Lassen Pines Family Camp: 1998
Table of Contents
Magnify the Lord
Address—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.
Next meeting is breaking of bread and I was thinking talking something of that related to that, not not directly about that.
You see, I put a chart up there and the offerings really, that's not my main.
Desire to talk to you about this morning. I'd like to start with a verse in Psalm 34, please, Psalm 34 and verse 3.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name.
Together.
Just that first part magnify the Lord.
What happens when you magnify something?
I used to work at Bible Truth Publishers and I never got involved too much in the printing part of it. But I noticed that people who are running presses often having a magnifying glass and as they're printing, they pull out a sheet and they will put the magnifying glass over it and they can see the defects.
Anything that we do as men.
If you magnify, you're going to immediately see the defects.
But I want to tell you this morning, if we magnify the Lord Jesus, all you're going to see is perfection, complete perfection.
And the more I get to know of the Lord Jesus, His glorious person, the more all I see is perfection. Sometimes people point out what are supposed fallacies in His person, but generally if you run up against something like that, if you'll look at it a little more detailed, you'll only find that it is.
Perfection and you just didn't see it completely when you looked at it and suppose that there was some fallacy there.
The more you magnify Jesus, the more you are going to see.
Complete, absolute perfection. And that's my desire this morning that, you know, I was thinking.
When Wally talked to me about having this meeting this morning of.
What the Lord asked us to do.
Before he went to the cross, let's look at Luke chapter 22.
Read those verses.
And verse 19.
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Likewise also the cup after supper saying this is my is this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
Which is shed for you? What I want to draw your attention to is the end of verse 19.
This.
Do in remembrance.
Of Maine. Now I want you to compare that with what we have in First Corinthians Chapter 11.
And we have the same institution that Paul received from the Lord in glory. Verse 23 I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said.
Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you.
This.
Do in remembrance of Maine.
And when he had given thank excuse me, verse 25.
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show.
The Lord's death till he come.
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And what I wanted to draw your attention to.
Was specifically.
That little phrase this do in remembrance of me, you know, we refer to it that we're going to remember the Lord in his death. And I must say because I've been brought up in Christian home in assembly meetings as well, that often times as that was mentioned.
The focus seemed to be more in my mind.
On his death, which is a very central focus.
But you'll notice in Luke there and twice here in First Corinthians 11, he doesn't say this do in remembrance of me and my death. He said this do in remembrance of me.
Because he is a real living person.
And what I really have come to enjoy, even though I recognize wholeheartedly that we are doing it, and that bread and that wine we give thanks for, We break the bread and partake of it. We partake of the cup. It speaks of his death. In fact, it says here in verse.
26 You do show the Lord's death till he come. We show the Lord's death. That's why we say when there's a breaking of bread in a certain place, there is a testimony there, because we're showing something by doing that, and showing something is a testimony.
We don't say that there's a testimony in a certain place if they don't break bread exactly. There is a testimony in a certain way, but the testimony that God has ordained is in the breaking of bread. But what my point is this morning is.
What we need to focus on, dear young brother and sister, is more the glories of his person and I find in my own soul when I think of how great that person is that came to hang on that cross, it just fills my heart.
Worship is a word that I understand comes from worship. It's His worth that you're concentrating on. We worship the Lord for who He is. We praise Him for what He has done. So worship is the appreciation and the overflow of the heart.
When we are occupied with the glories of his person and I want to go over some of those.
Glories this morning, and I'm going to ask you to be thinking perhaps.
His glories are reflected in some of his titles, some of his names, and I'm going to give a few, but I want you to be thinking of some others, and maybe this will keep you a little more alert. If you can, a little bit later on in this meeting, I'm going to throw it open to you.
Suggesting some of his titles that show something of the worth of his person, of the glory of that person that we're talking about.
You notice that Wally had quite a bit of Colossians.
On his heart, when he had these posters printed up and Colossians, that was an awful lot about the glory of his person. Maybe we could just start there. But.
Here it says He's the image of the invisible God. Just think, dear young people, our God is so great that there is no way that you and I can measure him. Everything in this present creation we live in, we can put a measuring stick to.
In some way or another, I'm amazed at how they can figure distances as they look out into the universe.
Hundreds of millions, even billions of light years.
Light year I understand is somewhere I'm not mistaken, about 4 trillion miles. Is that right?
Somebody checked me there. I think I figured it out one time. Is that right?
Anybody remember? Anyhow, they're talking about billions.
Of light years that they can see out into the universe. I don't understand how they can even calculate that. I guess it's.
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Something to do with science that I don't understand about Dean, You're a little bit better knowledgeable about that. Is 4 trillion miles a light year?
It's so immense that it's really beyond our ability to grasp the greatness of the universe, and we're talking about a person who made it all with the word of his power.
Necessarily, young people, the person we're talking about this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ, is greater than the universe, necessarily greater in his power, in his wisdom, in his understanding.
There is no way you can put a measuring stick to our God.
He is infinite. He is eternal. Eternal means that not only does he not have any ending to his existence, but he never had any beginning. And that's almost beyond our ability to take in. But that's what.
Eternal means God never had a beginning. He will never have an ending.
But God wanted to reveal himself to his creatures. He wanted us to know him. So God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Have we seen God?
I think when we say when we see Jesus, we can say we have seen God because he is the image of the invisible God. To me. It is incredible. You want to get to know what kind of a God we're talking about in the Bible.
Get to know Jesus.
As he walked here as a man. Because in Jesus is our God in the fullest sense of the word. There is our God, you know.
One of his disciples said, Show us the Father.
And that will be sufficient is really what it means. It suffices us, he said. That will be sufficient. Yeah, that's true. That would be sufficient.
Jesus said to him by been so long time with you, Philip, and you have not known me.
He that has seen me has seen the Father. So you want to get to know God, you look at Jesus and I love to just go through the gospels and think about this in my thoughts. Let's go with the Lord Jesus. That time he was invited to the Pharisees house. You know this Pharisee kind of looked down on Jesus.
He didn't really have a whole lot of appreciation for him, but he.
Invited him to a meal anyhow. He's going to be open minded I suppose, he thought.
So he invited him to a meal, and there the Lord Jesus was, sitting at the table.
Reclining. It was the way they didn't sit it with chairs at a table and reclined kind of on the couch by the table.
And into the room comes a poor Sinner woman.
She was despised. I'm amazed that she had the courage to even come into that Pharisees house because that Pharisee really looked down at that woman. She's a sooner in a city. And that woman came up behind and started crying and those tears as they trickled down her face fell on his feet.
And she washed his feet with her tears.
And she took what is the woman's glory, her hair, and she wiped his feet with her hair, and then she anointed him.
I'm amazed the Pharisee looked at Jesus and said this man if he was a prophet.
He would have known what kind of woman this is. She's a Sinner. So the concept of this Pharisee of Jesus went down.
And you know.
Sometimes we are so conscious of way people think of us.
That we gear all our activities, all our actions. By what?
How they think of us. Jesus wasn't that worried about what people thought about him.
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And so the concept of this Pharisee went down as to who Jesus was.
But the Lord Jesus knew his thoughts, and at the same time He knew this poor woman's thoughts. How is He going to handle this complex situation? I've tried to put myself into that picture and I'm afraid I would have really messed it up.
But here's complete perfection under scrutiny.
Put the magnifying glass on it and all you're going to see is perfection. And so the Lord tells a parable.
And immediately puts the Pharisee where he belonged. He had him sized up. He knew exactly where he was in his soul.
And before God, that woman, that poor Sinner woman who never said one word at that supper, all she did was weep.
And clean his feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hairs of her head, and anoint him.
She got the biggest blessing.
That's the savior.
Oh, I tell you, there's perfection. You take another case I like to think of as when they brought that woman taking an adultery and John ate to the Lord Jesus.
Necessarily, there had to be man involved.
But they were so hypocritical that they didn't bring them in. Maybe it was one of them that was standing there, who knows?
But it was a hard situation. And they said to Jesus, Moses and the law told us that we should stone this kind of a woman. What do you say? And that's true. That's what Moses had said.
That the Lord Jesus doesn't answer. You know, it's not always necessary to give an answer to curious questions that people give to us. Sometimes I have to stop myself. I like to give answers immediately.
But it's not always necessary to give answers. Finally, the Lord Jesus, when they insist on asking him, stands up and says.
The one that's without sin here among you. Cast the first stone at her.
And they were all convicted of their own conscience, and they went out one by one, until it was just the poor trembling woman and the Lord Jesus standing there. There was one man that would didn't have any sin. He had the right to pick up a stone and throw it at her, but he hadn't come to condemn.
He had come to save and he said, where's your accusers, woman?
No man condemned you, and she said no.
He said neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. He didn't make light of that sin she had committed. It was a very serious sin.
But he told her that he had not come to condemn, he had come to save, and that.
To say neither do I condemn thee was going to cost him.
When he went to the cross to pay for our sins, he paid for that sin then.
Oh, that's the kind of God we have. And so when we talk about the Lord Jesus being the image of the invisible God, you look at the Lord Jesus and you'll find out what kind of a God we have, a God that does not want to condemn, not one person.
Does that mean that he accommodates your sin for you? He allows it. He's gracious. No, that doesn't mean that at all. He is holy.
When Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus in Isaiah chapter 6, there were seraphims flying around the room. Seraphims have 6 wings. With two they were occupied with covering their faces. With two they covered their feet.
And with two they were flying and they were crying as they flew around the room.
Holy, holy, holy.
I think we need to understand that our God is holy. Young people, sometimes we goof around and play with God as if we could get away with just anything and tell you you can not with God every single sin that has been committed upon the face of planet earth.
Must judgment from the hand of a holy God?
There is no options to that. It's going to happen.
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It's going to happen. Our God is a holy God.
And so you never seen the Lord Jesus make light of sin. Too bad sometimes we get so used to sin we make jokes of it.
Don't make jokes when we speak of the word.
Or of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes I hear lightness when we're talking about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't do it, young people. That's what is called profanity. Maybe you don't think of profanity that like that, For profanity is treating sacred things as if they were common.
The Lord Jesus is holy. When he was born, the Angel that came to announce his birth to Mary said, That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
When we're born, none of us are born holy. We're born sinners.
We may not have sinned right away, but we still have that sin nature and as that nature.
Starts to develop.
Sins are what are produced because we are born sinners.
Somebody has said there's three kinds of humanity in the Bible. Adam was innocent humanity, then there's sinful humanity. And that's what you and I find ourselves right there.
And then there's holy humanity. The Lord Jesus could not sin.
Because he was God, but because he was wholly human flesh, that's why he could not sin.
To talk a little bit more about the glories of the person, let's go over to the book of Hebrews.
And the first chapter.
Here we have.
Something about the image of the invisible God as well.
But here we have a lot of other.
Terms that show something of the greatness of this person we're talking about.
Says in verse three, Who being the brightness of his glory, Excuse me, I'm going to have to go back. I missed two and verse two, God hath in these last times spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed error of all things, by whom also he made the world.
'S who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of His person.
And upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. I just love the array of glory we have in these two verses. The first one is he's appointed heir of all things. You know, I don't know. Is anybody here seen Prince Charles?
Anybody in this room seen Prince Charles in person?
You have where.
OK, interesting. Did you find it interesting to see him in person? I think we would all like to catch a glimpse of him.
To see him and yet he is only heir to the British throne.
We're talking about one who is appointed heir of all things, not only this world, but the whole universe and its entirety. He is appointed heir of all things.
He is the one who made the world. It's kind of interesting that it talks about being heir of all things before it talks about the creation, isn't it? I find that kind of interesting. Why is it that way? Does God put things in reverse order? No, and I think the the reason why it's put in that order is because before the world was ever made in God's eternal councils, God had already determined that his Son.
Going to be the heir of everything that was going to be made. So the time came. I used the word time because it was an eternity fast and there's no time there. But the moment came when God.
World to existence, he speak and it was done Imagine the tremendous power they talk about the power in the universe, the tremendous physical powers at play and to think that our God is the author of it all He spoke and it was done he.
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Put it all out there and wherever you look in the universe you look, you find complete order, because our God is a God of order.
You can look at the minuteness of the atom, you're going to see order. In fact, it's quite destructive when they try to split the atom and and knock it out of its real order. But the Lord Jesus is the one who created it all.
Says in John chapter one that without him, nothing was created that was created. In other words, he is not a creature, he is the creator. He made everything.
And that's why I enjoy so much coming up to the mountains to see more of what God made because.
Everything God makes, it displays the glory of His person.
I tell you it is just.
Never ceases to be amazing to me to look into creation and to see His glory. It's part of the display of the glory of God. But then we come to verse three, who being the brightness of his glory, God is glorious. And somebody has said that glory is.
Of Excellency.
Its Excellency manifested.
The Lord Jesus is the brightness of his glory, of all God's glory. You want to get to know God in His glory, look at Jesus.
You step outside there. I'm not going to suggest you do it.
Try to take a look at the sun for a few minutes.
Don't do it.
And you children.
You won't be able to look at it hardly at all. You might take a glance at it, but if you look at it, it's too bright for our human eyes to look at. We're not talking about the glory of the sun now. We're talking about the glory of the person who made the sun. And not only the sun, which is a smaller star in the universe, because there are far greater stars, but he made the whole universe.
He is the brightness, the full out shining of the glory of God is seen in the Lord Jesus.
Is the brightness of His glory. And then we come to that word image again, the express image of his person. In other words, knowing Jesus. And that's why it's so important to get to know Jesus more. To young people, I guarantee you, if you get to know him more, your heart is going to be filled with worship and praise.
I want to encourage you young people to sing to the Lord. Sometimes I see young people.
In meetings and they're not singing, you'll have a very good voice. I want to encourage you to sing anyhow.
Is the person of the Lord Jesus. Let it fill your soul, the glory of his person, and you're going to find that you're going to want to praise Him. That's going to be the overflow.
If you take a glass of water, fill it up and it's getting full and it's getting fuller and it's getting right to the top and you keep on pouring, what happens? It overflows. That's what worship is, getting your soul, soul full of Jesus that you can't hold it in any longer.
Got to express the appreciation of his glory.
And that's what my desire is for you remember he said this do in remembrance of me. I sometimes think when we sit around Lords Day morning to remember the Lord.
That there's an awful lot of silence, even though there's a lot of nice young brothers sitting around and they.
Don't open their mouths.
To praise the Lord.
I tell you, I say, do we know our God yet? I think it's partly because of the world we live in. This society we live in is so man centered. They turn every thought in on yourself. How are you feeling? What would you like?
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You know you owe it to yourself and it's so man centered that when we come and sit down, we kind of bored in meeting.
Maybe some are bored here today.
I confess I can be quite boring. Ask my kids.
But I say, if you really get your heart full of Jesus, you will never be born.
It won't happen.
It is so glorious.
