritual, spiritual food. So in being good stewards, and I appreciate what Bob said, we perhaps digressed a little bit. But in being good stewards, it's not just taking in the truth ourselves and holding it ourselves. And it's not just giving it out, sharing it, but it is sharing it with discernment in a way that is wise and with understanding of the times and those that we are ministering to.
Are we all Stewarts or just the teachers? No, we're all stewards. Yeah, absolutely. So the sisters here too, you know, the sisters are to teach. They're not to teach publicly in a setting like this, but the older sisters are to teach the younger in matters of piety and domestics and so on. Sisters, you're stewards of what God has entrusted to you. And Vern, I appreciate what you say because there might be some brothers here saying, well, I'm not a teacher. I I haven't been given a public gift.
But we can all minister to one another. We can all encourage in the capacity and in the way that God has given us, given to us. And I appreciate brothers and sisters who've been faithful with me, brothers and sisters who've taken the time sometimes to come to my home or to sit down with me between a meeting and to give me a little word of encouragement or even a little word of, of admonishment. And so that's being a good steward.
And remember this, brothers and sisters, you never really have something until you share it. When we share what God has given to us in connection with the truth of God, it really helps to make it good in our own souls too, doesn't it?
Just like to comment on the end of verse 45, it says there my Lord delayeth his coming and then gives the character traits of what has developed in the personal life of an individual. He says, uh, and shall begin to beat the men, servants, the maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken. And so the personal life of an individual has an effect not only on himself, but you and I have an effect upon.
The whole assembly. And so let's not say that our personal life is our own matter, and that we can drink at home in our own homes, uh, with liberty, and we can eat whatever we want to eat. And we're a little careless in this way sometimes. No man liveth unto himself. No man dieth unto himself. We all have an effect upon one another. But this is a character trait that develops out of carelessness in our personal walk and communion with the Lord.
We begin to take on the characteristics of this world. We begin to treat our brethren in a rough way and in really, he says, beat the men's servants and maidens and to eat and drink and be drunken. And so let's be careful of our private personal lives. We bring the results of how we live privately into the assembly and we affect one another. It's been mentioned many times that.
The only sin of an Old Testament believer mentioned in the New Testament is of Elijah complaining against the people of God. Brethren, God's people are sometimes willful and rebellious that God loves them and we need to be careful how we talk about them. Sometimes we talk pretty negatively about them and God is jealous of his people and so.
It's not the proper thing to be talking about those negativities. If the conversation turns that way, I've found a good way to handle it is say, well, let's pray for that person and get down on your knees and pray for them, and it generally ends the negative conversation. But let's be careful how we talk about God's people.
00:45:01
Thing that needs to be in the beginning, so in our relationship with Alaska is not right. Then it leads to a policy. So it's a reflection of you behave that way. You wouldn't have brethren. It's reflection in our own life. That's perfect relationship to government.
MMM, discipleship is really connected with responsibility, isn't it? And so we find in John's Gospel that some of his disciples followed him no more.
And as we read these chapters and, uh, we see the relationship between the disciple and his master.
This was A and I can see an incomplete relationship with a believer. We have been brought into such a much greater relationship with the Lord now as children of God and relationships that cannot be altered or changed.
You can stop being a good disciple, but you can't stop being a child of God. And so it's an enjoyment of the blessings that were brought into in the New Testament in connection with what we are in the Lord, what we have in him, what he is to us, that we would become better disciples. And so nothing connected with our behavior. I still know God affect that position we have in Christ. It affects our happiness and the rewards. And I mentioned this because in Christian circles oftimes we limit.
Uh, as we understand the scriptures and read in the gospels, we compare the believer to a simple disciple. And so he's cut in half. He's got his portions with young believers. That's because he's just a disciple and he's measured on the basis of his responsibility and how he is like his master. But the believer now is not just the disciple. He's more than that. He's the Son of God who faith in Jesus Christ. That's never going to change. And so I just mentioned that as we read these verses here, and Steve might say the, uh, the master treating the unfaithful servant with rigor.
Well, it's because that's all he has as a relationship, you know.
Treat his children as he would, as slave or servant.
I did mention it someone before that you won't find the expression disciples and the epistles anymore.
Hmm. Well, from verse 49, uh, down the next few verses, he speaks of, uh, the, how the light divides the light in the darkness and how there would be umm, strife and there would be, umm, in the family. There would be a division perhaps, and all kinds of things that would come in because God always divides, divides the light with the darkness or the darkness from the light.
And so he speaks of to his disciples and so that they might not be surprised when they suffered these things and when there was a difficulty would come in because as you know, uh, all of us perhaps have experienced it that there's a brother gets saved, comes out of perhaps a religious system, Roman Catholicism. And, uh, his wife doesn't get saved right away. And there's difficulty, There's, there's.
Strife in the home. There's, uh, uh, they're not on the same page. There's, uh, there's things that happen and, uh, thankfully oftentimes the Spirit of God works and there's blessing in the home. Both get saved and oftentimes the others in the home as well. But he speaks in principle that when we take Christ as our Savior, not all are going to agree with us. Not all are going to walk in the same path of obedience. Not all.
In the family. And so this is the characteristic of Christianity, isn't it?
Would like to mention in versus UH-47 and 48, I think there's something there that is helpful to understand that and we're talking here about servants and those who perhaps are not real as servants there will be punishment, but that there is. These are the verses that are can be given to show that there are measures of punishment.
In that coming day.
Of judgment. There will be those who are beaten with few stripes. There will be those who are beaten with many stripes. And it's according to the measure of responsibility that we've had. Or I say in general, and we're talking about the Christian profession here, there are those who perhaps are not real, but they didn't know much. They will be beaten with few stripes, and then there will be those who knew.
00:50:19
And they didn't do it and they will be beaten with many stripes. So it shows that there are measures of punishment.
There are degrees of responsibility as well as degrees of punishment.
And so going on to verse 50 then.
It's very beautiful. I would suggest the way the Spirit of God brings it out here, because on the one hand, the Lord does, as He did earlier in this chapter, speak of coming judgment.
Very, very solemn and it has brought out more clearly in the teaching of the Lord Jesus than at any other time before that, very, very clearly as to what lay beyond death. But and and of course it introduces the fact that.
There's going to be division on earth. The presence of the Lord Jesus would have brought peace had man accepted it or accepted him. I accepted him, I should say, but.
Since the coming of the Lord Jesus, His presence here and the witness of Him has caused division, a division that will persist until the Lord sets everything right in the coming day. But until that day, there is going to be a dividing line between those who follow the Lord and those who don't.
But what a beautiful verse that verse 50 is. Here was the Lord Jesus here on earth, and who would argue with the fact that He displayed the heart of God in a wonderful way? What a wonderful display of the heart of God. In every step of His pathway in Word, indeed in everything that characterized Him, there was a display of the heart of God.
But the Lord says, oh.
I have the baptism which he refers to here to be baptized with. That was the cross. And he says I'm so straightened, so held in until that is a communist. There was going to be so much greater blessing because the issue of sin would be settled. It would be taken up once and for all, and then the heart of God could be told out.
To whosoever will hear, the Lord Jesus was speaking mainly to Israel, although there were Gentiles that heard him, and we can be very thankful for that. But there was a day coming when all of that would be removed and when there would be a gospel that could go out to this whole world. And the love of God displayed on that cross in a way that it had not been displayed even in the wonderful walk of the Lord Jesus through this world. And so before he talks about division, before he talks about the way that his presence was going forever to divide this world.
Into those that accepted him and those that rejected him.
He reminds us that that work on the cross was going to open up, as it were, the floodgates so that everything that was in the heart of God could flow out to men. It was the grace of God that caused their vision. And you would think maybe take a 50th, 51St verse and it seems like maybe he's a rebel. You know, I said, suppose he that I have come to get peace on earth. I tell you an A but rather division.
And henceforth air shall be. But it was the grace of God. It wasn't he was a rebel. He he came to Springfield. But it was always who would receive it. But it was the grace of God that caused it was the grace of God that caused men to be burned at the state because they would say you're saved by grace alone, by Christ alone, by Scripture alone.
I faith alone kill them, hang em, torture them.
Because they say they're saved by the work of Christ alone.
00:55:04
It wasn't, it was not law that man rejects the grace of God.
Other broad 1St Timidity 115 yesterday.
This is a faithful saying and worthy about acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And so I connected that with this verse here to how he was straightened until he accomplished. The heart of God couldn't be told out in its fullness. And so we're talking about the Kingdom. The Jews are thinking about the Kingdom and the Messiah coming and how it's gonna be introduced. But God's heart has a place for all of mankind. And I like the thought of First Timothy 115 where Paul says.
And on a glitch version, it says a Huaman chief, but really the word is of whom I am 1St. And uh, I've I've enjoyed it in that connection that he becomes a sample of that grace of God who saved one right from heaven. He didn't have to know him on the earth as these men did is just the intervention of the Spirit of God in a man's life that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus that came into the world to save Sinner. And it's worthy of all acceptation no matter who you are.
MMM.
Might be worth mentioning, uh, rather Bill, this verse, uh, fifty. And you probably heard CHM yourself, uh, or Ch Brown said, he said that he and Tom McMillan went through the, uh, synopsis of the books of the Bible by Mr. Darby and they went through and uh, categorized, uh, catalogued every single verse that he quoted in the synopsis. And they said that this verse 50 is the one that he quoted the most in the synopsis.
Chapter 12, verse 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straight until it be accomplished? Mr. Darby quoted that more in his ministry in the synopsis than any other verse.
He's referring there to the awful judgment of the cross in those three hours of darkness, wasn't he? I think of that verse in Psalm 42.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Oh, brethren, we have to stand at a distance. We cannot understand what that means, but we can look at it from the distance and meditate on it. The awfulness.
Of what was before him, that baptism in death's dark waters, we sing it in in 149 lastized. And that's dark waters for us. My blood was shed. What a tremendous thing. And that, like you say, is what opened up the floodgates of blessing for all mankind.
Yes, not just for us, but every blessing that man will ever enjoy or receive is based on the work of the Lord Jesus and the atoning sufferings. So whether it's our blessing now has been brought out or whether it's the redemption that's going to take place for this world in the coming day, whether it's a blessing for Israel, the blessing for the nations, all creation, it's all based on the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross.
All blessing in the Old Testament look forward to that. God could never have provided coats of skin for Adam and Eve. He could have never provided the sacrifices under the Levitical order if he hadn't been putting it on account and looking forward to the time when his Son would go through those hours of darkness. And I think it's important, brethren, to realize that the physical sufferings of Christ, as awful as they were.
And as good as it is for us to go over them in our souls, and when we come together to remember the Lord Jesus at the Lord's table in the breaking of bread, it's good for us to read of the physical sufferings of Christ both prophetically in the Old Testament and the Psalms and Isaiah in the New Testament. But remember this, those physical sufferings of Christ never atoned for one sin. He had a baptism wherewith to be baptized.
Those hours of darkness. Can we imagine what was compressed into those hours of darkness? Seven times in the Old Testament it tells us that either the weight or the cost of the brass could not be found out. What does that figure? Brass was a picture is a picture of the ability of the Lord Jesus to bear the judgment of God because of who He was.
And only a divine person could have borne that judgment that was compressed into those three hours of darkness, Brethren, that ought to stir our souls and motivate us to live for Christ now and in view of what is ahead.
01:00:16
Just mention that we had mentioned briefly the 8 covenants in Scripture. Just what we're speaking about is the speak spoken about in Hebrews 13 as the blood of the everlasting or better translated.
The eternal covenant, that is, that the blood of Christ would be the basis for universal blessing. That's the eternal covenant. The other seven covenants were covenants between God and men. This covenant alone appears to have been within the Godhead. It's the basis for eternal blessing, the love of God. But I did wanna ask Bruce if I may impose on you, Bruce, for the sake of time in these verses towards the end versus 54 through 57.
Concerned signs Could you give us a quick summary? I know you've been taken up with some signs of the times that we can look for.
Well, I don't know if I could.
What were you thinking of Speci specifically?
Well, I know you've spoken about signs of the Lord's imminent return.
That may be a little beyond what we have here, but it's within the character.
What are some of the things we look for?
Respecting the Lord's imminent return.
At the period or the round, you're talking about rapture, first of all. But it will go on to the appearing, won't it?
Isn't the stage being set?
For the Tribulation period.
I think so, and I say that there are really no signs to indicate the coming of the Lord Jesus for us. I think we're clear on that. The rapture could take place at any place at any time, but the signs and the seasons are indicating the, uh, coming of the Lord Jesus in judgment at the end of the tribulation. And we begin to see things. Sometimes it's been given that you see in the distance.
Loud And you say the storm is coming and we see things that are happening in the Middle East, Western Europe, the apostasy that's taking place.
Are definite signs that we're getting close to that day of apostasy and what will take place. And it's full blown, uh, way after the rapture of the church. But they're, they're, they're on the horizon.
That's what you're referring to. Yeah. Mr. Lundin used to teach, heard him say it many times, that the surest sign of the end of even this dispensation is the low state of the church. We learned when we study Scripture, don't we, that a dispensation comes to its end when those that had the calling of that particular dispensation are lo, no longer distinguishable from that from which they were called out. And so the surest sign is the low state of the church. And that should exercise. It shouldn't have, but there are many other signs.
Remembering Jack Hendricks, somebody asked him, will the church go through the tribulation?
Remember his answer? He said yes and no.
The true church will not go through the tribulation. It will be raptured before, but there will be a church, and so it speaks of the Lord coming as a thief.
In Sardis because there will be those that were will be left in this world after the rapture and perhaps they will continue to say that they are the church that they will have to see the Lord in his coming as a thief serious to think about. So it's important, isn't it, to understand these signs and what the Scripture teaches us to what the last.
Our character, what the characteristic of the last days is because many Christians get all uptight and in a knot about what they see in the world and even in the professing Christendom. But if we really understand our Bibles, brethren, what we see should always be a sorrow, but it shouldn't be a surprise. It's thesaura. We ought never to be callous or indifferent to what we see going on in the breakdown in the world, the breakdown in government, in society, even amongst the Lord's people.
We we never wanna become callouser and different to it, but if we really understand this, the teaching of Scripture and what characterizes the days before the Lord comes, we won't be be surprised. I sometimes illustrated it this way. Let's say you go to see a production and as you're sitting there waiting for the production to begin, things begin to happen to indicate that the production is going to begin.
01:05:28
Maybe the, uh, the orchestra is tuning their instruments. You find there you hear a hustle and bustle behind the curtain on the stage. All those things indicate that the nearness of the hour for the production to begin is just about there. The last thing that happens is the dimming of the house life. You say the production is going to begin, but it doesn't begin until the curtain goes up. And so when the curtain goes up, then the production begins.
And brother, things are not going to happen as to prophecy until we go up, not till we're gone. But aren't we seeing things that are causing us to realize that we're closer to those things that are going to happen after we're gone than we've ever been before? And if we see those signs of what is going to begin to happen and take place after we're gone, how much closer is the rapture? How much closer is the Lord's coming for us?
Because we know we have to be gone before prophecy begins to unfold in this world. And remember this, despite what many might teach in Christian circles, we are not true seeing in its true sense the fulfillment of prophecy. Today, this Christian age, the day of grace is a little parenthesis in God's dealing with the earth. Prophecy has to deal with God's dealing with man on the earth covenants as well with God's dealing with man on the earth.
That's why properly speaking, the church is not under covenant relationship. And so we're this little parenthesis. But when we go up, so to speak, when we're gone, then God through his Son the Lord Jesus can begin to take up those things again. So I say again, don't be don't be surprised or get all uptight about the condition of things and the signs of things you see now be actually be encouraged. Don't be indifferent to it, but be encouraged, brethren, to realize.
That we are just at the end. The Lord Jesus is going to come, He's going to take the reins in the coming day. And that ought to encourage us to watch for our Lord, to wait for our Lord and to work as those who are his servants in this era, this dispensation. But we should be exercised to be in the Scriptures to understand the prophetic picture and to realize that things are getting.
In line for their fulfillment the fact that.
Israel is back in their land as a tremendous indication that we are close to the last times brethren, it is the fig tree has button and just the other day it fulfills 70 years of being a nation tremendously interesting things and I don't think we can put time frames on those things, but we're there brethren and let's be understanding of the times we have good.
Ministry to tell us how to be alert for the UH.
Prophecy that's gonna take place after we're gone, and we need to be, uh, understanding of the times.
And that verse says, behold, the fig tree and all the trees, doesn't it? So it's not simply Israel, but it's the surrounding Arab nations. If we look at history, we see that many of those nations disappeared and only in the last 120 years or so did they resurface. Uh, Egypt disappeared off the map. Jordan and all those Edom and Moab, they all disappeared off the map. Mr. Kelly makes the point that.
In the future day, he said, nations as well as men are resurrected and the same questions are asked that were asked years ago. Israel is going to face those same nations. And so it is, isn't it?
Sorry, Bill, Yeah, that's right. The, uh, these things have to do with signs preceding the days of the Son of Man, don't they? Prophecy. And we, uh, are intrigued when we see them properly. The, uh, what we were seeing Christen Christianity, it would be, uh, Laodicea, the dispensationally the prophetic history of the church is indifference to Christ. And Second Timothy 3, the end of Christendom's day is evil in a seducer show ox worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. We see the moral characteristic of Christendom.
01:10:09
Paralleling that of the Pagan world in Romans chapter one so, so properly, the things that we would look for within Christian revelation would be the indifference of the professing church to Christ that's founded moral spiral, uh, of Christendom that parallels that of paganism. But these other signs would have to do with the coming of the Son of man prophetically. And when we do see them even now before profit prophetic clock starts, it even is more impressive and we see the great ecumenical movement too, don't we the harlot.
Is calling back the way we're children. And that's exactly what we're seeing. Those that are once separated from Catholicism are all coming back to Mother Rome. And that's what it speaks about in Revelation 17, doesn't it? That's another sign. And you mentioned Laodicea. The Spearing out of his mouth, I think will take place after the rapture, don't you believe? Yes.
2000, 80 6.
01:15:24
Stay together.
Bless the Lord Jesus.
I will thank you for this portion.
Uh, we thank you for a spirit that has given us to enter into some of these things.
You remember that verse, how you were straightened until that baptism was accomplished?
An eternity will not suffice the measure to appreciate the depth into which doubt is called.
And I saw this dress.
And we would thank you, Father, for the grace of revealing these things to us now and giving us to appreciate thyself.
And to love him back because he first left us.
Our debtors, we are to this infinite race and to Thy word, Lord Jesus. And as we look for Thy coming, we know that all of Thy redeems will be like the glory. Some will have crowns cast of Thy feet, but they will none will want to be crowned in Thy presence. I was crowned with a crown of thorns. Thou art a worthy 1 The rain on the universe. And we pray that Thou be reigning in our hearts and in our lives. We we thank you for the privilege, Lord Jesus.
Of being left down here for a few.
More days, perhaps, to, uh, glorify the in our lives, in our homes and our work and our assembly. And surely we don't know how much we fail each one in this, but we thank for these words of excitation that we've heard but the challenges to our souls. And we thank them that we will be there, that companions and glory and to be that bride that will present the thyself with our spot or wrinkle any such thing and all the work of my soul and a valued lifeblood. So we have no, uh, nothing to claim of our own.
We all forward to these and entertain 4 cases I will reward also. How could that be?
