Talk—Bill Prost
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Our loving God and our Father, what a privilege it is to be here at camp again. And we thank Thee for all Thy mercies to us. And now we commit the time together to Thee, as we have Thy Word open before us. And we thank Thee that Thou dost delight to know us Thy creatures, and us delight to have us come to know Thee. So we pray for help as we open Thy word together.
We commend our time to thee, praying very specially for any here who may not be saved. We know there is.
A way open for them to come to thee, our God, to know thee, the only true God.
In Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And we thank Thee that as Thy word tells us, this is life eternal. So we commend ourselves to thee, praying too, that we who are Thy known may come to know Thee in a closer and fuller way, and that we may follow Thee with renewed energy. So we ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Well, as you can see from the handout and.
We've gone over this and pretty well every meeting but the subject we have before us.
This year is knowing God.
There's a big difference between knowing about God and knowing God. We talked about that when we discussed creation, showing how that creation would declare God's power and God's glory and all of that. But we don't really know the heart of God in creation.
We can understand that in a natural way, don't we? Can't we?
For example, there might be a very, very good Carpenter who could do a wonderful piece of work with his hands, make a beautiful piece of furniture, for example, or even going further than that, undertake to build a beautiful home. But all of that wouldn't tell me about his character, would it? It wouldn't tell me whether he was a good husband or a good father, whether he was a morally upright man or not.
Or what kind of individual he was to live with. No, we would have to get to know him in a different way.
In order to understand that, wouldn't we? And so it is with God. But God's love and God's grace has fully been told out at Calvary's cross. And so we have that before us. And that is the message we have for anyone here who is not saved. Yes, we can enjoy God's creation. We can enjoy all the good things that He has given us.
And those things are wonderful.
But if we want to know God's heart, we have to go to Calvary's cross.
Well, we've considered a number of subjects and we're ready today for Section 9, a very important part of the discussion.
If indeed God wants us to know him in a more intimate way.
How do we get to know God? What's the answer? How do we get to know Him?
Let's read a verse. We've read it before and he in Romans Chapter 11.
Romans, Chapter 11.
What does it say here?
Verse 33. Romans 11 and 33.
Oh, the death of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out?
The only way to know God is if he reveals Himself.
I cannot know God by reason. Reason won't tell me who God is. It'll tell me, perhaps, as I look at creation, that there is a God. It's only reasonable that somehow, some way, there had to be a first cause for everything we see around us.
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But to know God, He must reveal Himself, and He has done so. He has done so through sending His beloved Son into this world.
But the point we want to make today, and it's a very important one.
What did this world do with the Son of God? Did they welcome him? No, they rejected him right from the very beginning.
We read that when Herod got the news from the wise men that they had followed the star all the way from the east to the land of Israel, what was Herod's reaction? It says he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him, and Herod wanted to get rid of him and so did others, and eventually they did.
But in that way that they got rid of the Lord Jesus.
God's wonderful plan of salvation opened up so that man when he did his worst.
Only revealed the love of God, so that God did his best, and all the hatred, all the anger, all the envy of man's natural heart against the Lord Jesus.
Only resulted in the love of God flowing higher and higher, so that as it says in the scriptures where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So how do we get to know God?
There are several verses that we could read, but let's turn to the one that's in the reference there, Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 3. We'll read some other verses, but we'll read this one first.
Philippians 3.
And what does Paul say in verse 8?
Philippians and.
Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Notice this, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
And to count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith. And then here we are again in verse 10.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
And the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable.
Unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Now look over at the next page to Colossians 1, where we get a somewhat similar thought. Notice what it says there.
In verse. Well, let's read verse 9, starting with verse 9.
For this 'cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you.
And to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and here it is, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power. Unto what?
Unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.
That's rather unusual, isn't it?
Here was the Apostle Paul.
Talking about the power of God, of Christ's resurrection, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.
And then he talks here about our increasing in the knowledge of God, as it says, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering.
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With joyfulness.
The point we want to make this morning is if you really want to know God, you must be willing to follow a rejected Christ.
Every Christian I believe with a new life in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
Wants a closer walk with the Lord. Wants a more intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Wants to know God the Father in a fuller and more wonderful way.
If you want that, and I know you do if you are a true Christian.
The way to get it is to be willing to follow a rejected Christ.
And to be willing, if necessary, to go through suffering in this world.
Many years ago a brother made a very perceptive remark which I have never forgotten. He said this. He said all of our spiritual blessings come to us through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus, and our enjoyment of those blessings comes to us.
In the same way.
Let me repeat that all of our blessings come to us.
Through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus and our enjoyment of those blessings.
Comes to us in the same way.
Our knowledge of God comes through following in the pathway.
Of a rejected Christ.
We might say why is that? Why is that? Ah, because, and we took up a little bit of it last night when we talked about covenant theology or reconstructionism as it's sometimes called. And it was pointed out by multiple people who spoke up and contributed that ultimately so-called covenant theology.
