Lawrenceville Conference: 2007
Table of Contents
Philippians 3:1-9
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Other in that we take up Philippians chapter 3.
Read the whole chapter.
Philippians chapter 3, the beginning of verse one.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you. To me indeed is not reason, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of confession. But we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit.
And rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he has, where off he might trust in the flesh eye more circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee.
Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. But what things were gained to me? Those I counted laws for Christ, Yeah, doubtless. And I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but dunk, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith, but I may know him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might obtain attained unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also.
I am apprehended of Chrys Visas, brethren, I cannot myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many be as be perfect.
Be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and market them which walk so as ye have us for an example for many walk, of whom I have told you often and now.
Tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, whose mind earthly things?
For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working, whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
We began the meeting with the.
Words by thee, O God, invited. We look unto the sun. And I trust that it is the desire of the heart of every one of us during this time of the meetings to have our focus, the focus of our hearts and our attention on the object of our souls for now and ever, the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:05:14
It's God's central theme of his own heart, and he has brought us to himself that he might share with us that which is his joy and his Son. And so, my God, this morning we are invited to look onto the sun, to have our thoughts, our our hearts occupied with himself.
This chapter well back up for a moment.
Umm, from Genesis 11 to the last verse in Revelation 22, we can find that which would bring before us in one way or another something of the Lord Jesus, and we can be occupied with Him in that way. But there are particular scriptures which more definitely focus the thoughts of the mind and the heart on His person.
We find that in the Gospels, we find it in John particularly, but it's also in Hebrews chapter one, his person. In Colossians chapter one, his person is brought before us. That's not exactly Philippians 3 that we're reading and to meditate on this morning. It's rather the apostle Paul as a person who had put his heart and the object of his life on the Lord Jesus.
And he was encouraging in this chapter his brethren to do the same. And so hopefully in our hearts this morning, we'll hear the message that the apostle Paul was given by the Spirit to us to set.
Before our souls, the Lord Jesus, in a practical way, as the true daily object of our lives. To do that, He begins the chapter with some warnings.
Somewhat negative, and it's not really on my heart that we would spend a lot of time in the first 7 verses, but they are exhortation to us of things that will hinder us from setting our hearts and living with the Lord Jesus as an object. The center of the chapter brings before us why and how the Apostle Paul had set his heart on the Lord.
Particularly just to emphasize the beginning, he says in the end of verse eight that I may win Christ, and then in chapter verse 10, the beginning of that verse that I may know Him. And hopefully each one of us will have an increased desire in our souls as a result of what the Spirit of God may give to us to say I want to win Christ.
And I want to know Him even more than I do personally and individually in my heart. I wanna know Him. And then the end of the chapter ends with some further warnings of other things that tend to draw the heart away through other people from having Christ as the object of the soul and of the heart. And so we have to be warned, there are difficulties.
To practically realizing this truth in our arts and in our lives. And yet there is the positive drawing power of the Spirit of God in the chapter that each one of us would truly have the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without distraction.
As the primary and sole focus of our life.
And it's looked at as a race isn't in this chapter. So it's something that is in process of formation in it. Those desires that I may win Christ, that I may know him.
It is not something Paul says that he had attained, but that he was pursuing with all his energies. And I think that is a beautiful thing to keep in mind too. We have entertained brother. Here We are down here in this world, yes, struggling, but to have the right.
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Objective before the sole is what forms us, and if we can get that in before our souls, it's nothing.
Uh, of what we are so much as what is he is.
It's, uh, sometimes I say the Old Testament was more a focus of what man was, could he produce, and he failed miserably.
The New Testament is more a focus of what Christ is.
And it's leaving behind what we are to be occupied with, God's beloved Son. We live in a culture that is so man centered. And I really have to confess, brethren, that I have to say I have been severely affected by the culture I'm passing through. So much of our thinking is self-centered. What do I get out of this?
What is my place? It's not that in Christianity, it's a focus on who Christ is to win Him, to be found in him to.
Know him that that's what Christianity really is.
It's not a high speed race, it's an endurance race.
And the blessed thing for every believer is that you're going to win it. Gold is into the soul of the of the journey is Christ. But God wants us to enjoy it now, so we want to get there too.
I've often wondered why is it that we don't run better in this race? I really believe it's because we haven't got sufficiently clear before our souls. The.