And we just thank you, Father, for thy precious food, and we thank you for him. And we thank you, Lord Jesus once again as we look for their coming. We pray for blessings in each household, in every life presented here to reach conference. And we thank your Father and a worthy and precious name of our working his Christ, Amen.
Light and Love
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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I'd like to start this evening with two verses.
That are in the first epistle of John. I'm just gonna quote them, don't have to turn to them both.
Are three words long.
Chapter one, verse four. God is light.
Chapter 4, verse eight and verse 16 God is.
Love.
Let's pray.
Thanks, blessed God our Father, for the opportunity to be here and to open Thy precious Word and to speak of the fact that thou art light and that thou art love. Wonderful realities, unchangeable realities. And so we pray this evening as we're here, and speak from Thy Word.
That thy spirit may have liberty to press at home.
To those who are present, who are not ready yet to meet Thee, we pray, Father, for blessing upon Thy precious word in that most wonderful name of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Let's say number six on our hymn sheets.
God in mercy sent his Son to a world by sin and done Jesus Christ was crucified.
To us for sinners, Jesus, God.
Immersed me and his son to our world.
By sin and done, Jesus Christ was crucified.
Umm.
Oh my great joy.
To our Savior's face.
The Holy.
Saver.
From the last.
And God is 1.
Write the Lord's welcome again.
Once will reign.
Every.
Song Hotline will.
00:05:03
Be nice this morning.
All the glory.
Oh, the great.
Giant.
Savior's Place.
Holy Spirit.
Problem of God is life and God is love.
What an honorable message to speak about our God. And that's where we're gonna start. Start by speaking about who our God is. And so we've had two short statements of who He is in his very being. God is light. You know what the light does? It shows.
Everything that is to be seen, you know in the darkness you can hide.
But not in the light. And if there's something, if I had a big splot on my shirt up here and you were all looking at me, I'd get pretty uncomfortable. The light manifests all that there is to be seen. And so you cannot hide one single thing from our God. You know, I don't know.
The majority of you that awful well.
But there's a God who looks at you and He knows you exactly. He knows every thought you've ever had. It's all recorded in his book. But you know the wonderful thing. Even though He knows everything about you, He loves you with a love that is unchanging. There is nothing that you can do to change the fact that God is love.
Sometimes people refuse to accept.
The offer of God for salvation. And they will go to a lost eternity, but they will never be able to say nobody ever loved me, because there was a God who loved you so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But let me tell you a little bit more about this God we're talking about.
He is an amazing God. He is a God that is eternal. And that in itself just blows my mind to think that he never ever had a beginning. He always was there.
I can't understand it, but that's the revelation we have of God in the Scriptures. Not only is He eternal, but He is all powerful.
And he is all knowing, and he is everywhere at the same time.
This is our God. To me it is amazing to see the demonstration of His power and His wisdom in the creation that we live in. And I love to talk about the universe that we are part of. We live in what is called the Milky Way Galaxy.
Which is a Galaxy of approximately 200 billion stars.
Many of whom which are much greater than in size than our sun. And astronomers tell us that there are at least another 250 billion galaxies in the universe. And how did he make all this? He spoke and it was done. He commanded.
And it stood fast. Can you get a grasp of the power of this God we're talking about?
You know, people think that they have a right to set their tone of judgment with God. Let me tell you, you do not have that right. You will be judged before God if you do not accept His forgiveness, His salvation, but on His terms, you do not have the right to set the terms.
Upon which you will be judged.
No, that's our God. Another thing about our God is holy. What does holy mean? It means he is completely separate from sin. There is nothing that can compromise his holy character.
00:10:16
Sometimes we call it intrinsic holiness, uncompromising holiness. And so if you're going to go into God's heaven, you're going to have to go there without one single sin on your conscience absolutely gone past to be.
These are amazing things to think about, but they are what Scripture reveals to us about God. Now, it seems like it would be almost completely impossible for us to come up to the standard of this God that we are talking about. And it's true by the works of the law.
No flesh shall be justified in His sight. I'm amazed at what people say.
And so yes, I've seen a few times, but I'm basically a good person and I think God will take my good deeds and they will outweigh my bad deeds. Tell me, does human justice here in the United States work that like that? If you're arrested for something you've done that's against the law and you get before the judge and you said, I'm sorry, really. I, I recognize I did wrong, but you know, I did a lot of good.
Can't you just kind of take that and let me off? You know, nobody goes by that.
Are you attributing that God's standard of just judgment is less? No, God is perfectly just, and so I'd like to read 2 verses in the scriptures that tells us how God has made available the salvation.
That we proclaim first of all, in first John chapter 2 There's a verse that talks about the Lord Jesus Christ and notice what it says. It's in chapter 2 and verse one, right at the end of the verse it says Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation.
For our sins.
And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
He is Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now let me read you another verse in First Corinthians chapter.
15.
And.
Verse 3.
Before I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
So the first verse we read speaks about the Lord Jesus as the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. But when we come to 1St Corinthians chapter 15, it says Christ died.
For our sins that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day.
According to the scriptures. So I'd like to speak on the Lord Jesus as the propitiation for our sins and as our substitute, taking our place as our sin bearer. Now I'd like to explain a little bit what propitiation means.
You know, when Adam sinned, Adam was.
A marvel of God's creation. Amazing. In those days that Adam was created, he lived up to 930 years old before he died. One of his descendants got up to 969. Pretty impressive considering what we live up to today. A few make it over 100 years old.
00:15:16
Quite few in number really, but Adam sinned.
And in the course of time he died because the wages of sin is that. And you know, sin has called in question God's holy character. Did God make that creature that sinned? How is that possible that God made that creature like that?
And so Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins.
He has satisfied God's holy character as to the whole question of sin.
So that God with can be righteous and at the same time justify the ungodly.
Sometimes I give the illustration. Supposing there's a judge here in Seattle.
And every time a criminal is brought before him, he says, we're just going to forgive you. Here's your paper, you can go. Doesn't matter what the crime is, we're going to forgive you. You can go.
How would you consider that judge? I'm sure you'd say he's not a good judge. Why not? He does not take the laws of the land seriously and so how can God be just and at the same time justify the ungodly Sinner? How is that possible?
Because of what the Lord Jesus did when he died on the cross, He is the appropriation He vindicated publicly.
The Holy Claims of God Southern that God is not compromised in His character when He comes out to to forgive the guilty Sinner. Wonderful truth of the propitiation for our sins.
My late father-in-law used to put it this way, and I think it's helpful when we talk about propitiation, he said. Christ died for God.
And that's true, but when we speak about the Lord Jesus as our substitute, as we have in First Corinthians 15.
Christ died for our sins. It doesn't say for the sins of the whole world.
This is Christ dying as our substitute. Christ died for us. So keep those two things in mind. Christ died for God. That's propitiation and he saw settle the issue with God's holy character that God can be just in forgiving the whole world if they would only come to repentance.
And God wants that. And we preach the gospel to every creature on the face of planet earth because.
God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Tell me, are you saved? God wants you saved. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. We were speaking a little bit about the Lord Jesus and the work of redemption on the cross.
And I want to take you to the cross this evening.
To speak about what took place there, it was the most amazing event that has ever, ever happened. God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is born into this world without sin. The Angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother.
Of that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called.
The Son of God, he was holy at birth. He had no human father, He had no sin. He was holy at birth and in all his life down here He passed through this life. And you know, you never find Jesus laughing in the Scriptures.
00:20:12
It does refer to the fact that he had joy.
But it doesn't say laugh. How could he enjoy the fact that his creation had become so decrepit? When he stood outside the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany and he saw his two sisters weeping, Jesus wept. Why did he weep? He knew he was going to raise him from the dead because he felt.
Awful degradation that sin had brought into this world.
And so through all his life there was one completely perfect life. At the end of that life, they took him and condemned him. The Jewish tribunal and then the Roman government. The pilot was the Roman governor at that time. Finally, even though he declared he was, he found no fault in.
Said he could be crucified, and he delivered him to the Roman soldiers, and they took him and gathered the whole band of soldiers, and they hit him in the face. They crowned him with thorns. They took him.
Let him outside the city of Jerusalem and stretched out his hands and nailed them to a cross, and there he was, lifted up outside the city of Jerusalem on that cross.
And they passed in front of him, and they mocked him, and they jeered him. The Lord Jesus says prophetically. Reproach has broken my heart and I'm full of heaviness and I look for some to take pity in their respect.
They said if he's the Son of God, let God deliver him. If he has delight in him, let him deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
That reproach broke his heart.
You know, if you would have delivered him.
We would be all condemned to hell forever. No one would have ever known how deep the truth that God is love and that God is like. Now we know because God didn't deliver him and so he suffered not only physically, but he suffered in his soul.
The reproaches that broke his heart.
But we want to come to the part that we were talking about this afternoon in the reading when scripture tells us that 12 noon, it all got dark for three hours until 3:00 PM.
And what happened in those three hours of darkness? That's when the Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins. That's when he was our substitute. Isaiah 53 puts it so clearly. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our equities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
And with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way the Lord has laid on him.
The iniquity of us all.
All those sins of ours were all laid on Him in those awful hours of darkness, and then God poured out the fury of His wrath for three solid hours.
You know there is no cry through those three hours until the very end.
And there's the most awful cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
00:25:00
Why did God forsake his Son in that awful, awful moment?
You know why? Because he didn't want to forsake you in the light of fire forever. This is the only way it was possible.
That propitiation could be made that God's holy character could be vindicated so that now he can come out and offer you a full and free salvation simply by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then he cried. It is finished.
And the Spanish, it says that it's consumed. All that judgment that was against you and me as guilty sinners was consumed. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful salvation.
And then Jesus bowed his head and gave up his life.
A soldier came with a spear and pierced his side and outflowed blood and water. The only thing that can remove sin from the eye of God is blood, blood of an acceptable sacrifice, and God accepted that sacrifice.
He shut his blood. There was no more blood in that battered body that hung on that cross.
They took him down.
They buried him. The third day. The women came to the tomb to anoint his body with ointments, and they found the stone that was over the opening of that tomb taken away, and he was not there.
He had risen. God has shown that he has accepted the work of Christ because he raised him from the dead. And where is Jesus now? He is there in the glory of God after 40 days of appearing to his disciples so that they would know that yes, He was a real.
Living man.
He was with his disciples on the Mount of Olives, and he went back into the glory of God. There is a man on high in the glory.
He's powerful to save you tonight, but I want to speak to you very directly because it concerns me in our American culture how sin is accommodated even by those who say they're Christians.
Scripture speaks of repentance toward God.
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance is necessary for salvation, even though repentance in itself does not save. It says in Luke's gospel, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And when I see people who say that they are sinners, yes, but that's the way I was born and that's the way I am, and they accommodate it and they do not.
Pinned of it, I say, if you don't repent of those sins that Scripture speaks so clearly about, you will all likewise perish. Jesus paid that awful price on the cross and you think you can accommodate those sins? You cannot do that. And if you're here with that kind of thinking in your mind, I ask you tonight, repent.
You know what repent means. Change your thinking about it.
Vent is a word in the Latin to think. Repent means to rethink.
You're trying to accommodate your sins. Rethink it all. Repent. Oh how important it is.
And then what says is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? How important it is repentance?
Toward God.
Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You know there was a man in the book of the Acts. We're not going to go to read about it tonight because I want to read some other verses before we get to the end of our meeting.
00:30:07
Called Simon the Sorcerer. He was a great man in Samaria and he did magical tricks.
And then a greater power came to scenario, the power of God in the gospel.
And so I'm in the sorcerer said I'm outdated here, I'm going to have to join this movement. And so Scripture says he believed and he was baptized even.
Was he saved?
You go a little further down in the chapter. Peter and John come down from Jerusalem to Samaria to see what the Lord's doing in that city. Many were being saved, but when they came to Simon the sorcerer, the way he talked to them showed them very clearly that the only thing he wanted is to be a great one in the church now.
That he had been displaced as a sorcerer.
Why he wanted to be a great one in another sphere. He had never truly repented. Oh, how important it is, those sins of yours. And I marvel at how God works with souls to bring them to repentance. Sometimes it takes a long time. We have the history of a man in the Old Testament called Nebuchadnezzar.
He was the king of Babylon, a tremendously powerful.
Dictator of that time.
In his Kingdom there were Jewish exiles that were trained in the wisdom of the Babylonians.
And what happened with those Jewish exiles was incredibly interesting, and Nebuchadnezzar was tremendously impressed. But being impressed is not repentance. And he continues his same path, making himself the center of his world.
And that's what I see in our American culture. I'm the center of my world. I decide what I want to do, and don't you judge me for it because I have my rights. You might have your rights as an American citizen, but when you talk about God, let me tell you, God is the one that has all the rights.
Anyhow, God continued to work with Nebuchadnezzar, and finally he loses his reason and he becomes like an animal, a beast of the field.
He ate grass for seven times, it says. His hair grew like Eagles feathers. His nails grew like birds claws.
I wouldn't want to met up with Nebuchadnezzar in that condition. He was a beast.
And if you don't know how to recognize your God and what He is in His own being, let me tell you, men.
Become beasts. But you know what? The end of the fourth chapter of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar in that condition, lifts his eyes to heaven to glorify not himself anymore. There was a change. There was repentance. Thank God.
And he glorified the God of heaven, and God gave him his reason back. When I see people here in the United States, I saw.
A UMM survey done in one of the universities here in Washington, I think it was the Seattle area, I don't know which university in which they asked the students what's the difference between a man and a woman in your mind? Over 50% of them answered.
Really, there's no difference. It's all in your mind. I said. Come on, these kids are losing their mind. They don't even think straight. And it's true. If you don't have God in the picture, you can't think straight.
It's tragic if that's the case, so repentance is extremely important, but I want to get around to the fact that Jesus is.
00:35:02
The propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world. God has been vindicated in the work of the Lord Jesus so that God could forgive the whole world if they would repent.
But when we talk talk about substitution, it never says that the Lord Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He died for the sins of many. Or as we read in First Corinthians 15 here it says Christ died for our sins. It would not be just if God put into hell a person.
If Jesus had.
Already suffered for His sins, That would not be just. No, He is the substitute for those who will accept Him as their Savior. And I'm here to ask you tonight, if you haven't done it yet, to do that very thing except Him. He is offering you full and free salvation. God is just.
And the justifier of him.
That believeth in Jesus. But supposing you do not accept the salvation that is being offered to you tonight, what then? God is still just.
And it would not be love on the part of God to let evil run its rampant way through.
History. God is going to intervene.
You see how kids, little kids are slaughtered over in Syria and other parts of the world, the the world where there's warfare.
If God is a just God, He is not going to allow that to continue that way. He is going to intervene and we are getting down to the point when he will intervene directly. Jesus is coming back again to this world.
We had it this afternoon, but I don't think we touched on this part of it. In Matthew chapter 25, we have the judgment.
Of the nations, Of the living nations, when Jesus comes back again. Notice how it puts it. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided.
Sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left. So here we have the judgment of the nations, all the living nations. When he comes back at the end of the great tribulation period, all the nations are going to be gathered before him, and he's gonna separate them one from another.
The sheep on the right and the goats on the left.
And the sheep are those who have heard the gospel of the Kingdom in the time of the great tribulation, that didn't have a chance to hear the gospel of the grace of God. But notice talks about the goats. And the goats, who are they? Verse 41? Then shall he also say unto them, on the left hand, These are the goats.
Depart from me.
He cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Oh how awful the end of those that refuse. It may be somebody sitting here in this audience tonight you refuse the offer of salvation.
And when you have heard that message clearly?
And you've taken a decision? No, not yet. Maybe later on.
Or maybe you just say an outright no. Then when Jesus comes, you will be sent strong delusion to believe a lie and you will end up here. If you're alive at the end of that great tribulation period. I ask you to think seriously about this because Scripture speaks so clearly that the time.
00:40:03
That is coming, and that great tribulation period will be the most awful time of affliction on the face of this world from the beginning of time, and there will never be another time like it afterwards. It's just right ahead for this world.
That's what you're facing if you do not accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Notice he says.
Everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. He did not prepare it for mankind. He doesn't want anyone going there. He wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He went to that cross to suffer that sin for that sin, so that you could have a way to be in that eternal home in heaven.
But those that reject will have for their company the devil and his angels and everlasting fire. God did not prepare it for you, but you will end up there if you continue to refuse the message of salvation. One other part, because there will be many in that great tribulation period after the Lord takes His people.
Out of this world there will be many that will be slaughtered. It'll be terrible, the awful slaughter of humankind. And if you die, will you escape that judgment?
You will not escape that judgment if you refuse that salvation. Revelation 20 tells us about the resurrection of the dead because you know every.
Humans cemetery on planet Earth is going to be totally vacated of its bones. Not one bone is going to be left behind.
I saw chapter 20 of Revelation verse 11. I saw great white throne and him that sat on it, upon from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them, and I saw the dead.
Small and great stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. How awful the end of those who refused and perhaps have died. People think that death is the end of their existence. Not so.
No, God is going to raise them from the dead. They will stand before God in judgment, and they will be cast into the lake of fire. Awful to think about. I just trust with all my heart that there's nobody here. You know, I look at you and I can see some of you are more interested in the message than others, but God knows what's going on. Have you gotten real with God? Don't.
Make it with him. You can fake it with me and get away with it. Don't fake it with him. I'll be the worst mistake you ever make.
Be real with God.
Repent of your sins, believe the gospel, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior tonight. There's any question that you might have that we can answer after the meeting. We'll be here for a few minutes. Please come and talk to us. Let's just pray. Father, bless thy precious word. We confess.
How feebly we can proclaim this tremendous message of the Gospel blessed. We pray wherever it's gone out. We pray, if there's anybody that still hasn't gotten the questions settled, that they might get it settled tonight before it's too late. We pray and give thanks, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. Amen.
Ambassadors for Christ
YP Talk—Tim Harkins
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Good evening. Let's start by looking to the Lord for his health.
A God and Father, we thank you for this opportunity to open Thy word. We thank Thee for the resource that it is to us in our life. We just thank you for each of the young people that are here tonight, and we just pray for Thy blessing for them in their life. And so tonight as we open thy word and speak from it a little bit, we just ask that I bless them and count on me for that help. Our God and Father and the Lord Jesus precious name we pray, Amen.
Well, first of all, I'd just like to thank each one of you guys for coming to the conference, umm, at Marvel as I stand here and look at the number of young people that are here.
And it's an encouragement to my heart and.
You know, I see a lot of energy and a lot of potential when I look at this room full of young people, and I was just like tonight to.
Bring before you a Commission that the Apostle Paul gave to early believers.
But the hope that I can challenge you to channel some of that energy and potential to a Commission that he gave many years ago. So turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
I'm just going to read one verse to start with here in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
In verse 20.
Now then.
We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us.
In the reading meetings we've had Luke 12 before us and.
Several times in the course of the reading meetings, the focus has been.
Directed at the reality of the fact that we are living in the last days of the day of grace. We are at the close of this this sensation. We are at the end of this age. All around us we can see signs of things lining up. So it will take us into take this world into.
The great tribulation followed by the coming of the Lord at His appearing with us to establish His Kingdom as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And so.
That makes the Commission that the Apostle Paul gave to the Corinthians so many years ago all that much more imperative for us today.
There is an absolute necessity at the end of the dispensation of the Day of grace to present the gospel message in our little corner of the world. And every single one of us has this responsibility, every single one of us. We're gonna look at a couple of more verses here as we go on, but if we.
Turn back to chapter 4 and uh.
