Talk—Bill Prost
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Once again, I know there are a few new people in camp and.
Just read the handouts, they're intended for yours to be yours for the rest of camp. We don't have unlimited quantities, although we're not really running short, but camp is pretty big this year, so hang on to your copy if you can. If you feel that you can't do it, just bring it up here after the meeting and we'll give you one at the next meeting.
OK, let's have a word of prayer and we'll get ahead with the meeting.
Our God and our Father, once again we are so thankful for everything we have, first of all in Christ. And we thank Thee, our God, for the gift of thy beloved Son, that one who loves us and who died for us and with whom those of us that belong to the Lord Jesus will spend all eternity. But we do pray for those here who may not be saved.
We ask that through thy word.
And by thy Holy Spirit, they may receive new life in thee, Lord Jesus.
And come to know thee, our God and Father, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
We pray for us who are already saved, that we may be encouraged in the Christian pathway if necessary. Stirred up. We pray for this, and we ask our God for those that are now traveling home and pray for Thy mercies for them. We pray for some that are having difficulties, real difficulties. We think of this dear family, our God, that has lost the husband and Father. We ask for special grace.
Help for them that they may feel thy love and thy care, for they've been a very real way.
We pray too for Jake and Jesse, our God who have been here. We pray that the exposure to Thy precious word may bear fruit. We know that Thou art well able to do this in their hearts, so we commend them to Thee and.
Pray for Thy help in our time together. For the moment, in Thy name we pray, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Well, again, for those that have just come to camp, as you can see by the outline, the subject that we had before us this year is knowing God, and we've already been through a number of the sections in this handout. Today we're ready for Section 10, but just a little short recap.
Many thought, well, not many, but thousands of years ago, Job asked the question that is on the front of the handout.
Canst thou, by searching, find out God? And the answer, of course, is no, because God is unknown and unknowable unless he chooses to reveal himself. But he has. He's chosen to reveal himself, and he reveals himself to you and me.
In two ways, as a God of love and a God of light.
These two characters cannot be separated one from the other, nor can we emphasize one at the expense of the other.
Men have been trying to do that for thousands of years, wanting to enjoy everything of the love of God and yet wanting to forget about the character of God as light.
That's why so many skeptics in the world today try and argue how can a God of love look on a world full of suffering and yet, as they term it, sit by and do nothing about it?
They forget that God has done something about it because first of all, the sin and sorrow and heartache in this world.
Was not brought into this world by God, but by man, as by one man sin entered into the world.
And death by sin we read in Romans. So death passed upon all men.
For that, all have sinned. Excuse me.
And so man's sin brought the heartache and sorrow and everything in this world that is uncomfortable, but God sent His Son right down to where we are.
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Sent his son right down into this world in love.
And grace.
Now did the Lord Jesus compromise God as light?
Absolutely not.
Let's read a verse in John Chapter 7 that brings this out.
John, Chapter 7.
And verse 7.
Hear the Lord Jesus is talking to people that were not.
If we could use the term saved that did not want the Lord Jesus, and what does he say to them?
John 7, verse 7.
The world cannot hate you but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. This world was glad to accept the Lord Jesus, if he healed the sick, if he raised the dead, if he cleanse the leper, if he fed the hungry, if he spoke gracious words of love to them.
But the moment he started to convict them of their sin.
And of the fact that they could not by any means.
Enter into life through their own efforts, they said. Oh no, Oh no, not that. That's not what we want to hear.
And today, this same world does not want to hear about the Lord Jesus.
But it's the only way that you and I can be saved.
Well, today, as I said.
Excuse me, we're going to consider Section 10 as to knowing God, and that brings before us knowing His love, knowing His love.
You know, So what? It's a wonderful thing to know the love of God.
But knowing the love of God is like standing on the shore of an ocean.
And saying yes, I have seen the ocean.
You know, the oceans of this world are absolutely vast.