Goal verse 14, he says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
You understand the price. Paul got a glimpse of the prize. He came back to this world and he was a ruined man as far as any earthly objectives were concerned, so that we would have more of a glimpse of the prize at the end. It would make us run with more endeavor.
Mm-hmm. The problem is our brother mentioned here, it warns us things that seems negative, but these are the hindrances our brothers speaking about as we're passing through the scene. We're affected by things we see by people we need. So here in verse two and three, it gives us some of the ideas of what could hinder us from enjoying our blessed Savior. In verse two, there is as beware of dogs, and then it says beware of evil workers.
And then it says, beware of concisions. And then it sets that about the flash. Now, you know, I'd rather mention nothing. We don't want to dwell too much on these evil, but just to mention it briefly, because we are all of these hindrances, uh, before us, the dogs, well, beware of dogs. I believe it speaks of these shameless evil when a society that there's so many things that is no longer shameful and we ourselves are getting so accustomed to it. We don't look at it as the way the word of God will look at it. We glance over things. We just look at them and say, well, everyone else is doing it, so not worry about it. The society have accepted certain things.
Well, do we have to shameless evil, we have to be careful that because it will hinder our walk here and then it said evil workers. Well, I believe here that it speaks of those false doctrines that we hear and that we see, you know, sometimes we hear people say don't worry about doctrines, doctrines divide and love will unite. How false that is. We need do we not close doctrines from the word of God. We need the word of God.
As our guide we need to follow.
Not men, but rather what God has for us. And then of course, the next thing is the conditions. Well, to put it simply, I believe it. It means spiritual pride. Do we have that? Do we think we're better than the other Christians? Or rather than be humble before the Lord, there are such thing as spiritual pride. In fact, sometimes I fear even watching young people, how some young people might say we have a selected group here, that we walk better than the others.
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Be very careful through spiritual pride can lead us down. And then of course, the flesh, the flesh often lead us perhaps into the moral, uh, sin that we shouldn't, uh, uh, uh, walk in that way. So we have to be aware of it and then be occupied with Christ instead of trying to find ways to overcome these problems. Enjoy the Lord as our brother mentioned. Look at what is ahead of us.
Look at that reward, being with our blessed Savior, being conforming to His image, knowing that it is only a little time left here, but we shall be with Him.
I've noticed that the again not to spend time on it, but I've noticed that the warnings are often particularly connected with the truth that is brought before us.
I know this is going over familiar ground, but won't hurt to repeat it. And that is that the 2nd chapter of Philippians is more Christ in mandate. It's more the graciousness of the Christian life. And so the warnings there have to do with the hindrances to that in US. Let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory. Let each steep other better than themselves and so on.
But in the third chapter, it's more Christ in glory that is there as an object as we've had brought before us. It's a risen Christ whom we pursue after, although morally, you might say, we're still in the wilderness in Philippians. And so the warnings here have to do with what hinders our enjoyment of our heavenly calling, with what hinders are running that race, with what hinders our getting hold of Christ.
Not so much in manhood down here, precious although it is, but a risen Christ in glory. And what has been the bane of the Church down through the ages in that way, what has been the hindrance? It has been the seeking to bring Christianity down to the level of this world. It has been the Judaizing of Christianity, the trying as has been brought out to pursue after something for man in the flesh.
Rather than seeing that God totally has finished with that and that now God has set His Son at His right hand in heaven and as an object for us. So the warnings here in a general way tend to have that flavor that they are perhaps more directed against that which hinders our enjoyment of Christ in that place where He is now and the reaching forward to Him in the race.
As a risen Christ in glory.
You can't help but think of Sister Fran Harrison. She, I think she's still in the body.
And, uh, I'm just gonna read you her favorite verse. It's in Genesis 45, verse 20. Also, regard Not your stuff for the good of all. The land of Egypt is yours. She used to say that so many times regarding Not your stuff. That's our greatest problem in the United States of America. We have too much stuff, too much things that keep us occupied with earthly things.
And not with Christ.
I I remember when I was lying in the hospital.
On a bed could move and I had the sweetest times of cooking.
Communion with the Lord. I didn't regard my stuff at all, meant nothing to me, but he meant everything. The good of all the land of Egypt, the good of all the glory.