Actually chapter 5 and justice back in verse 11, it says knowing thou, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Some of you here may know and some may not, but.
My occupation is as a firefighter and I come into contact with people every day that have demonstrated through their actions.
An absolute absence of hope.
An absolute absence of health. They have made decisions in their life that have catastrophic consequences and it's all based on the fact that they, as they see things from their perspective, they have no hope.
You know in Second Corinthians chapter 4 it says in verse six, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Listen to this next phrase.
00:05:02
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
What's that treasure? It's Christ within us.
And I would just like to challenge each one of you that as you go from this conference, that you take extremely seriously this Commission that the Apostle Paul gave to every believer to be an ambassador for Christ, to take the hope that is in us to a lost.
World and to present them with the only hope of humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, an ambassador in the times of Scripture was different than the ambassadors that we see today, but there is a resemblance. And So what an ambassador does today is we'll just use the United States as an example.
They're commissioned by the government of the United States, the president of the United States. He actually.
Hand chooses the ambassadors and he sends them to a foreign country to represent US interests in that country. That's the responsibility of an ambassador today.
In the, in the biblical times, there were more a messenger, you know, today if we send a, an ambassador to Libya or to some other country, even the worst places out there, the ambassadors generally live pretty well.
They live in a mansion and they interact with the political systems of that country and they seek to, umm, to provide us perspective to that country.
In the Old Testament times, in the times of Scripture, the ambassadors were sent to deliver a message from the king to another king, usually.
And how would it be if, let's say, uh.
The President of the United States were to choose an ambassador to go to.
Brazil and, uh, the ambassador from the United States gets on an airplane and they fly down to Brazil and they're met there by several diplomats from the Brazilian government and they've shown to the US consulate and they have some quarters that they are provided with to stay and they just find themselves.
In this beautiful place and, uh.
They look around them and say, you know what, Brazil is just a ginormous country, and there's no way that I can have any impact on the things that are going on in this country. I can't represent US interests as one person in this country. And they just seek to enjoy the opportunity to travel Brazil via US funding.
It would be completely out of place and you might say, well.
Umm.
I'm not an evangelist.
I don't have the gift of evangelism. We heard a gifted evangelist tonight.
But you know what? If you don't find yourself in that place, that makes two of us.
There's Neuromox, but that doesn't change anything. And 1St and Second Timothy chapter 4. Umm, let's just read real briefly in Second Timothy chapter one.
Second Timothy, chapter one and verse six. It says, Wherefore I put thee in remembrance.
But thou strip the gift of God, which is in me, by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear.
But of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power.
Of God and then if we turn to chapter 4.
Umm, verse 5.
It says, But watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. You know, I don't know for sure because I don't think we have it particularly identified in Scripture, but I have my doubts that Timothy's personal spiritual gift was that of an evangelist.
00:10:19
We heard it during the reading meetings that he had a tendency towards being timid, maybe what we would call shy. It is not overt and yet the expectation to Timothy even in that.
Was to do the work of an evangelist.
And you know this isn't just about.
Men.
You know, the woman that was at the well went back to the village in Samaria and said come see a man that showed me all things that ever I did.
And you know there isn't.
It's not reality to think.
That a gifted gospel preacher is going to have the capacity to reach every single person.
In this world. But the Lord has commissioned you and me as ambassadors for Christ to in our small corner of the world, represent Him and His interest and to present a message of hope to this world.
The thing that made this extremely real to me and.
And we've talked about this in our reading meetings in Luke chapter 12 about the fear of men and, uh.
That I think characterizes probably each and every one of us. And like our brother Bill mentioned in his address today, umm, it's probably the number one hindrance from you and I completing this ministry. But it's one of the primary missions of Christians in the world today is to be an ambassador for Christ. And what it says there in Second Timothy chapter one, that he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power.
And of love. And of a sound mind.
That goes for the gospel and you know.
Umm, to try and put this in a little bit of perspective, some here, I've already heard this story that have been to the Brooks Memorial Camp. But I worked with a man named Eric and he was not a nice man. As a matter of fact, from the very moment that I hired on with the fire department there in Kenowa, I recognized the fact that this guy was a complete jerk.
And he intimidated everybody that he came into contact with.
And he scared me.
And I interacted with him on multiple occasions at work and I recognized that.
He was not saved, he did not know the Lord as Savior, and I recognized a distinct need, and I felt the Lord pressing me to talk to him.
About the Gospel.
But it did not.
Because I was intimidated. I've had man.
And when he was 40 years old.
On the 4th of July, he responded to a fire.
And he died of a heart attack.
Find fire.
And tonight, Earth is in a lost eternity.
In great parts.
To that sales in this Commission.
To be an ambassador for Christ to a man that desperately need it. The Lord Jesus is safe.
And I would just say to you.
And any fear?
Of reprisal from MID for presenting them with the gospel does not hold a candle.
To what it feel like.
They passed into eternity and you didn't take the opportunity to speak to them when you had a chance.
Uh, still and talking about ambassadors, there's a specific man.
That I have, umm, considered.
Recently that has really struck me as an example of an ambassador for Christ, the man that we all know. Well turn with me to John chapter one, and I'd like to list briefly and a couple of the attributes that we see in this ambassador surprise.
00:15:29
John chapter one and verse 6.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of delight, that all men through him might believe.
Verse 15.
John bare witness of him. Let's go back to verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness of him and cries, saying, This is he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And of isfullness have all we received in grace for grace for the law.
Was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Down to verse 19.
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then art thou, Elias? And he saith, I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And he answered no.
Then said they unto him, Who art thou?
That we may give an answer to them that sent us. But saith Thou of thyself. And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Isaiah.
Uh, and then, uh, just turn real briefly to John, Chapter 10.
John chapter 10 and verse 41.
The many resorted unto him, and said, That is presented to the Lord Jesus, And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle.
But all things that John spake of this man were true.
That is a remarkable commendation of John.
John did no miracle, but all things that he spake of this man were true.
You know, as an ambassador, umm, there's three things that I think we can take from John the Baptist in his life.
And apply them to ourselves as ambassadors for Christ. The first thing is that we carry the Spirit of Christ. What do I mean by that?
I mean that well, I'm going to read a verse and Colossians chapter 4 to illustrate what I mean by that.
Colossians chapter 4 and verse 6.
It says let your speech be always with grace.
Seasoned with salt, that you may know how ye ought to answer every man.
It's important.
As Bill said in his address today.
That we walk circumspectly before this world because.
Actions speak much louder than words.
We can preach the gospel with our mouths and walk in a way that's inconsistent with the position that we have, and it will have absolutely no effect and will actually cause.
God to be blasting.
And so let's be careful that when we address people.
In this Commission that we do so with the Spirit of Christ, but we do so with words that are always gracious and that they are seasoned with salt.
00:20:00
And uh, but we walk like it talks about an Ephesians chapter 6 having on the breastplate of righteousness with our loins good about with truth.
And our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
It's important that we have those things characterize us in our life in order for us to be effective in that responsibility. And Nobel told the story about handing the Gospel tract to one of his coworkers.
And remember the thing that he said about that, that the man took the Gospel tract from him because he respected the manner of life that Bill had exhibited.
That is critical.
And if there's failure in that in your life or mine, confess it.
And move forward.
So that you can be used to the Lord in this way. The second thing and a very, very important, if we look at back at John chapter one, how did John respond to these Pharisees? He responded with the word of God.
And you know, Scripture tells us that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And it says that the word of God is powerful.
It's quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. You know, anything you could have, We could be the best orator and we could be the most eloquent speaker and we could have some tremendous philosophies and we could have some great stories and some great examples and none of that.
Is as effective as proper application of the Word of God.
Nothing is used by the Spirit of God to convict a soul like the Word of God.
And you know, in my younger years, I used to strive with men about the gospel.
Looking back on a machine, it's ridiculous. I used to have arguments, so I tried to like philosophize with these people to try and bring them to the recognition of where they needed to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Do you know what would have been far better for me? To just quote John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth to him.
Should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There is power in just that single verse that I'm sure every single one of you know by heart.
Far more effective.
The last thing that I just wanted to bring out was the fact that John didn't put any emphasis on himself and all the emphasis was on Christ.
John did no miracles but.
But all things that he speaks of this man were true. There was no life shone on him. It was awe on Christ and that was powerful. Many men resorted to him based on that.
And and Colossians chapter 4 again.
Umm.
But it says there.
Is let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer of a man.
You know, that season with salt. Alright, I've thought about that recently and.
Umm, I think it's Matthew 5 that it. Let's turn to that real quick and.
Yeah, Matthew, Chapter 5.
And verse 13 it says, Ye are the salt of the earth, But if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and be trodden under the foot of men. Dior the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, but put it under a bushel or on a Candlestick, and it give us light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven, that they might see your good works, and glorify not you, but your Father, which is in heaven. That's what it's talking about when it talks about.
00:25:16
The salt of the earth.
When we take and eat a piece of corn and we put salt on a piece of Onyx pouring on the cob and we eat that, we don't sit there and talk about how good the salt tastes. We talk about how good the corn tastes, but it's because of the salt. And so that's the whole thing, the focus.
Is not on us. The focus is on Christ, and there's so much in this world today that tries to take away from that.
And the emphasis becomes on the person, even in Christianity, and there is a loss in moral power and weight on the harvest.
John did no miracle, but all things that he spake of this man were true.
I'm just going to close by reading the rest of what we have there in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
Let's start with verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
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?
Yet though he has known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know ye Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. 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, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
Not imputing their trespasses under them. And have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech by us. We pray in Christ's death be reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Commission that the apostle Paul gave these Corinthians then is far more important now.
Because as we said earlier, we're at the close of the age. Knowing now, therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
I work with some men. I work with a crew of.
I work with a crew of uh.
Seven other guys, and of that seven guys, five of them know the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
I love all of them.
Deeply.
Two of those men are a significant burden to my soul.
But you know what? Because of air.
I have had the opportunity and the Lord has opened the door on numbers of occasions for me to give the gospel to those men, and I feel on at least one of the occasions the Spirit of God convicted one of the men named Tony.
And he's working in Tony's soul.
And it's hard to be patient. It is. I want to just grab him by the shoulders and shake him and ask him what think ye of Christ, Because I want him to come to know the Lord Jesus before it's too late.
But that's not the Spirit of Christ. We can commit that to the Lord. The apostle Paul says that he planted and Apollo's watered, but God gave it to increase. And so I was just close with this that if you do your part.
And shining as a little light in your corner of the world, whether it's in high school, the Community College, the university, or your workplace, the Lord can use you.
With tremendous power, even without being a gifted evangelist, if we go out and we take this Commission seriously and we go forth and do the work of an evangelist, the Lord can use each one of us.
00:30:10
To bring souls to himself.
You know, Billy Graham recently went home to be with the Lord and he was a remarkable man that reached millions of people in his life.
We're not in a day.
How much that is common. We're in a day that requires individual faithfulness and our little small corner of the world.
And that's where the Lord works in power.
Just commend ourselves.
Our God and Father, we just thank Thee.
For thy word we thank Thee that Thou hast reconciled us to God. We thank You for this treasure that we bear in earthen vessels, and we just pray our God that Thou will help us to present the hope that is in US.
To this lost world, this world that suffers tremendously, groans and travails because of its lack of hope, Lord help us to shine His lights where we are, to be at hope in whatever way we can. In fulfilling this Commission of being ambassadors for Christ. We ask for thy blessing on each of these young people. The Lord Jesus precious name we pray, Amen.
Take Now Thy Son
Children—Jonathan Blake
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If you have a hem sheet, on the Backpage are children's songs, but if you give out another one, we'll sing that too. And if the one you're thinking of is not in here and we know it, I think we'll get it figured out. Do you have a number #44? Let's start with #44?
Days.
No, I didn't know how long you have done that. Make it Shirley together with you and nobody has a murderer. That's the whole place for the community.
I don't know if I can tell it again. Now they can explore religious Lord.
No, no, you should get out of there. Let us go see if you wish to go over your door.
There is no me no more than a soul while I heard that nothing to me that I was doing. I exchange the last drama on my birthday, give me an hour and give me an hour and a half here and then She's my parents and I don't believe Oh.
No. Why did you have to earn time? So I'm gonna be done.
And.
Grow up together now I'll bring it in. So we're going to do it with you and you're going to go.
And I'll try again together. And I don't know what you don't have to be having.
No, no, I don't know if you didn't have that number. That's not what we need to do.
And then we can't go out where it fell again for us. God, now see you again. There's no phenomenon.
Volatility on the alternative constitutes. So I have somebody else in the evening and now I can't go and manage the experience and all of our communities.
Uh.
Thank you.
Very nice call. Someone have another song?
Number #6 Is that the ABC song? Is that the one you're thinking of? OK, let's try it out.
A man to hit the side for James Bond and.
Who thinks you are asking you We will be gone clutter against true you. You believe I'll be here. I'll have it on consumer guide slide again. I'm hoping there are no places.
Alright, somebody have another song?
#39.
Nsnoise.
00:05:11
3533500 and 2900 from.
Is there any problem with that? I need to buy out there right now.
Umm, OK, OK, uh, the one I'm going to start off with.
That would be.
Uh, we'll find that soldiers together.
All right. It's after 930. I'd encourage if there's any more children back there, we have a whole section available of seats.
And it makes me feel better if there were, if it was still.
Have more company up here. So if you're, if you're willing, you can come up front and sit and I won't call on you unless you raise your hand.
All right, why don't we go ahead and sing another song someone has? I don't think anyone's giving it up in this section.
Number one, which one on this OK #1?
All right, why don't we pause? We're going to ask the Lord for his help.
Our gracious God and loving Father, we thank you this morning that we can have this meeting for children. Thank you for them here in the front row. And we just pray that their hearts would be touched by their by thy word. Pray that no one would be putting off.
00:10:16
The accepting the as their savior, but there wouldn't be any almost persuaded.
So we just pray for help for this time and listing years for the children. To my name we pray. Amen.
One more young man up here. That's excellent. You know, I was thinking.
Can you just, we're going to stop seeing just for a few minutes and then maybe I'll have someone over here give us a call. Thank you for all your choices.
I was thinking I when I go to work.
Company I work for wants us to think about safety and I appreciate that.
They want us to work safely. You know what it is to be safe.
Do things that won't get yourself hurt. Well, sometimes we sit down in a meeting quite a bit different from this, but we'll be around the table. And they asked us if there's four or more people to do what's called a safety brief briefing. And what that is, is we remind ourselves things like someone will ask or someone's in charge and they'll say, where's the fire extinguisher?
Nearest fire extinguisher.
Where's the first aid kit?
Where do we go if there's a fire and we have to leave this building? Where do we gather together? Who's gonna call 911? So they ask those questions and someone needs to answer. Now, I could do that here, but you know, there's something much more important than your safety.
Your safety is very important, but something much more important than your safety. And I think you all know what that is. The salvation of your souls is more important than your safety. So I wanna do a little brief, umm, time here where we make sure we get out the gospel because we don't know when the Lord's coming. So I'm thinking of four verses and you all have learned these as memory verses, so I'm gonna start.
1St and you raise your hand if you know it and help me finish it. OK you ready for all have.
Aaron.
Very good. Romans 323 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Next verse.
It is appointed.
Any hands?
Unto a man once to die, but after this, but after this the judgment very good. So Christ was once offered the bearer, the sin of many. Sin is upon us, but it is, and it is appointed on demand. Wants to die. But after this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many. That's the solution. What's next? The blood?
The blood of Jesus Christ.
He then cleanses us for all sin.
First John 17. Excellent. Thank you. OK, last verse. What am I to do about it? What must I do to be saved?
And they said.
Marcus.
Oh, you want me to watch Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved? Very good. Act 16. That's salvation in four verses. You all know that very well. But have you acted upon it?
If the Lord Jesus was to come this morning, would you be ready?
Got a seat for you? Alright, someone from this section or this section have a song.
Maybe we'll give someone else a turn, OK?
If not.
We can see #2 why don't we sing? It's a very nice song. Why don't we sing the first and last verse of #2 Thank you.
00:15:41
My goodness, God, the creation, we have to go with you.
Mm-hmm.
Our deals include inviting us to come, come now, don't fill out. All right, Maybe we have time for one more.
99 at stake. I remember right this 99 whisper of prayer. Is that what you're thinking of?
We'll give it a try.
And it's a lot of grass. Congratulations, believe me.
Alright, children, we're going to have some time now to say versus. If we have volunteers to say versus, I know the verse that was in this week's Sunday school paper is pretty long. You don't have to say all of it. And of course, if you have another verse you've memorized, I'd welcome to hear that one as well. I'd appreciate volunteers to save versus Anyone want to start?
Already the version of the Sunday school paper. Maybe that'll.
Get someone started. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And he volunteered to start with that verse or another one.
I'm gonna try taking this off and just.
OK.
He believed on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not if numbed already, for he, because he hath not believed. On the name of the family we got the Son of God. John 318. Thank you.
Any more volunteers?
He definitely upon him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 318. Very good.
00:20:09
Any more volunteers?
Steven.
He's at believeth on him is not condemned, and he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 318. Very good.
Anybody else other verse you wanna try it?
It's not condemned, but he had believed noise to them already.
Turn 318.
Someone else wanna try? We have a volunteer down here.
You wanna try?
Huh. Alright, I don't think I would have at your age.
Believe me, it's not easy to be up here speaking. You want a chair?
Great, more tips.
OK. Last call for versus, anyone else think of a verse that they'd like to say?
All right.
I'm going to try and stand where I can see everybody.
So.
It's wonderful for you children to be here this morning. Wonderful for you to be here at the conference, I'm sure.
Your children are having a really nice time. I see you playing together, eating together, running together, running and then eating together. Looks great.
But we've been here.
And every, umm, day we've been having meetings, and I hope you're listening in the meetings. You know, I heard something in the first reading meeting that I thought, aha.
That goes with what I wanted to speak about a little bit, Brother said.
The New Testament is the text. That means it's full of words, the Old Testament.
Is pictures.
Anyone else hear that?
New Testament has the words and the Old Testament is pictures you know your children are learning to read.
At a certain age and as you get older.
Well, the first books you read has maybe even less than a complete sentence and a big picture on it, right? And as you get older, at least this is my experience, the pictures got less and the words got more.
Isn't that how it goes? The more you read, the less pictures there are?
Well, if I take what was said in the reading meeting and I turn to the Old Testament.
I haven't found a colorful picture in the Old Testament yet, literally speaking, but I'm gonna ask the brother if he still says that's true. Eric, is that true?
Alright Nick, would you agree with Eric? They say yes. I know brother Robert did because he he spoke for an hour on pictures. I think one of the pictures he said was.
Egypt is a picture of this world.
You know, children. This may sound harsh, but this world has doesn't have A use for children.
They they have other objectives. They want to see you grow up into something, but they really don't have much time for children. But what you know the story of the Lord you is he took a chill out child, he said, suffer the children to come unto me, for such is the Kingdom of God. Another time he took a child set him in their midst and said.
Except you have the faith of a little child. The Lord Jesus values you little children.
But let's get back to the pictures.
I brought a coloring book with me.
And I saw a nice picture in it. Can anyone tell me? I just wasn't to say that I brought this. Can anyone tell me what they see?
00:25:10
Three flowers and a bird. He sees 3 flowers and a bird. That was the answer I wanted. Everyone raise their hand if they see three flowers and a bird.
The adults are playing on as well.
Thank you. You know, I don't actually see three flowers and a bird.