Let me ask you a question just to see if anyone knows the answer.
If somehow, and this would never happen, of course, unless the Lord did it. But suppose that all the oceans in the world were emptied.
And all the rivers that flow into the ocean or oceans.
From every continent continued to flow. How long would it take to fill the oceans up again?
For all the oceans were emptied right to the bottom, but all the rivers.
In every continent of this world continue to flow at their present rate. How long would it take to fill those oceans up again? Anybody have any idea?
Sorry, I didn't somebody say that. What was the answer?
16 gallons of water.
Well, good, good guess, but.
OK, what's the what do you, what do you have to say? What, what would you think? How long would it take to fill those oceans again?
100,000 years. That is a pretty good guess. Actually. It's not quite that bad. It's closer to 40,000 years, but that's what it would take. Can you imagine?
The Son Lawrence River that flows between Canada and the United States, the Mississippi River, the Amazon River, the Nile River, the Yangtze River in China, to name just a few of the major rivers of the world.
That's kind of a little picture of the love of God. We see the ocean, we don't realize how vast it is.
Let's turn to a verse, and this is mainly for believers.
But it's a wonderful verse in John 15.
John's Gospel, chapter 15.
And verse 9.
John 15 and verse 9.
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As the Father hath loved me so.
Have I loved you, Continue ye in my love.
We had an old brother when I was growing up that used to repeat this verse and he said to us, memorize this verse and repeat it to yourselves every day of your life. It was good advice, sorry to say. I can't say that I've done it, but I've done it pretty often.
Because what is perhaps one of the most wonderful things.
In the believer's life is to live and walk in the love of God. Now before we go any further though, we do have to read the next verse. And what does it say? Verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you.
That my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
The Lord wants your joy and my joy to be full, and for our joy to be full and to know God in a real way. One of the most important things is to live and walk in the enjoyment of His love.
You know.
Probably one of the most basic needs, and maybe the most basic need among human beings is love and understanding.
In the last few years.
We have noticed in both the United States and in Canada, and even to a little extent in other parts of the world.
Mass shootings.
Mass shootings, people that get so upset and so angry, they just get a hold of a gun and out they go. Sometimes they shoot people they know, sometimes they shoot people indiscriminately.
Just anyone out there and then in many cases end up shooting themselves or of course, depending on the circumstances, being shot by the police. Sometimes they're apprehended a lie, but I would say probably more than half the time they die either by suicide or by being shot by the police.
But if you boil all of that down right to the lowest common denominator.
What is usually the problem? Oh, yes. People start delving into the backgrounds of these people. Oh, yes. Well, I knew that he was having problems. He was this and that when he was even in high school. And he was this and that when he was at work. And he he didn't get along with people. And he said things and talked about things that if you'd been listening carefully, you would have said, watch out, this fellow is dangerous.
And then something happens.
But what is usually underlying all of that?
I don't think I'm wrong in saying that there is a lack of love.
And understanding.
Reminds me of a story.
Took place quite a few years ago now, I would say probably back in the 1980s, maybe maybe even a little earlier than that in the 70s where a young woman in her 30s who lived in Miami, FL committed suicide.
And humanly speaking, her death would have been just another statistic. After all, people commit suicide all too commonly. But she left a diary. She left a diary. Her name was Judy Bucknell, and she left a diary about the hopelessness and despair that was in her life.
People that knew her said she had.
At least on the surface, everything going for her. She was good looking, she had a good job, she seemed to have friends and that. But as she wrote in this diary, it was all superficial.
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Now maybe this is a bit of a rebuke to those of us that are men.
She said, where are the men out there that really care? Where are the men that will bring a dozen roses and really care about me? Where are those who really want to be a good friend just for friendships sake rather than for what they can get? Ouch. But you know, and I know that that's the way it happens all too often in the world.
And eventually, she said, who is going to love Judy Bucknell?