That is before us. That's what we should be occupied with. And we think of these poor people in Africa and other parts of the world, they don't have much stuff at all. And if they get saved, they don't have the hindrance that we have because they don't have those things. And they they can just be occupied with the Lord. And it's not easy. It's not easy for, for us in this land to do that.
00:20:13
I think that's why in verse one, brethren, before he gives warnings in verse two and three.
Is that exhortation rejoice in the Lord? It is what we have so often in this epistle back in chapter 4, verse four is well known verse rejoice in the Lord.
Always. Did you get it? He says. I'm going to say it again.
Rejoice. You know, you can't rejoice often in our circumstances, but we can always rejoice in the Lord, and that's to be our portion to have Him before our soul. We've been called into the fellowship of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is a portion which will never change.
Then we give that sufficiently before the soul, the injunctions of verse two and three.
The warnings have real focus, real meaning. Like to add to that a little.
Everybody in this room, especially if you're beyond a little baby.
Probably today sits here with some sorrow in your soul.
It is part of your life. What you are finding this morning is something that is pressing upon your spirit.
Might be different than it is for me, but each one of us in this room at this moment is going through some burden of thought that is sorrowful to us.
And I think it's very important to see how the apostle Paul brings that out so that we ourselves can go on with a focus on the Lord Jesus.
And recognize that sorrow at the same time that is in US. In the previous chapter, Paul, just before he starts this chapter, in verse 25, he talks about an individual, Epaphroditus, a brother. In verse 26, he says he was full of heaviness that you'd heard he'd been sick. And verse 27, he says for Paul, for me also, lest I should have sorrow.
Upon sorrow.
And.
He refers to that sorrow, and then he goes. But in the beginning of this chapter he says, finally, my brethren, rejoice.
Now the scripture presents to us that our lives are going to be all the time a mixture of both.
But our focus on the Lord Jesus tends to be pulled away.
And we become occupied with that which is producing sorrow in us to the extent that we lose sight of the Lord Jesus in a way that we don't rejoice, even though as Bob just presented to us the exhortation to do it.
But it's well for us to reflect on the Lord Jesus every day of his life. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He didn't go through a day where he didn't have that, can I say, deal with. But at the same time, his life was a constant delight.
For God and for Himself.
Because he said, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. And every single day of his life he found a constant enjoyment.
In doing the will of his father.
And he rejoiced in everything that the Father did for his own glory.
And so the cause of the theme is to be true of us, as Scripture says, as sorrowful.
Yes, always rejoicing, and if I can't rejoice, there is something missing in my heart at that moment that is not of God. There are many reasons for that, one of which one of the most important of which is unbelief in the goodness that's in God's heart. That's the single biggest thing that hinders us from enjoying God all the time.
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And rejoicing always is because there has been allowed in us something that says.
God shouldn't be doing what he's doing and allowing this or that in my life or the life of someone I love. And if only God would change it, then I could be happy.
And very often our prayers are connected with removing a person from the circumstances that are producing sorrow to them and sorrow to us.
And very often that's not the will of God nor his purpose, which is always eternal and for our good. So if we see in this chapter, just to mention that it's a hindrance to the soul from having Christ as the object and gain on a practical basis because we have allowed something to come in that has and sorrow is specifically what's before me at the moment.
To be that which is drawing us away from the enjoyment of His love. And nothing is to come between our souls and His love. And if it does, then we get out of balance and we can't go on as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
How thankful we can be.
For what God does allow in our lives.
We would not choose everything that he chooses.
He chose us before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of His Son. We would never have chosen Christ. Romans 3 says that there is none that understand it. There is none that seeketh after God.
Naturally, we are not seekers of God.
Of his own will.
Begahias.
By His spirit and what He allows in our lives is a display of the love of God for me personally, for my family, as a family.
But nationalist grace it is that allows.
Unpleasant things at times that I would never have chosen.
I once had three elderly grown and elderly sisters in my home.
In 30 days, they were all three in heaven.
Uh, and it's one of the greatest blessings in my life. Uh, even though I lost my wife, her mother and her sister.
Uh, her mother's sister, but, uh, these things were all for blessing to, to display to me the loving hand of God.
And, uh, over and over.
If we will retrace our big problems, we will find what blessings came out of them all in the end.
And thank you for it. That's a blessing.