Forever and ever and ever, my heart is going to be filled and overflowing with Jesus. That's what Christianity is. It's not what I am. That doesn't count any longer. That doesn't make any difference about me so much any longer. That's what Jesus is. That's Christianity. And we got to get our focuses turned around to Him if you're going to know what Christ.
He really is.
Notice upholding the next phrase is upholding all things by the word of His power.
Just think, not only did he make everything, but he upholds it by the word of his power.
When he was just born in Bethlehem there.
And his mother, Mary, wrapped him in swaddling clothes.
And put him in that Manger where the cows eat.
There he was, seemingly a helpless babe, but at the same time he was laying in that Manger, he was upholding the whole universe with the word of his power. Can you understand that?
You know what that makes me do in my heart? It makes me. It just fills my heart so much. It just makes me fall down and worship Him.
What a glorious person we're talking about. The next phrase is when He had by Himself, purged our sins. Think of it when He was hanging on that cross, going through intense agony for the sins that I've committed. At the same time, He was upholding the whole universe with the word of His power.
He held it together. He gave those soldiers the breath they breathed.
As they took those nails and pounded them through his hands and feet.
Oh, what a God we have revealed in the Lord Jesus.
But notice this phrase again, when he had by himself purged our sins.
Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. When He was there on the cross, it was by himself. Even God forsook him there. It was a work He did all by himself. But what I want to draw your attention to that in these verses. His work is comprehended in that last two phrases of the verse 3.
But in the other phrases, really deal with the glory of His person. And that's what I want to occupy you with this morning. Your young people. Our time is going way too fast here.
I'm going to ask if anybody has come up with some title of the Lord Jesus that shows something of his glory. Just give it out.
Majesty.
OK.
What does majesty mean?
Kind of a word, I guess we don't think about that much, do we? We use that word.
With the Queen of England or the Prince Charles that we're talking about, or other royal peoples, it really is something that deals with with royalty, but it shows his royalty.
I want to turn to a verse, perhaps that will reflect it in Second Timothy chapter six or First Timothy chapter 6, talking about the Lord Jesus as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That certainly is majesty.
Notice at the end of verse 14, First Timothy 6, our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times He shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and power.
00:35:01
Amen.
Oh, what a glorious person.
What does it mean here?
Whom no man hath seen, nor can see.
Nobody ever see Jesus.
It's talking young people.
About the fact that there is that glory of His person of our Lord Jesus Christ that we will never be able to understand. He is what is. Sometimes the word that is used is inscrutable. In other words, there is no way that we can understand the full glories of His person. And that's why we sang in that hymn.
Higher mysteries of thy fame. The creatures grasp, transcend. He is inscrutable. That's what it means. Sure, we've seen Jesus. He was seen as a man down here in this world.
But when it says whom that no man hath seen nor can see, it means that part of his person that is totally inscrutable.
Now what I want to get to, dear young people.
Is this fact that when the Lord Jesus said Remember Me?
That it includes when we remember him.
Not only do we think of his death, which is very proper and right, but we remember all the glories of his person.
What a tremendously glorious person it was that came into the world, that went to the cross, that allowed his hands to be stretched out and nailed to that cross that was the sin bearer.
He took my sins.
God laid on him the iniquity of us all.
That, that boggles my mind. If it were some other person about my own stature, why I could understand that more or less. But it was no ordinary person that did it. It was God's holy, eternal Son that came here that went to that cross.
Do you know him?
Dear young person, do you know him?
An older brother said not too long ago.
Is one that travels around visiting the brethren from place to place.
He says. I wonder how much we really know.
Our God.
And I have to say myself, how much do I really know him?
Have you stopped to think about how glorious he is?
Now I want to encourage you young brothers.
To open your mouths to praise the Lord.
Even though you might not think you're very able to do so, but to read some verses that deal with this praise and the breaking of bread meeting or to get up and just simply express your gratitude to God for such a glorious Savior.
Or to perhaps give out a hymn too.
Your capacity to do that if you are born into God's family.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you have been capacitated to do that.
And you're going to find that.
Very, very happy activity to be engaged in.
I did put these on the board here and our time is going fast the different offerings of Leviticus and I just want to go over it briefly.
Because as you see that I haven't taken too much time on it the 1St.
4 chapters of Leviticus deal with the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering and the sin offering and I just want to.
Briefly go over what they mean because our time doesn't allow us to go into it in detail.
The burnt offering was an animal that was taken and completely burnt for God.
It all went up as a sweet savor to God. So that offer completely forgot I would like to say that.
00:40:06
Him 150 is a burnt offering him. If you look at it again, I say you're going to find that it deals mostly of what he is in his person hardly touches the matter of what he did.
But it's what he is to God, and that's the burnt offering. The meal offering in Leviticus chapter two was not an animal. In fact, it's called the meat Hawking. But it's not meat. Meat was the power of the Spirit of God.
And then it was anointed with frankincense. In other words, there was always, through all his life, the Lord Jesus, a sweet savour to God.
I think there's him that corresponds to this. I like to go through the hymn books sometimes to think of the different offerings that are reflected in in the different hymns we sing. If you look at 230, you'll see something of the meal offering #230 and verse 3.
Full amidst unfaithfulness.
Mid darkness, only light. Thou didst thy father's name confess, And in his will delight.
That's something of the meal offering and that has part in our praises too. We think of His complete perfection because if you notice in the Old Testament reading through it that OFT times when they offered a burnt offering or a sin offering, the meal offering was right there with it offered too.
And after that offering was offered.
There was a handful that was taken out of that meal offering and put right into the fire because Jesus was perfect.
Even.
Best.
And that's why it's important for us to meditate on the glories and the perfections of the Lord Jesus. That's our food. That will make you strong, dear young people, to live a life of separation to the Lord, To feed on the Lord Jesus as the meal offering.
The next one is the peace offering Chapter 3, and really that word peace, you could put it the Communion offering.
In other words, there was a part of that offering, if you'll read it with some of the IT was the kidneys and the fat and certain parts of the animal after it was killed that were burned on the on the altar for God and the rest of that animal was taken and given to the people. That's why on the dedication of the temple.
Your first solemn 120,000 sheep.
And 20,000 oxen, tremendous quantities of animals because it was for all the people of Israel to participate in. In other words, we enjoy the same offering that God enjoys. There was a part for God and there was a part for us in that same offering.
If you turn to him 57, I think we have the.
Communion or the peace offering?
Notice verse 2.
Sweetest rest and peace of Phyllis the first one is on the Lamb. Our souls are resting but verse two says sweetest rest and peace of fill this sweeter praise than tongue can tell God is satisfied with Jesus. Here's God's part. We are satisfied as well. There's our part.
That's the communion of freedom, the peace offering.
And then we have Leviticus 4 is the sin offering. Leviticus Five kind of fits with it in a trespass offering. There is a little bit of difference there. We can't talk about it right now, but that is the sin offering. And perhaps that's where we understand more. We thank the Lord for having died for our sins. That's very proper too, in its place, but it's only.
00:45:15
Of the offerings that were offered, I just want to give you one.
Him where we have the sin offering, although there are a number in our hymn book, 327.
And verse 3.
Our sins, our guilt. In love divine.
Confessed and born by thee, the gall, the curse, the wrath, were thine to set thy ransomed free. There we have the sin offering mainly that him deals with a different topic. It talks about our union with the Lord Jesus, but it.
Touches the sin offering in that verse.
And so our hymn book is full of hymns that correspond to those different offerings.
And it is for us to offer those different offerings in figure.
By singing, offering praise to our God and to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our times gone, but dear young people, my desire is for you that you would get your heart filled up. You know, Bruce Anstey at the conference in Walla Walla talked about consecration. And sometimes I think that young people have the idea that concentration simply means.
Get a whole lot of things of the world.
I just want to say.
The primary thought and consecration.
The primary thought and consecration, the word means in the original Hebrew to have your hands full. And here was this priest when he was consecrated, he had his hands full of the offering and he waved that before the Lord. That's what it means in Christianity. It's not so much a matter of the hands because the work is done.
It's a matter of the heart.
But a consecrated person, young people, is a person that has their hearts so full of Jesus they don't have room for anything else. That's a consecrated person. It's not a matter of asking you to give up things.
But when you see the infinite value and worth of the person of the Lord Jesus, you are not going to want the rest of this world offers you.
It will be your own choice, your own decision. It will not be somebody standing over you.
With a web saying you shouldn't do those kind of things.
You will come to your own decision about it. Jesus so fills the heart.
The glories of his person that you will want, nothing more.
That's consecration.
Let's pray.
Prophecy Outline #1: Daniel's Seventieth Week
Prophecy Outline #2: The Key Players
Prophecy Outline #3: Final Showdown & Practical Effect
Law of the Leper #1: Early Symptoms of Leprosy
Law of the Leper #2: Advanced Symptoms of Leprosy
Law of the Leper #3: The Leper Cleansed with Blood
Law of the Leper #4: The Leper Cleansed with Water & Oil
Encouragement From Daniel
Address—Jim Hyland
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Turn with me first of all, please, to the first chapter of the book of Daniel.
Our brother Bob in the afternoon meetings has been bringing before us some of the prophetic Nuggets from the latter part of the book of Daniel. But I would like for a few moments this afternoon to look at a few Nuggets in the practical chapters of Daniel concerning Daniel's life. Because I believe we have much instruction and I've been encouraged young people to realize that God teaches by example as well as precept. He brings the truth before us. He sets out the doctrinal principles of Christianity.
But then he gives us these wonderful examples, not just older men and women along in life, but young people.
And I've been impressed with how many young people are brought before us in the word of God, because God understands that while we're young, there are those decisions that need to be made, decisions that affect the rest of our lives. There are special difficulties and problems, perhaps special attacks of the enemy while we're young. And so God brings before us these young people, and He gives us their story to teach us and to exhort us and to encourage us to go on for the Lord.
And it says the things that were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And so we can't hope but just to touch on a few things in connection with the life of Daniel. But I'd like to begin with the first couple of verses, just to get the setting.
Daniel chapter one and verse one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon under Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the House of God, and he carried.
Which he carried into the land of Shinier to the House of his gods, and he brought the vessels into the treasure House of his gods. Well, just to get the setting. As the story opens on Daniels life as a young man, we find that Daniel is no longer at home.
In the land of his birth and his upbringing, he's no longer home in Judea, but now he's a captive in the court of Babylon.
We know how God had allowed his people in his governmental ways to be carried captive and young people. I want to say at the beginning of this meeting that the governmental ways of God with you and me, if we belonged to him, are a very real thing.
You know, as I get a little older, I realize more and more that the government of God is very real. You know, young people, we don't get away with one thing in our Christian pathway. We might think sometimes we can hide things from our parents, we might think sometimes we can hide things from our brethren. But, you know, God sees and God knows and we may sneak off and do many things that we think we get away with, but we get away with nothing in our Christian pathway, you know.
We sometimes in the Gospel quote that verse, and rightly so.
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. But I want to tell you that applies to you and me who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And if we reap to the flesh, where are we? So to the flesh We're going to reap to the flesh. If we live for ourselves, it's only going to bring sorrow in our lives. The way of the transgressor is hard and sin is costly. And God's people had turned from following God. They had turned to idolatry. They had allowed much wickedness.
To come in that was not according to the mind of God, and it grieved the heart of Jehovah very much.
But in his governmental ways he finally, after remonstrating with them over and over and over again, he allowed them to be carried captive into the land of Babylon.
Now I believe Babylon is a picture to us of this world. If we were to go back to Genesis, we would find that after the flood, all the language was one. The people were together, they came to the land of Shinar, and they decided to build a city and a tower which would reach unto heaven. And we know that because of their pride there, God came down and confounded the languages, the language at the Tower of Babel.
It speaks to us of this world and its confusion, and you can follow it through in other scriptures which we don't have time to mention this afternoon. But it's a picture to us of this world going on in its pride and its arrogance without God leaving God out. You know, I believe that man has built a vast system of things, political and religious and social, that leaves God completely out.
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God is not in the thoughts of men today. Men think they are arranging everything.
I have been thankful for what Brother Bob has brought before us, showing that even at this present time God is in full control. He rules in the kingdoms of men, and the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water eterneth that whether so ever he will. But I want you to notice too here that it's not just the land that just Babylon, but the land of Shinar. Now I don't pay a particular attention to names and their meanings as they appear in the word of God, but it is interesting young people that the name Shiner.
Means holy cast off. Isn't that the world we live in today?
This is a day without restraint. I know. When you go to school, you're encouraged to follow your lusts and your appetites. You're encouraged that if it feels good, do it and nobody's to restrain you and tell you what to do. This is a day when a rebellion against authority is not only practiced, it's preached and it's propagated and it's encouraged. I know you're bombarded with this kind of thing every day, and I read this setting because I want to show that this was the day in which Daniel found himself.
You know, young people, sometimes we look around at the condition of things around us in the world and we begin to feel sorry for ourselves and perhaps even think, well, we're the only generation that ever had to face these kinds of problems and difficulties. Well, it's true, there are problems and difficulties unique to your generation. No doubt the enemy is attacking in ways that perhaps he has never attacked before. But I want to tell you this, that it's never been easy to to live for the Lord.
And we're going to see, as we mentioned, a few things in the life of Daniel, that as Daniel took a stand for his God. It wasn't easy. It was a dark day for Daniel. And you can trace this through with other young people that are brought before us in the word of God. Did they find it easy to stand for the Lord? Did they find it easy to walk in obedience to the word of God? No. Indeed, because you have a powerful enemy. You have one. It says your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion.
Walketh about seeking whom he may devour, and we don't want to be ignorant of his devices. He is a powerful enemy. But I want to show from the life of Daniel that while it's true, these are dark, difficult days, days parallel to the days in which Daniel found himself and while you have a powerful enemy.
Yet we read in the New Testament greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world and young people. I know there's some of you here this afternoon and you're concerned your heart is burdened as you think of leaving this camp tomorrow. Your heart is burdened as you think of going back to the family situation, to the things at work.
To the problems that school should September roll around.
Perhaps difficulties even in the assembly. And you say, I don't think I can go back and face it. This has been such a wonderful time with the Lords people and with the other young people. I just don't think I can go back and face the difficulties. I know have no doubt there's hearts that are weeping inwardly this afternoon. But I want to encourage your heart as you leave this place that you can take a stand for the Lord not in your own strength, but in the resources.
That God has provided for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, young people, we often quote that verse. He's given us according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. You know that young people that's true. We have the same God that Daniel had.
We have the same God that King David had. We have the same God that the Apostle Paul found his full resource in.
He hasn't changed. You know, there's an interesting comment made later on in Daniel in the 6th chapter made by the king as he sends out a proclamation. He says the God of Daniel is the living God. And then I love this expression and steadfast forever we have the same God. He hasn't changed. And the supply that you and I have in Christ this afternoon is the same limitless supply that has always been available to the people of God.
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If you and I are willing to draw on that supply this afternoon, well, let's go down. We're not going to read all these verses. We'll read a few here and there and try to fill in the story.