I just feel so empty. I just want to go to sleep and stay asleep forever. And many other things in that diary.
How do I know all that? It happened to be written up in the Reader's Digest way back then. I don't normally read the Reader's Digest, but I picked it up and a dentist's office and I was very interested. I thought, how tragic that this poor girl never, as far as we know, found Christ, never found the one that really would love her.
Really wanted to be her friend. Wanted to be her savior. Wanted to give her hope.
And love and everything in her life that she did not have.
Maybe there's someone here at camp like that today. I don't know everyone here and maybe some are here and you don't know very many of us that normally come to camp, but maybe you are looking for something like that.
You know, human friendships are wonderful if the Lord gives them to us, and friendships by those who know the Lord Jesus Christ are wonderful things because when we have a new life in Christ, we have through grace the ability to give a kind of love that this world does not give.
But all of that, wonderful though it is.
Is nothing compared to the love of Christ.
And that love flows out to you today.
How do we know?
That God loves us? How do we know that?
Ah, because he sent his son to die for us. Let's turn to 1St John to see that first John chapter 4.
I, John. Chapter 4.
And.
Verse 10.
Well, let's read verse nine first, John chapter 4 and verse 9.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him here in His love. Not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation.
For our sins.
If God has not won your heart and mind.
We have to ask ourselves, what more could he do to win?
And when man brought upon himself through sin all of the awful consequences of sin, God said, I am going to send my beloved son down into that world of sin and degradation and heartache, down into a world that does not want me or my beloved son, but I am going to demonstrate my love.
In the fullest possible way. And when this world rejected the Lord Jesus and nailed him to a cross.
Through that cross, God provided a way whereby you and I could know God in a fuller and more wonderful way that we could ever have known if we had enjoyed the Garden of Eden. And now you and I, through grace, can know Christ as our Savior. We can know God as our Father, and in a coming day we will share with him the Father's house.
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Just a word on that.
Big word in verse 10 that we read propitiation.
It's a big word, doesn't occur very often in the Bible. I think it only occurs maybe three times, maybe four times maximum. But what it simply means is it means to satisfy and make things right with someone against whom we have done wrong.
And that's what the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's cross. He so fully, not merely satisfied but glorified God in the work he did on the cross, that God raised him from the dead so that now God can come out.
In fullest blessing and say, whosoever will may come.
Christ died for you.
He shed His precious blood that has the power to wash away all of your sins. We sang it in one of those hymns last night. There is power in the blood wonder, working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.
God needed to be propitiated.
But you and I need to be reconciled. It wasn't God that went away from us. It's we that went away from God.
We need to be reconciled, but God has provided a way whereby all who will may come and be saved.
You and I live and enjoy, live in and enjoy the love of God on a daily basis.
We should, and the love of God is that which wants to overflow our hearts.
So that as we go through our days, we are conscious of living in and enjoying the love of God. Let's turn to a verse in Ephesians 3 that bears that out.
Ephesians chapter 3.
Ephesians 3 And here is a prayer.
Of the apostle Paul.
Let me just take another.
Ephesians 3.
There are two prayers in Ephesians, one in chapter one and one in chapter 3.
And notice what Paul says in verse 17.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts, by faith that ye.
Notice this being rooted and grounded in love.
May be able to comprehend or understand with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.
And to know the love of Christ.
Which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Those verses are beyond our understanding, aren't they?
How can you and I be filled with all the fullness of God? We are big enough to contain all that, are we?
Length and breadth and depth and height does not in that sense particularly refer to the love of God.
It refers to all of the Vista of blessings that God has for us. Sometimes, you know, as you travel along an Interstate, you'll see a little turn off and it will say scenic view. It's usually in areas where there are hills and mountains. And if you turn off there and get up on that little hill.
You usually have a wonderful view of everything.
But how far can you usually see on one of those scenic views? Maybe a few miles if it's a clear day. But you can't see all of America from that scenic view, can you? You can't. You can say, well, I've certainly seen a pretty view.