And and disguise. There's some verses in Psalm 43 I'd like to read, brethren, because it seems to connect with what we have here.
That our joy cannot be in circumstances that we pass through.
00:30:02
We learn to have our joy in the Lord.
But here David says in verse 2, for thou art the God of my strength and then he he puts a question why does thou cast me off? Why go I mourning. There's the sorrow that done was talking about because of the oppression of the enemy and now notice verse 30 send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. We need to be careful to let our thoughts be born by the word of God, not our own impression.
Let them bring me into thy holy hill, and to thy Tabernacle. Then notice verse four. I think it's so beautiful. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God.
My exceeding joy isn't that beautiful, God?
My exceeding joy, Oh brethren, we have been brought to know God in a fuller sense than any other people's whole history of this world.
And it is our joy to know him.
There's Romans chapter 5. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and know Him. What a privilege that brings us down to what Don is wanting to focus on.
To look at the.
End of the.
Eighth verse That I may win Christ. That's one thing.
In Him, and then the tenderers to know Him. You brought those things before us when in Christ. When will that be for us?
Go ahead, you tell us for the Clem, I'm listening real good.
When we're in heaven with him.
On the other side of death.
Were positionally there now, but the practical realization of it that Paul was seeking.
Was to be with the glorified man Christ, where he was in the same condition and position that he was in, which is on the other side of death and on the positive side of resurrection.
So he says, I count not myself to have obtained, but I press toward that mark, which was to have Christ for himself in the glory where Christ is.
I'd like to back up for a moment and address the young people.
By May young people, please.
Give us a moment.
I'm gonna make an application of the first verse to you. Paul says to write the same things to you is safe.
We live in a restless world.
And some of you and some of us.
Whether young or old, exhibit a restless spirit.
Why?
Because God has so formed us that there is only one object of our hearts that will satisfy eternally, and that's His Son. And if our hearts are set on anything else, then the Lord Jesus, we are going to be restless in our spirits. The world is restless because it is constantly seeking.
And it's not able to find something that will satisfy it, and consequently it's constantly changing for some new thing and an attempt to satisfy the thirst of the human spirit for satisfaction.
And the speed of change is greater with the present technology that's available to man throughout the world.
And he is constantly seeking something to satisfy, but it doesn't. Or if it does temporarily, he has to have it in greater measure and then greater measure still. And so television, as an example, started out with certain things that satisfied and the amount of violence per 30 minutes had to constantly increase and so on in order to give a stimulus.
00:35:24
To man that didn't bore him.
And we are to some degree tend to be affected by that style. Little thing like style and clothing and this and that is constantly changing.
Partially to sell it, but also to satisfy man and so everything that he does.
He changes to something else and then tells you you're not satisfied with what he just you had last year. You need a new car, you need a new this, you need a new that. You need a new game. You need something to satisfy you. That's the characteristic of a restless world. But dear young people and older ones, you can waste your life.
Use that word again. You can waste your life trying to be stimulated.
Buy something that won't bore you.
God presents to your soul and mind His own Son and nothing, absolutely nothing else, The way He created you is going to give you any lasting satisfaction outside of that person. If He's not the satisfying object of your heart and your life, to some degree, you are restless and you'll remain so. Consequently, the apostle Paul said, I wrote the same thing to you before, brethren.
And I'm writing to you again the same thing. If you've been to conferences like this, what's being said to you this morning isn't going to be different than it was last year and the year before and the year before that. The Lord Jesus is the only thing that can be presented to you.
That has the capacity to satisfy your heart so.
Take it if you will, run with it. Get in the race and say I want to know him better. That's what God has given to satisfy my soul.
It reminds me of what Eric Smith used to say to us, and these things are easy to remember.
In Christ we have here.
But you go to 2nd Corinthians 517. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's when you're born of God.
You get that verse right for the gospel in Christ.
Our dear brother who have separated going from us, occasionally we can say are with Christ, but they're not yet like Christ. We'll get that all at the same time. Won't we do blood Christ? I don't, I don't catch everything.
Like to say in connection with that you are bringing out Don in uh, versus UH-45 and six fall list things of which he could glory in the flesh when his focus was on what he was. And it seems that off times the Lord allows in our experience for us to be occupied with those things so that we learn.
How they they are, How empty they are.