Just notice in verse 8 of chapter one. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Wherefore he requested of the Prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs, and then dropped down to verse 17. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.
And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams now at the end of the days, that the king had said he should bring them in.
Then the Prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king commanded. The king communed with them, and among the mall was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even under the first year.
Of King Cyrus.
What we find here, no doubt you've read this story many times, but we find here that Daniel along with a number of other we're not told how many, but I'm sure there were more than just Daniel and his three friends, no doubt quite a number of these young men who had been brought captive from the land of Israel. They are to be brought in and given the best of food, the best of circumstances.
And they are to stand before the king. You know, this was a difficult spot for Daniel.
It was a difficult test. You know, young people, it's easy to be a Christian in a situation like this. It's easy to be a Christian when you're with your fellow young person who knows the Lord Jesus. It's easy to be a Christian when you go to a conference. It's easy to be a Christian when you go even to the local assembly meetings. But you know, the tests come when we're out in the world, don't they? The tests come. God has left us in this world.
And this world.
Is under the power of Satan. He's the Prince and the power of the air. He's the God of this world.
And the tests come, and I believe the tests come for each one of us. And God tests us in various ways. You know, young people, God wants the truth to be real in our souls this afternoon. He doesn't want us to be able, just to be able to go from here and say, well, we learned such and such and enumerate certain things that we learned from scripture. That's good. But God wants us to enjoy the truth in our souls. He wants us to make these things real.
And I believe sometimes he puts us in situations like Daniel to test us, to show what's really in our hearts. You know, we can say a lot of things, but God is looking for reality in your heart and mind.
You know the Gospels free, and I'm thankful it is. But we must buy the truth.
It says by the truth and sell it. Not because I don't believe we ever really value something fully until we buy it for ourselves often. Use this illustration. If I if one of my daughters wants something, I may give them the money to go down and buy it and they may have some appreciation of that item. But if I say to my daughter now you save up your money and when you get enough money you can go down and buy this item, now she has a far greater appreciation for that item.
She knows the cost. She had to buy that item for herself. And I believe This is why God passes us through these tests and circumstances to bring out what's really in our hearts. You know, when the children of Israel first came out of Egypt, there went up a mixed multitude, and God allowed circumstances in the wilderness to bring out what was in the hearts of those people who had come out of Egypt. Well, this was a difficult test.
They were brought in, and they were appointed a portion of the King's meat and of the wine. Now you know, if Daniel had gone along with this, he would have perhaps had to eat, have eaten things that were contrary for a Jew to eat under the Levitical order. You remember, there were certain requirements set forth by God, certain things a certain animals that they were not to eat.
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That wouldn't have meant anything to a gentile king like Nebuchadnezzar. And no doubt Daniel would have had to have compromised the word of God and eaten things that were unclean. Perhaps he would have had to eat things that were offered to idols as well.
What was he going to do? You know, I mentioned that there were no doubt more than just Daniel and his three friends brought in.
To be fed by the King's meat and with his wine. And Daniel might have looked at his peers and said, well, everybody's doing it and this is a different day. When we were home in our land, we used to believe those things and our fathers and our grandfathers practice these things. But this is a different day now. We're in a different set of circumstances.
And we've got to go along with things. He could have said that that would have been what people call the path of least resistance. Is that what he did? You know? It must have been difficult. I wonder, young people, if some of his peers didn't look at him, some of those who had come from his own land as captives, and wondered Daniel, this is foolish. I don't want to read into Scripture, but I wondered if Daniel didn't suffer a little reproach.
From his fellow peers, you know, young people I know that's the hardest kind of reproach to take.
You know, when you go to school and you take a stand for the Lord, that takes real courage and there's reproach connected with it, I know.
But you know, in one sense we say, well, they don't know the Lord, they don't understand.
But young people, I know when you go home and I know when you're with the other young people and my heart goes out to you.
I know you're going to suffer reproach sometimes even from the other young people in the meeting. And that's hard, isn't it? I know that's hard. You take a stand for the Lord. You try to be a help in the assembly in some little way. You try to help the other young people. You try to be faithful to the word of God, and you're misunderstood.
By the other young people, I'm sure Daniel felt this, but you know, I believe the key in Daniel's life here was.
What we read in verse eight he had purpose of heart.
You know, sometimes I've heard it said about young people, they have a nice desire.
You know desire is good, but there is a verse, I believe it's in the book of Proverbs that says this.
The sluggard desireth and hath nothing. You know, I often think of David in this connection.
Because in the 27th Psalm, David said this one thing have I desired of the Lord. That's good. But he didn't stop there. He said that will I seek after. There was purpose of heart, there was energy of faith. Now young people, I know it's only the grace of God that gives any one of us a desire to follow the Lord. I realize that.
And if you've had a desire to follow and please the Lord today, you have to, and I have to confess.
That it's God that works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. But young people, there needs to be that exercise and that energy of faith and that purpose of heart. Now this is an interesting expression, purpose of heart. It appears three times in the word of God in this connection with Daniel. And then if we were to go over to the 11Th chapter of Acts, we would find it in connection with Barnabas who went and encouraged the believers that with purpose of heart they would.
Cleave unto the Lord, you know it takes purpose of heart, it takes energy of faith to live in these dark, difficult days. These are the last days, and these are perilous times. But to cleave with purpose of heart, to hold fast to the truth, Jude went. And when he wrote to the Saints, he wrote of days very parallel to the days in which we're living, days of the giving up of the truth. And he said earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the Saints.
Young people, when you go home, are you going to earnestly contend for the faith? Are you going to have the purpose of heart that Daniel had? Are you going to have the purpose of heart that Barnabas exhorted the early believers to have? That you might cleave to the truth of God, that you might cling to this blessed book. When we were growing up, there was a Him we sometimes sung, Oh, cling to the Bible, my boy. It's interesting too that the other time this expression appears in the word of God.
Is in Second Corinthians Chapter 9 where Paul is writing to the Corinthian believers.
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And he is speaking there of using what God has given them in a natural and material way. Sorry.
We've had some expressions in this connection already during these meetings, but young people, I just want to echo what has been already expressed so well, What are you doing with your energies?
What are you doing with the resources that God has given you? Do you realize that that which we have in a natural way, in a temporal way, is not our own? It's only been loaned to us? And you know what it says for each one of us? It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
Do you have a dollar in your pocket? You're a steward of that dollar. Has God-given you a car?
You're a steward of that car. Has God-given you some talent OR some energy?
You're only a steward of that talent, of that energy, young people. I want to impress this upon you.
You're young, I realize you have hopes and you have goals and you have dreams.
But I want to encourage you to live for Christ.
And to as it were, put those things that have been entrusted to you on the altar and use them for his glory. God wants the best years of your life. He wants your youth. He doesn't want you to wait till you're a little older.
I know young people were not all called to the mission field. I know we're not all called to give up our employment and go out and serve the Lord full time. But I want to encourage you as you leave this camp, to get before the Lord as to the path of faith and service that he has for you. You remember the Levites in the Old Testament? Every one of those Levites had a burden and everyone had a service. And I want to just say this too.
As you go back home to the little assembly from which you have come.
Or maybe some of you have come from assemblies that are a little larger.
But however many people there may be from week to week in the local assembly.
Get before the Lord and seek his mind as to how you can be a help in the assembly. I'm not just talking to the brothers, I'm talking to the sisters. You know, I've always been encouraged for the sake of the sisters by what Paul said when he wrote to the Philippians. I believe it was, he said. And help those women which labored with me in the gospel, You know, there were women who had been a real help in certain ways, quiet ways in their own sphere.
They'd been a real help and encouragement to the Apostle Paul as he preached the gospel and ministered the truth.
We find in the pathway of the Lord Jesus there are three women who are mentioned who follow the Lord Jesus down here and minister to Him of their substance. Their names were Susanna, Joanna and Mary Magdalene.
Wouldn't you like to have your name recorded?
As one who ministered of their substance sisters.
I believe that this ought to exercise each one of us, no matter how young or how old we are. And, you know, I sometimes wonder if there aren't assemblies who suffer a lack because there are those in the assembly who do not carry out the little function that God has given them as a member of the body of Christ.
I often think in this connection of our Kippus. You know, I don't know how old Archippus was. I don't know if he was a young man or not. But you know, when Paul wrote to the Saints at Colossi, he said, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it. Paul realized that Archippus had been given some little service to fulfill for the Lord and for the good of his people, and Archippus wasn't carrying out that little function, and that the assembly at Colossi was suffering a lack because of it.
My dear young person, dear young brother, dear young sister, are you going to get before the Lord and be exercised as to what He has for you in connection with service and the good and blessing of His people?
Daniel purposed in his heart that he wasn't going to defile himself. You know, there's a verse that says keep thyself pure young people. It applies to every aspect of our Christian life. God has a purpose. God has a plan for you and it's a happy plan, you know. God hasn't told us these things and set forth certain standards in his word to make life difficult. These things are for the good and blessing of his people upon the earth.
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And if God tells you something from His word, it's for your good and blessing. And the only happy thing is to obey. If you know these things, happier ye if you do them, you know we're going to go away here. Young people, knowing many things. We've had many, many things brought before us from the word of God during these meetings. But I want to tell you this. If you go away knowing these things and you don't practically carry them out in your life, there's going to be no joy in fruit.
You know, happiness and obedience go hand in hand in our Christian pathway. You cannot separate the two. They go hand in hand. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Daniel wasn't going to defile himself of with these two things, the King's meat, you know. I know again, and I don't want to sound repetitive, but I do want to ask you this question this afternoon. Young people, what are you feeding on?
Think about that for a moment.
What are you feeding on? I don't mean what do you have to eat when you sit down to breakfast? I don't mean what do you grab when you rush through lunch. I don't mean what do you have set before you when you come home to dinner?
What are you feeding on as far as what you're reading and taking in?
Satan has plenty for us to feed on, doesn't he? But all young people, those things don't satisfy your soul. Now I realize when you go to school, there are things that you are required to read to get along through the course and to pass the exam at the end. I know perhaps even some of you are in situations where at work there's certain things you have to read and study and take up. But what are you feeding on in your own time? Are you going to the bookshelves of this world and feeding on the husks?
You know, the prodigal son came to the point where he was so far away from the father's house that he fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.
Are you filling your appetite or trying to fill your appetite with the husks? The things of this world you know, this meat must have looked very pleasant. I'm sure it was the best that the king put could provide. In Babylon. It no doubt looked very appetizing.
But Daniel wasn't going to defile himself and the wine. Wine, as we've been often told, speaks of joy. Are you seeking the joys of this world now, young people? We've had fun during these times together. We've had fun with the activities and fun together. And I'm not here to condemn fun. But where are you finding your joy? Are you finding your joy in Christ? Or are you finding your joy in the wine?
Of this world.
You know, if you're only seeking the fun and amusements of this world, if you're seeking the joys of this world, you're going to bed at night with an empty, aching heart. Be honest with yourself. Oh, it seems so pleasant, the pleasures of sin for a season. But when you're alone and you, you lie on your bed with your eyes open and sleep as fled. I know if you're honest with yourself, there's an aching in your heart. Those things aren't satisfying your hearts.
Young people I know. I know from sad experience that those things don't fill and satisfy your heart.
Daniel was faithful. It was a difficult test. It took courage. It took purpose of heart. But what was the result? We didn't read the verses here, but we find that not only was Daniel blessed because of his faithfulness, but he was an encouragement to three of his peers and young people. I want to tell you.
You're a tremendous encouragement.
To those that know you, when you take a stand for the Lord, you don't realize our brother Paul was speaking at the prayer meeting. I think it was concerning.
The encouragement that some had been in this moment is having an effect on someone else.
You know, it says in Romans, no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
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And your life and mine at this moment are either a stumble and a discouragement to someone or a help and encouragement. And Daniel here took a stand and he took it alone. You may have to stand alone sometimes, but I believe because of Daniel stand and Daniels, faith and Daniels purpose of heart.
Oh, what a blessing it was to those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You want to be an encouragement to the other young people? Take a stand for the Lord, Take a stand for the truth. And when there's compromise and suggestions made to do things that you know are contrary to the word of God, suggestions even amongst the other young people, don't do it. Young people don't compromise the word of God.
You know, I believe young people, that compromise is letting the barrier down slowly. It's taking a row of bricks off the wall, one row at a time. You know, if you have a brick wall and you take A roll of bricks off every once in a while, perhaps nobody notices. It's only 6 or 8 inches gone at a time. But, you know, pretty soon the wall is completely removed. You know, that's what the enemy wants to do. He wants us to just give up a little bit here and there, just take a little of the King's meat, just indulge a little in the joys of this world. It's not going to hurt and everybody's going along with it.
Days when you have to give a little. Young people, I plead with you not to do it. Stand for your God.
He's done so much for you. Stand for the Lord Jesus. He's done so much for you.
Your heart Go out to him. Be occupied with that lovely man in the glory, because I believe where your heart is, your feet will follow and you'll be a true disciple. In the measure in which your heart goes out to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, does your heart go out to him? Have you, as a result of these meetings this week, got a fresh glimpse of Christ in the glory? If you have, if you've looked up and seen the Lord Jesus there.
The one who is altogether lovely.
Then I am fairly well assured that they will have a practical effect in your life as you leave this camp. There will be a desire and purpose of heart to follow him. And what does it say of Daniel? We're going to have to move quickly. It says just notice a little expression in verse 21. And Daniel continued. Now, I realize this is taking this phrase a little bit out of its context, but I like to read this, Daniel continued. You know, we're going to go on and we're going to see that Daniel did continue.
You know, young people, it's one thing to make a good start, it's another thing to continue. You know the Christian pathway. The Christian race is not the Sprint, it's not the 100 yard dash, it's the marathon. And that's why it says in Hebrews, let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, it takes endurance. If the Lord leaves us here and you go home, it's going to take endurance.
Going to take constant exercise from day-to-day through situation after situation.
But Daniel continued. You know, I think in sad contrast to this of a man in the New Testament, his name is Demus. You know, Demus made a good start. He was listed with the fellow laborers of the apostle Paul.
He worked with other of the servants of the Lord. He was connected with Luke the beloved physician.
What did the apostle Paul have to say at the end of his life? Demas hath forsaken me. Having loved this present age, the spirit of the age came in and drew the heart of Demas away. But here Daniel continued. And my prayer for you is that you'll not just make a good start, but that you'll continue. Because, you know, sometimes occasions like this are a fresh start for us, aren't there? Aren't they?
You know, perhaps there are young people and you came here and you said, well, I really wasn't following the Lord. I'd really got cold in my soul. And I was allowing things in my Christian life that were hindering me in following the Lord. And perhaps you sat under the ministry of the Word, and by the grace of God in the power of the Spirit, the Lord has got a hold of you, and you've had a change of heart. And you say, I really want to follow the Lord now. Sometimes these are fresh beginnings for us.