This has goldfinch. I've never been this close to a goldfinch if it's a bird.
These flowers.
I can't smell them. I can't pull the petals on them. So it's a I'm being a little bit too technical here, maybe it's a picture of three flowers and a bird. It's not an actual bird. It's not an actual flower. It's not an actual flowers. It's a picture of three flowers and a bird.
OK, so if no one had seen a bird or no one had seen a goldfinch, let me try to explain this a little bit. You show them this picture.
And say this is like this represents, this is similar to a goldfinch and three flowers. It's a picture, it describes it to us. That's what it is. And so.
When someone when our brother said the Old Testament is full of pictures it describes it represents something in the New Testament.
It's not completely accurate, it doesn't completely describe it, but it it gives a very good representation.
Well.
I was hoping to take a.
Picture one of the pictures in the Old Testament.
And display it a little bit more before you so that you may understand the story of in that Old Testament, but also what it represents. And I hope I can do it in an honorable way and umm, in a way you can understand. All right, so.
How many of your children like to go on a walk with your dad?
Or your mom. I got a few.
Alright.
I need 3 volunteers.
Elliott, thank you for volunteering.
Go ahead, go ahead and come up here. So I got one more. You want to come? All right, Girls got left out.
Just a second.
Children, let's go ahead and stand over there.
Picture I wanted this display this morning is found in Genesis chapter 22.
You're all familiar with that. I think when we start talking about it, you'll see.
You'll remember what it's about.
You know Abraham had a son.
I'll give a little bit of background.
Abraham had a son. I don't have just one son. I have two sons that Abraham had to wait a long, long time for that son. In fact, he was 100 years old before he was given that son.
And you know that sun meant everything to him because the promises were all to be. All the promises that were given to Abraham were going to be fulfilled in that sum. And he had received that sum from God, and he loved that son. And again, it meant everything to him.
So I'm gonna read the verses starting Genesis chapter 22.
00:30:06
It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell the uh. And Abraham rose up early.
Well, I told my son I may need a volunteer so he was prepped.
I love my son, Abraham loves his son, and Abraham was called.
To offer up his son for a burnt offering. Complete offering him up. His son was going to die. The Lord asked him to offer him up for a burnt offering.
What a.
And unimaginable thing as a father to be called to offer up your son. You know Abraham in years past.
Didn't always obey right away.
It took him a while to learn obedience. It takes us a while to learn obedience. But on this instance Abraham had walked with the Lord many years, and he obeyed right away. We say, see, he rose up early in the morning. Our hearts, we were told yesterday, our hearts are deceitful.
If we wait, when the Lord commands us to do something, we'll reason our way out of it. Abraham didn't wait. He knew his heart. He got up early in the morning and made preparation.
Says he rose up early in the morning, settled his *** and took two of his young men and Isaac his son, enclave the wood for a burnt offering.
I have wood or what looks like wood.
Carry that.
OK, that we're gonna go on a walk.
Anyone know how far of a walk they went on? Doesn't give us the distance. Let's start walking. So Abraham's walking along.
He has two servants.
You know they walked the full day.
And then the next day, they walked again.
You think those steps of Abraham were fast? I don't know, but they certainly were heavy. You know what heavy steps mean? He had a burden. He was caring. He was on his way to offer up his son, his only son. If I surveyed the room, there would be no hands given up by every father in here. They wouldn't OfferUp any of their children.
Abraham was called to offer up his son.
And what a journey that was, two days. And if we read verse four, on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, He looked up and he saw the place that the Lord had told him of.
A far off what a site that must have been, to see that place where he'd give up his only son. OK, so Abraham said unto his young men, Stay here.
Me and the lad will go Yonder and worship, and come again to you. Abraham took the wood.
And gave it to his son. Laid the wood upon his son. You can go back to your seat. Thanks.
I on the lab will go Yonder and worship, and come again to you. So Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son.
He took fire and a knife and they went both of them together. I didn't bring those two items.
Figured you can imagine what that was, but they went both of them together.
They journeyed a little bit and again, Abraham's heart no doubt was heavy. Now it's just him and his son.
And he, he, he has a heavy heart and they're walking along together and his son is thinking about things. As a side note, Elliot was asking, what's that box in our car for?
00:35:15
My father, behold Jeremiah. My son, behold the fire. And what? What? Where is going for the burnt offering? That's what Abraham? What? Isaac asked. Behold the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Something is missing in this picture. We have the knife, we have fire, we have wood.
But where's the lamb?
My son, God will provide himself a lamb.
For a burnt offering. So they went, both of them together.
And then they came to the place. No more steps to make.
They took came to the place that the Lord had told Abraham of.
And it says he built an altar there.
So it's a wooden order.
Help me put those on that thing.
Sure, Isaac had seen altars before.
And this is a very poor representation.
But they built an altar.
Says he bound his son Isaac.
Found his Son Found Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar of wood.
Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife and took the knife to slay his son.
And the Angel of the Lord steps in, calls Abraham.
Abraham, Abraham and Abraham says here I am.
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do anything unto him. For now I know that thou fierce God, seeing thou, hast not withheld thy son, thine only Son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold.
Behind him, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
And so.
Isaac came down off the altar.
And there was a lamb there.
Hot in the thicket by his horns.
And Abraham took that lamb and offered him up.
In place of his son. What a wonderful thing for Abraham to have that lamb to take his son's place.
So I told you children about pictures. I wanna go back to the story that we very, umm, weekly tried to demonstrate a little bit of what happened and see if you can understand the picture.
That the story is of the real thing. That's what's most important here is the real thing. This picture doesn't illustrate every detail, but the real thing.
In short is that God provided his Son on Calvary's cross to die for your sins.
You know God and a past eternity with his Son.
Jesus.
There was a question of who would pay the great debt, who could be the propitiation for our sins?
Who will go for us?
And the verse says then said, I lo, I come in the volume of the bucket is written to do thy will, O God, so Lord Jesus voluntarily.
00:40:07
Came to do the father's will, which would lead even to death. You know, Abraham walked two days and the third day with his son.
Well, before we get to that, there came a time to nearly 2000.
Plus years ago.
That the Son of God became a man. You know, I had Elliot up here and at one point I took the wood from the two servants and I gave it to Elliott. He that wood speaks to the Lord Jesus becoming a man and walking down here as a man. He came as a man.
And for 33 years, he walked at every footstep.
LED only to the cross. There was no other path for him but that which led to the cross. So we followed that pathway for 33 years.
And.
They came to the place.
You know, we read often about the story of Gethsemane.
Lord jealous, it says he sweat, as it were great drops of blood, the thought of sin.
Being made sin, he was wholly spotless. I don't have a son like that. God had a son like that, holy, spotless, without sin, no sin in him. And to be made sin was an awful thought. And he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cut pass from me. Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done. That's what he prayed to his Father.
But there was no other sacrifice that could be made.
Then God's holy son, the Lord Jesus, and so it said, we read the verse Abraham and Isaac, they went, both of them together.
Lord Hughes said. Here I am, send me, we read in first. John the Father sent the son. They were one of one mind to go together to that altar. A little bit different than the story of Abraham and Isaac, but we still see it there, you know, and it came time.
Men crucified the Lord Jesus. They founded the nails into his hands, his feet. They hung him on the cross.
But that wasn't I bound Elliot up, I put him there. But those nails, they didn't hold them to the cross. It was his heart of love.
And then we read for three hours he was made a sacrifice for Sims. How awful.
The nails and all the suffering we heard this last night, all the suffering at the hands of man was nothing compared to those three hours of darkness when he suffered for your sins and mine.
In Isaac's case, we found a ram to be caught in a second and to be the substitute for Isaac being offered up. How wonderful that was for Abraham. But again, God's only beloved son has only begotten son. There was no one to substitute for him, says He that spared, not his own son.
Here we have in Genesis 22, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
So that was a story.
That was the actual thing, God sending his son in onto this earth to die for you and me to make propitiation for our sins. But you know that is on the end of the story. And we didn't finish the story with Isaac either. The next time we read about Isaac.
There's a servant going after a bride for Isaac.
And Isaac gets married. You know what the Lord is. He went into death. You all know this story very well. He rose again. And the Spirit is here, even working today to find children, men, women, to be saved and to be part of that bride. And there's coming a marriage.
Will you be there?
You can know all these things. You can know the gospel, those four verses of the gospel, but there's coming a marriage and will you be there? He has sent out the invitation. Come, we read a song. Come. You have to accept it. It's not enough to just know the stories, know the pictures. We can all know that. We have to believe on Him. Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Take him at His word. Have the faith.
00:45:18
Like Abraham did Phoebe the call and come to him. Thank you children, for listening. We're gonna close with the word of prayer.
Our gracious God, loving Father, we do thank thee for thy Son, the Lord Jesus. We thank thee for his work on the cross and that it was complete that he was made a propitiation for our sins. We pray that for these children that they would understand and accept the.
Believe on the and that they could say he died for me.
So we just thank Thee for this time this morning. We pray for Thy working in any hearts that are not yet thine. Thy name we pray, Amen.
Rest and Peace
Address—Bill Prost
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.
Good afternoon, I'd like to begin as usual with a him #64 #64 the 1St 6 verses.
#64 the 1St 6 verses. But before we sing it, I'd like to tell you a short story.
And make a request.
I hope no one is offended by this, but it's a true story.
About 30 years ago I was at a conference in North America here, a fairly large conference, and at that conference there was a woman who was a true believer, but who was not gathered to the Lord's name.
And some of us after the meetings were talking to her and asking her how she enjoyed them. Oh, she said, I really enjoyed the meetings. They were very, very good. But she said just one thing. She said, when I came, I thought I would be able to praise the Lord, and I didn't realize that I would be coming to a funeral.
Ouch.
What was she referring to?
Slow singing.
This is a happy hymn. This is talking about the joy that you and I will experience in the coming day. Let's try and sing it that way, please.
Oh bro.
551138.
2014.
Oh, everything, Wine, water and pants when brought in. Christ, come again.
Uh, no longer needs to have.
Uh.
Right, straighteners. And I'm glad we come here to come and come along.
No, no, no.
Thank you.
Let's look to the Lord, our loving God and our Father. We look up to thee this afternoon. We're thankful hearts that we can indeed sing the rest of God, our rest to come, our place of liberty. Yes, in that light unstained our stainless soul shall live. We thank thee for that great prospect, blessed God our Father.
00:05:09
And we thank thee for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Whose work on Calvary's cross has made all of that possible.
And now we look to thee as we open thy word again this afternoon.
Praying that Thou will speak to each one of our hearts. Undertake forests we pray, for Thou knowest the need far better than we.
For we ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
You will notice.
Excuse me?
In several verses of that hymn it mentions the word rest. And notice the language in verse 2. The rest of God, our rest to come. Yes. And then notice the language in verse six. Our God whom we have known.
Well known in Jesus, love rests in the blessing of his own.
Before himself above.
I was at a Bible conference probably about 25 years ago now and was asked to take the responsibility of a meeting like this. And as I was walking up, an older brother who evidently had a real burden in his own heart.
Said quite loudly to me so that a number could hear.
When with real pathos and emotion in his voice, he said.
Have you got something for the heart?
An older brother here whose name I won't mention, spoke to me yesterday afternoon, probably having no idea that I had this meeting. And he said where is the compassion that we need and words for the heart.
That reminded me of a good story, which is absolutely true, of two brothers more than 150 years ago who were walking to a reading meeting.
And one of them, whose name was John, turned to the other one whose name was also John, and the first one said John.
Please tonight remember that the Saints have consciences as well as hearts.
The other brother was quick on the draw. They were very good friends, and returned the compliment by saying, And you, John, you remember that they have hearts as well as consciences.
Well, the first brother was John Darby. The second brother was John Bellitt. Well known brothers who have written our written ministry, but each one had an emphasis in his ministry and both are needed.
I trust what we have before us. This afternoon. We'll speak to my heart and your heart and to our consciences too, because I would like to speak about rest and peace.
And it has come home to my soul that it is something that everyone in this world desires today.
But yet Satan has done a rather unusual thing, at least in the Western world. And it's kind of a paradox because on the one hand, he has made life so complicated and so involved that our minds are constantly in motion.
It has been estimated today, and probably accurately, that the average man or woman in the business world today.
Probably processes more information in a matter of a week than the average working man in the 1800s did in a lifetime.
Kind of mind boggling, but it's probably true if you think about it.
And Satan has so filled men's minds that there is no time to think about what really matters.
00:10:02
But then people start to go over the Cliff, so to speak. They start to have problems. The mind gets overloaded in computer language, the hard drive gets overloaded, and the computers start to crack.
Yes, they do, don't they? So Satan says well I'll fix that for you. And in the last few years he has introduced the concept and most hear that our younger have at least heard about it, if not experienced it. Mindfulness.
Stop and enjoy the moment. Smell the roses as it were. Take time to enjoy the present. Sounds good, doesn't it?
But then Satan proceeds to connect all that with Eastern religions and introduce into your mind and mind and to the world at large, if he can, all of this idea.
Which is related to what was hatched a number of years ago. Transcendental Meditation. And all of that is merely a tool of Satan to get another means of control.
Of your mind and mind.
Among believers today, likewise, sad to say, there are many who do not have real rest and peace in their lives. And there are young people here and children too, whom I know are finding it very, very difficult even to.
Get on with their homework and to do all the things that are demanded of you today.
It's a very different world.
My children laughed at me when I told them that I never had homework until I went to high school. They said. Boy, we wish we'd lived a generation ago.
Life has changed.
But can you and I walk through this world in rest and peace? Indeed we can.
Some years ago, someone who wanted.
To launch a contest.
Was asking for people, especially artists of course, to paint a picture which exemplified rest and peace.
And many were submitted. Some painted a picture of a beautiful Meadow, very quiet and peaceful, sometimes with cows or other animals grazing in it. Some painted a picture of a majestic mountain. Some painted pictures of beautiful water in one way or another, but I was intrigued by.
The one that won the contest.
And it was a picture of a seashore where a storm was raging.
Winds were blowing with terrific force. Waves were dashing up against the rocks on the shore. But high up on those rocks, in a sheltered area, away from the wind, away from the water and the waves, here was a little bird singing its heart out that won the prize.
By grace, I say to you and me today, we can be like that little bird.
Let's turn to God's Word first of all, Matthew's Gospel Chapter 11 for a start.
Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 11.
Excuse me?
See if we can balance this bottle and not get in trouble with it.
Matthew Chapter 11, verse 28 well known verse.
Just a moment here.
Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And a very similar verse in John's Gospel, chapter 14.
00:15:06
John, Chapter 14.
And verse 27.
The first clause of the verse.
Peace I leave with you.
The first step in having rest in peace is to find peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not a gospel meeting, but I want to say that if there is anyone here who does not have the rest and peace that comes from knowing that the question of sin is all settled before God.
This is the first step to rest in peace in this world.
Doubtless the Lord Jesus, in saying all ye that labor and are heavy laden, was talking perhaps to godly Jews, who in a sincere effort were trying to keep the law.
But it was impossible. The burden was too heavy. And in Acts 15.
Peter could say, referring to the believers, why tempti God to put upon the necks of the believers a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. It was an impossible yoke. And the Lord says, Oh, come unto me, if you're doing that, and I will give you rest.
We aren't going to spend a lot of time on it.
Because I know in the company to whom I am speaking, the vast majority, and I hope all here know what rest and peace is through the finished work of Christ.
What we want to go on a little bit from there because the work of Christ on the cross does not merely deliver you and me from the penalty of sin, it also.
Delivers us from the power of sin. Let's turn to Romans chapter 6 again a well known chapter.
And yet a most important one. Romans chapter 6.
Verse one.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid, How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
No, you're 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 into death. That like as Christ was raised from the dead, raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Verse 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed under sin.
But alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If we go on to the 7th chapter, we find a man who is really trying to do what is right, but he's trying to do it in human energy. And what happens? Notice what happens here in Chapter 7.
Verse 19.
Romans 7 and verse 19. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Verse 24.
Oh, wretched man that I am.
Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
This precious truth is a subject all on its own, and we don't have time to develop it because it would take the rest of the hour.
But many dear believers today, while they have no question that their sins are forgiven through the precious blood of Christ, do not live in the good and blessing of deliverance, not from the penalty of sin so much, but the power of sin. And many dear believers.
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Are living lives of fear.
I was in a home once.
Nice family gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But someone who had grown up in that home told me that every time they did something wrong.
They were told, Remember, God's going to get you for that.
Yes, there is a government in the House of God, no question about it, as there is a government, I am sure, in every godly home here and there is government in the local assembly.
But is that God's preferred way of dealing with you and me under grace? That's why it says in the first verse of Romans or the second verse of Romans 6 here. God forbid, God forbid. Why? Because if you and I have been brought to Christ.
Under the grace of God and we recognize that in the death and resurrection of Christ.
God saw the end of that old Adam nature, and if I, and I hope you have been baptized and gone down under the water and come up out of the water, that has nothing to do with eternal salvation and releasing us from the penalty of sin, but it has everything to do with not being brought under the power of sin.
But the power is not in you and me.
It's in Christ and we have to look out of ourselves in order to be saved from the penalty of sin. We have to look outside of ourselves to be relieved from the power of sin. And when we see ourselves as being in Christ, then we find that we are indwelt by the Spirit of God and no longer are we.
As Scripture says, in flesh we are in spirit.
That's why a legal standard among believers is so wrong.
Some here, but you pretty well have to be 50 years old to remember my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe. But I remember his saying in a reading meeting and it was very apartment. He said what is the point of putting a man under law who has one nature that can't keep the law and another nature that can't break it? He said do you put that kind of a man under law?
Why, if the old nature's in exercise, he can't keep the law, and if the new nature is working?
It can't break the law. Does it make any sense to put that kind of a man under law? No. What do you do?
You say, let that old nature be as wicked and bad as it possibly can. God sees it as having died with Christ. Now the old nature is not dead by any means, God says.
Reckon you yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. God saw the end of the first man at the cross. Now you and I are unable to walk in units of life.
I say to each one here, but if I may be permitted, although this is not a young people's meeting, young people, if you don't get hold of that, if that doesn't make sense after the meeting, talk to someone, read the word of God, get it clear in your soul, because the strongest force to keep you and me from sitting is not the fear of the government of.
God, it is rather a sense of grace in our souls. Let's get hold of that.
My mother passed away.
29 years ago. 28 years ago this year.
But it wasn't until my father passed away, and that was 19 years ago this year.
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That some of the things that were squirreled away in my father's house came to light, and one of them, Needless to say, was my mother's diary, which I read with great relish. As you can well imagine. She had that well put away where prying eyes of boys did not get into it, but I found it very interesting.
And I found it interesting and it doesn't matter if I say this now.
She's long since with the Lord. She told of how in a gospel meeting when she was going to nursing school in her 20s, how she had heard a reference to deliverance from the power of sin. She was saved. But then the brother after the meeting.
Said if anyone here has a question or a problem, please stay behind. It would be nice to talk about it. Well, she didn't have any problem as to her salvation, but in her diary she wrote, I stayed and the brother explained it very well to me. And then another brother came up and I knew those brothers.
Their long since with the Lord and he explained it even better.
And she said, for the first time in my life, I felt real liberty in my Christian pathway. Rest and peace. Wonderful to have and very, very important.
Well, that has to do with salvation.
But that is not all of it, because we want to talk about other aspects of rest. Suppose that we do have rest as to our eternal salvation, and we understand the rest as to deliverance from the power of sin in our lives.