Then when he meets up with the Lord, then he says in verse seven, what things were again to me, those I counted lost for Christ. You're mentioning the stuff, Chuck the stuff, and it's true. We've got gods of stuff in this culture, but once we get before.
Our souls.
The Supreme.
Gain of having Christ before our soul is going to be forever, Brennan.
Why the stuff we will be able to stay just like Paul did. It's a lot not only lost, but he seemed to grow in his apprehension of those things. In verse eight he says yeah, doubtless, and I count all things that last for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and to count them but dumb where she at.
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What do you do with dumb? You keep it in the house somewhere. You get it out of there. You remove it as far as possible because it's hindering the things you really want to enjoy. Oh brother, the Lord give us to have the right.
Appreciation of things that God has set before our souls, and the things that this enemy.
Of ours presents to us to distract us from what really counts in life.
And I suppose, too, we should be clear, just so that no one gets the wrong impression. It is not the stuff itself that is the problem, isn't it? It's where my heart is and how I use it. I have been in the homes of dear brethren in North America, and in some cases they had a lot of stuff, but it was if we could use the expression stuff that they use.
In their service for the Lord and in seeking to be a help to others. And I hope I've got some stuff in my own house that is good for that, too. I have a lot more stuff in my home than many of our dear brethren have in India. But they are very, very thankful to have the benefit of some of that stuff when we go over to visit them because it can be a help to them.
So there is a danger, and I believe it's presented here in this chapter of having too much stuff. But on the other hand, let's remember the stuff itself is not the problem, but what am I doing with it? And when I acquire something, do I ask myself the question, is this something that will help me in running the race? Or is it simply something for self that ultimately will be a hindrance?
Would you agree with that, Bob? Yes, definitely. Good balance. That's what the verse and Luke says. Make yourselves friends.
With the amendment of unrighteousness, that when it failed he may be received into everlasting abolish. We can use some of that stuff to send a reward on the head, but don't let it get in the way of your enjoyment of the real object of life. That's what we're talking about here.
There was a young man in Daniel who.
Was tempted. He was just a young man. I believe he was a teenager when he was taken captive.
He had no control of where he was, but he trusted in God that he would look after it. Now when he and his friends were taken into the into the palace of the court. It tells us in the first chapter of Daniel that the king wanted children whom was no blemish, well favored, skillful in all wisdom, cunning and knowledge, and understanding science and such as that ability of them.
And whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the King's meat, and of the wine which he drank so nourishing them. Three years. It seems to me that the enemy was very skillful here in saying, I just want them for three years. But Daniel, even though he was a very young man, that tells us that he purposed in his heart that he would not suffile himself.
And then the three friends, the same thing. So when the crisis came and, uh, the test, which they proposed to the, to the, uh, one in charge. So give us a chance to let, let us keep the pulse and so on. And when the test came, it tells us in the second chapter that, uh, he was courageous.
The uh King had said. I want all these fellows destroyed because they can't give me an answer.
But instead of Daniel that he was, he said, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Antioch made the thing known to Daniel, when Daniel went in and desired the king, that he would be given to give him time, that he would show the king the interpretation, and then here's his rejoicing. Then Daniel went, or Daniel went to his house.
00:45:25
And made a thing known that Ananiah, Mishael and Azariah his companion, that they would desire mercy of God, the God of Heaven, concerning this secret.
That's where their rejoicing was. There was every reason for him to be concerned because his life was at stake. Here was a young man, very early teens, and he stood up and then he was able to go into the presence of the king and tell him what the dream was and the interpretation thereof.
Well, it tells us in the end that the king gave him many gifts and so on, but it says of Daniel, he requested of the king and he sent Sadrag Nisek and abandoned. Go over here, there's the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gates of the king. I don't see any evidence that he was wrongly affected by all the intensity, God and the knowledge which he had in giving the interpretation. He gave all the credit to the Lord.
No, other than that, they're rejoicing in the Lord. I don't believe Daniel was laughing in that sense of rejoicing. He was very serious, but he knew where to go for the answers. And in the end, we find at the end of the chapter of Daniel, you see a man that was subdued, an older man, and he was still waiting for the Lord to show him. That's what that is. What comes to end. Well, we know the Lord didn't give him the knowledge of what was going to happen, but he gave him the power to interpret. Why was that?