Brought Christianity down to the level of an earthly religion.
Took away the reproach of a rejected Christ and did what? Conferred some kind of pride and respect to man as he is in his natural state. That's why it's popular. It appeals to man.
And every false religion, every bad doctrine without.
Any exception whatsoever takes away from God's glory.
And give some glory to man. Doesn't matter what bad doctrine it is, what wrong application of the scripture it is, or interpretation what false religion it is. It takes away God's glory and gives glory to man. And it's popular. It's popular.
People grab onto it.
In the 7th century AD, a man by the name of Muhammad.
Decided that he had a revelation from God and it became wildly popular. Why did it? Why was it so popular? Ah, because it told people pick up the sword and go out there and conquer your religion is right. And if people don't see it that way, pick up the sword and force them to submit and then said sounds great.
That's what we like to do. But God's words says vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Will repay. Oh dear. Now where do we go from here?
Oh, I spoke to a Muslim one time when I was on a plane. He was sitting up. It's a long story, but I don't get to sit in business class unless it's for some special reason. And I happen to be the only doctor on board on a flight. And I shepherded a woman all through the night who looked as if she wasn't going to make it. And I guess in the final essence, took the responsibility of saying.
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Carry on and you know, you don't have to get off in Ireland and offload this woman. Carry on to Heathrow in London, it'll be OK. And in the next leg of the journey, they kicked me up into business class. Anyway, this Muslim was in business class. We had a good chat and I pointed out to him that what he was trying to teach was at variance with the word of God. You know what he said?
Oh, but he said Muhammad had a further revelation. The Bible was finished by the time Muhammad.
Came along, but he had a further revelation. He was a prophet. So what? He says.
Supersedes what's in the Bible.
It appealed to the natural.
But you don't know God going down that road. That's not the way it works.
We don't like naturally speaking to be rejected. We don't like for the world to say we don't want you.
It's one thing for you and for me to give up the world, that's one thing. But it hurts a lot more when the world gives up us, and that will happen.
I can remember once, I didn't usually go to banquets at my local hospital that were hosted by the medical staff, but there was a retired doctor there who was retiring from the hospital, retiring from medical practice. He'd been practicing for close to 50 years, and they were having a dinner in his honor. And I thought, well, it would be kind of nice to go. I liked him, even though I have no reason to think he was a Christian.
So I went to that banquet and there were doctors that I worked with and doctors who I knew very whom I knew very well worked with practically every day. And yet I couldn't help but notice that when we were taking seats at that banquet, most of those that worked with me made very sure that they weren't at my table.
Yeah, and others here could tell similar stories. I'm not the only one. Why did they do that?
Because they didn't want the conversation going in a certain direction.
Tell another story on someone else. This is my wife's grandfather, Harry Hayhoe, whose name some here. No, he's been with the Lord for good many years now. He was on a ship once and he was sitting at a table there because that was the way you went from A to BA 100 years ago. There were relatively few flights and so he was going from Canada to the island of Bermuda. He went by ship and it took several days.
And on that ship, of course, the meals were served.
And as he was sitting at his table, there was a relatively loud and quite talkative man who generally dominated the conversation. And finally he looked at my wife's grandfather and said, Sir, you don't say much.
Well, Harry Hayhoe said I can only talk about one thing, Christ, And he started to talk.
And they had some good discussion. But he said, you know, it was very strange because at the next meal I had the table all to myself.
That's the natural man. But going back to our subject, we as Christians can know God.
Through obedience and suffering. Now, what does that mean? Does it mean we go out and seek suffering? Some Christians have done that. There were people who came to Canada in the very early years and they actually sought out persecution. No, that's not right. The apostle Paul, when he heard persecution was coming, he fled from it, not because he was afraid of being persecuted. But the point is.
He couldn't preach the gospel if he was going to be apprehended and so on. But if he unexpectedly was persecuted, he accepted it. But if he was warned ahead of time, he went from point A to point B to the next place. So we shouldn't look for suffering. Sometimes we can do what is conventionally called grandstanding by glorying in how much we suffered for Christ.
Paul never talked about his sufferings, did he? Until the Corinthians forced him to it. And then he said, you're making me into a fool.
But he said, you've forced me to it. And so he told them a few things about what he'd suffered. Otherwise we'd never know. And most of the godly people that I have known don't like to talk about what they've suffered for Christ. They may once in a while say something about it, but they don't like to go boasting about it because they realize that the glory belongs to the Lord.
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However, as we've had in these scriptures, Paul says.
The power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Why did he say that? Because as he says.
Whatever it takes to be more like Christ.
I want it because it will be well worth it, even if it means going through death. Now, of course, you and I know that ultimately, in going through death, we get to the place where we will be perfectly like Christ. Because when we die.
Even though we don't get our new bodies right away, we won't get them till the Lord comes, once we die and are taken soul and spirit to be with Christ.
We no longer have the old sinful nature.