And I think of that verse in Jeremiah that says, Wilt thou not from this time? I like that from this time cry unto me and say, my father, thou art the guide of my youth. Maybe you haven't followed the Lord the way you you ought to have, but from this time you can look to him for guidance and direction, and for the strength to follow on.
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And then to seek daily grace that you might be preserved. And my prayer is that not only will you make a good start, or perhaps even on an occasion like this a fresh start, but that you will continue. Let's go on to the third chapter and look at another incident, not particularly in the life of Daniel, but in connection with his three friends. We're not going to read this for the sake of time. Let's just notice the 25th verse of the third chapter.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt.
And the form of the 4th is like the Son of God. Well, this is in connection with Daniels, three friends who had been encouraged through Daniels purpose of heart and faithfulness in the first chapter. But, you know, I said earlier, young people, that the tests come for each one of us as individuals. You know, it's wonderful to have a friend who has a desire to follow the Lord, and it's wonderful to receive encouragement from that friend.
David said I am a companion of all them that fear thee and that love thy precepts. I trust that's our desire too. I trust you're seeking your companionship, your friendship amongst those who have a desire to please the Lord. You'll find it'll be a tremendous blessing in your life. But you know the tests come for us as individuals. The King had set up an image of gold. He'd made a decree that at the sound of the music, there were everyone in the Kingdom that had been called to the dedication.
Of this image was to fall down and worship it.
It was a difficult test for these three men and evidently Daniel wasn't present on this occasion.
They couldn't turn and look and let Daniel be the spokesman. They couldn't turn and look and see what their friend was going to do and sort of stand in his shadow. No, the test came for them. What were they going to do? But I believe that they had received such encouragement through Daniel and that through his influence, their faith had been strengthened so that when the test came for them, they were able in the strength of the Lord to stand the test. And they determined that they weren't going to compromise the truth either.
They knew it would be contrary to the word of God to bow down and worship.
This image they knew that they were to worship the Lord, their God and Him only were they to worship.
And they were determined, even at the penalty of death, to be faithful to their God, you know, in the first chapter.
These men were faithful, and God came in, and he made them fairer, and gave them more wisdom than all the other men.
Here it was a little different set of circumstances.
And at the wrath of the King, after remonstrating with them, he decrees that that furnace is to be heated 7 times hotter, and that these men are to be taken and bound and cast into this furnace. You know, it wasn't very nice to think that in faithfulness to their God they were going to have to suffer like that, but they were determined to be faithful at all costs.
You know, I wonder young people, if this was the kind of test that faced you and I this afternoon. I wonder what I would do. What would you do?
Answer that before the Lord in your own heart, you know the Lord gives grace for every situation.
You know, he doesn't always remove the difficulty, does he? You know he didn't deliver them from the fiery furnace. He delivered them through it. God doesn't always remove the the circumstance or the difficulty. Paul had a difficulty and he prayed three times that it might be removed. And the Lord said, no, Paul, I'm not going to remove it. But my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. David said By my God have I run through the truth. He didn't see the truth removed.
But he said, by my God, if I run through the troop, by my God have I leaped over the wall. He didn't see the wall taken down and removed. The difficulty was there but in the strength of his God. He could run through that troop, and he could leap over that wall. And in the strength of the Lord, you can stand for the truth. You can live for God's glory in this world. You can live as a Christian in obedience to the word of God.
And these three men were taken and cast into the fiery furnace was a difficult trial. But what I particularly have on my heart in connection with this incident is the fact that in the furnace they enjoyed in no doubt a way they had never enjoyed before, a special sense of the Lord's presence with them.
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Perhaps you've been through a real trial and difficulty and as you look back you say I wouldn't have missed that for the world because you had in a wonderful way, a special sense of the Lords presence with you young people.
We don't have to ask the Lord to be with us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. But I do believe that we only enjoy His presence, a sense of his company, when we're faithful to him, when we walk in the path of obedience. You remember Jonah? You know Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. He was one of the Lord's own. But there came a time in his life when he decided that he'd had enough of the Lord's choosing for him. Isn't that sad?
I hope there's no one here who's come to that point where you say I don't want the Lord's choosing for me anymore.
And you know what it says of Jonah? He rose up to flee under Tarshish. Notice this from the presence of the Lord. He lost in his soul a sense of the Lorde presence, and by the time the story is over, Jonah had learned that it wasn't worth the cost.
It seemed perhaps like it was going to be an easier path to run away, but it wasn't worth the cost. There was a loss in his soul.
And when we get to glory and we see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and we say to them, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, what was the best experience in your life?
You know, I have no doubt. Beyond the shadow of a doubt. I think they'll tell us that this was the best experience of their life. Why? Because they enjoyed a sense of the Lords presence with them. Some of the young people have heard me mention this before, but I was impressed that one time the British press ran a contest and a cash reward was offered to the for the best answer to the question.
What is the shortest way to London?
And the person that received the prize submitted this answer. The shortest way to London is in good company.
You know, young people, we can go through life like that. It might be a furnace of affliction. I'm not going to promise you it's an easy path to follow the Lord. But you can go through this world in good company. You can go through this world in the company of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these men enjoyed a sense, a real sense, of the Lord's presence with them. Well, let's skip over now to the 6th chapter.
Actually, I'd like to mention a verse or two in the fifth in the 5th chapter before we do that.
Chapter 5 and verse 17. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing under the king and make known to him the interpretation. This is in connection with the feast of Belshazzar.
The writing on the wall and Daniel is finally brought in to stand before the king. And the king says to him, if you can read the writing on the wall, I'll give you these three things.
We have them in the verse. Before he was going to give him, he was going to clothe them in scarlet, put a gold chain about his neck and make him third ruler in the Kingdom. And this is the reply that Daniel gave to that king. Now why did Daniel refuse the gifts that the king offered on this occasion?
Well, you know, Daniel knew from the writing on the wall that the Kingdom was ended. Secular history tells us that while Daniel stood before this king, the enemy was already besieging the city. It's interesting when the writing was written, it was written in the future tense, and when Daniel translated it, that he translated it in the present tense. Notice that carefully sometime.
Daniel knew that that Kingdom was under judgment and that it was going to pass away. And scripture tells us that that very night was the king slain and his Kingdom passed to another and young people. Why would Daniel want to be third ruler in a Kingdom that was about to pass away? And why would you and I want to set our affections on things here and our goals and aspiration on things in this world when this world is about to pass away? I believe we've had that verse before us already.
That all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Young people, the things that you build for down here are going to pass away. The poet put it so well. He said only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You know, it's interesting that Daniel's name means judge. God is my judge. And young people I'll never stand before gone as a as a as my judge in the sense of my sins being brought up against me.
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Because that's been settled for once and for all. By one offering you have perfected forever them that are sanctified. But we will all appear at the judgment seat of Christ. Everything will be reviewed.
How we planned our lives, what we did with the things God entrusted to us. Everything is going to be manifested there. Even our Spirit and our attitude, I believe, is going to be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ. What will it be when we stand there?
I believe Daniel lived his whole life in relationship to God being his judge.
In the sense in which we have just spoken of it. You know what's interesting too, that if we were to go back to the 25th chapter of Leviticus, we would find that for the children of Israel.
What placed the value on the temporal things that they bought and sold was the nearness of the Year of Jubilee.
Because when the year of Jubilee came, everything had to be returned to its original owner. In other words, if a man bought a field in the 49th year, well, he obviously didn't pay much for it because in a year he had to return it to its original owner. The Lord Jesus is about to come. Our Jubilee is about to take place, and in the measure in which you and I realize this, in the measure in which we are living in the enjoyment of the return of the Lord Jesus at any moment.
In that measure, it's going to have a practical purifying effect on our lives, and in that measure it will place the proper value.
On the temporal things that God has entrusted to us for this little time. Well, quickly I want to look at the a verse in the 6th chapter, verse 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time.
You know young people, I believe this sums up Daniel's life. Daniel had power in his life. He had fruit for God's glory. He had testimony. The Lord took care of his situations. The Lord undertook for him in every way. But I believe this is the secret here. He had purpose of hired in the first chapter. Now we find Daniel as an old man. Years have passed by and we find that Daniel's whole life was characterized.
By prayer.
Again, it was a difficult situation. And you know, just because we get over one situation, just because there's one victory in our lives, young people, doesn't mean that there isn't another problem on the horizon. We're not home yet. The enemy is busy. We're still in the school of God. There's the trials and difficulties, the things that are going to be with us.
As long as we're left here.
A writing was signed that no one was to pray to anyone but the king for a certain period of time. What did Daniel do? He went on with his normal routine. It was the habit of Daniels life to pray three times a day. You know young people, the habits you form now or what are going to characterize your life.
When you get older, what you're forming now is going to be the habit of your life. When you get older, it's too late to wait till you're a little older, to open the word of God and read it each morning. It's too late to wait till you're a little old, he said. Well, I'll wait till I get it through college and I get a job.
I'll wait till we get I get married and then my wife and I will enjoy these things. It's too late then. The habits that you're forming now are what are going to characterize you later on And it was the habit of Daniels life he as he did a four time from the time from chapter one from the time he was a young man. It was the habit of his life to commune with his God three times a day. You know Daniel I don't believe pray just when he got into trouble either.
Wonderful to pray when we get into trouble. But I like this little expression as he did aforetime, because, you know, there were times when things went very well for Daniel. There were times when he was promoted in his business under certain of the kings. In fact, here things had been going very well under the new regime. But you know, it was the habit of Daniel's life to speak to his God three times a day sometimes. Perhaps there wasn't any real burden or request, but he just went into his room and spoke to his God. Do you know what it is to commune with your God?
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Do you know what it is to speak to the Lord? You can look it up sometime but in First Timothy chapter 5 and verse 4.
I believe it is where it speaks there of being the food we eat, being sanctified by the word of God in prayer. If you notice Mr. Darby's translation, he translates the word prayer as freely addressing God, that wonderful young people we can come in our room and freely address God.
Because you know, if you have a friend and you only go to that friend when you're in trouble, that friend pretty soon gets tired of you. But you know, if you have a friend and you enjoy the happy times together, then when the problem arises, you say, oh, I can go to that friend, that friend understands me, that friend knows my heart because we've been together and enjoyed fellowship, enjoy fellowship with your God. And then when the situations come, you'll know where to turn. Daniel wasn't overwhelmed by this difficulty. He knew where to turn.
But I want to notice something else too that has impressed me recently in this verse.
You know, they had been instructed. There was a provision made at the dedication of the temple in Solomons day that when the people of God were absent from their land, if they would pray toward Jerusalem, God center, God would hear them. Daniel knew that. And you know it doesn't say here when Daniel went into his room that he opened his windows.
Because he would have been courting persecution if he did.
If he'd shut them, he would have been a coward. But notice this carefully. Scriptures tremendously accurate. Notice this and his windows being open.
He neither opened or closed them on this occasion. Young people, it's not that we go out and look for opportunities to suffer.
But if you are faithful to the Lord, there will be plenty of opportunities. All they that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So we don't go out and court persecution. We go out, and we, I trust, reflect something of Christ in our lives and in the measure in which we do that there will be.
Persecution the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they hated me, they will hate you also. But I just want to point out here that it was the habit of Daniels life to keep his window open toward Jerusalem, and to come three times a day, day after day after day, and kneel. Independence.
In the way in which they had been instructed in the Old Testament, knowing that the ear of his God was open to his prayer, and we don't have time to go on. But we find that later when the Lord speaks to Daniel, he tells him that his petitions were heard. Young people, when you get before the Lord and you speak to him, and you bring those needs.
You think he doesn't hear? I want to tell you he does here. Maybe he doesn't answer in the way that we would like. Perhaps he doesn't act as quickly as we would like sometimes. But he does hear your prayer and he's seeking your best young people. We've looked at this story very, very quickly. We've mentioned a few things, but I just trust that the spirit of God will take these scriptures concerning Daniel and his three friends and impress them on your soul. And I encourage you to take your Bible and read through the life of Daniel.
Daniel was later on given that wonderful revelation and that vision.
Because because of the things that we have spoken of that were practical in Daniels life. He had purpose of heart. He had confidence in his God. He was a man of prayer. He sought to be faithful. He stood alone, and God blessed him for it. And God will bless you for it. Them that honor me I will honor. And God will use you young people in a wonderful way. If you seek to be faithful to him, I just want to encourage you in closing.
Read your Bible. Let the Lord speak to you.
Speak to him in prayer.
Walk in his company that you might be a help and encouragement to your fellow believer, and that you might be a blessing and a testimony in this world, and that you might have fruit and joy until the Lord Jesus comes. Let's pray.
The Importance of God's Word
Address—Jim Hyland
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To the book of Second Timothy.
Second Timothy chapter 3, Second Timothy chapter 3, and we'll begin reading at verse 14.
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scriptures given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect.
Thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And then I'd like to read a verse or two in first Peter.
First Peter chapter one.
And verse 23.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, for all fleshes as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Well, I had it on my heart to look at some verses this afternoon and take up a line of things.
That I realized some of the young people here have heard me take up before. And yet I feel burdened in taking up these scriptures because I trust that these scriptures that we look at briefly this afternoon will encourage our hearts as to the importance of God's Word in our lives. Young people, you need God's Word in your life. You need to read it each day. And the scriptures we're going to look at, I trust, will show how this applies in a practical way to every part of our Christian pathway.
It's vital. It's a vital part of Christianity. God has given us His precious word, and we have just read together that the word of our God endureth forever. We have a book in our hands this afternoon that is unlike any other book in this world. Do you realize that this book, God's Word, is the only book in this world that's living? That's why you'll never exhaust it. And that's why I believe for all eternity there's going to be a fresh enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
As we have those things before us, when we're safe home in the Father's house, I say you'll never exhaust this book. Every book that man writes can be exhausted. Perhaps you've had a book that you particularly enjoyed, and after you had read it and time passed, you enjoyed it so much that you picked it up and read it once again. And on the second reading, you found there were things you missed the first time. And then perhaps some further time passed.
And you picked up that book a third time, and we'll suppose even a fourth time. And no doubt each time you picked it up, there was something that you had felt you missed before. But you know, every book that man writes, as comprehensive as it may be, as interesting as it may be, you can always exhaust it. You ever have a book? And after you read it several times, you said, well, there's no more we can get out of that book because every book that man writes can only contains so much information.
But this book is, I say, like unlike any other book in this world. It's the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. But I began with this portion in Second Timothy because this is what we might say is the beginning. You know, when we take up a line of truth in scripture, it's always good to go back to the beginning. And what is the beginning for us in our Christian pathway? Well, it's that time when we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
That time when there was a work of grace in our souls and we realized that we were sinners, but we also realized that God had full and abundant provision and pardon for us. It was, I say, a new beginning in our lives, just like Israel in the Old Testament. You know, when they were under the ******* of Pharaoh and Egypt, a picture to us in the Old Testament of Satan in this world, God said that he was going to deliver them.