He established a firm relationship with the Lord and did not allow the king distraction to take him down the course which it is so easy to call in the world in which we live. All the attractions, all the desire for those that are young and intelligent to be used because the enemy wants you. But it's really good that they have a purpose. Firm in the Lord and then rejoice to the end of Daniel.
There are many successful people in the history of man, successful in their own eyes at least, and successful in the eyes of their fellow men.
There are people in the world right now that have dedicated their whole life, they're totally focused on one object or less, and that is to be the fastest person in the world.
There are other people who are focused in their life on being president of the United States, and they have directed all their energy and all their attention to reaching that object that is before their before them and many of those who are so focused.
Do accomplish the purpose that they have before them. Others try and don't make it because they're competing against others who have the same objective.
It's important to everyone of us to have a sense in our soul of what is our own or what is the controlling objective or motivation or purpose of our own lives. We live in a world that is extremely complex and seems to be getting more complex.
But I would suggest to you there's another side of it, and that is in one sense life can be extremely simple.
Yes, the complexity will always be there and have to be dealt with.
But we make it more complex than it needs to be because we don't have a proper focus in our hearts and in our lives. I suggest to you that the Lord Jesus.
Went through this world with a single primary focus to his life, just one that totally sets the path and purpose and activities of his life and everything either contributed to it or it had no place in his life. And it was this. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, if he made a priority list.
As people do. He wouldn't have needed a page to do it. He wouldn't have needed I would like to do this in my life and I would like to do that and I would like to have the other.
00:50:04
His priority list could be reduced down to one simple statement. I delight to do thy will, Oh my God. And when he came to the end of his life, he could say, I have finished the work.
Which thou gavest me to do.
In other words, his life had not been distracted into other avenues so that the end of his life was a regret.
I wish that he had spent it in some other way, as man often does, but he could end up with a life that had perfectly fulfilled what was before his soul, but most importantly was God's will. And he could say, I have finished. I suggest that in this chapter. The apostle Paul similarly could say, I have one objective in my life.
And so my life is focused with one single thing before it.
I wanna have priced for my game and anything that doesn't contribute to that is not important to me. In fact, it's a hindrance to me and I wanna set it aside because it will hinder me from satisfying the goal, the objective of my life, which is to have Christ for my game.
One little extra comment in connection with this is you set your objective on what you value.
OK. And if you want something, be it stuff, be it honor, be it knowledge, be it power, whatever it is, what you set your heart on is a statement of what you value.
And the apostle Paul is given of God to us in this chapter.
To tell us what we ought to value. It doesn't really explain why he values it here. He does elsewhere, but in this chapter he says Christ is number 123410. Whatever he is, there's only one. And that's what I value and that's what I'm going after. And we're our lives show what we value. They show what our hearts, where our hearts are. And we don't need to look at somebody else's life about it.
We need to just be with the Lord, be with God about our own lives and and ask, check ourselves up and say, what's my priority list and is Christ number one or the conflict? The complexity is you might say, well, Christ is number one, but I've got a number two and a number three and a #4 and #5 and that's where the difficulty comes. We might say, I want Christ.
And then the minute you add an end, there's problems because I want Christ. Yes, of course. And I want this while I'm here, and I want that while I'm here, and so on. And that takes our heart, our minds, and makes everything complicated because we come to decisions in daily life. And when we have and in our priority list, sometimes the number 234 objects at that moment become number one as we choose them.
And we lose something that we would also want for ourselves. Let me read what you just said in Paul's words, verse 7.
But what things were gained to me? Those I counted lost for Christ they doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them. But done that I may win Christ, or have Christ as my gain you.
Adding all this, when I finish this course, he says I have finished my course, he said. I have kept the faith.
May we be able to say that the face, the face once delivered to the Saints?
I think this is right, John. Then there's the mention of sin isn't in this epistle, is that right? Thank you for telling me. I didn't rejoicing. Isn't it all at all over and over again?
00:55:05
See the apostles, sort of the apostles give us a contrast, really what we just talked about. We see how in the previous versus verse five and six there to lift the progression of things that he desired because of what his flesh wants. And then further down the chapter he lists the progression of things of what the new man wants. That's what we read about winning Christ. If I may, I'd just like to look at it very briefly. Let's look at verse five. If we look at this carefully, we should see.