Is there rest from other things? Let us go back to that verse in Matthew 11 and read the next verse, Matthew 11, this time verse 29.
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest under your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Once again, back to John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And again in verse 27.
Let's continue with this verse.
Second clause of the verse.
My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
And then turn over the page to the last verse of John 16.
Verse 33.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.
This peace and rest is not that which refers to our salvation.
No, it goes beyond all that. In one sense it is rest in peace as to our circumstances down here.
And as I said earlier, I know for a fact that there are young people here.
As well as some who are middle-aged and some who in my bracket are getting older.
Do we have rest in peace as to our circumstances? The world has always been against the believer and Satan will do his best to do just what we had before us in the reading meetings that we should not do to get you worried and anxious and upset about things.
In our Christian pathway.
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I read some time ago a bit of a study that somebody had done in the secular world that said that people that worried a certain amount generally had a better time and were happier than those that didn't worry at all.
Rather unusual. I took that, as they say, with a pinch of salt, but I suppose they probably had some merit in what they said, because sometimes they were speaking about not mere worry, but the fact that people who were concerned about their affairs sometimes took life a little more seriously than those that were just so happy go lucky.
That they never worried about anything, including whether they should go to work that day.
And that isn't right either. But whatever the point, the Lord would have us as we've had in other par parts. And these verses were quoted in the reading meetings. God would have us without carefulness. God would have us without worry. He would have us to have rest.
And sometimes the conditions in our lives have nothing to do with our doing.
And sometimes, let's admit it because I have been guilty of it, we can easily develop that poor me feeling sorry for myself syndrome, can't we? I have certainly done it. I have no problem admitting it. Because forces that out, that are outside of ourselves arrange circumstances over which we have no control.
Maybe our family breaks up.
Maybe things happen, shall I say it, in our local assembly that throw a big monkey wrench into all of the nice, smooth, happy life that I had. Maybe things happen at work that are out of my control and things go wrong. Things happen in our education. Things happen in all sorts of ways and we say I did not need this.
OK.
The whole point is if we really look into the Word of God, the fact is we didn't need it. And we do need it because God has an an old brother used to say every one of us is in the school of God, but none of us are in a classroom. God has an individual tuition for every believer.
That.
Is wonderful because God is arranging every circumstance in your life and mine in order to do for us what He wants to do.
In order to make us what He wants us to be.
Many years ago there was a sculptor who was sculpting away there, chipping away with a hammer and chisel, and he'd walk around and so on, and eventually he turned out a very beautiful specimen of one of the aboriginals of this land, the so-called North American Indians, in full headdress, standing erect and proud.
It was absolutely beautiful.
And an amateur who didn't know much about art approached the sculptor and he said, how do you do that? How do you do that to make it make it looks, make it look so perfect like that? Well, anybody here that is an artist knows very well how, how can you explain something like that?
And the artist simply replied, Well, he said, it's it's actually quite simple. You just look at that block of marble or granite.
And you just chip away everything that doesn't look like an Indian.
It was pretty elementary, but it's true. But the skill and the art, to be able to do that, well, that, that's another story, isn't it?
But for you and for me, God is chipping away everything that doesn't look like Christ.
And it won't be complete until we get to the glory. But the point is.
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Are you and I having Rest in Peace in the midst of that process, or is it very difficult for us?
Sometimes we do have difficulties in our lives, and I want to turn to a verse or two that represent that. They're in the Old Testament. One of them we read earlier, it's in Second Chronicles 15, and we'll turn back to that Second Chronicles 15.
And verse 5. Second Chronicles 15 and verse 5.
Now this is in the time of a man by the name of ASA, a godly king, but it's referring to the days before him. And it says, And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants.
Of the countries.
Now turn over to the book of Isaiah.
Chapter 48.
Isaiah chapter 48.
Last verse verse 22.
There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.
Turn over a few chapters to Chapter 57.
Again, the last verse.
Verse 21.
There is no peace, saith my God, through the wicked.
In all of these circumstances, there was a reason why there was number peace. There was no peace in the time of Israel prior to ASA. And I believe this refers back those that verse that we read in Second Chronicles, probably to the day of the days of the Judges, although maybe not exclusively because there every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
In Isaiah when God says in chapter 48.
There is no peace. Seth, my God to the wicked. He is culminating 9 chapters, all of which take up God's controversy with Israel for worshipping idols.
And when at the end of the 57th chapter he says essentially the same words.
He is culminating 9 chapters, all of which take up God's controversy with Israel. And it was in the future of course, but for rejecting their Messiah.
The application for you and me is we cannot expect to have the rest in peace of God in our souls if we are not walking with the Lord.
Our time is going. We don't want to go over time, but let me mention a few things here that are on the negative side.
If we collectively turn away from the Lord and follow our own path, then we cannot expect to have God's rest in peace in our lives. God loves us too much for that. He's going to stir your little nest up. He's going to cause you difficulties in order to recall you to Himself.
Maybe you say like I would never worship idols, but it was mentioned in the readings and I reiterate the Apostle Paul could say covetousness, which is idolatry. And John in his first epistle could say, little children, keep yourselves from idols. What are idols? They are anything in this world that comes between you and me in Christ.
And I remember very well reading in our written ministry something that I must confess.
Hit me very hard, it said. If you and I have our hearts set on anything.
On which Christ does not have his heart set. To that extent we are out of communion.
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And don't think that I am exempt. That hit me hard.
I don't mind telling you why, because from the time I was five years old, I was a car buff. I loved cars.
They fascinated me right from my younger days and I can still remember when someone that worked on the farm on which I lived happened to crash his car. And, uh, one thing he, he brought home was the hood ornament. There wasn't much else that was left and he gave it to me and that was my prized possession, that little hood ornament.
From the 1940s, Plymouth and so on. The point is, there are idols in the hearts of every one of us, and it doesn't matter what it is.
We better be careful if we have idols because they will take away from the rest of God in our souls.
But then the rejection of the Messiah by Israel goes deeper, and you say, how could we possibly talk about that in Christian circles? Because we have accepted Christ as our Savior?
We have accepted him as our savior but, and it's a big but.
Is he the Lord of my life? Is he the Lord of my life? Or have I accepted Him as my Savior? And then I want Him to give me a nice, relaxed, easy life so that I can go to heaven at the end. That's not what we're here for if you and I are going to have God's rest and peace.
What do we have to do? We have to go back to Matthew 11 and 29 and get in the yoke with the Lord Jesus.
And being in a yoke in one sense is not nice because you're in that yolk. You don't see them in North America very often, but in eastern countries they're still very common. They still use oxen a lot, and I've seen a good many wooden yolks over in India, for example. And in other places, up in the little country of Bhutan, north of India, they still plow with yolks of oxen and still use the.
Old crook stick plow which probably dates back and it's.
Design at least 3000 years, they still do it. And when an ox is in that yolk with another yak, with another ox, you don't get out of that yolk and you don't pull ahead of the other one. That doesn't work, but neither do you drag back. You have to pull together. But there's something in being in the yoke with the Lord Jesus.
You and I will find rest unto our souls, and sometimes we will be like that little bird about whom we spoke earlier in that painting where there's a tremendous storm swirling around.
And the wind is blowing and everything's going wrong. Perhaps.
Maybe the artist, if he'd been a believer, would have put two birds in that little cleft in the rock, one to represent the Lord himself and one to represent you and me. We can be like that. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians, Chapter 4.
This was already referred to, but it'll bear repeating.
Philippians 4 and verse 6.
So before we read verse six, I wanna read verse five. There is a connection I would suggest.
Let your moderation, let your yieldingness be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand, or the Lord is near. I want to make an application of that scripture before we read verse 6. The yielding us is to be known to all men.
But ultimately, to whom do we yield?
To other men, yes, as far as is possible without dishonoring the Lord, we should. But the yielding us here, I believe, is ultimately to the Lord, because in the JND translation it reads the Lord is near. I like that the Lord is near, meaning two things at least to my soul.
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It means that he is the author of every circumstance through which you and I may be called upon to pass, but he is also the one who is near to take me through those circumstances. And so an old brother long since with the Lord used to say, and some here will recognize about whom I'm speaking, the secret of a happy Christian pathway.
Is to take your circumstances from the Lord and your difficulties.
To the Lord.
Very, very true. That is the order in which we have to take it. So let's read verse 6.
Be careful, be anxious for nothing.
But in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep, and that word keep us a strong word. It has the sense of guarding your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Our hearts and minds need guarding at times.
Because this world is a difficult place, and if we are not in this favored land experiencing outright persecution in the sense that some of our brethren are, yet at the same time Second Timothy 3 holds true. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and Satan is going to make life so difficult for you and me that many are going to give up.
And you may.
And he knows this, you will not lose your eternal salvation, but you may end up paralyzed in the work of the Lord because you say the pathway is just too difficult. And as the difficulties and problems like waves of the ocean just keep coming and coming and coming, it reminds me of what?
Happened, and this was way back in the 1800s when there was a difficulty among God's people.
And as two older brothers, or rather a younger and an older brother were walking home from a brother's care meeting where there had been some difficulties discussed and there were problems on the horizon, the younger ones said to the older one brother, how long does this going to go on?
And the older one, right? Very wisely, said, he said. Brother, the Scripture knows no future for the believer but glory.
Beautiful. No future for the believer, but glory. That's true.
But let's go down in the chapter here for a moment. There's something, if possible, even better than the peace of God guarding our hearts. The peace of God guarding our hearts is taking my circumstances to the Lord and having the sense that he is overall that he is going to that I, I accept them from him and that he's going.
To take me through them.
But then going down in the chapter, what do we read?
Verse 9. Those things which she have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do.
And what the God of peace shall be with you?
Christianity is both negative and positive, and we don't want to forget the positive.
The negative side is that I am anxious for nothing, that I accept the circumstances from the Lord, that I take my circumstances to the Lord, and that I have the peace of God about them.
But the difficulty sometimes that comes in is that believers are paralyzed. The difficulties are so great.
That believers say, well, I'm on my way to heaven and I know where I'm going. But that's about all I can say for now. And I hope the illustration doesn't uh, uh, get overdone, but I've used it because I have seen it happen.
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Uh, I can honestly say it's not my normal thing because generally I happen to be a morning person and I don't need something to pick me up in the morning, but I have gone in when I used to work.
During my student days for big companies, gone into an office and particularly on Monday morning, say, uh, at 8:00, see people staggering into work. And maybe they hadn't been using the weekend as profitably as they might, but anyway, they staggered into work, groping for the cup of coffee that they hoped was available. And you asked them how, how are you this morning?
Well, I'm here. And that was.
An indication? Well, don't expect too much for a while because it took everything I had just to get in here.
God doesn't want believers like that. He wants what we read in verse 9. These things that you have both learned and re deceived and heard and seen in me do.
And the God of peace shall be with you.
The Lord wants you and me to walk and live in his company. And when we have the sense of his company, oh, what else matters? What else matters? A sense of his company with us. And I say that to each one he each one here. Maybe you're you're as I was because when I was in grade school, I.
Was generally a good student but I was still afraid of exams.
And I used to pray to the Lord to help me with my exams, and I sometimes pray to the Lord to help me on the way home from school because bullying wasn't limited to this generation. It was around when I was a little boy. You should do that and have a sense of the Lord's company and presence with you. Sometimes you may have difficulties with direction in your lives or difficulties knowing how to deal with other.
Problems that somehow come your way and you say I'm not sure how to do. And I see other young people for whom things seem to open up so smoothly and everything seems to go well.
Remember.
The difficulties and problems are allowed not to defeat you, not to put you down, not to give you a disadvantage, but rather to enable you.
To do something for the Lord. But the Lord puts the ones to whom he wants to give the best work, if I can say it that way, through the hardest school. The hardest school is for those.
Who are going to do something for the Lord? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that if you're not having a hard time, you'll not do something for the Lord. That's not the point. We all are in the school of God. But the point is that if the Lord puts through you through a nightmare of difficulty, you will find afterward that you will be the stronger for it. But you have to go through it without a poor ME syndrome. You have to go through it.
Saying yes, the Lord allowed this.
Again, I say if there's something in your life and mind we need to deal with, we have to deal with it.
And that's very important.
I have seen in many cases 2 memory too many cases.
Where someone has gone along and has been a real help and done something for the Lord.
And many have felt the benefit from it.
But then the Lord comes along and puts his finger on something in that individual's life and says, deal with that.
I knew a brother in a foreign land about whom I felt led to speak about something in his life, and it was true. And he said to me, well, brother Bill, the Lord is blessing my work, the Lord is blessing my ministry, and souls are being saved, believers are being encouraged. How could there be anything wrong in my life?
Boy, said brother, the Lord doesn't withhold his hand a blessing just because we aren't perfectly like Christ yet.
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But I believe the Lord wants you to deal with this, and thankfully He did.
But you know, there are times sometimes as believers when our hearts get lifted up in pride because we have done something for the Lord. And when the Lord puts his finger on something and says deal with it, we don't deal with it. And maybe the Lord uses our brethren to put his finger on it, their finger on it and say, brother.
You have to deal with that in your life. It's hindering you, it's serious and if it's not dealt with, it causes big problems.
And we no longer have rest unto our souls. Let's remember that. Well, we have a couple of minutes left for one more rest. And it was already mentioned in the Reading Hebrews chapter 4.
Hebrews, chapter 4.
Verse 9.
There remaineth therefore arrest to the people of God.
There remaineth therefore arrest to the people of God.
And the beautiful thing about the rest that you and I have in the future is that the rest up there is going to be God's rest.
God, as we sung in that hymn, will rest in the blessing of His own. His God resting now? Not really. Why not? Because everything is not according to His mind.
There's a rest coming in a coming day, but God is not going to rest until sin has been entirely removed from this entire universe. That won't take place till the eternal State. That won't take place until after the Great White Throne Judgment, till after every vestige of sin has been removed.
And then there is going to be rest for all eternity. How beautiful.
Let's keep that rest in mind if things are going badly down here. But let's also keep in mind that the complete rest is not down here. Yes, we can have rest under our souls, and we should, but we can never completely rest. Why?
For the simple reason that Satan and the old sinful self, they never rest. Don't think that when you get older, as I am and some others here, that the old sinful self gets burned out. No, it's the opposite, isn't it? And if I were to pick out a few older ones here by name and ask them if the the old nature gets burned out as you get older, they would probably tell me, and I know they would. They'd say no Bill if.
Thing it gets stronger. Why does it get stronger? Because the more you want to live for the Lord. Every new truth that the Spirit of God seeks to bring before your soul will find its corresponding antagonist in some aspect of your old nature.
It.
Works harder to get the ascendancy and Satan works harder on those that are really honoring the Lord. So we can't rest put up there. There will be perfect rest, won't there? And most of all, it will be God's rest. He'll rest in the blessing of you and me. Well, our time is gone.
But may the Lord give us to no rest and peace in our hearts.
Not merely by looking on to the glory, but first of all by looking all the way back to Calvary's cross. That's where it has to start. And ultimately, in one sense, that's where it has to finish. And that's why we had what we had this morning. But then let's remember that God wants you and me, whatever our circumstances, wherever we are.
To have rest and peace in walking in that yoke with our Lord Jesus Christ.
In accepting every circumstance from Him, but in taking the circumstances to Him, and at the same time not merely being at peace in our souls about those circumstances, but in learning more of Christ, being, as James says, not merely hearers of the Word, but doers. And finally.
01:00:13
Let's never lose sight of that eternal rest. It may be sooner than we think.
But that's what God puts before our souls, and that's where the real rest is. Now is the time for work. Now is the time for service. Now is the time for labor. The time for rest will be an eternity.
Yes, 13 and 14. Which chapter? Which chapter?
Colossians one versus 13 and 14.
Colossians 1, verses 12 to 14.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life.
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated them into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Dave, have we got time to finish that him? Can we take a minute and do that?
#64 Let's finish to him. It's too good a him not to finish it up #64 Obviously this refers to the eternal rest.
Glory supreme is there, glory that shines through all more precious still that love to share as those that love did call. And then the last verse, oh love supreme and bright, that is good to the feeblest heart.
It gives us now as heavenly light what soon shall be our part versus 7 to the end of #64 We'll sing it to the same tune.
Glory.
Bless God our Father.
What more can we say in Thy presence, we who should have had nothing but a lost eternity before?
Are now privileged to enter into thy rest.
To enjoy the rest from the penalty of our sins, to enjoy the rest that thou dost give in the midst of all our circumstances, and to look forward to that eternal rest which only Thou canst give. We give thanks, commending Thy word to thee and praying that thou make it good to each one of us.
01:05:13
For we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Responding to the Lord's Love - Clean and Unclean Birds
Open—Michel Payette
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We sing, 202. What will it be to dwell above and with the Lord of glory reign, since the blessed knowledge of his love so bright with all his furry plains? 202.
Walkway.
I understand.
No, no, no, no, no.
It's all over the world.
It's a different umm.
Today. Absolutely. Oh, great, time to cry in the sunlight.
Would I have to create any calculation?
Uh-huh.
Please pray.
Father.
And all my heart.
And I've never fly to the end of the day. And you're going to be in the beginning and the end of the day and everything else of life.
Scratching tyranny River and scratching.
Can we ask the Lord's blessing?
Our living God and our Father, we thank Thee for this little hymn that reminds us of the nearness of Thy coming and how we are very shortly going to see the Lord Jesus face to face and all of Thy glory and will finally be at harassed and will enjoy our eternal rest with Thee blessed Savior. And so we look to Thee for Thy blessing upon our time together for this brief.
Meeting this open meeting, we actually provide blessing upon Thy precious words that thou hast give courage to.
Those that both raised up to give a word from thy heart of love, perhaps a word of exhortation or edification or comfort for the Saints of God, a message from thine own heart. Blessed God, provide people in the day that we live in. So we look to thee for thy blessing and uh, that we might have open ears, and that thou it's indeed pour out a blessing from heaven for us. So we ask thee for thy health blessing and give thanks for the occasion together.
Pray for our beloved brother who are traveling homeward, and that we ask you for Thy tender mercies, safety along the road, and that they may be able to drive without the incident, if it be Thy will. So we cast ourselves upon thee in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
00:05:29
A Diversity, Second Corinthians, chapter 5.
For Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14.
For the love of Christ constrained us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which lived should not live henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them.
And rose again.
So brother Bill was saying.
We did look at verses in Romans 6.
Connected with the position taken on earth associated with the name of the Lord Jesus, we might walk.
And newness of life.
And I've enjoyed this portion here in the constraining.
Of the love of Christ and that the motive, the energy behind the behavior that we have is a response to the enjoyment of His love and response to who He is and what He's done. And so when in our lives there's that which is pleasing before the Lord, there's no pride connected with that when it is the outflow of the appreciation of His person and who He is and His glory.
And I do have a little portion of what I consider.
In connection with birds.
Yeah, Loop 12, you had the spirals in there and you had the, uh, Raven and the Scriptures. We have clean birds and unclean birds.
A little while ago I had the the portion of my heart with the ostrich and the UMM Hummingbird, you know, the largest bird and the smallest bird, you know, And the large bird commands respect because of its size, but it can't fly, you know, And that's a sad thing. When something, somebody's a bird, he can't fly. But the Hummingbird is so small you hardly notice. It's like a big bee, you know?
But that little creature, man, it can fly forwards, backwards, it can hover it up, down.