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I still remember the first plane flight I ever took.
Back in 1967, it was a wonderful time. You didn't have to go through security in those days and you could take anything you wanted on the plane. So all you did was when they called the boarding call, you just got up and got on the plane. And I still remember flying from Toronto, ON Canada to Los Angeles, CA nonstop.
And I could not believe it. I was just a kid from the country who'd never done that before and.
Just the wonderful view looking down flying overlake Michigan and seeing both shores at the same time.
And seeing Chicago down there, that looked like a little toy city and so on.
But did I see all of America from up there? Oh, no, of course not. I might have been able to see a lot further than you could on the ground. And they say the pilot up front on a clear day, who's got a better view than the passengers and properly so. He could probably see 100 miles, but he still only sees 100 miles. How far is it from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States?
4000 miles maybe? Or is it more than that?
Who knows?
Probably. Pardon me about that, something like that. 3 1/2, yeah. Anyway, but the point is.
The love of God is so great that you and I, well, let me backtrack a little bit. The breadth and length and depth and height refers to the huge Vista of all of the blessings that God has given us. But then it says to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
God wants you and me to live in the good of all that. Sometimes I get carried away, so I just want to look at the hand out here and see if there's anything here that I haven't referred to.
Oh yes.
Romans chapter 5. Let's turn.
Let's turn to that scripture for a moment.
We don't want to go on too long because we need to get going, but this is an important verse. Romans chapter 5 and verse 5.
It says, and hope maketh not ashamed.
Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. The Holy Spirit indwelling you and me gives us the enjoyment of love of God.
Pardon.
If you and I.
Want to have the enjoyment of Christ in our hearts? We need to live.
In the good of all that God has given us, we need to recognize that we shouldn't grieve the Holy Spirit.
Otherwise, we don't enjoy God's love. If we do that deliberately and willingly, which we know is displeasing to the Lord, we won't enjoy His love, will we? Oh no, Oh no. And we all understand that.
It's important to keep short accounts with God immediately to deal with those things that are not pleasing to Him. If a wrong thought comes to my mind, deal with it right away, confess it to the Lord, and once again enjoy His love. One more very important verse before I sit down and it's mentioned in the handout Psalm 63.
Psalm 63.
And verse 3.
Because thy loving kindness is better than life, My lips shall praise thee.
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Let's remember that.
Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips.
Shall praise thee.
We were talking a little bit.
In a previous meeting about those that were going through suffering.
And how that sometimes God allows believers to go through.
Very, very deep suffering in their lives. What enables them to go through it?
With joy and with.
Peace in their hearts. It's the enjoyment of the love of God.
The loving kindness of God, and conversely, if there is a lack of that loving kindness.
Then what happens? Just what we talked about a few minutes ago. Sometimes the lack of loving kindness in a life becomes so acute that people commit suicide. They say life isn't worth living because there is no loving kindness there. Ah, God wants to give you that loving kindness and that loving kindness enjoyed in the soul.
Is better than life. How can that be?
Sometimes I get carried away telling stories, and I've told this one before.
Number of years ago.
On route from visiting.
The brethren in Spain, we were on route to England to visit over there and we took a break and spent about 3 days in Paris, France. I'd never been there before.
We had a nice time there, we looked around a little bit, did some sightseeing and enjoyed the good French cooking there that they have and so on. But.
I remember one time when my wife was putting our children to bed. They weren't that old, but and they needed to get to bed and the evening was young. So I took a good walk and I especially wanted to go to Notre Dame Cathedral.
Now they're trying to rebuild it because they had a huge fire in it. But at any rate, I took a view there and I didn't bother going inside. I stood outside.
And I still remember looking at that big quadrangle in front of the cathedral, great big quadrangle. I can't describe how big it was, but it's quite a big place in front. And I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself being there on occasions about 500 years ago.