Some under perhaps eight things in there. That was his desire as a man.
From his flesh and I believe when we talk about the stuff is not always just the material stuff. There is those intellectual stuffs that we can be filled with. So let's take a look at the possible verse five. He he, he was proud if you notice of everything he said here because it seems from human standpoint he got better and better and they go higher and higher from the Jewish system. So we start off by seeing circumcised.
The 8th day, wow, wow, what a good Jew. He was circumcised according to the Lord, according to the law on the eighth day. And then he said not only that, the stock of Israel. So he may say, well, I was circumcised too, but no, he why not? He went up on you. Now he said he's up the stock of Israel. Ah, he goes further than that. But small trivia says of the tribe of Benjamin any better than that? Well, yet he go further and Hebrew of Hebrews.
And then, as if it's not enough, he says, touching the law.
Now you wanna talk about how good it was is that it was a Pharisee. In another place we meet up, a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Now here says, now you wanna compare with me? Still said concerning zeal, how many of us have real zeal? Well, he said, persecuting the church in other places, that he was injurious to the church. Well here, as if still not enough, now we go on touching righteousness, he says.
Blameless. Oh, how many of us can argue from the human standpoint?
To be as good and upright as righteousness men are. But then what did he say after that? That's when he said, but what things were doing? I rather mention about Daniel. You know, we see that with today's world, especially with young people. You know, you can't get a job these days without a degree. That's what they tell you. So you spend three or four years to get a degree and you'll find that there are many other people with a degree. So you've got to go on and get a second and a third degree.
So that you can have those fancy titles behind you. Now I'm not saying that's wrong, but I'm saying here that we've got to be careful. We can build and build but the apostles that but what things were getting to me those I counted laws for Christ those things that from the world standpoint it was a great man. He said I gave it all up and then he changed. Now he draw the other side of things in verse eight he said, yeah, doubtless I count all things but laws for the Excellency.
Of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, can we say that Can we can we truly say that from our heart for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and you count them, but don't necessarily win Christ. Now we commented on that already. So let's move on to the next verse. What did he see? So first thing he said is he said I want to be found that I may win Christ. And then as if that's not enough, but now these are the desires that we should have.
Be found in him. So we thought of that. Did he found in him?
We talked about righteousness early on. Now he says not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is to the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh what a changed man and then that's not enough. We need to know more Adobe verse 10 that I may know him that enough No know him and then the power.
Of his resurrection.
The fellowship of the sufferings and then he made conformable under his death. And I believe there's one more than six that we listed in verse 12 further down there. He says that I follow after.
01:00:05
I guess we're gonna have to continue next meeting.
Time left.
I want all the thought that I shall know the man and.
65 Thank you.
65.
Lessons from the Life of Gideon
Address—Bill Prost
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Hi President, Shall our comfort be thyself, our hope our sole desire 166.
Lord, thou hast strong.
Shall.
Come toward beautiful alerts, I told our fools and our souls.
Nsnoise.
Our loving God and our Father.
Besides thee, for what we have sung together. And we know that Thou hast indeed drawn us after thee, and of His desire that we might be able to run and never tire, and to walk and not faint. Thou's our God to mount up with wings as Eagles, as thy word said, but we do all them before these acts. Sometimes this is not the case, and sometimes we have found our God not able.
Not willing, perhaps?
But take that place which thou hast given us in the followed years of forecast.
We know that there are difficulties in the way and we just pray that as we opened our word together this afternoon, the Thou would encourage each one here. We pray especially our God for the young people and how we fancy that so many were able to be here. We ask then our God to Thou especially give a message from Thyself that will encourage each one. So we ask all this with Thanksgiving and commit the meaning to Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:05:26
Amen. Amen.
I'd like you to turn with me, please, to the Book of Judges, The Book of Judges.
Chapter 6.
Now, I know this isn't particularly set out as a young people's meeting, but I wonder if I might speak yes to everybody, but more particularly to young people. Would that be all right? Don Rule took that liberty in the meeting this morning and I was thankful for it and I needed the.
Gist of what he said too.
But here we have in this chapter a.
Time in Israel's history when things were not very good. And here we find a young man by the name of Gideon who found himself in circumstances that probably for the most part were not of his own making. He found himself, if we could use the expression a bit of a victim of the failures of those that were older and more responsible than he. And maybe some of you young people feel that way.