Remarkable. That's what faith does, you know, we see sometimes young believers and they do things, they say, boy, I don't have that kind of faith, you know, but God does that. He does that on the basis of simple trust in the person of the Lord Jesus.
But the words I like to consider today are, uh, found in Psalm 102.
Brother took it up this morning in the Sunday school. You had a picture of a bird there and I was nice little connection there and little prop maybe I had those things in my heart. And brother Bill spoke of that little bird in the rock there and said well, maybe birds are appropriate for the open meeting, you know, and so.
Some of them too, we have birds there too and uh, beautiful Psalm, you know, some of these messianic psalms and psalms that speak to us of the Lord Jesus.
As we read this wonderful book full of instruction can fill our minds with many things, but I believe it also needs to fill our hearts and when the Spirit of God opens the scriptures to us to reveal to us the person of the Lord Jesus.
Has us appreciate who he is.
And what he's done and that he did that for you, that his love would constrain us. So I just like to read a few verses here in 102nd Psalm.
Spirit of Christ in there verse one, hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto Thee. I not thy face from me In a day when I'm in trouble inclined 9 year unto me. In a day when I call, answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an heart heart. My heart is smitten and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread.
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By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleaved to my skin.
And now we're gonna run into these birds.
I'm like a Pelican of the wilderness.
I'm like a gnaw of the desert. I watch and I'm a Sparrow alone.
Upon the housetop.
My enemy has approached me all the day and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
But I've eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping.
Because of thine indignation in Iraq, although it has lifted me up and cast me down, my days are like a shadow that decline it and I'm withered like grass. But our Lord shall endure forever, and I remembrance unto all generation. That refers to the blessing of Zion and then we go down to.
Verse 23 He weakened my strength in the way he shortened my days. I said, Oh my God, take me another way in the midst of my days. Thy years are throughout all generations of old hostile laid. The foundation of the earth and the heaven are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. All of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shall thou change them, and they shall be changed.
Without the same.
And our years shall have no end.
Well, just rapidly on these, uh, three birds there, like a Pelican of the wilderness.
You know, Pelicans are fairly large birds and, uh, they wouldn't go unnoticed. You know, you spirals, they can, there's a lot of them. The Pelicans are maybe rarer. And if you saw a Pelican, you might tell you, hey, tell your kids, hey, look at that Pelican over there. That's that large bird, you know, Pelican in the wilderness.
But a Pelican was an unclean bird, and you know.
When they saw the Lord Jesus, remarkable He was remarkable. He didn't go unnoticed. He.
He healed the the blind man, the lame and the sick and the death and the he raised the dead. He he, he didn't go unnoticed.
But they said of him.
That he was a Samaritan.
V8 with centers and they said he had a demon.
He was casting out demons by the Prince of Demons.
They considered him.
Unfleep.
How could that be the Lord of glory in the midst of failing sinners like you and I? They looked at him, and they considered Him a Sinner and themselves righteous.
He was alone.
In the wilderness. And then it says verse six, the end of the verse, unlike an awl.
Of the desert, you know, you hear birds in the morning. My wife says you hear the birds. I'm getting to be a bit deaf and says you don't hear those birds. No, I sorry, I don't hear those birds but.
But when the night comes and most of the birds get silent.
And this bird, you all, he's, he's awake all night, got big eyes and he watches all night. Like to connect the beginning of that next verse with the all you know, I watch.
But my son-in-law in Walla Walla, he, we heard, we heard one outside there, he had a flashlight. We sure didn't move. He was right there on the limb and you saw the light on him and he wouldn't move. He was just there watching.
Does the.
Of the desert, the real meaning there, that word desert, is a desolate place. What it suggests is that there were people there before.
Uh, but now they're gone.
And so the Lord Jesus, he had, he had disciples around him for a while.
And then they all left them.
And he was alone.
Could you not watch with me an hour?
No, you couldn't watch with him.
I couldn't watch with him. You couldn't watch with him.
But he watched.
And the father heard his cry in the garden.
You can hear that.
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All in a night.
He's not singing.
With strong cries to him, they could deliver him.
Out of death.
Alone.
And Amazon.
Upon the host up. I was here on Friday. But you certainly ran into that verse.
Five sparrows were two farting. I wouldn't work much, you know.
In Matthew's gospel it says you get 2 for fighting, you get 2 for a penny, 2 Pennies give you an extra 1, you get 5. They won't work much.
And one Sparrow was worth anything.
They esteemed them not.
They had no esteem.
On the housetop, you know.
The Lord Jesus was born under the law.
There was only one man that satisfied ever all the requirements of the godly Old Testament. Did we see him?
But he's alone.
We assume them not.
Now they'll word their housetop is one word in the Hebrew, and it's the same word that's used in the.
Ultra burnt offerings. We had the burnt offering this morning. The top of the burnt offering, that's where the.
Animals were placed and so.
That one we esteemed not.
He was gonna offer himself.
Disciples for Sockem as people didn't want him.
Called the Samaritan. Had a demon ate with sinners.
Nothing could deter him.
I'm going to that cross and glorifying his Father. But there were some around him. That's what we get in the eighth verse.
My enemies reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me are sworn against me. There were those around him to insult him, to buffet him, to strike him, to crown him with thorns, to mock him and salt them. Crucify him was a crowd around him.
No comforters as we read in other songs.
Verse 9.
I've eaten ashes like bread.
Makes a mind that version Hebrews it tasted death.
For every oh.
And mingled my drink.
With weeping.
They give vinegar to drink.
The cup which my father giveth me, Shall I not drink it?
He could not drink it with pleasure, certainly a delight of doing his father's will.
But with weeping.
Because.
Of thine indignation.
And Vira.
God had indignation and wrath, but not against Him.
Was against you, was against me.
Because of thine indignation in Iraq.
For Thou has lifted me up.
And cast me down.
Here he is presented to Israel and they say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, and he's having a reception.
And then he's having a deception. He knew about it, didn't He? And he was cast down, and he was lifted up on that cross, rejected by his people, forsaken by his disciples. And as we've read in Psalm 22 This morning, even the heavens were close to Him. Nobody ever experienced such solitude.
Pelican of the Wilderness, the Alps of the desert. Sparrow alone.
00:20:08
On house top.
My days are like a shadow that decline it. I'm with it like grass.
You know, The thing is that shadows that decline it and, uh.
Sometimes you're driving down the highway at certain time of day and you can see in the road you're driving the shadows of the other cars on the other side of the driveway. The the shadows are getting so long and if you're really careful, you could probably stop somewhere at that time of the day when the sun is going down and you would see the shadows literally moving on the ground as they are extending and extending and extending.
It's a time when the sun is going down.
Going down into debt?
You know the Lord Jesus didn't die of exhaustion on the cross.
He died voluntarily. He laid down his life. We read that this morning.
Said it is finished, I'm consumed and he gave up the ghost.
Well, we go down to uh.
Verse 2324 Now I said, Oh my God, Take Me Out of the way in the midst of my days.
Was a young man, wasn't he? Somebody here in the 30s? Thirty three was just.
It's really a man, you know?
Not just a man.
But his real man was in midst of his days. And I believe the last part of that verse is an answer to that first part from God. Die years are throughout all generations, you know.
That the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, he, he didn't have any age.
God doesn't have any age, you know, Not so many years old.
But the Lord Jesus, he partook of flesh and blood and it tells us he was 12 years old in the temple. He had years public ministry. This was about 30 years old. He had 30 years of of human life, you know, and.
But the answer is thy years are throughout all generations. He's gonna have years forever because he's going to be a man. He's gonna be a man forever. He's still God, never stop to be God, the Son of God. He's gonna be man forever. And we're going to see a man face to face. He has holes in his hand and his feet on his side, the one who's alone. And those around him were to insult them.
And buffet him and despise him and hate him without a cause.
You're gonna have millions around him.
The benefit of what he did for them.
Of old I was laid the foundation of the earth. Verse 25 And the heavens are the work of thy hands.
Who's that one that we split in his face? The creator of the universe?
The one who sustains all things by the word of his power. That's him.
They shall perish.
Thou shall endure.
You know, we read in the New Testament, there in second Peter, heavens and the earth that we now see are gonna disappear.
He's gonna be there still, There's gonna be a new creation. He's gonna be there still forever and ever. But thou art the same in thy years shall have no end. Verse 27.
Not the same. We have that in the Old Testament, the same expression. I believe it was Deuteronomy 30. I had to check it in my French Bible. That's the name of God, the one who is.
Thou art the one who is. He is the Lord, he is God. Dark the same. Thy years have no end.
As being the same is God eternal?
But his years will have no end. That's because he's a man, you know, Huh.
Let's go to Hebrews chapter 13 for a moment.
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Hebrews, chapter 13.
Receipt.
Hebrews 13 and eight. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today.
And forever. And we can understand this verse in considering the person of the Lord Jesus as a man now resurrected man.
From that day he rose from the dead.
There's no change ever. Is the same.
Is the same as today. He rose from the dead when I sent it up to heaven. Comes back from heaven. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
But you can also read this verse a bit differently. We can just read the first part of the verse.
Jesus Christ.
The same.
He's that one. He's the I am from the Old Testament. He is the same, exactly the same expression that we have in Hebrews chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one.
Verse 12 Quotation number Psalm one and two. And as investors shall thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same in our years shall not fail.
For your dear ones, from my own heart.
I consider these verses that verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5, that we no longer live unto ourselves, but unto Him.
Who died and rose again for us, The one who is the creator of the universe, the one who was despised, the one who was alone and had infinite solitude so that you and I would never be alone. He's the one who's looking for a response in your life and mine to his love, that his love would constrain us.
You know we are religious creatures and if we do, good.
Behave properly.
Don't do wrong.
Obey.
These are all good things.
But I believe they're not done under the constraining love of the Lord Jesus.
You can see them in the mirror.
And when you see them in the mirror?
Doing pretty good.
I'm not that bad.
I could compare myself perhaps to others.
Would you compare yourself to the Lord Jesus?
How could we ever compare ourselves to Him? He's brought us to perfection forever by His sacrifice. Oh, may the Lord help us. May the Spirit of God entertain our hearts in this beautiful book with the glories, the beauties, the perfection of that One who for you died and rose again, and in the measure that you appreciated, and I appreciate it, that His love would constrain us to live.
For Him. And in that measure, we're never gonna stand before the Lord. Ever.
To say, Lord, look at what I've been doing for you.
It's all of what He's done for us. May the Lord bless His word to our souls.
Our Mind Being Like the Mind of Christ
Open—Bob Thonney
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.
Like to go back to Philippians where our brother Bill was in chapter 4.
It has been an exercise to my own soul. Brethren, what we.
Uh, allow our mines to be occupied with and I think it is.
What do you what rather, Bill said is, uh, has resonated in verse.
Six and seven, we're not gonna go over too much now, but notice being careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, letting our requests be made known unto God. The result is the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep. And like he said, it was the word is.
Mr. Eric Smith used to say shall Garrison it's.
Like the picture of a city in old times with a Roman army around it to keep it. It's not that we keep the peace of God that that the peace of God keeps our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. And once that is accomplished, then verse 8 tells us what we should occupy our minds with.
Whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just what server things are pure? Whatever things are lovely, what server things are good, Report if there be any praise, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise.
Think on these things. This is a filter and so Lord help us to filter our thought patterns. Sometimes we let our thoughts go and.
Directions that are not healthy. We let ourselves think about things that are not going to be positive and so the Lord help us to filter our thoughts going back to the first chapter because Paul speaks a lot in Philippians about the mind and in chapter one you'll notice in verse.
27 we have.
The mind spoken of only let your conversation, your manner of life, be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
This is the gospel mind. The Lord help us, brethren, to be exercised in this way.
For the gospel, look for opportunities to share the gospel with those around us. There's a lot of open doors. I don't know if we really take advantage of them as we ought to. Sometimes there are opportunities in prisons, you know, in the schools. They've taken the Bible and they've taken prayer out.
But it's interesting.
You get into a prison, there's still opportunity to take the word of God out. It's tragic to me that they take it out of the schools and those poor kids that don't have any direction are going to end up in the prison. But how much better that they get something in the prison if that's the only opportunity there is to turn them in the right direction for eternity?
So it's the gospel mind. Are you and I gospel minded?
That's what he speaks about now chapter 2 and we have in verse five the Christ like mind. There was problems in Philippi, there were differences that were threatening the peace of the assembly. And so he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God?
But made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
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Even the death of the cross.
Oh my oh brethren, how we need to be Christ like minded in our thinking. Chapter 3.
And here we have the apostle Paul speaking about Christ as his object. But I want to point out in verse 13 he says, Brethren, I count not myself to evaprehended, but this one thing I do.
Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into 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. That word is really mature.
Be thus minded, and if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless.
Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind.
The same thing.
Like mindedness is what is to be desired amongst God's people. But you know that there's differences. What are we going to do when there are differences, Brother and I? We're going to force things.
Sometimes people talk about.
Agreeing to disagree, that's not really what we have here.
And some have suggested it's agreeing to agree even if you don't understand, you agree because you don't want to cause problems. That is not what we have here. What is it when there's differences?
God shall reveal even this unto you. In other words, it's waiting on the Lord.
And in time, sometimes I find that it's a lack of spiritual growth in my person. That's why I don't see things the way another brother may see him. So what I'm going to do? Force things. We can't force things, brethren, wait on the Lord. Even this He can reveal to us, so that these are things that have specifically to do.
With the mind, I'd like to go over to Colossians Chapter 3, which is again speaking about our mind, what we're occupied with. It's important, brother, because as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You are what you think about.
So what are you allowing yourself to be thinking about Colossians chapter 3 and verse one says, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affections. If you notice the margin says your mind on things above, not on things.
On the earth, for ye are dead in your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. So the exhortation here is, set your mind on things above.
What are we talking about? Things above? And I find rather than that, our minds are generally occupied almost entirely with things down here in this world. Come to the end of the day sometimes and think back, how much have I been thinking of things above?
I'm afraid it's not even 10%.
But, brethren, at a moment's notice, we're going to vacate planet earth, and we're going to take our place in the Father's house with the Lord Jesus, isn't it? Wouldn't it be proper to be occupied with things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God?
Must say I've used this sometimes.
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Remember one time we had a kind of a picnic down in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and so we had a little talk and I suggested that we make a list of things above.
The first reaction from those around I could see just blank look on the face. What are you talking about?
Things above where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
Things. It talks about things. OK, let's see how many things we can come up with that are above, and they start out by love and joy. Peace. Umm, I guess are those things? I don't know. They're exactly things.
But little by little, as we trained our thoughts above, we started coming up and we had a whole long list of things above the tree of life.
The heavenly city, the river that flows from the throne of God and from the land. It's it's amazing how much you can.
Come up with those things, brethren. Those things are eternal. Those things are going to be lasting forever. So we need to set our mind on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, For ye are dead, brother. Bill was talking about that in Romans chapter 6. That's the position.
We're dead and we're buried with him.
By baptism and we are raised with him. That's Christian position to be occupied with what I am in the flesh. That's not my life. My life is there at God's right hand.
You know, it says in verse three that our life is hid with Christ in God. The Lord looks at us and they say, what in the world do these people get out of sitting hour after hour in meetings like this? I don't understand what it's all about. That's right, if they don't have the Lord Jesus in the picture.
Our life is hid. They don't understand it but notice verse.
Four says, When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall he also appear with him in glory. In other words, the time is going to come, and this is the appearing that it's speaking about.
Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him. O brethren, it's going to be the most glorious, uh, happening on planet Earth ever.
And you and I are going to be involved in that appearing, and then perhaps the neighbors that we knew will see us coming with him because we're going to be manifested with Him in glory.
There's that neighbor. I knew him. I could never figure him out. He was such a weirdo.
Now I understand why He lived that way. Our life is going to be manifested with Him in glory, isn't it, brethren, beautiful. And I say this to the young people, you and I can, because of our Christian position, say that Christ is our life.
I remember I struggled as a young person.
With what I found inside here and it got pretty depressing.
I struggled quite a while with it until I realized God is done with me as a man in the flesh. I'm dead and buried. And what do you do with somebody that's dead and buried? You go dig him up and see how they're doing. Once in a while they tell you if you do that, you're not going to be very impressed with what you find.
Dead and buried. Leave it.
Our life.
Is Christ in glory? And I look up there and I see complete perfection. And the more you and I are occupied with Him in the glory, more and more it will have a transforming effect on our lives.
The Lord's Message - I Am With You; What More Do I Need?
Open—Nick Simon
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.
In the meetings that we had from Luke 12, we spoke a little on some of the difficulties we face in this world. And it's easy to become anxious about circumstances. It's also easy to become discouraged because of the circumstances that we see around us. And I know in the meetings that Jim and maybe others too touched on.
Uh, second Timothy.
And so in, uh, Paul's epistle to Second Timothy in particular, I find it very personal, very personal to Timothy, very personal to myself. But here was a young man that had gotten discouraged, just, uh, backing up a little in connection with what we had in Luke. There the Lord was preparing his disciples for that which would come upon them after his death.
They looked for redemption in Israel.
And the Kingdom wasn't going to come, not at that time. And we know that in the first seven chapters of Acts that we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit. And as was mentioned in the meetings at the end of Stephen's testimony, when he was modded, the witness of the Holy Spirit, it too was rejected. So not only was Christ rejected, but with his.
In the coming of the Holy Spirit, the testimony of the Holy Spirit was also rejected. The 8th chapter we have the bringing of the Samaritans of the 9th chapter we have the Apostle Paul coming in. And then Peter's role diminishes and Paul's role rises, and we have Christian truth beginning to be developed. And historically in the book of Acts, I should say so, even though at the end of Acts 7, Israel nationally.
Was done with them, they were imprisoned as it were, which what we have at the end of Luke 12. They missed their opportunity. God still continued to work with Jews individually. So you have the book of Hebrews. Again, God pleading with those that had outwardly identified with that saved remnant amongst Israel, but persecution had come in.
And there was a fear on the, I believe the apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but it's actually not good to dwell on that point because the Lord Jesus himself is uniquely the the apostle in, uh.
The Epistle to the Hebrews. But they were looking around them and seeing persecution, and they were beginning to question what they were associated with. And so likewise in our own lives when difficulties come in, when difficulties come in, perhaps in our personal lives, when difficulties come into the assembly, it's very easy for us to start second, second guessing what the Lord has for us.
And we have a real tendency.
To go one of either two ways, but let's just turn to Haggai for a a brief moment. I'm not going to go through anything thoroughly, but just as an encouragement to yourselves and to myself too.
So when persecution comes in, it's very easy to say, well, now is not the time and we'll get back to Second Timothy because that's essentially what Timothy was saying. Now is not the time. And in Haggai we find that in verse four, chapter one, it is, umm, sorry, not the fourth verse.
Uh, MMM.
Yeah, verse 2, Thank you. That's because the Lord of hosts saying this, people say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. And so one of our tendencies in the face of opposition, in the face of discouragement, the face of giving up, is to, uh, become occupied with our own concerns and not the concerns of God.
And the, the book of Haggai is a, a simple book to read. It's a very good book to, to go through in your own time and to read what it has to say. They said now is not the time to build the Lord's houses. So they become, they came focused on their own houses. They came focused, they put ceilings in them. That might not seem like very much, but in that day, apparently putting a ceiling in your home was quite the mark of, of uh.
Success.
But the Lord has to reprove them and they have to repent. They have to recognize their failure. Now, if you go back to the book of Ezra where this fits, you might say they had every reason in the world to believe that now was not the time to build God's house. But you know, we have hearts that look for opportunities to give up.