And God did deliver them from that ******* and he redeemed them by the blood of the Passover lamb.
Not only so, but he delivered them through the Red Sea, and they looked back and rejoiced that their enemies were dead and that they had complete deliverance. And God told Moses to say to the children of Israel, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months. This was a new time in Israeli history.
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They were no longer under the ******* of the Egyptians. They were now redeemed to Jehovah. It was a new beginning for them. And I know that most of us here, if not all, look back to that time, some of us over a few years. Perhaps there are some here who no doubt look back over many, many years. But doesn't it rejoice our hearts to think of that time when in some way we heard or read the word of God, it was presented to us?
And it showed us our need as sinners and also God's way of salvation.
And here in the verses that we began with the Apostle Paul is writing to a young man named Timothy. And Timothy had the privilege of growing up in a home where the word of God was valued. I had by the grace of God such a privilege. Not that I always appreciated it, but I look back and rejoice to think that I had the privilege of being brought up in a home where the word of God was read on a daily basis. And we know that Timothy had a God fearing grandmother.
And a godly mother who no doubt brought the Scriptures before him, because Paul reminded Timothy that he was to continue in the things that he had learned and been assured of, and he was to continue in those things that he had heard from a child. Now I realized that perhaps there are some here this afternoon who were not, are not, were not brought up in a Christian home. Perhaps your parents aren't even glad you're here this afternoon. But there are many of us who have had the privilege and do have the privilege at this very moment, of being brought up in a Christian home.
Do you value it? And do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior? You've heard the way of salvation.
I have no doubt if I were to go up and down these rows this afternoon and take the time to speak to each one individually, not just the young people, but the boys and girls and those who are older, I have no doubt that each one here could give me some answer as to how to be saved. You know the verses from God's Word. You've had the way of salvation explained to you from mothers and fathers, perhaps grandparents. You've come to the meetings and you've heard the word of God opened and read and the way of salvation explained very clearly from God's precious word.
But I want to say at the outset of this meeting, if there's someone here and you're not saved, all the way of blessing is open for you and open your ears this afternoon to hear God's word, it says he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. It says to faith cometh by hearing and hear and hearing by the word of God. And that was my point in reading this, these portions, because every one of us here who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
It's been the result of hearing the word of God in some way, because Timothy was reminded that from a child he had heard the word of God and that it was the word of God that had made plain to him the way of salvation. That's what he means when he says which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. It's the Holy Scriptures that show us God's wonderful plan for sinners. How would we know God's way of salvation?
Apart from the word of God, but God has spelled it out for us very carefully. In the Word of God, the way of righteousness, it says, is so plain that a way faring man, though a fool, may not err therein. God's desire is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Because Timothy not only heard these things from the time of his childhood, but Timothy had made these things good to his own soul. Here was a young man brought up under the sound of the word of God, but a young man who had come to know the Lord Jesus as his savior. And he says here, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, Timothy had come to trust in the finished work of Calvary. He'd come to trust the Lord Jesus and the Precious Blood for his salvation. Have you come to that point in your life?
It's one thing to hear the word of God from the days of your childhood, but oh, it's a solemn thing to refuse it.
I suppose there will be many in the lake of fire who will have the memory of sitting on their parents knee and hearing the word of God. Many who will have the memory of coming to gospel meetings, perhaps even the memory of coming to young people's get togethers such as we have before us this week. And yet they will be in a place of torment. They will have a memory because it says the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Well, Paul goes on to remind Timothy.
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That all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And so I want to go on and look at this.
But I might just say before we do that I read the verses in Peter because I believe too, it's not just hearing the word of God, but it's the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit that God uses to impart divine life To us. It says we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. I can't save one soul, you can't save one soul. But we can present the word of God.
And it's the sword of the Spirit. It's not my sword. It's not your sword. It's the sword of the Spirit. And when it's used in communion with the Spirit, then there's power. And it says it's living and operative and saw. The gospel has been preached unto us, and I trust every one of us here have believed the gospel of our salvation. But as I say, that's the beginning. But it's only the beginning. And so Paul goes on to remind Timothy.
All Scripture was given is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, and he gives a list of things that it is profitable for. And then he says that the man of God, God, may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. In other words, he says, Timothy, if you're going to be a useful vessel for the Lord's glory, if you're going to be a useful servant, all you must take up the word of God. And I have every confidence that I as I look into the faces of my young brother in this afternoon.
That you have a desire in some measure to follow and to serve the Lord. I trust it's true of each one of us, but we really can't take up an intelligent service for the Lord without taking up God's word. And so, as I say, I want to look at some scriptures that show how this applies to every aspect of our lives. Young people, I realize that Christianity is a very practical thing. It begins with that time when we're saved, but then it takes exercise.
It takes purpose of heart. It takes energy of faith to go on day by day and year after year for the Lord as we're left here. And I I know there's problems. Youth is experiencing a great deal of difficulty today. But I want to tell you before we go on, we have a wonderful resource in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His precious word, this book is more up to date than the daily newspaper.
It fits what's happening in 1998. In fact, I've been recently enjoying how when Peter wrote to the Saints, he said I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and I want you to notice this little expression and be established in the present truth.
You know, this book is the present truth. In other words, it's relevant for what's happening today, because you might look at some of us who are a little further along and say, well, you don't understand. You don't know how dark it's become and what we have to face. Well, young people, perhaps, I don't. I know things are darkening in this world. I know the enemy is busy today to vie for your affections, to interject every kind of thought and activity, to keep you occupied with the things of this life.
But I do know this. We have the present truth before us. I know that this book is able to help you and to guide you and to keep you even. In 1998 have sometimes said when we were growing up there was a large bookcase in my parents hallway. And in that bookcase where a number of books, they went from the shelf by the floor right to the ceiling. And often those books were pulled off the shelf and read as we were growing up. But there was a shelf of books up near the ceiling that really only collected dust.
Except that on some occasions, perhaps a snowy afternoon or a rainy evening, we would pull those books down and we'd look at them, as we sometimes said, just for a laugh, because they were old books that my parents studied when they went to school and why, We find that we found how outdated they were. The books that we were using in school at that time were what we would think were so much more advanced than the things my parents studied, and men's philosophies and ideas change.
Ways of teaching, perhaps some of the books that I studied just a few short years ago, If we were to bring them here this afternoon, you'd say, oh, we've left those books behind long ago. We've moved on, we've made progress in science and all these kind of things, But all the word of God doesn't change. The word of God lives and abides forever. And I just want to impress upon you this afternoon that this book is relevant to your life right now, in 1998.
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And it will do the same tomorrow. As long as we're left here, this book is sufficient light and instruction for our pathway through this world. Well, with these things in mind, I'd like to go first of all to the 23rd chapter of the Book of Job.
And verse 12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Well, we spoke of how when we're saved, God imparts to us divine life.
And if we can be healthy, fruitful Christians here in this world, we must feed the Newman.
Just like in natural things, those of us who have children know that we're concerned on a daily basis for making sure that those children eat healthy meals, because if they're going to grow properly, they need good, substantial, healthy food. Each one of us take the trouble to eat perhaps three good meals a day. And yet in doing that, I wonder if we have the same exercise as to the new man.
We take such pains to take care of the body and the natural.
And rightly so. We're not our own. We're bought with a price, and our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and we need to be concerned about those things. But what about the spiritual? Here was a man named Job, one of the earliest writers in the of the Word of God. And what did he say? Oh, there was something that was more to him than just eating three good meals a day. And that was the word of God. I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Do we value the word of God in that way? Jeremiah said. Thy words were found, and I did eat them.
And they were unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, and when the Lord Jesus was here.
He spoke to his own in John's Gospel, chapter 6, and he spoke of feeding on the bread that came down from heaven.
And that bread was Christ himself, because how are we going to feed on Christ?
Young people, how are we going to feed on Christ? How are we going to feed the new man?
We must take up this book and read it. There's a little hymn we sung when we were younger. Feed on God's Word in the morning. Feed on God's Word at noon. Feed on God's Word in the evening to keep your heart in tune. And we need to feed on the bread that has come down from heaven. And I say that bread is Christ himself. And you know, wherever you pick up and read the word of God, the subject is always Christ. Now, I might just say to at this juncture that I want to encourage orderly, consistent reading of the word of God.
There are times when we take up this book and we perhaps do a little study and we follow a line of things through the word of God. And that's right and proper because God has woven the truth in a way that doesn't encourage laziness. God never encourages laziness in our Christian pathway, and he's woven the truth in the sense that it says it is the glory of God to conceal the thing. The honor of kings is to search out the matter, and we're exhorted to search the scriptures and so on.
But I do want to encourage you to take time to orderly and consistently read the word of God.
But wherever you read, the subject is always Christ, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament. When you take it up and read it, have an exercise to see Christ in every line. Let me give you just a couple of examples from the New Testament to show how even the Old Testament brings before us many aspects of the person and work of Christ. When the word Jesus spoke to the two on the way to yes, it says, beginning at Moses and the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures. That was the Old Testament, the things concerning Himself.
Because it all spoke of Christ. It says there too, that he spoke of the things that were written of him in Moses, in the Psalms, and in the prophets, And so again it speaks of Christ. I've enjoyed it too, in connection with the Ethiopian eunuch who was sitting in his chariot, reading the word of God, the book of Isaiah, the 53rd of Isaiah, and when Philip, directed by the Spirit of the Lord, climbs up in that chariot to to speak to the eunuch.
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The eunuch said to him of the portion he was reading. He said, I don't know who the prophet is Speaking of. Is he Speaking of himself or some other person I know? I love what it says. It says, beginning at the same scripture he preached unto him, Jesus. I just think of it this way, young people. It wouldn't have mattered where that man was reading in the Old Testament, the Evangelist could have begun at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus, because it all speaks of Christ. And I might say too, that when we read the word of God, we need all the word of God.
You know, I'm saddened to find that there are some Christians today who are discrediting the Old Testament, setting it aside as not being relevant and important. Well, it's true, we need the New Testament to get the life and work of Christ and the fundamental principles and doctrines of Christianity. But I believe too, we go back to the Old Testament and we see it illustrated. The Old Testament is God's picture book. It's full of illustrations of men and women and their stories, and that these things show us clearly.
What it is to be sheltered from judgment, what it is to have a friend who cares for us. What it is to have a hope and a home at the end of the pathway. And we need to go back and to read these Old Testament stories. I believe this too. Young people, that God has given us examples of men and women and young people, even boys and girls, who were placed in all kinds of similar situations to that which we passed through.
Even in 1998, And maybe when you read these stories at first, they don't mean a whole lot to you.
Maybe they're just interesting stories, but familiarize yourself with them. And when you're placed in a similar situation, the Spirit of God can bring these stories back to you and make them good to your soul, because we have these examples to show us the blessedness of obedience to the word of God.
To show us the folly of disobeying, we don't have to wonder if sowing wild oats bears a fruit in our lives. No, we have those who are disobedient, those who went their own way. What kind of fruit did it bear? Fruit for God's glory? No, indeed, whatsoever. A man soweth that shall he also reap. And so read these stories, familiarize yourself with them, because the Spirit is the remembrance. And so the Lord Jesus said.
Of the coming of the Spirit. He will bring to remembrance all things that I have spoken.
Unto you well do we esteem the words of His mouth more than our necessary food. Now we're not going to turn to it, but I would challenge you to read the 16th of Exodus sometime in this connection. And I'll just mention a couple of practical things that I have enjoyed there in connection with the gathering of the manna. Because the children of Israel, as we were just singing a few minutes ago, were in a wilderness. They were in a wilderness where there was nothing to sustain life, and God gave them the bread from heaven.
He gave them that manner, and he gave it to them every morning. Now we're not passing through a physical wilderness like Israel.
Passing through a spiritual wilderness and young people, there's nothing to sustain the Newman in this world. There's plenty to feed your lusts, but there's nothing to sustain the new man. I say there's plenty to feed our lusts, and it seems it's very difficult to even drive down the highway anymore without seeing something to feed your lust. It's hard to stand at the checkout line, at the grocery store, at the department store without seeing something there in front of you.
To feed your lust. But the children of Israel were given that manna, and they needed it every morning.
And we need the word of God before we go out into a spiritual wilderness sometimes said that if I make sure my girls.
Eat a good substantial breakfast before they go off to school. They're not going to be so apartment at recess to want something that isn't good for them because their appetite has already been satisfied with good wholesome food. Do we satisfy our appetites with the word of God? Because I believe if we do that before we go out into the world, we're not going to be so vulnerable to those things that are offered on every hand. And young people I know it takes exercise to get up a few minutes earlier.
I know it takes real discipline to open your Bible and read a few verses before you rush off to school or to work, but all you'll find it'll be a blessing in your life. And I believe too, you'll find you'll develop an appetite for the word of God.
You know, at first it may take real discipline. And you may say, well, I don't just seem to have the appetite I wish I had. But let me use an illustration again that I've sometimes used. You know, when I was growing up, I was a very picky eater and I really didn't care for vegetables at all. And one of the vegetables that I particularly abhorred was peas. Well, my mother told me why I could refuse those things at home, but when I was out, I had to eat them. And I found, as I travel a little amongst the Lord's people.
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That often the vegetable that served is peas, and not only so, but often the sister will serve the plate in the kitchen.
And so I've had no choice but to eat peas. But I want to say this about eating peas, that having having had to eat peas on a regular basis.
The word of God, you'll develop an appetite. But I think there's something very encouraging too in the gathering of the manna, because it wasn't the amount that they gathered that was so important, it was what they did with it, because it says some gathered more. That is, if you have time in the morning to read a couple of chapters.
Thank God for it. You'll never have anything over. We need all of this blessed book we can possibly get.
But then it says, and he that gathered little had no lack. That is, if you only have time to read a couple of verses.
Read those verses and take them with you. I say take them with you because it was when they meet it into their Omer and took it with them a certain measure that he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack. I believe taking it in your Omar and taking it with you and dipping out of that Omar during the day would perhaps bring before us the need of meditation because young people, it's not enough to read a portion in the morning. close your Bible and never consider what you've read during the day.
David said, oh how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. It's difficult to meditate in this busy world, isn't it, where you're bombarded the minute you leave your home with all sorts of information and activity? Maybe years ago, a brother could work at the bench and have his Bible there and meditate on scripture. Maybe a brother could go out and work on the land and have his mind occupied with the word of God. But you can't drive a run a computer like that, can you?
You can't drive down the freeway like that. It takes all you've got to survive in school and in Business Today. But we need to discipline ourselves, to take time during the day to meditate on God's word. You know, when the Lord Jesus came to that home in Bethany and Mary sat at his feet and heard his word. It's interesting what Martha said when she came and complained. She said, Lord, carest thou not. I want you to notice this that Mary hath left me.