Because that was the place where they brought.
Dear believers in Christ who could not and would not compromise their faith.
Chained them up to a stake, piled the wood around them and lit the wood on fire.
And burned them to death to get rid of the so-called heretics. That was where they did it, right in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.
And I imagined what it was to be there and see that happen.
Didn't happen only in France, of course, happened in many other places.
But I remember the story.
Of a French nobleman by the name of.
I don't know. I sometimes have a hard time trying to decide whether to pronounce these names in French or in English. We would say in English, Louis Berkman, In French it would be Birkin. But anyway, Louis Burke, when a French nobleman, very wealthy man, very well known.
But it didn't save him from being condemned to death to be burned at the stake.
And Louis Berquin rode down the streets of Paris that day.
On his best horse.
Clothed in his very best clothes, face radiant.
As he rode with guards, of course, to that place in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.
And people couldn't believe it. They said this man is crazy. Why is he throwing his life away? He's got everything going for him, health and wealth and prosperity and all he has to do. He doesn't have to mean that. He can just say the words and he would be let off the hook, so to speak.
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All he has to do is say, well, no, I don't really believe that. No, no, that's OK. I recant. I don't believe that. But Louis Bourque wouldn't do that.
And they took him and chained him up to that stake.
And he gave up his life for Christ joyfully. Why Thy loving kindness is better than life.
You know the story has a sequel.
Very interesting.
Those events attracted crowds, big crowds. They didn't know any better. They thought this was the right thing to do. And of course boys and everybody else crowded there. Just excitement, something to do and so on.
But there was one boy there, 15 years old, who looked on that site. He wasn't a Christian. He'd been raised a Roman Catholic, and he thought it was the right thing to do. But when he saw Louis Berquin ride down the streets on his best horse, clothed in his best clothes, willingly, gladly, radiantly, going to his death.
A cruel death like that. He ran away from that scene, his cheeks flaming.
He said that man's guns up. Pardon me.
He said that man's got something. I don't know what it is, I don't know what he's got, but he's got something and I'm going to find it and I'm going to get it.
The boy was John Calvin.
Did Satan win that day? He thought he did. Satan thought he got the victory.
Got rid of one of the brightest lights in France. No, it didn't work. It didn't work. There were those that God raised up to take his place. Now we know John Calvin's work was largely in Switzerland, but that's not the point. The point is that the devil doesn't win in these cases. Because thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Now, whether you and I will ever be called upon to give up our lives for.
We don't know. It may happen if the Lord leaves us here.
We all know the name of Cassie Bernal.
In Colorado, who confessed Christ and was shot to death? For how long ago was that, Tim?
Approximately about 15 years ago, Am I right? The story. I got the story right, yeah.
It can happen. The point is if you and I are enjoying the love of Christ.
It enables us to face difficulties and problems in our lives. But I want to make one last remark. We didn't get a chance to make it last night, but it's important.
The world doesn't want the Christian.
But I have heard, and this is just a slight warning that I need and maybe you do too.
The world doesn't want the Christian and a Christian testimony.
But I have seen dear Christians more than once, and maybe I have been one of them.
Whose old nature was not kept enough in the place of death.
And as a result of their, shall I say, disagreeable.
Maybe even a stronger word. Obnoxious ways.
Turned the world against them and instead of recognizing that it was their old nature that was the problem, they just blamed it on the devil and said well it's my Christian testimony they don't like.
And maybe you've seen that happen. I'm afraid I have. And maybe I've been guilty of it myself. Let's be very careful before the eyes of the world that we don't display that what Scripture calls the flesh, and then try and pretend that it's persecution and reproach for Christ when the world turns against us.
Let's remember that it is in the enjoyment of Christ and in enjoying His love that we will want to keep the old sinful self in the place of death, so that what is displayed in your life and mine is the love of God. Very important, but we can't display the love of God.
Unless we're enjoying it ourselves in our own souls.