00:05:22
And that's what they did in Ezra's day, sure.
The king and those around them, uh, opposed, were opposed to what they were doing. But God doesn't look at that. He looks at their heart and they have to first of all address the state of their own hearts. It's very easy to look at the assembly and all the problems in the assembly and say, well, this can't be the place where the Lord would have me.
And leave. We can very easily say there's nothing for my children here. There's nothing.
But if we dig a little deeper, I think we'll find the issue lies within our own hearts. And as I said, I don't intend to go through the book of Haggai, but it's broken up into five prophecies. They're each dated. So the first one begins in the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month. In the first day of the month came the word of the Lord.
By Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, and then the next prophecy. The date of it comes at the end of the prophecy, as mentioned in the last verse of the first chapter. In the four and 20th day of the six months. In the second year Darius the king.
And the message that came had to have been the shortest prophecy that we find in the Word of God in verse 13. It gives us the actual prophecy. So then spake Haggai, the Lord's messenger, in the Lord's message under the people saying, I am with you. And in Hebrew, that's two words. That was the end of the second prophecy.
I am with you.
And it just reminds me of some of the encouragement, encouraging words that we read there in loop 12.
I am with you, what more do we need? You know, when umm, uh, Gideon was called, there was two things that the Lord told Gideon and that's all he needed to know.
And uh, you don't have to turn to a Judges 6 and verse 12.
The Lord, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said, the Lord is with thee. And then the second one I think is in verse 14, it says, have not I sent thee. That's all he needed. He didn't have to look at circumstances. He didn't have to look within. He didn't have to say, wow, I'm the least in Israel, why pick me? God said, I'm with you, I have sent you. That's all you need to know, Gideon.
Now let's go back to to Timothy.
Timothy had been the Apostle Paul's faithful companion. We know quite a bit about him personally. If you dig through Scripture, we as was brought out in the meetings, he was apparently somewhat a timorous young man. He was young. We're told that he was probably 20 years younger than the apostle Paul. Umm, he was timorous and in the first epistle.
The first letter that Paul writes to him.
He had to tell him in the 4th chapter, the 14th verse. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy.
He was timid. He needed encouragement to exercise the gift that he had received. But when we get to the second epistle and the verse was read in the meetings there, it says in verse six of the first chapter. Wherefore I put in remembrance that they'll stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting all of my hands. The word stir up could be translated rekindle. It wasn't a question now of a timid young man afraid to use his gift. He had used his gift.
He had used it in the service of the Lord apparently, and Paul sent him to Ephesus. You find that in the the 1St letter, but he was a young man who was discouraged and he had given up and read this first chapter and read it as if, as it is a letter to an individual to Timothy. Read it as if it's a letter.
To you and to me. And we find at the end of that first chapter the well known verses where the apostle Paul says this. Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away.
00:10:01
From me all those in Asia have turned away from me that include Ephesus, that include colossi included Philippi, included Legacia.
They all turned away from the apostle Paul and Timothy thinking to himself, now is not the time. And what Paul tells him in this in this second letter is Timothy, now is the time.
As things get weaker.
And, and we see it on every side. We feel it ourselves. You know, the book of Judges is a tremendously encouraging book because the individuals that God raised up in the book of Judges are all very flawed individuals. So if you're looking for perfection.
In those that labor amongst you.
You're not gonna find it. You will not find it.
And so here Paul encourages Timothy. He says, uh, well, we don't have, I don't intend to go through it all, just bring out some, some important points. In the last chapter of the previous letter Paul had written to Timothy, he says, you have been entrusted a deposit.
We've been given a deposit of truth, and everyone in this room has received a deposit of truth. And there was something very interesting in the 12Th chapter of Luke that wasn't brought out in the meetings. And remember, what we have in Luke, though we can find parallel portions in Matthew, is not prophetic, but it's bringing out moral principles that gives us a good deal of flexibility as to how we can apply them.
So in loop 12.
It said in verse 48, in verse 47, the servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
You have received much. You have greater responsibility, but not about it says in verse 48. But he that knew not, and did not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be excused.
No, it doesn't say that. It says he shall be, uh, beaten with few stripes. We mentioned in the meetings that there was a degree of punishment. Have you ever thought that you. So I started out by saying everyone in this room has received a deposit of truth. You can block your ears, you can pretend you've never heard of it, but even if you haven't heard it, you're still going to be held responsible.
We have the word of God before us. You cannot plead ignorance before God.
You cannot walk out this room and pretend that you've never heard the truth concerning the church. You cannot, you cannot back up and say, well, I wish to be identified with Sadas.
With fire tire, heaven forbid.
Which is the Roman Catholic Church.
Note we have received the deposit of truth. What are you are we going to do with it? And so in second Timothy, the end of that first chapter, we find that that deposit of truth is mentioned again. He says in verse, Paul says to Timothy in verse 13, hold fast the form of sound words which I was heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
That good thing. And in the new translation it says keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwells in us. The good deposit entrusted Timothy, you have received a deposit of truth.
Despite circumstances, despite what you see around you, despite the fact that you see that I have been rejected. And that brought Timothy to tears.
Paul says it's not the time to give up. It's not the time to let go of these things. It's not time to give up on Paul's doctrine.
You know the.
The uh, churches of Asia.
Gave up on the Apostle Paul.
But the apostle Paul never gave up on the churches of Asia. We turn now to the last chapter.
We see there in verse 12 The apostle Paul says Antichecus have I sent to Ephesus.
Technicus I have sent to Ephesus all they have. Asia have turned away from me, but I'm not going to give up on them.
00:15:03
It's just that really wraps up what I had to say. There's one other thing that I've been exercised about of Light and that has caused Dimas. I don't wish to speak at length on him, but Deemeth hath forsaken me, having loved his present world, and departed into Thessalonica.
You know, it doesn't say Dimas gave up the faith that simply that Dimas have loved this present world.
Again, it's, it's easy, just like the, uh, those Israelites in the days of Ezra when things are going difficult around us to let go, to give up, to look for, umm, whatever it is that we're seeking in the world.
Wealthiness has been the ruin of the church.
And I'm not here to tell you what is worldly and not what is not worldly.
I think we know in our hearts what that is, but each age has its own trials, its own, umm, challenges that is faced with and I can't go back to a previous era and try to live like they live. I have challenges in this modern world and as we had in the last meeting.
That Satan tries to trick me with to pull me away with.
To turn me aside with.
But the Weld has been the ruin of the church. And you could go through the seven churches in the chapters two and three of Revelation and you can see that downward progression as the, uh, well, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll read a note, a list that I put in my Bible. Umm.
Brother Robert Bullard was in Denver recently and he encourages to make lists.
And put them in our bibles because I don't have a good memory.
But uh, if I can, umm, so in emphasis, we do have an assembly that is separate from the world. Smyrna, which was that period between about 100 AD and 300 AD, was the persecuted church there we find the church persecuted by the well, they didn't, they didn't have a choice. The world persecuted them. You don't make that, you don't make friends with.
Someone that persecutes you. But with Pergamos we find the Church receiving the protection of the world, and she settles down into the world. With Thyatir, which of course is that great system of Rome, we find the Church ruling the world. With Sadas, which is partisanism, you can go back historically and look at it. We find that the Church sought the world's protection.
Came at a cost.
In Philadelphia we have a remnant separate from the world, so it's an exception in this list. But by the time we get to Laodicea, we have a Christianity that's completely indistinguishable from the world.
Just some.
Things to one for our conscience and also for our heart and and on that note, so Haggai, it's interesting, the Lord sent two profits to Israel at that time, Hagia and Zechariah Haggai spoke to their conscience. He said why are you living in? Why are you plastering the insides of your home when my house is going unfinished straight to the conscience.
You want to read Ministry to the conscience that there's various right? Reaching CHM, uh, Macintosh.
If we spoke like Macintosh wrote, umm, people would walk out the doors.
Umm, I find it very pointed, uh, for my own self. But God also said another prophet, Zechariah, which lifted their eyes to that which was beyond. He spoke uh, a word of encouragement to their hearts. Now we highly live in eyes of the days of Haggai and Zechariah. We live in the days of Malachi.
But again, we find that word of encouragement at the end of Malachi Malachi 316.
00:20:06
#2 in the attendance.
OK, I saw that.
All right, now it's been a year ago. I won't do it.
To me.
Perhaps we could stand and sing the last two verses as a prayer to the Lord.
OK.
My Lord.
Jesus.
Must I instead when we?
00:25:00
Are doing I am ill.
Our blessed Lord Jesus.
Had before us suffering at the hands of man.
And thy sufferings at the hand of God.
We thank thee for thyself, Lord.
Had brought before us.
Setting our minds on the.
And glory.
Things about.
Not being discouraged.
We think he.
That our hope is in the.
We thank you. That's our dear friend.
Help us to.
Commune with teeth.
To see the world for what it is.
The systems of this world.
See thy heart of love.
For ones who are treading on.
Broadway to destruction.
Help us to enjoy thyself for Jesus.
Keep us close to the.
We get the all the praise and glory, the honor. That's me with our worthy.
And when we see the Lord Jesus.
Shall any of these things down here?
Matter.
Oh.
Fix our eyes on the.
So we commit ourselves to the.
Now worthy and blessed name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
Stepping Through the Door
Gospel—Stan Froese
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.
Open the meeting with him #10 excuse me, him #7 him #7.
Somebody raised that.
All day to be 7:00 at all. I am home. He is in all three of the three. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.
And, uh, why can I use my explanation? And you can do mine, Uh, great. And there's a little smile of God.
Breathing and shall thighs give Sarah that's why it's quite fine and glad I am seeing thrilled on the blood.
What was the last one for the snow Snow.
I forgot to do.
It brought one day he built from the flood, filled to God. Everyone's now lovely.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father.
We give thanks that you're looking down on this crowd here tonight and you love each one of us.
We especially think of any here that are, that don't know you, that are strangers, that are in the dark.
And we pray our God and our Father that they would be brought into the light tonight.
That they would come.
It's simple faith. Put their faith, their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Help us to magnify him as we open the Scriptures, use the Word to touch our hearts.
Give us to be able to tell out a little bit of that good news.
That there would be blessing here tonight. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I wish, I wish it was full of kids up here, but it's not.
God loves you.
God is interested to bring you into relationship with Himself.
The last two nights we have had the gospel preached here.
Thank you, Landon.
We've had the gospel preached here.
To show us that the door is open.
00:05:00
And what's inside the door?
And also to tell us that if you don't go through the door.
There's gonna be.
Serious consequences. And So what we're Speaking of tonight.
Thank you.
What we're Speaking of tonight is.
A message.
Of hope.
For all of us.
Those brothers opened up the door, I would say, and my burden here tonight is to encourage you, if you haven't yet, to step through that door.
It's not.
An in a hard thing to do because God loves you, He's not asking you to do something that's beyond what you can do.
Let's open the scriptures to John chapter one.
I wanna use this passage as kind of a an outline for myself so that hopefully I can keep some thoughts going in a straight line.
John chapter one and verse one and what I hope to do is to read the 1St 18 verses and we'll I think maybe stop and start as we go along.
John chapter one and we'll start with the 1St 5 verses. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not Anything made that was made in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness. In the darkness comprehended it not.
God wants to bless you.
We're lost when we come into this world. We're away from God and we don't have a relationship with Him as our Father.
He's our creator God. All things were made by him. So God wants to communicate to us. And so it says in the beginning was the word.
And the word was with God, and the Word was God. Now I read down in chapter in verse 14, it says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And so that means to me that the Lord Jesus, that holy man that came to this world, he's the word, He's eternal, He's God become a man.
God become a man so that.
He could tell us.
Of God's love not only tell us that he could show it, He could bring it to us.
All things were made by Him. That's one thing that God is asking us to believe.
That he's the creator over in Hebrews 11. I want to read one verse there.
Verse 3.
Through faith we understand that the world's were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
So God spoke.
In this world and all in it came to be.
God's asking us to believe that.
Now, one of the things that I wanna speak about tonight is his belief, because this chapter is pretty heavy with that thought of belief and, uh.
There's two ways in which we can believe.
We can believe.
Like when we go to school and the teacher says 2 + 2 is 4, we can figure that out. And yeah, we believe that.
And it'll do us good to believe that.
00:10:03
But the belief that we have here is that belief of trusting that belief of.
Like stepping on a bridge that's got a lot of space below it, we have to believe that that bridge is gonna hold us up or we won't step on it.
And so God wants us to trust Him that way.
I I heard a gospel meeting by Ernie Monk junior a while back and it really impressed me. He said another thing God wants to be believed.
And so if you believe him, you believe what he says, right? And so that's my hope tonight that we'll bring something from the scriptures that you can take a hold of and say God said that I believe it, I believe him. So I'm gonna just go on over to.
Verse 10.
We'll, we'll skip a little bit there, read verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
That is the word the Lord Jesus.
He came into this world.
People knew who he was, that he was Jesus.
But they really didn't know him.
Because we're in the dark when we come into this world. We're sinners and we're estranged from God. That means we don't know Him.
He came to his own.
And his own received him not.
It says one place about his own family says neither did his brethren believe in him.
But he came to his own people, the Jews, and they said.
We don't want him.
And they didn't. They wouldn't receive him.
With the next verses, here is what I really have on my heart especially, and that is but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God.
So God wants you and he wants me to be in his family. He wants us to be a son of God.
And it says right here that we need to receive him.
To get that right, to become a son of God.
I'm gonna re start over on that verse. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And so there's two things there.
One is to receive and one is to believe.
I don't think they're.
They're in any way opposed to each other. If you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you believe in Him.
If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you receive Him.
He's yours and God wants you to have him as your own savior. That's why the Word, who is eternal, came into this world so that we could have a real savior. He wasn't just a regular man, a man that.
Could fail. This is God. Become a man. He's perfect. He cannot fail. And therefore if you put your trust in Him, He can't let you down. He will not let you down, but he couldn't even do it because of who he is. He can't let you down.
So it goes on in verse 13, which were born not of blood.
Let's stop there.
You don't become a child of God because you are born to Christian parents, your mom and your dad.
00:15:10
Many of you are believers in the Lord Jesus.
And you descend from them, but you don't yet to heaven. You don't get into God's family.
By being born into a Christian home.
Wouldn't that be sad if that was the way?
There'd be a whole lot of people that couldn't come.
So it's not going to have it that way. He's going to have it so that anybody can come. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that.
Whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Bore not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. That is, I think it means you can't work your way there.
You can't because you're maybe better than some people get there and say, well, I'm I'm better than somebody else. No, the will of the flesh isn't going to do it.
Nor of the will of man. And I'm thinking now, I don't know if this is the whole thought, but I'm thinking of your parents.
If you're a child here and you're not saved, there's somebody that would do anything so that you would become a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not the way either.
They have paved the way, many of them, I'm sure, by telling you about the Lord Jesus, especially your mother's.
A lot of time with your mother haven't just You spent a lot of time with her, and I'm sure she's told you about the Lord Jesus.
Not of those three things.
But of God.
It's God's idea and he's gonna put it into action and he's inviting you to come.
He's inviting you and it's as simple as stepping through the door.
Jesus said, come unto me, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
I want to tell you three stories right now of people who.
Received the Lord Jesus. I'm gonna start out with the story of a man named Clarence. I heard this story yesterday from, uh, brother Bill Brockmire, and I asked him today to refresh it in my mind so that I could hopefully tell it to you pretty straight.
This man named Clarence was getting up in years. He was an older man.
And his wife was a believer in the Lord Jesus, but he was not. He was a doubter.
He thought about the, uh, story of Noah.
Jonah and the whale, sorry. Jonah and the whale. And he couldn't swallow that. And I don't mean to be funny, sorry.
He couldn't believe it. He would not accept it.
And see how that could be true.
And maybe there were other things like that that were, you know, a lot of things in the Bible. I don't understand. I don't understand how, uh, Jonah was there for three days and how he survived all that. It died. I don't understand.
But this story, I it's got a really good end.
He would object, people would share the gospel with him, he would object, and he just didn't come. His whole family were believers in the Lord Jesus, all but him.
And one day, his daughter said, Dad, it's not about understanding. You just have to receive it by faith. You have to believe God.
00:20:11
And he said the light went on, The light went on.
And he stepped through the door.
And he said later I wished I'd come a lot sooner.
Because it made him happy. It gave him peace. And I don't know about you, but if you don't know where you're going, I I'm talking about me. When I didn't know where I was going, I didn't have peace. I was sitting in gospel meetings like this and I was nervous and I was jumping around especially. I remember a brother, Charles Whitaker, he would.
Really. You know, like I've accidentally got real close to the mic and it goes boom.
Well, he he did it on purpose, I think. And it would.
The things he was telling me really upset me because I didn't know where I was going.
But God wants us to know where we're going. He loves us. It's not that God's unwilling at all. He's on your side. He wants to bless you.
Well, that was clearance.
You know, after he, the light went on and he yielded himself to the Lord Jesus. I think if you would ask him about Jonah and the whale, he would say, well, that's really not a problem anymore because I believe in God and God can manage those things. I don't have to understand.
You know, over here in, I'm gonna read, uh, verse 20, uh, 46.
And Nathaniel said unto him.
That he's talking to, uh, Phillip, I think. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philips saith unto him. Come and see. That's the order. Come and see. So.
Clarence came and no doubt he could see. You know, as I said it, it the 1St when we're born into this world, we're in the dark. We don't have a relationship with God, we don't know him.
But when we come to him, then we can see.
I know some people that want everything to be explained so that they can come.
I think I was a little like that.
But you gotta come first. You've got to believe God.
Another story I heard was, uh, shared to me years ago by brother Lemoine Smith, who some of us know here.
And this story happened on a train car, uh, passenger train.
And there was a man that was a religious man, and he wore a special garment that had the, I don't know exactly that how it is, but the color is different than everybody else's color. And it was, it signified that he was a preacher.
And he was sitting in this car and then another man came into the to the compartment in the car and they were either side by side or facing each other. I don't know. And uh, he was a simple believer in the Lord Jesus.
Well, they got to talking about the Bible.
And this simple believer in the Lord Jesus realized that this man.
Really didn't know where he was going when he would leave this world.
He was.
I'm sure, in fact, he didn't think it was right to be able to say that you knew where you were going when you left this world. Well, let's turn over to Romans chapter 10 because it has to do with our story.
00:25:03
So it, uh, let's read in verse 9.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
So this man who is a believer in the Lord Jesus, he wanted to help this other man so that he could have confidence as he lived his life to know where he was going when he left this world.
And so he said to him.
Umm, let's open our Bibles and they turn to this first.
And he says I'm going to confess to you.
That Jesus is my Lord.
And I believe in my heart that God has raised him from the dead.
And then he asked.
The other man, the man that was a preacher, he said, Am I saved?
And that man was taught probably all his life that you couldn't say you were saved until you got to heaven.
And he put his head down and he just didn't know what to answer for a while. And then he raised his head and he said.
Pay attention to this, he said. God says so.
God says so.
So what does that mean?
Well, so then the believer, he said to him.
Can you say that?
And so he said. I do believe.
I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord.
And I believe that God has raised him from the dead.
So the man said to him again.
Are you saved?
And again, he put his head down. He wasn't prepared to say an answer to that.
And he struggled and he raised his head and he said God says so, God says so. And So what we need to do is believe God.
And we're believing somebody that can't lie or believe in somebody that we can be sure.