To serve alone. You know, Mary let the work go. She had to leave something to sit at Jesus feet. They'll never be such a thing as saying I had plenty of time for the word of God. You're always going to have to leave something, and I just want to exercise our hearts. This afternoon, when you have a minute during the day dip into your Omer, take that manner that you've gathered in the morning. Meditate on it, Timothy was told. Meditate on these things. Give myself holy to them, That thy profiting may appear unto all.
We need to take time to meditate. And I say again, we'll find that God knew just what we were going to need for the day. But before we pass on, I'd like to make another little application from that incident in Exodus 16, because I realized that I look into the faces of some of us this afternoon who are fathers. And I just want to say something to those of us who are fathers and have children and young people in the home. Because usually when we see the artist depiction of the Gathering of the Manna.
Usually it's the ladies that are depicted as gathering the manna, but if you notice carefully there in Exodus 16, you'll find that it wasn't the ladies that gathered the manna. Every man was to gather for his household, bringing before us responsibility of the head of the home.
And as I grew up in a Christian home, I have the memory of a father who rose every morning to sit at the end of the breakfast table with an open Bible so that he could read a portion. It wasn't all very much. Maybe it was only three or four verses. Maybe he made little, if any, comment on that portion.
But I believe there was a man who gathered for himself and for his household. Let's be exercised that we would gather manna for ourselves and for our wives and for our children. Well, we need God's Word. We need to feed on God's Word, and we need to meditate on it like David all the day. Now let's turn to the 119th Psalm for a little different thought.
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Psalm 119 and verse 9.
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed. Thereto according to thy word, verse 11. Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against they. Well, we've spoken of the importance of God's word in our Christian pathway as food for our souls.
But now I'd like to apply this portion in connection with the cleansing effect that the Word of God has on our pathway.
Isn't it interesting that it's the young men that are addressed here because God knows that when we're young.
We're going out into a world where there's defilements. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. But we need the washing of water by the word that we hear so often about wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. Oh, it's by taking heed there, too, according to thy word, it's like a brother who's now with the Lord used to often tell us in my home assembly in Smith Falls, where I grew up, he said when he came home from the office in the evening.
He felt like he needed a good wash, and he wasn't talking about soap and water either.
He was talking about the cleansing effect of the word of God. So maybe, if I can sum it up in this way. When we get up in the morning, we need to feed on the manna. We need to satisfy our souls with Christ, the bread of heaven. Then we need during the day to meditate on what we've read. And then when we come home at night, we've been in a world of defilement. We need the washing of water by the word. You see, it applies to every aspect of our Christian lives. It's just as if God would say there isn't any time of the day that you don't need God's word.
Before your before your soul. It's the truth of feet washing that we hear so often about. When the Lord Jesus was about to depart out of this world, he gathered his disciples into the upper room and the first thing he did was wash their feet. And it wasn't really literal foot feet washing that he was bringing before the disciples. I say that because he said what that I do now thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter. They knew he was literally washing their feet. But he said you won't know the spiritual application of this.
Until the Spirit of God is come and makes it good to your soul. And we need young people to seek to wash one another's feet. What does that mean?
Oh, it simply means to encourage one another in the Lord. When we're together as young people, what is the subject of our conversation? I don't say there aren't natural things that we enjoy and so on, and we have been enjoying many things here already this weekend. But what is really the focus of our conversation? Are we enjoying the Lord so much in our souls? Have we let Him wash our feet that we can wash one another's feet? This isn't just something for the older brethren. This isn't just something for those who are a little farther along in their Christian pathway. This is something for each one of us.
Do you seek to encourage your fellow young person in the Lord? You might not always be appreciated.
But it's a necessary work. Young people. I know there's plenty to discourage today. We don't have to look for things to discourage. There's plenty on every hand. But what we do need to do is open this blessed book, let it have the cleansing effect that it does. Let it wash our feet. Let the Lord Jesus wash our feet through this blessed book. And then seek to encourage one another in the path of faith and service through through this world. Thy word have I hid in my heart.
That I might not sense sin against thee. You know, that's the key, young people. It's getting the truth of God down into our hearts, isn't it? You've heard me say this before, but let me repeat a little saying I have sometimes presented in this connection. You know, the entrance of the truth is through the mind, isn't it? Because there has to be a knowledge of the word of God. We read it and we're thankful for a sound mind that can take in these things we read. But that's not the dwelling place of the truth. And then we might say the the channel is the conscience.
Because the conscience must always be reached, young people, this book is written for our consciences. But that's not the dwelling place of the truth either. The dwelling place is the heart. And when the truth enters in that way, enters through the mind, reaches the conscience, and dwells in the heart, Oh, then it has a practical, purifying effect on your life and mind. Are we opening our hearts to take in the precious truth of God, not just merely our minds?
Not just reading the word of God. So we have some good knowledge of the scripture so that we can impress others with a good knowledge. Nice to have a good knowledge of the Scripture, but all let's get these things down into our souls, because then, and only then will it have a practical effect on our lives. When I see a young person who really wants to please the Lord, and I look at their life and there's a manifestation of Christ in their life, and I see they're really seeking to follow the Lord.
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All I know there's a young person who's got the truth of God down into their heart. Because young people, there's only one way to be a true disciple of Christ, and that's to have a heart where there's only one object in it. Because I believe where our hearts are, then our feet will follow. Well, let's look at a portion later on in this same Psalm.
Psalm 119 and verse 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
And a light unto my path. I might just say before I comment on this verse that this Psalm is really a very remarkable Psalm. You know, I believe that David realized if he was going to have light and instruction for his pathway, if there was going to be power in his path of faith and service, it must come from reading and taking heed to the word of God. Because this is the longest chapter in the Bible. And I counted one time there's two or three, but in almost every verse there's some reference of the word of God.
Either called by precepts or thy commandments, or thy word some reference to God's word. Oh, how David valued the word of God, you know, it says in Samuels day. The word of the Lord was precious in those days and there was no open vision. But here we have bibles on every hand, every one of us here I suppose came with a copy of the word of God, and Bibles can be purchased at such a little price. And yet is it really valued our bibles really read.
Young people, do you read your Bible? Do you read it each day? Do you find it your light and instruction? You know, I've noticed a little progression in the Psalms in connection with this verse that we just read. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Because back in the 27th Psalm, David said, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path. I trust that's the desire of each of our hearts here this afternoon. I trust that we have a desire to know.
The will of God for us in our lives. Because it says if any man desire to do his will, he shall know he wants to show you the way. He doesn't want to make it so complicated that you can't find out what his will is.
All my ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
If I don't know the mind of God for me in my Christian pathway, the hindrance is not on God's part. He wants to show me, but it's a path that's not discerned by the natural eye. It's a path that the vultures I have not seen. It's not walked in in natural strength because the lion's Welt has not trodden upon it. It's a path discerned only to those who are with exercise, prayerfully reading the word of God.
You know, sometimes I have talked to folks, some who are young and some who are not so young, and they say something like this. Well, I'd like to know what the mind of God is for me in my life, but I just can't seem to find it out. But, you know, you talk to folks like that and you pretty soon realize they're not reading their Bibles. We cannot know the mind of God for our pathway without opening this book and consistently reading it in an orderly fashion.
I know I mentioned this earlier, but let me just echo something because I believe that's really the way God directs our footsteps when we are orderly, daily reading the word of God. Maybe you've experienced this. There was some decision in your life, something about school, something about a friend, something at work, and you were just reading in the portion that was your normal portion for that day. And all of a sudden you saw the answer there. It was just the Spirit of God taking that scripture. Maybe it never meant that to you before.
Maybe they'll never mean that to anybody else, but that was God directing you in that decision, in that footstep that you had to had to take. Because young people, it's not enough just to take the word of God when you're faced with a decision and let it fall open on the table and expect God to direct you in that way. Now I'm not saying that in our weakness God and his sovereignty may not undertake. And I have heard instances where someone opened, let the Bible fall open and their eyes lighted on a verse and that seemed to be the answer and direction for that difficult problem.
I'm not saying the Lord can't work in that way, but I believe more often than not He works by His Spirit as we orderly and consistently read the word of God. So David said, teach me to teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path. He wants to make it plain. Then he recognizes in this scripture that if He's going to have the path made plain, that it's the word that is a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path. But then there's something else in the 143rd Psalm that I've enjoyed just in this way.
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Because David said there, teach me to do thy will. Not just teach me thy will, but teach me to do it. In other words, he said, when you do, make it plain, then give me the grace to take the step, because the Lord may show me something from His word, and I might hold back and say, well, now I wouldn't mind if it wasn't something quite like that. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't such a big step as that. No, David said, When you show me the step from your word, then give me the grace to take that step in faith.
Notice the two things in this verse. It's a lamp unto my feet because he directs us step by step, and as we take those steps, he gives us further light for the next step. But then it says to a light unto my path. Again, young people, it's sufficient light for the whole journey. It will guide you step by step, but it'll guide you until we're safe home in the Father's house. Now let's go to Acts chapter 2.
Acts chapter 2 and verse 42.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
And in breaking of bread and in prayers. And then notice a verse in First Corinthians chapter 14, First Corinthians chapter 14, and verse 3. But he that prophesied speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. Well, we've spoken of the importance of the word of God in our lives personally. We've mentioned it as to the importance of the word of God in the family circle.
But now I'd like to apply this in connection with the assembly. There's always the collective side of things, and here we have a list of things given to us that the early believers continued steadfastly in. These are what we might say are the assembly meetings, the meeting for the breaking of bread, the prayer meeting. But I was particularly thinking of this expression. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Now I might say here too, in passing.
That the order is very, very important. You know, when you read the word of God, always notice the order. Because when God gives a list of two or more things I speak carefully, He never gives it haphazardly. There's always an order. I might list several things, and there might be no particular reason why I listed those things in that order. God doesn't do that. And I believe the reason the apostles doctrine is mentioned first here is because it was the basis for everything else.
It was the basis for fellowship. It was the basis for breaking of bread. It was the basis for prayer.
And young people, let no man beguile you. There is a need for sound doctrine. It's the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets that we hear so often about, and I've never counted. But in the Epistle to Two Epistles to Timothy, and especially in the second epistle, where there was an undermining of the truth of God and those busy to subvert the souls of the Saints over and over and over again, he exhorts Timothy as to the need for sound doctrine.
We in the verse we read earlier, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And what's the first thing for doctrine He could say to Timothy? Thou hast fully known, might notice the order here, my doctrine and manner of life. I probably would have reversed the order and said his manner of life and his doctrine. But the doctrine is important, young people. We need to hold fast the form of sound words, and I realize you can spend your whole life on scripture, and you'll only ever have an outline.
But you know, it's not hard to have an outline really, to know what John's ministry is.
What Matthew brings before us Mark Luke to know what the Apostle Paul brings before us in the other New Testament writers.
Even the Old Testament writers, just to have an overview, so that when you take up scripture, you take it up in the light of the whole context. We often hear how important context is when it comes to the word of God. It's not just important, it's vital in understanding the truth of God. Because I believe that every false doctrine that's been propagated and Christendom is the result of directly or indirectly taking scripture out of its context and building a doctrine on something that doesn't conform to the outline of truth that we have.
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In God, in God's Word. But here we find the apostles doctrine is mentioned in connection with, shall I say again, the assembly meetings. Young people avail yourself of every assembly meeting for ministry of the word of God. You know, it's wonderful to be here together for this week. It's wonderful to have the truth of God before us. But if the Lord leaves us here, you're going to go back to the little assembly from whence you have come to go to the reading meeting. Maybe there's just going to be a handful there. And you say, well, we read the chapter and it doesn't seem to be much comment. We don't seem to get a lot out of it.
Or attend the meetings for ministry of the word of God.
You know, when Israel was in the wilderness, one of the things that grieved Jehovah very much was that they despised the manner that God gave them. And don't despise the manner that God gives you in the local assembly meeting for ministry. Because the word of God hasn't changed and the Lord is there and he hasn't changed. And the Spirit can feed us despite our weakness and be at the assembly meetings for ministry of the Word of God. I remember when I was a little younger, brother said to me, he said, Jim, if you purposely miss a meeting for ministry of the word, he said, you may miss hearing something that you may never hear again.
Because the Spirit brings these things out as given liberty. And I believe that while the assembly doesn't teach, it's in the assembly we learn as taught by the Spirit of God. It's to be the pillar and the ground of the truth. And I believe too in the assembly, reading meetings and many meetings for ministry.
We get a balance in the way that we don't get anywhere else. Not that the Word of God needs balance. It's we who need balance. The Word of God is the most balanced book. It's perfectly balanced and perhaps the only book that is. But I believe we get a balance when we come to the assembly meetings and the Spirit of God is given liberty. Perhaps there are those who can bring out the doctrinal principles. Others can make a practical application. If I say something that's wrong, another by the Spirit can correct it.
And I often think of that verse that says Ephraim is a cake, not turned. That's what human nature is.
You put a cake on the griddle and you don't turn it. It gets too well done on one side and not enough on the other. Man is an extremist by nature, and there are so many who will put a man up at the front and they'll get one part of the truth. They'll get one aspect, but no one questions what he says. If he ministers wrong, there's no one to correct it all. We ought to be thankful that God has instituted ministry in the assembly in the way that he has, so that our souls can be fed.
And so that we can be encouraged and refreshed collectively in our Christian pathway.
Well, our time is gone, but I want to turn quickly to one further verse. In closing, one further portion in Jeremiah chapter 13, Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse 15.
Hear ye and give ear. Be not proud, for the Lord have spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he caused darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. But if he will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places, for your pride and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. Well, I read this portion in closing, because young people, it's a warning.
It's a warning to each one of us when we've had the truth of God before us and we refuse it. Then the time comes when perhaps we're stumbling on the dark mountains. We want light and instruction, but we've refused it. And what did Jeremiah say as he viewed the situation of the people of God? I said you had light, you refused that light. And now he said all I can do is weep for you. If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? And to refuse the light of God is a very.
Solemn thing.
Young people, I implore you not to do it. Don't turn away from God's word. There's many young people that I grew up with. There's many young people that I've known in my experience, and they had the truth. They were like Timothy, brought up in a God fearing home. They were brought to the assembly, but they turned their back on it. They refused the light. They thought they knew better than God. They thought they could choose their own way. And now today they're stumbling on the dark mountains. All I can do is weep for them.
Heart does weep for them. And I just encourage you to take up God's word, value it, read it each day, that it might be food for your soul, that it might be refreshment for your pathway, that it might be light and instruction while we're left here, oh, I trust that we value this precious book. It's going to be our occupation when we get home to glory as we go over the unsearchable riches of Christ. We're going to have this book, I believe, before our souls, for all eternity, and we're never going to exhaust it.
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But he wants us to enter in and enjoy these precious things. Now that there might be fruit and power and testimony and joy in our Christian path, let's pray.
Success, Treasure, Adventure Travel
Gospel—Dean Rule
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This week we've had the opportunity to hear a lot about.
Sin in connection with the leper.