We no longer are in a world that has rejected Christ. We are no longer in a place of suffering any longer. We are with Christ.
In paradise, the Scripture calls it, and we are enjoying everything that he is up there. We'll get our glorified bodies when the Lord comes, Paul says. I want to know him, whatever it takes.
Are we willing to say that to the Lord?
Are we willing to say that?
A brother by the name of George Wigram, one of the godly brethren of the 1800s.
Wrote another very perceptive statement in his ministry. And it's like this, he said. If the Lord sees.
In you and me.
Any desire to go after Christ?
He will work it in you.
We can depend on that.
We can depend on that. The Lord will put you through circumstances, through various things in your life which at the time you may not appreciate, you may not even like at all, but He will put you through them in order to draw you closer to Himself.
Do you want to know more of Christ?
Every new truth that you learn from God's Word, every bit of knowledge of God that He seeks to bring into your heart, will find its corresponding antagonism in some aspect of your old sinful self, and mine too.
Every new truth, every new bit of knowledge of God.
That the Spirit of God seeks to bring before you will find some kind of antagonism.
In some aspect of your old sinful nature.
And I have to be prepared to judge that.
I have to be prepared to say I'm going to give that up. And that's what Paul was saying in Philippians 3. He says I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Why don't we know the Lord better? Because there are things, and I speak most of all to my own heart, that I hang on to things that I like too much.
As someone else has said, we all want to be more like Christ.
But most of us like ourselves too much to give it up to be another man. It's true, isn't it? We all want to be more like Christ. But I like me a little too much, and I don't want to give up certain aspects of myself in order to be more like Christ.
And sometimes the Lord has to use some pretty strong medicine to bring that about. But if he sees there's a desire in you to do that.
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He'll bring those circumstances into your life. On the other hand, if you say, well, let me let me quote this, and I don't want to put the sister down, she's with the Lord now. But I can well remember her saying to me and I liked her. She was a good friend. She was in our local assembly many years ago.
You, you, you had to watch because if you were having a bit of a conversation with her.
You, you observed, and this will make you laugh, but you observe what kind of a purse she was carrying, because if she didn't like what you were saying, she'd give you a good whack with her purse. And so you always noticed how long the handle of her purse was and stood at the right distance.
Because you knew that if you said something she didn't like, you were going to get it.
But I'd like to just the same, even though I was more than once on the receiving end of her purse. But the point is, one time she said, you know, Bill, and she was a little older than I. She said scripture says that it's good for a sister to have a meek and quiet spirit. Oh, she said, I'm sorry, Bill, but that just, that just isn't the way I'm made. And there's no way I can be like that. And there's no way I can have that kind of a.
I'm just not made like that. I just that's it, can't do it.
I felt sorry, you know, because meekness in her eyes constituted weakness. And it doesn't. Meekness doesn't mean weakness.
The Lord Jesus was meek.
But he wasn't weak. Moses was a meek man, but he was number weakling either. And so she had the wrong idea about it. But anyway, she was basically saying this is what the word of God says, but there's no way I can go that way. If we say that, then we're not going to learn more of God. We're not going to learn more of Christ. And so the important thing we want to emphasize today, and I think we've pretty well.
Covered it in the handout and our time is going so I'm going to sit down. But just remember that I must be willing to follow one who was despised and rejected in this world. There will be time for reigning all eternity. There will be time to enjoy Christ.
In all his fullness, without any possibility of rejection or suffering.
But today is the day to learn him, in a way.
That you could never learn Him in heaven.
Why? Let me just finish with this one point.
A brother many years ago said it's worth being sick to see what a comforter the Lord can be. It's worth going through suffering to go through it with him. And it's true. It's really true. Ask any dear believer who has been or is going through suffering.
I'll name a name, a brother that I know, although not as well as some people here. Mike O'Brien.
Michael Bryan.
To hear Michael Bryan look out at a group of young people in his condition.
The advanced stages of multiple sclerosis, I believe so that he's in a wheelchair, can't do much of anything for himself. And to look out at a group of young people and who are all there and all the health and strength and vigor of youth and say I wouldn't trade places with any of you. And that's not just high sounding rhetoric.
He means it. It's real. How can he say that?
Because he has come through all of that to know the Lord in a way that perhaps some of the rest of us don't. He's going through suffering. Now, the Lord doesn't allow all of us to go through that. Some of us, He gives our, gives us our reasonable amount of health. But the point is, we can learn the Lord by going through suffering and difficulties down here in a way that we could never learn Him in heaven. Why?
Because there won't be any suffering up there. I won't need comforting up there. There'll be nothing to try my spirit up there. I can't learn him up there as the God of all patience and the God of all comfort. I can learn that only down here. And I learn it through going through difficult circumstances that I will never experience once I get home to be with our Lord in the glory. So we don't avoid those things, but if the Lord.
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Sends them into our lives. It's an opportunity to know him in a more intimate way.