You know, I can say I probably made ten mistakes already in what I've said up here.
But God doesn't make mistakes.
You can believe him. You can trust him.
So that's two people that stepped through the door. They came in time.
The Bible says come now.
Do little children ever get hurt and die?
I've known some.
And so the Bible says, come now.
Is.
Your soul gonna end up in heaven with the Lord Jesus. Are you going to end up in heaven with the Lord Jesus?
You won't if you haven't believed and if you haven't received him.
OK, the last story, this story I read in a gospel tract a long time ago and there was a young lady that went to a gospel meeting.
She wasn't saved. She had resisted coming to the Lord Jesus.
And she got home.
And God was speaking to her. He was causing her to be upset inside.
That she wasn't right.
00:30:01
With him.
That she was headed the wrong way.
And she knew what she had to do. She needed to get down on her knees right there by her bed and talk to God.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed and.
She struggled. She couldn't get down off the bed onto the floor.
Who do you think was trying to keep her from doing it?
I suppose it was the devil.
She got down, finally.
On one knee.
But in her mind, she had to have both knees on the floor to pray properly.
And she couldn't get the other knee down. It just wouldn't go.
And she was getting more serious.
Something's gotta happen here. I need to get saved.
And so she took her hands on her knee, and she shoved it down onto the floor.
And she said a piece that flooded my soul when that knee hit the floor.
You see, she believed she received the Lord Jesus her will and Satan were holding her back saying don't take that step through that door.
But she did, and you can too, and God wants you to.
Besides mom and dad.
So I said we'd read the 1St 18 verses, so let's continue on.
John 1.
And now we'll go to verse 14.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
So God loves you.
But God is holy.
He loves you, he sent his son that we were reading about before the word.
But the Lord Jesus couldn't just come into this world and be a good man and teach us that God loved us and everything would be all right.
No, He had to come according to God's holiness and also according to our need.
And the only way he could satisfy those things was to give himself for you and for me. And he did it.
Excuse me?
He died there. He shed his blood, and that's the blood that can wash our sins away. That's the blood that when we believe on Him.
Makes us fit for God's presence.
He not only died, but he was raised again and he's in heaven. And right now he's aware of you in this room. He's aware if you have received and believed in him right now.
Or not.
And he wants you to come. He wants you to just step through that door.
And to say yes to him.
Let's just go ahead and finish up and then we'll be done. They gave me permission to not go the 45 if it was O OK and they said it was OK.
00:35:07
Verse 15 John bear witness of him and cried, saying, this was he of whom I speak. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. Now let's just think about that.
John was six months old when Jesus was born.
Who was older?
John.
But he says here he was before me.
In the beginning was the word.
That's the Son of God, eternal. He had no beginning. And of course he was before John.
Verse 16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace for the lock was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
That goes back to that what we were talking about, the will of the flesh.
The law the 10 commandments will say.
Holy and good.
But we're not.
If God was to say to us, you keep the law and then you can get into my heaven.
With none of us would ever get there.
That grace and truth came by Jesus Christ because He's the Savior. He's the one that came to fill God's house, to bring children to God, the children that God wants.
No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And so the Lord Jesus, you look at Him and you know. If you know Him, you know God.
He is the one who came and declared what God is like.
And God is good, God loves you, He's holy, He can't have sin in his presence. So you need your sins washed away. Jesus came to shed his blood so that your sins could be washed away, so that you could be made fit for God's heaven.
The Father's house.
And God is asking you.
To receive his son.
And I'm asking you, have you done it? Have you stepped through the door?
Let's, uh, close with him #10.
So you could start that.
Oh my God.
I'm afraid, I'm afraid for all of you. Every time I hear.
My friend.
Lord Brady and.
All hands down.
Last year.
Was inspiring.
To the other one in the morning.
00:40:06
This 11333.
Nsnoise.
What are you doing tonight from?
There and there were beginnings and joy and.
Hundreds of this one.
On the ground.
Nsnoise any way.
Of a light Sir on the each 1 is a frightened father in the Firefox.
Let's pray.
Our God and our Father.
We give thanks once again for the Holy Scriptures that are able to make us wise into salvation.
By which we can be born again, and we pray our God that there might be some act of living faith in some heart here tonight.
That they might come to know.
Him who to know Him is life eternal.
Our God and our Father, we pray that the prayers.
Of many parents.
Would be answered.
Before it's too late.
We give thanks.
That we can hear good news.
We pray our Father, if there's been things said that are not right, they'd be forgotten and that people would deal with what is from Your Word.
00:45:03
Give thanks for this opportunity, pray your blessing, Your care over us as we go from here, and we pray it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Special thanks to you kids for coming up helping me out.
Feeding on Christ
YP Talk—Nick Simon
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.
Well, let's pray.
Our God and Father, we do thank Thee for that which we've enjoyed over this weekend. We thank Thee for laying upon the hearts of our brethren to call us together, invite us to come together to be over Thy word. We each face numerous struggles in our life, personal, collective. Whatever the trials may be, we need the encouragement of each other. We need to build each other up in the most holy faith.
We need to strengthen those things that remain. We can't do any of it, our God and Father, without my strength.
And so we just pray now for the short words that they'll umm.
Give something for the speaker and that it would be presented simply and clearly and coherently. We just pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, I have to admit that I'm as tired as you are, which means that.
I'll probably lose my train of thought from time to time with than I usually do, but I like to read.
The buses from Joshua, chapter 5.
Can you all hear me?
Soda Chapter 5.
And verse 10.
And the children of Israel and Captain Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month, that even in the plains of Jericho. And that the heat of the old corner of the land on the Morrow after the Passover unleavened cakes and parched corn in the self same day. And the manna ceased from the Morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Neither had the children of Israel manna anymore.
But they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
Well, this portion obviously could occupy a better part of an hour, which I don't intend to do, so my hope is to just touch on some highlights without getting lost myself in the message. But we have three things presented here for Passover, the mana and the old corner of the land. And each of these three things speak of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And now feeding upon him.
And each speak of it in a slightly different character.
Now we don't make these things up.
So when I was in English class, we had to, in high school, we had to read books and analyze the book. And one student said this and another student said that, and the teacher said something else and it was all good. That's not the way we interpret Scripture. So we know that these things speak of Christ because we're told that in the New Testament. And as we've had in these meetings and we had in the Sunday school this morning, the Old Testament is a picture book.
But.
The truth of those pictures is revealed in the New Testament, so for example in First Corinthians chapter 5. And I will turn to these verses because I do not quote verses. If I try to quote them, I will paraphrase.
You know, I had AI had a, a brother in Christ say to me recently, well, I can't understand why the Lord would allow that. And I said, well, it's a good reminder that I have my weaknesses. So, umm, in First Corinthians 5, it says there quite clearly in end of verse seven, for even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. So again, we have limited times. We're gonna move through this very quickly.
Passover.
We have to consider in three different aspects as the Church of Israel ate the pasta over in Egypt in numbers nine, they ate the pasta over in the wilderness and here in this chapter, the ether Passover in the land of Canaan and each present Christ and the character of the past servant in a little different way. So they ate the Passover first of all in the land of Egypt. And we eat that Passover as did the children of Israel in Egypt just once when we're saved, when we come under the shelter of the blood, when.
Know that we're safe from the wrath to come. We know we're safe from judgment. The Church of Israel that night, they put the blood on the door and they knew they were safe from judgment. And I trust that everyone here tonight that heard the gospel message, uh, took that opportunity to answer.
That door, as was often, that that invitation that went out tonight, because they know they're safe from judgment, because if you don't, you will have to face judgments.
But then the children of Israel ate the Passover in the wilderness and for them and looked back to that time in Egypt when they had killed that lamb, when they had put the blood on the doorpost. It was a memorial looking back for us as believers. We also have something that we participate in, and it's called the remembrance of the Lord, which we had this morning, the loaf and the cup, and it too looks fast.
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And it looks back to the Lord Jesus Christ, obviously.
We instituted the supper, the Lord's Supper. He told us what the emblems meant. This is my body, uh, the blood that was shed.
But when the children of Israel were in the wilderness.
That were primarily at that point in their journey, their life journey, thankful that there were no longer in the land of, uh, in, in, in Egypt under Pharaoh. They knew that they were delivered from ******* and they were thankful that they had escaped out of that land. And so we can remember the Lord in that character too. There's nothing wrong with that. To remember the Lord for what he has done for us on Calvary's cross.
But the children of Ezra also remembered the law also ate the Passover in the land of Canaan.
And you can imagine, and I'll touch on this again, uh, as we talk about the mana and the, the, umm, old corner of the land.
And, uh, touch on it a little bit more, but we can imagine that when they got to the land of Canaan while they're in the, in the wilderness, they had a lot of, lot of concerns. Again, we're going to touch on this again because it, it brings in the mana and the character of the Lord Jesus Christ as the manna. But once they got to the land of Canaan, you can imagine.
The the the, the joy that must have flooded over them.
They no longer had to think about the wilderness with a wondered how they were going to be fed and they complained and murmured about that. They wondered whether we're going to get drinks. There was a lot of trials in the wilderness that the Lord brought them through. But once they got to the land of Canaan, you can imagine their heart just overflowed as they worshipped and praised Jehovah God who has brought them out of Egypt.
Brought them through the wilderness and now to the promised land. And so we remember the Lord in that character. It's really the true character of worship where we remember the Lord Jesus for who he is. Remember the remembrance of the Lord is two things. Number one, we remember him. But more than that, it's a memorial where we show forth his death until he comes. The world crucifies the Lord Jesus Christ and they thought that was the last they would ever see of him again.
And they haven't seen him again, but we can come on load this morning.
Were those emblems before us? And we can show forth his death in a world that despised and hated him. What a tremendous privilege we have in doing that. It's not simply about remembering what he's done for me, but showing forth in his his death in the world that hated and despised and rejected him. So that's the three characters of the Passover presented very steeply.
And hopefully, uh, simply enough that you get something out of it.
And now we get to the other two things that we read about in this chapter, the mana and the old corner of the land. Now, if the world knows anything about Jesus, it's in the character of the manna. The manna was small and insignificant, and when they saw it, they said, what is it? And so the manna speaks of a humble Christ, the man that came down into this world.
And I said, if the world knows anything of Jesus, it's in the character of the manna. But sadly, Christendom.
And I trust they won't be judged for saying this. By and large, only know the Lord Jesus Christ as that humbled man that came down into the sea. By the way, I said we don't make these things up. So I want to be clear that we could turn to John chapter 6. And there we find that the Lord himself says that He was that bread that came down from heaven.
Umm.
Uh, you could look through the chapter, uh, and, and read it there for yourselves. But they in, in John chapter 6, verse 31, they channeled the award by saying our fathers in each manner in the desert, it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And the Lord has to tell them, well, Moses didn't give you that bread, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven at verse 32.
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And, uh, umm.
Verse 34 They say, then they unto him, Lord evermore give us his bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Uh, just, uh, if you turn back to Exodus 16 or you don't have to, you can just listen to me read it, We find there where the manna was given and what preceded it was.
Umm.
In uh, Exodus 16, verse two, it says the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron the wilderness. And the children of Israel said unto them, would to God, We had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, where we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat threads of the cold, But ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. And then in the rest of the chapter we find how the Lord fed them with bread, and how He provided the needs by giving them the manna.
The man, as I said, was small, it was insignificant. It speaks of Christ in its humility, in his manhood. It was also white, which was speak of its purity and never rested on the ground that rested on the dew. And there's so many different types there. But if we eat Christ as the manna, if we appropriate the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves and the character of the manna.
It's really Christ meeting our needs in the wilderness.
And by and large, as believers, we are very much occupied with ourselves and our needs. And it's for this reason that if you listen to.
Uh, Christian ministry. If you read Christian literature, you will by and large only read of Jesus. That is all.
The the character of the meetings that we enjoyed this weekend were very practical and there is a definite need in our lives to appropriate for ourselves that manner. In Hebrews 12 it says looking unto Jesus.
The author and completer of faith. I'll read it because as I said, I will end up paraphrasing it, which will not be accurate.
Umm, it says, looking unto who? Looking unto this is a Christ, This is looking unto Jesus. The manner that man that came down into the scene who walked through this. Well the Hebrews is a wilderness book. It presents the Lord Jesus Christ as a man Jesus.
And as to eat of the mana means to appropriate for ourselves the man Christ, the man Jesus. And this there's a time and place for that and a very definite need for that. And I don't want in any way I thought of this after the subject of my heart and I prayed about what I should speak on. In no way does it in any way take away from the practical character of the ministry that we enjoyed this weekend. But the diet that is solely.
Occupied with wilderness ministry is stunting to spiritual growth.
I recently read a book that my wife was given by a dear Christian lady, an elderly lady, and my wife read it and she gave it to me and us read it and see what you think. It's, uh, a bestseller, Christian bestseller. And I will say that it was, was good. If you wanted to know what it was, I would have to, uh, qualify that a little bit because I believe there was, there was error in it. Umm, but overall I was, I was.
Pleased with it, surprised by it. Umm, I don't want to sound condescending and saying that in any way, but it did. Two things struck me about this book. It was about the Spirit of God. The first thing was never called the Lord by any other name than Jesus.
There is a time and place to speak of Jesus. When you speak of the humble man that came down into this world, that walked through it, I'm repeating myself now. That is the man Jesus.
The other thing was this book was about the Spirit of God, but when I got to the end of it, I asked myself, was it really about the Spirit of God or was it about me?
Now there's a lot of good things in it.
And, uh, things that, umm, were helpful and, uh, but.
One thing I've I've learned is a good guide when you listen to whether it's Christian music, whether you read Christian literature.
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Ask yourself what is the focus of this ministry?
Is it me?
Or is it exalting the Lord Jesus Christ?
So then we get to the third food, which is the old corn of the land, and again we have Christ in that picture as well, and we have that in John 12.
In John chapter 12.
The Lord Jesus says there in verse 24, Verily, verily, I stand to you, accept the corner wheat, fall into the ground and die it abide us alone that if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And so that all corn of the land was simply the corn that had been harvested the year before. And I keep in mind that corn in old English.
And actually outside of the United States to some degree, though American English is almost universal now because.
Of, uh, television and media these days. But corn refers to a kernel of grain to be wheat. The barley, umm, in this country, it's almost universally made.
So the corn, the Lord Jesus was that Colonel of wheat that went down into death. And what happens is the wheat plant comes up and out of the head. You have many grains of wheat, but he was that first fruit that rose from the from among the dead. And he is still, as it were, that Colonel of wheat. He is a man in glory, and as the man in glory, his title is now.
Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the man that came down from glory into this world. Emphasis there. Jesus is connected with his manhood. It's the characteristic title of the book of Philippians, which is primarily a wilderness book. I don't want it in any way suggest that we can avoid or should even try to avoid wilderness ministry. My point is simply that.
A diet that is solely concerned with my needs. How Jesus is going to meet my needs. How he's going to get me through this world.
Is stunting to spiritual growth.
Just as I said, there are three characters in which we eat the pasta. The 1St is that our salvation, but we have the wilderness characters that Passover and sometimes in the breaking of bread, it's very much the wilderness character of the Passover. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's been wrong to start grading, putting a grade on the remembrance of the Lord, whether it was a three or an 8 or a nine, that that that serious.
That represents a serious problem with the state of how hot if we start doing that. But if we only ever remembered the Lord Jesus in.
That character, the one who died on the cross and saved me from my sins, that would not reflect well upon our state of spiritual material. Thankfully, we can. I can say for myself that there are being occasions, many occasions, where we've remembered the Lord, where a house just rolled up in praise and to glorify that one.
Who?
Perfectly glorified the father in his walk down here. And so when we eat of the old corner of the land is that we had this afternoon, umm, uh, set your affections on things that are above Bruce and I bought Bruce's little book on Colossians and I happened to open to that.
Part of Colossians where he wrote there and it it was very helpful. He said it's not think sitting back in our armchairs. Think thinking necessarily of what heaven is like and what he must be like up there. And you know, he said that the ambassador of Great Britain doesn't sit in France dreaming of the green hills of England. Know what he does in France is he's occupied with the interests of the king of England, the government of England.
And so when we're as set our affections on things above, what it means is it takes our thoughts of what Christ is to me and more on to what can I do for Christ. I'm not sure I necessarily put that the right way. A verse that comes to mind that maybe explains it from Scripture is Timothy was told to be an example of the believers. He was not told of an example to the believers.
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If I told you to be an example to the believers, it would make it all about you. If I told you to be an example of the believer, then it's all about between you and God. It changes the focus from me and puts our focus back on to where it should be on the Lord Jesus Christ. I see that I've already gone. Probably. Keep going buddy.
Umm. I'll just wrap up with one other comment that perhaps illustrates.
The character of what I'm saying I it's just something I recently enjoyed. It's a little different, but in John 11, the Lord Jesus, we know that's the chapter where Lazarus dies and the Lord Jesus delays in going back to Bethany. And when he does, Martha comes to meet him. And in verse 21 of John 11, Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if that's been here, my brother has not died, but I know that even now.
Thou would ask of God, God will give it thee. And Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto. I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day that was faced on Martha's path.
But sadly, much of Christendom knows no more than what Martha knew that there will be a resurrection at the last day knows no more. The Lord Jesus responds and says.
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? She said, Yeah, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which are coming to the world again. Tremendous faith.
On Martha's part, but she did not understand what the Lord said, and in a way, to be fair to Martha, she could not understand what the Lord said at that point in His ministry and before the cross, before the coming of the Holy Spirit, and so on.
But what does she do? She goes out and calls Mary. Secretly, she says. I don't understand this, but I know one.
My sister who sat at his feet.
And listen to his words. Maybe she'll understand what he says.
You know, we possess even now resurrection life. We possess resurrection life even now.
Much of Christendom sees that at the end of the time there will be a general resurrection. They don't recognize it as a resurrection, but just the resurrection of the unjust. We now possess that resurrection life. We do not yet possess resurrected bodies.
That we possess resurrected lives. When it says in Ephesians that we are seated in the heavenlies, it's not merely that we are associated with Him there, but we have the very life.
That makes us suited to heaven. We have been made meat about the partakers.
Umm.
Uh, let me read that in Colossians. It was read earlier today, but it says there that we have been made need to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life. We are a heavenly people, but I'm afraid that we get very occupied with ourselves. And my needs are like little children. What's the baby do? Every time it needs to be fed, it cries. And that's very much our character. We don't realize that.
That we're a heavenly people.
And as a heavenly people, Christ's interest should be our interest that we should be feeding on and, and, and seeking to know more about that heavenly glorified, uh, man.
Well, anyway, let's just be exercised about these things that, you know, I I'm so thank umm, dragging on, but.
I'm a human.
And I go to work.
And I, I said to people that, you know, after a period of time of week and week, uh, day in day out of going to work, you start getting grumpy.
Can you come to conference?
And you go back home and umm, your, your whole outlook on life is completely changed.
Umm.
Anyway, let's just think about how we're feeding on Christ.
It's just close with prayer. Our God and Father, we are in our great weaknesses. We own how little we think of anything outside of ourselves. But we pray, Lord, that would just stretch us.
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And, uh, cause us to look upward, heavenward, where the life that we possess, the new life that we possess where it's hung truly is, and but not to despise that, that manna too, which is in the character of that hidden manna now that which has been supplied.
Well, for us to appropriate for this wilderness journey that we're also on. And so Lord, we just commit ourselves to thee and just pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen.
Luke 12:1-2