Had a lot of opportunity to hear about heaven.
Had an opportunity to hear about some things that are going to happen in the future of this world.
But this afternoon, setting out actually watching a ball game on the.
Next to the softball diamonds, some of the things that we haven't heard much about this week are having fun. We've heard some about that because we have had fun. Haven't heard much about studying, kind of been away from that a little bit.
Haven't heard much about success.
Heard very little about investment programs. You know some of you are getting to the age where I'm sure there there's stuff coming to you that you need to start thinking about those things early. Haven't heard very much about getting rich.
Umm, haven't heard very much about being successful in business.
And when you go back and you go back to your normal circumstances of life, you need to be able to do those things. That's what all the advertisements I see around tell me. And so I'd like to talk about some of those things, which may sound like they're a little bit distinct from what we've talked about this week, like to also talk about some adventure travel.
You know, there's a lot of advertisements of places you can go to now and get on an airplane and go to and have some adventure travel and some of the things you want to do.
If I ask you right now if someone would pay the cost, give you the training, the time off work, pay all the costs for your flights, for your guides and everything else here, how many people here would be interested in going on a climbing trip to go to the peak of Mount Everest? So we'd like to talk about a few of those things tonight.
Like to start out with a verse in the book of Joel?
Who are the people that make the money in this world?
And they want to answer that question for me.
The people that really make the money in this world are the decision makers.
You know what I mean by a decision maker? There's someone in the business who evaluates the facts, evaluates the information and they make the decisions that carry the business on. They actually make more than most of the doctors and and professionals like that, the decision makers.
And so.
If you want to be successful.
You better be a good decision maker.
Joel Chapter 3.
Verse 14.
Multitudes, Multitudes in the valley of decision.
For the day of the Lord is near.
In the Valley.
Of decision.
You can search from Genesis to Revelation in the Bible and you'll only find one verse. You'll only find one verse in all the Bible that uses the word decision.
If you're going to be a successful decision maker in this world.
You need to be prepared. You need to have the right preparation, the right experiences and everything else to make the decisions that are going to allow you to make money for the company where you work.
They're decision makers in the United States.
That, by their decisions, can actually make hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions of dollars worth of difference in the bottom line of the company they work for.
Can you name a couple of them?
Bill Gates Bill Gates, most the richest man in the world made decisions a long time ago to buy an operating system from another company for computers and that started the world of DOS and then Windows. Richest man in the world. He made great decisions when he was back in in college.
How much education does he have?
One year of college.
But he made some great decisions and he's a rich man.
Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. When he got married, he got married on an island and before he got married on that island, he actually did things such as pay to.
Lease every helicopter that could be within flying range of that island.
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Because he didn't want anyone flying over and taking pictures if they weren't invited to the wedding.
His wealth is measured in billions of dollars.
No one else in the world, even the richest of the Arabs, have wealth like that.
Great decision maker as far as this world goes, but I have a question for you.
A very simple question.
He from where he sits in his office in the state of Washington nearby to where many of you live if he were to be killed in an automobile accident this weekend. My question is this.
That decision maker who's accumulated a tremendous amount of wealth.
His name is known.
Very well known in this world. How much of it is he going to take with him?
How many of you have ever seen a baby that's just been born? I think that's going to be basically, you know, a baby when it's born. Maybe sets of parents that are here. I've watched 3 little girls come into this world and I'll tell you how they came in. Two of them were in hospitals in the Chicago area. One was in a hospital in Quito, Ecuador. And when I saw each one of those little babies born.
The first one was born.
11:45 in the morning. The second one was born early in the evening hours. The third one was born during the night, maybe 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. Every one of those babies came out and I'll tell you how much they had with them when they came.
How much?
Nothing.
The person who's accumulated the most things in this world, made great decisions as far as business, as far as accumulating wealth, perhaps been able to enjoy many of the fruits of that during their life. They may *** **** in a casket, which may be very ornate, may be very well done, but I'm going to tell you that that's just housing.
An empty shell.
Because what is inside is already gone. I'm not talking about the stomach or intestines or heart or anything like that, or the bones. But what's inside, what is invisible, their soul and their spirit at the moment of death have now gone.
Either to be with the Lord Jesus Christ or to help.
Says multitudes. Multitudes in the valley of decision.
You and I are up part way up a mountain. We are going to descend in a sense tomorrow. Some will be going this way tonight. Most of us will be heading down to I5 and heading north or South tomorrow. And when we head down the hill, when we get to where we're going, we're going to be making a number of decisions. But the most important decision, and it's one that you cannot wait to make, is where are you going to spend eternity?
If you neglect it, you've heard it night after night.
After night, you heard it on Saturday night, you heard it on large day night, you heard it on Monday night. You heard it on Tuesday night, you heard it on Wednesday night. This is now the sixth time. Some of these evenings you've heard a count of how many times you've heard the message. The thing is, you are in a position of having to make a decision. One of the decisions you can make is neglect.
You can put it off.
God now commands all men everywhere to repent. You just obey God's command. What's going to happen? You're going to pay the price for it.
An Acts that talks about repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a Sinner. I'm a Sinner. But you must believe in the only one, the only one who can take your sins away, the Lord Jesus Christ. You must realize that you've sinned against the God of the universe.
You have sinned. Something has to be done about it.
And so multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.
For the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision. There are some charts back there. We spent a several hours listening about those charts and one of the things that sat on those we heard is when we realized how things are lined up. For after those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior are gone, we realize that. We realize that the time is very near. The Day of the Lord may be as we heard, just seven years.
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And a bit from now.
When you put that in the light of eternity, how much time is it? Not very long, not very long at all. And so you need to be a decision maker, but you better make the right decisions. Now I'd like to talk a little bit about studying, so if you could turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 12.
And further by these my son.
Be admonished.
Of making many books, there is no end.
In much study, there's a weariness of the flesh. I'm going to ask another question. How many of you have quoted this verse to your parents when they said it's time to get your homework done?
I've got a little bit of company in the room. Much study is a weariness of the flesh and of making books. There is no end. You and I are living in a world in which the explosion of information is almost.
Almost.
Impossible to measure.
The people that are studying things in this world have to become and they want to deal with it. If it's a doctor or a physicist or whatever it might be, they have to deal with a smaller and smaller range of things. Why Sometimes I get on the Internet.
And I want to check something out about a disease that I have to deal with in some of the farms that I visit in my work, a disease that affects some of the plants that I come into contact with. And if I go in and type in a name like Fusarium on the, if I type it in on a search engine on the Internet, I may easily get back several 100 references.
Five years ago.
I had three or four books I could pull off the shelf, but now I have access to hundreds of references on any single disease.
You're in a world that's going to say to you, you better study and study and study and study because it's the only way you're going to be successful in this world. Let me read this verse again.
It says, and further by these my son, be admonished of making many books. There is no end.
The first people that had copies of this book, how did they get their copies? Handwritten copies?
Handwritten copies. And if everything they would get could only come as a handwritten copy, do you think people would have shelves full of books?
How many Have you ever seen a handwritten copy of the Bible?
I've seen 3 handwritten copies of the Bible. They were all copied by the same person.
Brother Robert and Gresham Morgan is now with the Lord. Took time, copied it out word by word three times.
If that was the only way you could get the book, that was the only source of information, the only way you could get a copy of a book, what do you think? What value would you put on the book?
What's a book for now? How much can you buy a book for? You go to the stores that have used books, where people have read the books and they turn them back In $0.50. You can take your pick of many books.
We're living in a world that there is so much information, so many books that are being printed, so many magazines. The racks are filled and they don't begin to cover. There's a specialty magazine for almost everything. The most unusual magazine I think I ever had a chance to to look at every month.
Was car wash news.
Because the company I worked for.
Had to use certain kinds of pumps to pump certain chemicals, and they were the same kind of chemicals that were pumps that were used for car washes. And so every month there was a magazine that came to the office where I worked and it was car wash news. I can't say that it was the most interesting magazine that I've ever read, but every month there to look through to see if there were new kinds of pumps or mixers or valves that might be of interest.
The problem is, there's so much that you can get on, and those things can occupy you so much.
That you do not have time to stop and think about eternity. And for those of us who do know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, there's so much that comes in one way or another of books or information every day that we do not have time to do something else.
00:15:12
Second Timothy, chapter 2.
Verse 15.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
Rightly dividing the word of truth.
If someone said to you.
You've got 24 hours. You're going to be in a room that's the size of this platform that starts here, goes to the wall and comes all the way over to here. The only things you can have in that room.
Or a Bible.
A table, A chair.
A sleeping bag to put on the floor for when you're tired and you need to get some rest during the 24 hours.
And a window that is just a piece of wood, not something you can see out of. And the three times a day during those 24 hours someone is going to pass a tray of food through to you sound like torture.
No telephone.
No computer, no friends.
To be in there with you, no family, nothing else.
24 hours.
With basically nothing to.
Stimulate your senses. One light switch. Simple light bulb.
Don't answer me. Don't answer in your own heart.
Sound like torture?
Sound like 24 hours of boredom? Sound like 24 hours that you would be desperate to get to the end of. Or I would be anxious and be counting the moments to get to the end of.
If you took a young couple that was recently married or a couple that's been married for many years, loves each other, and you said, OK, you got to be in a room together for 24 hours to visit, have time together.
Do you think they would consider it torture?
Now I have a question. I have several for you tonight. In a world that says you've got to have multimedia. Nothing wrong with having multimedia, having ACD, ROM for certain things on your computer and whatever. But if you're in a world that says that you got to have these things coming at you from every direction, and if you have that, then you can have what will satisfy you.
You can have multimedia for 70 years.
And spend an eternity.
Without Christ, because you never stopped to think about the one who wants to spend. Have you spend eternity with him, the Lord Jesus Christ?
If it sounds like torture to you.
And I suggest that you think.
A little bit.
Do you know the only person who would be there with you?
The only person who could possibly be there with you during that time is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not know Him as your Savior, you will be alone for 24 hours and I think you're 24 hours could be very boring.
Because there's nothing to satisfy.
You if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, but here.
And Second Timothy chapter 3, chapter 2 and verse 15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to, not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So we go through some of these verses this evening. We're kind of hopping and skipping and jumping. There's something if I can turn now for a minute and talk to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Don't read the Bible.
Just to look for fire extinguishers to solve problems at this moment.
I was with a brother. Some here may know Tom Collins many years ago.
And my job, I had to travel across the provinces of Canada once a year. I was going across the western provinces of Canada and.
One night.
Staying at his place and I believe was in Winnipeg at that point in time. And he he said I started talking about schedules and I was going on to Regina and then to Calgary and then to Vancouver talking about schedules. He said, well, when are you going from Regina to Calgary? And I named the time certain day leaving in the afternoon. And he said, well, he said I'm flying.
00:20:15
From Regina to Calgary the the morning after that, can you change your appointments to?
If you want to, you can write in the cabin. Well, that was pretty easy to make a call and to say, yeah, I'd much rather write in the cabin and see a flight from that way than in any other way then to see it from the back and things. And so the morning comes, get on, get on basically the passenger and go and sit in the sort of jump seat that's behind the pilot seat. The plane takes off.
And he hit and I don't know, buttons or lever, whatever it was necessary to make the landing gear.
Retract into the body the fuselage of the airplane so you wouldn't have the same wind drag. And it tried it one time and you could hear the motors going and nothing happened.
Tried it another time, you could hear the motors going and nothing happened. Tried it a third time and it didn't work. By this time the people in the back were kind of wondering what's happening and so he just pulled a book out and looked and knew exactly where to go in the manual that he carried in the little flight case he had. But while he was doing it, he was already giving instructions as to what to do to use a manual system that would cover when the hydraulic.
System was not working. I asked him a question on that. That time when things kind of were quiet again, I said how often have you had this happen in your years of flying? I said it was clear you knew exactly what to do. You also got the manual out to confirm it, but you knew exactly what to do. He said what's never happened to me before? Said, well, how do you know? I mean, it's if it hadn't happened to you before, where did you have the experience? He said I've read the manual many times.
And he said, I've been in a simulator enough times that in the simulator this is one of the things that comes up in the simulator.
The hydraulic system doesn't work and you have to cover for it with manual systems.
For those of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, don't look at the Word of God as simply a fire extinguisher that you get out to put out whatever problem you have, whatever fire is burning at that moment. If you're going to be the pilot on an airplane, you better know what to do in circumstances that you've never faced before, because when the time comes, you may not have opportunity to get the manual out.
And so one of the decisions you need to make when you go back down the hill, you need to make the decision as to whether you're going to get to know the manual. We heard about that on Lord's Day afternoon. You better get to know the Word of God. You better get to know the manual because you're going to faith circumstances in life. And it's wonderful. It's wonderful to have the manual, familiarity with the manual, the experiences that are necessary to deal with it in life.
But one of the things that this world tells us is.
You've got to be successful. You've got to be successful. Back many years ago when I started to work at a horticultural chemical company in Chicago, one of the magazines that was routed to me said that at that time they were trying to decide what, what income it took to be comfortable to basically be able to purchase within reason, the things you wanted. The answer at that time, I believe if I can remember, was about $70,000. And so if you were making at least that you were successful.
20 years.
Later, the number has increased significantly. Well, the Word of God says you can be successful.
Only talks about success in one verse in the first chapter of Joshua and so when you leave this week, we want to make sure if someone says well, what did you talk about what you can be able to go to them and perhaps say, well, we talked about being successful. Joshua chapter one, verse eight. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth.
But thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein for them. Thou shalt make thy way prosperous.
And then thou shalt have good success.
Want to be successful? Here's the formula. A little different formula than you can get in most books that are written in this world.
There's a magazine I don't know that I've ever even looked inside the cover, but I've seen it on news stands and the title is very simply success.
If you ask people what do you want to be, one of the things I put on the list is successful. I have a question tonight again for you. Are you successful?
00:25:01
Word of God defines it as someone who has this book, who studied it, who has it guarded and they do what it says day after day after day after day. You want to know what is the saddest day?
For a lot of guys in the United States.
I've met a few of them. I've heard about some more of them. So the guy who goes out?
The.
Allstate halfback on the football team.
What does he have following him around?
Well people that will show him the press clippings from the newspaper on Saturday morning after the game plus yard game.
School that he goes to.
Basically, for girlfriends, the pick of the girls is that I like to be associated with this guy who's good looking, strong.
Successful. So he has this pick of that.
He comes to the day graduation day. Never bothered to hit the books very much so he didn't get high enough grade point that he got offered a college scholarship. Shakes hands with his friends at graduation. Maybe there's a party or two after.
And they go out and they disperse to one university, one place or another.
There's no one there to applaud anymore.
The game's over now, it's real life, never bothered to study and so perhaps he has to get a job that doesn't pay that much above minimum wage. When the girls see that, not very interested because this guy isn't going to be able to provide much of a place to live.
You may say, well, I, you know, I've got some other stuff, I'm going to make it beyond that, but the only way you're going to be successful is to know.
The Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, and walk in what he says in His Word. You're in a world that's going to tell you time after time after time what the formulas for success are. If you want to get good grades, you study. If you want to make money, you pick a profession that has good wages in it.
Good opportunities for earning. If you want to be successful in who you marry, then you're careful and you learn how to say certain things and act in certain ways.
But The thing is, all of that ends up in absolute emptiness.
If I can speak just a minute, we've heard some this week. One of the things that people say is part of success is having the right person to accompany it through life.
For those of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, give me a couple of minutes to try to have an image in your mind when you think about making that decision.
If you ask young men in general, what are you looking for, What attracts you to a female, he's going to describe certain characteristics of beauty that he might see in her. If you ask a young woman what is it that would attract you? In looking to a man, and I'm speaking just purely on the natural level, what is it that would attract you? If she might say, well, he would have a certain build and he would have certain facial characteristics.
And so he might be described as the hunk or whatever it might be.
If you looked at it in the terms that are used.
I want you to imagine for a minute that we're we're in a place where something has happened and the number of people have died.
And that we go and we take a little tour to the morgue.
And you go, as you walk through the morgue, you see casket after casket after casket lined up there. Or maybe there's people just put out on tables there.
And you go up to you look through the different people and young man says, Oh my, she's very attractive. She's beautiful. I think that's the one I'd like to marry.
And so he he takes her this cadaver, and he signs the papers and he goes hauling her out of there.
And well, she's beautiful. You should see her hair or her facial characteristics, all of these things. She's so attractive, he says. That's the one. And he goes hauling her out of the room and, and.
00:30:05
And and and takes her long and and you say, well, does this sound sort of funny?
World says The world says you better have the right people around you if you're going to be successful.
And one of the characteristics that they say makes the right people is how attractive they are. What is it that attracts you? Can you imagine someone if we looked at that back door and we saw someone coming in here through the door? And they were perhaps because it would get pretty tired hauling a person that way. They came through the door Wheeling a wheelbarrow.
And they said, look at how beautiful this person is. And they propped them up in the chair that was sitting right here, and they propped their eyelids open a little bit.
And they put a Bible on their lap and opened it up. And you said, well, what's going on? And you said, well, this is the person I plan to marry. And, and look, they've got a Bible on their lap. They're showing interest. I have high hopes that something's going to happen.
Sounds kind of funny, doesn't it?
But if you're going to make the right decisions in life, what is the word of God say? It says that if someone is not saves it save that they're dead. They're dead in trespasses and sins.
Can you imagine spending your life going around and, as it were, with a cadaver?
No, you can't. Just the thought of it, you say, well, that that that doesn't make any sense at all. But there's a lot of young people that have sat here at Lassen and the time like you've sat here.
They've heard things. They've made the decision themselves to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They've made the decision though, when they left.
That they were going to marry a dead person.
When you have thoughts of it, I ask you to at least think about what life would be.
If everywhere you went in life accompanied by your spouse, you were accompanied by a cadaver.
Because that's the decision you're making. No, it's not physically, not physically dead yet, but spiritually dead. And in the end you'll have just about as much companionship and fellowship with the person who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior as you would living with a corpse.
Might have the best treatment, might be able to have the best treatment of formaldehyde or whatever liquid they might be using now. So they, they were preserved sort of a long-term mummy or whatever. But you wouldn't think of marrying a mummy. You wouldn't think of going to the Morrigan, picking out a wife, a wife, a husband.
But if you're thinking that success in life is going to be marrying someone who may attract you in many ways, but who does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, that's what you're choosing. It's just about the same. So we've talked about success. Let's go over and talk a little bit about investment programs.
In Matthew chapter 6.
About 25 years ago.
I was a freshman in college, got a piece of paper that said you go in, you fill out this piece of paper, you can have a Visa card. Visa card has a credit limit of $300.00. That'll help you if you have certain expenses that are unanticipated. It'll help you establish a line of credit.
And so got the card if you handle the responsibility, I'm not saying anything's wrong with that. Have the card today, the credit limits been increased because the bill was paid and those sort of things year after year.
And then those same things say, well, now you can have this kind of investment program and that kind of investment program. And I was sitting just about a week ago with a group of Christians and they began to sit down and talk about their investment programs. And I'm not saying that there's something wrong with having a, a proper savings for certain things. If someone's a farmer, they may have a crop failure one year.
Others of us, we might lose our jobs or whatever.
But this world says now one of the things you need to do is you need to concentrate on your investment program. You got to get it together and get it started while you're young.
There are people who get so busy concentrating on that that they never stop and think about the place where they need to be making the majority of their investments.
00:35:07
If you've got an investment program.
Our thinking and in the process of building 1, they'll give you 6 figures or seven figures or whatever. They're going to tell you that you need to start with a certain amount at a certain age to have a certain amount by the time you get to a certain age.
There'll be plenty of instructions for that.
But the question is, do you have life?
Give life insurance.
Swirl can sell you death insurance.
The Thrill has plenty of death insurance programs. You can have a whole death program or a term death program, but if they sell it as death insurance, they won't sell very much. So what do they sell it as?
Life insurance, and I'm not saying whether you should or shouldn't. That's not the question tonight.
That's your decision, my decision. We'd have to make each before the Lord. As to whether you have the program. The world can sell you death insurance.
Because if it's a program like that, unless there's some special provision, you never get the benefits of it. The benefits of it go to someone else.
And so if you have that kind of program, I have a question tonight. Do you have life insurance? Do you have absolute assurance that if you die tonight that you've got life already?
Are you making investments in that life insurance program? Are you making deposits, payments, monthly payments? Weekly payments? Day daily payments? Let's read a few verses in Matthew chapter 6, verse 19.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
Where moth.
And Rust thus corrupt and were thieves breakthrough and steal.
Five weeks ago, a man who works for our next door neighbor was the where we live. The little meeting room was on the other side of the lot where we live. And I was out on the lawn, came up on the line between the two and someone said, well, there's a man who works with your next door neighbor who's here.
Like to speak to you for a few minutes. And so I go up and say hello, I've never met the man before, but I say can I help you with something? And he said yeah, he said.
In the last half hour or so.
The House of the Bustos Rene Bustos family was robbed.
Oh well, what happened? So we went up and and saw and, and this house has a high wall around all of it. On top of the wall and all the front are sharpened pieces of metal spikes so that it's very hard for someone to get over the wall.
Every window that's accessible in the house has metal bars over the window at a spacing in which a person cannot pass between the bars. Every door in the house is protected by either a a swinging or an accordion style metal gate.
So what happened? So he said, well, let's I'll show you what happened. The owner was not at home. We go walking through the house and you see that everything was just drawers were dumped, the TV's were gone, the VCR was gone, sound system was gone.
He could identify some of the things that were gone, but until the owners got back, he couldn't say everything that was gone. He said, Well, will you please stay here in the house?
In case they come back.
And so or stay until, you know, they come back for more or whatever. OK. And so this was between Sunday school and breaking a bread. So actually into the beginning of breaking a bread, I wasn't there because it was time for them to go ahead and begin.
The man came home. Ironic thing is that the man who owned the house until two years ago was the number three ranking police officer in the country.
And so we briefly talked and meanwhile, out in front of the house, we were talking to some of the people. Two of the sisters had come from fairly far distances at the end of Sunday school, and they had seen some men who.
00:40:02
Loading a pickup truck, you're putting the things in the pickup truck and putting some clothes over them and didn't think much of it.
Identified the pickup truck and whatever.
The man's house was ransacked.
Didn't get as far as they could have gotten because in the afternoon when it went back to talk to him, he showed me that under his bed he had 12 submachine guns.
Under his police cap, he had a loaded pistol. He was, he owns a security company now that he's a retired general from the police and he had just had an importation of weapons for security guards and they were there.
In this conversation, he said.
Yeah, I realize that the next time I put metal doors, I need to put them on the inside because the one that they got through, they took a metal bar, knew what they were doing, got in where the lock was. And with pressure and using the leverage of a long rigid bar, they popped the the metal, popped the door open and got in.
But he came down and he said to me, well, I'm thankful in some ways that no one was here.
Because, he said, at least no one was killed. Nothing happened to anyone in that way.
A lot more stuff than we have in the house next door.
But being away for a month and 1/2.
I don't know whether there's a possibility and there's someone there almost every day next to it, but we might go back to a house that's also emptied out.
Have a question? Can they take treasures?
They can take things.
They grabbed some things. They went into a jewelry box of Mrs. Bustos and they grabbed a bunch of things. The only thing they didn't realize is that they were the costume jewelry, the things that looked like something and really didn't have any value.
Thieves can take anything you've got.
How many of you have a computer at your home?
You sure it's going to be there when you get back?
No.
How many of you have ever been in a dwelling that was condemned because maz and larvae started to get into the wood and ate it? Place just basically collapsed. Been in some of those?
What happens to a car in a coastal city?
That's constantly exposed to salt spray.
Our city in the northern part of the country that's exposed to the salt along the roads.
They rushed out the city I grew up in. They would bring truckloads of cars from places like Atlanta, GA Why?
Because in Atlanta, they don't have enough snow to use salt. They're not by the ocean, so the cars don't rust out. You get a few more years without rust, but eventually those are going to rust out too.
If you've got your life built and your treasures and things, they're going to be eaten from the inside by Mars that a thief can come and steal, that can rust out.
You've got a pretty lousy investment program.
What does it say here? Verse 20? But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves do not breakthrough nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The light of the body is the eye. Therefore then I be single.
My whole body.
Shall be full of light.
Was your treasure? Is your treasure the Lord Jesus Christ, or is your treasure something that someone can take away from you? These are the elements, a person, an insect, Whatever it is, if that's where your treasure is, you've made bad decisions. The day of the Lord is near. The Lord's coming is before that, and then the day of the Lord is coming.
Where are your treasures?
Another thing that people say is.
You want to have fun.
I'm going to read the verse without turning to it because I don't want you to read the end of the verse yet. Some of you will recognize the verse.
May have mentioned this before but one of my classmates in high school said this is my favorite verse I'm going to read it.
Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart.
00:45:04
And in the sight of thine eyes.
He said the Bible says that. He said if you want to, you see something you want to do, you do it.
That's what it says here. It says it rejoice, walk in the ways of lining heart, in the sight of thine eyes. If something is inside, says I want to do it, says do it.
And if you see something that you want, go after it. That's what it says. He stopped there on the verse. The verse is Ecclesiastes Chapter 11 and verse 9. I'd like you to read to yourself, just a moment, the last part of the verse.
The first part of that verse is that the message that you're going to get when you go home back to where you live, you're going to see it. It's going to be on the billboards, it's going to be on the advertisements you see, it's going to be on the lips of the people you have contact with.
If that's what your life consists of, you're headed for a lost eternity.
That's where your eternity is.
There's a lot of people that are going to spend an eternity in the Lake of Fire because they lived following the instructions of a man who was testing things out, Solomon, and writing down the results of his experiments in the book of Ecclesiastes. What's the last half of the verse say?
But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. We've heard about judgment this week. The first half of the verse says have fun. Do whatever you want to do, do it. The last half of the verse says you rape what you sow You reap what you sow if that's what you choose.
Then be sure that you're going to harvest.
What you've chosen.
Are you washed in the blood of Christ? Are you safe from the judgment that's coming on this world?
Are you headed down a course that's going to take you to a lost eternity? What does it say in chapter 12 and verse one? Let's read the verse 10. Therefore, remove sorrow from my heart, and put away evil from thy flesh. The only thing that can do that is to rest in the fact that Christ died so that you can have life. He shed His blood so that your sins could be washed away.
And what does it say here that'll put away evil?
For childhood and youth, our vanity.
When the funds done and I'm not saying there's anything wrong and it's been said many times this week, nothing wrong with enjoying sports or nothing wrong with doing many things that it's in the context, if I can put it, of youth.
But if it's doing it to satisfy your own pleasures, what does it say? Childhood and youth are vanity. They're empty.
You're not going to be young forever.
Do you know the Savior? If you do know the Savior, are you using your youth for Him? Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
Another thing that people often want offer in this world.
It's becoming perhaps the fastest growing segment of travel. It's what's called adventure travel.
Before you go to a place where you might be able to go rafting or mountain climbing.
To see different things and do different things. There was someone who over 1900 years ago was an expert, could have been a tremendous guide for adventure travel in the book of Second Corinthians, you know the guide.
God's offering you.
If I can put it this way, adventure travel too, there's a lot of destinations that he can pick for you to go to. It might be very close to where you live, it might be halfway around the globe, but I'd like to read the brochure from Paul's Adventure Travel Company.
Describing some of the things that took place on some of his journeys. Second Corinthians.
Chapter 11.
Verse 23.
Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. I am more in labor's, more abundant in stripes above measure, and prisons more frequent in death. Soft of the Jews. Five times received by 40 stripes, save 1. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck.
00:50:13
A night and a day if I've been in the deep.
And journeyings often.
In Perils of Water.
In Perils of Robbers.
In Perils by my known countrymen.
In perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.
In weariness and painfulness and watchings often, and hunger and thirst and fastings often. In cold and nakedness beside those things that are without. That which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
You've received a brochure.
And in the brochure, it says if you travel with the apostle Paul, these are some of the adventures that await you. You know, you you got a good chance of being killed. Whatever you take along is probably going to be robbed.
Some of the people you're going to come into contact with, some of the natives, and some of the countries you're going to visit are probably going to do what they can to beat you. And since there's not going to be a very good system of justice, you're having a good chance of landing in jail. The boats are traveling along to make this an economical journey.
Are such boats not very good navigation systems, somewhat waterlogged and somewhat leaky with not very good bilge pumps? So you're having a pretty good chance of getting to use the life rafts, and the life rafts have probably been chewed through by something. And so you're going to have to swim to shore. We're going to see some beautiful countryside. The only problem is in the countryside there's a lot of robbers along the way, so.
You might want to have money wired ahead to some of the destinations we're going to.
As far as the gourmet food on the trip, well, we offer you hunger and thirst.
But that's OK, you wanted to lose weight on the trip anyway.
God offers adventure travel.
How many countries are available for this? He says in the end of Matthew go ye into all the world talks about all the nations. So this isn't a travel company that just specializes in a few corners of the world. It it goes everywhere.
If I put this brochure up, it made-up a brochure and put it on the rack at the travel agency nearby where you live, and people were thumbing through the brochures, they might see one that was Club Med, and they might see another that was some certain company that specializes in Italy. And they might see another that was Adventures Unlimited. And they specialized in rafting and bicycling and canoeing trips in different parts of the world or climbing trips. Which do you think would get the most?
This for the travel agent.
I don't think that the Apostle Paul Travel agency would have a lot of takers.
What about you?
When we talk about the gospel, we're not talking about something that guarantees that you're going to have a life.
Special Singing 1
Outline of the End Times
The Law of the Leper