And I know, as we said this morning, that there are hurts and there are difficulties in each heart here.
And I venture to say that not only is it people in my generation, but people who are a generation younger.
And yet here we find a young man who was an overcomer.
Now we know the story of Gideon pretty well, I think at least most of us do, all except the very young. And maybe you've heard it spoken about before, But the Word of God always has more in it, and it's always fresh, always has that for us, which can encourage us for the day in which we're living.
And that is the important thing. You know, there's a verse in Ecclesiastes that sometimes I forget about, but it says something like this. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this matter. There is always the tendency on our part, my part included.
To look back perhaps, and see when times were, at least in our view, a lot better. And perhaps there is also the tendency to look forward. And maybe we think one of two things. Either we look for things to get better and expect them to, or perhaps we fear that things will get worse.
But you and I are called upon to live in the day in which we do live, and here we find a young man whom I believe got grace from the Lord and help.
In his pathway to live for God's glory in difficult circumstances. And what I want to look at this afternoon are a number of things in his early life when the Lord started to use him, that I believe have a voice for all of us today. Now I know sometimes believers and perhaps those gathered to the Lord's name are particularly adept at finding groups of sevens in Scripture.
And sometimes I think, at least when I was young, I used to feel that some of my older brethren, well, they if there weren't seven there, they'd break it up and make 7. Or if there were more than seven, they group things together. But somehow it always came out with seven. Well, I hope we're not going to do that this afternoon. But there are a number of things in this chapter that have impressed me about Gideon. And so let's look at it.
Josh or Judges chapter 6.
And we find here, we won't read the whole chapter, but we find in verse one. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian 7 years. And it says there in verse six. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel.
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Fade unto the Lord.
There was a state of things in Israel here which was much to be regretted, a very, very difficult time. When these Midianites came up and it says they were like grasshoppers, they overran the country, took all the food that was available there, and left the people, as it says here, greatly impoverished and, you know, young people. That is the effort of Satan today.
The Midianites, in one sense, were related to Israel.
You will remember that Midian was actually a child of Esau by a concubine, so that there was a relationship there and they were right in the land.
And somehow the children of Israel had not been able to deal with them properly. If we were to go back into the Book of Numbers, we would find that they had been the occasion of real sin in Israel, right after the encounter with Balaam and his prophecies. And here they surface again, this time to do a terrible amount of damage.
Well, we won't dwell on it, but in verse seven it says, and it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. Oh, there was a warning. There was a very clear and definite warning. And in verse 10 it says, the prophet then telling what the Lord was saying, and I the Lord said unto you, I am the Lord your God.
Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice.
There was a reason for the impoverishing, and let us realize your heart and mind that if there is an impoverishing of believers, if there is spiritual poverty in your life and mine.
It is not God's will that it should be so. It may be in God's ways to allow it, as he did here, to recall the people to himself. But it is not God's will that his people should be spiritually impoverished. And there was a remedy.
And so notice what happens here concerning Gideon verse 11. And there came an Angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak, which was an Oprah.
That pertained unto Joash the Abbey is right, and his son Gideon thresh wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
Here is the first point I want to make.
Here was a young man where there were such hordes over running the land, that as it says there in the end of verse four, it says they left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox, nor ***.
No sustenance. And yet here was a man, a young man in the middle of all of that, who said, with the Lord's help, I am going to have food.
He had to do it in secret.
But he was going to have food and he had it.
Where did he get that wheat that he was threshing? How did he come by it? Oh, it doesn't tell us. The point is, he got it, and even though he had to hide in secret to thresh it so that some Midianites wouldn't catch him at it and take it away from him, yet there he was, threshing that wheat by the winepress.
And I say to each one here, you know, it is in my heart and perhaps in yours too, that often we look to others to give us that spiritual food, that encouragement which we feel that we need so badly. And we are very thankful for those that the Lord has given us to be a spiritual encouragement to us. We are so thankful for those that the Lord may have put in the local assembly or the Lord may use in other ways.
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That feed us with Christ and that give us encouragement in the Christian pathway. But I say to each one here, there is no substitute for going after it personally. And if you are.
Can I use the word determined? Is that too strong a word? I don't think so if you are determined to have something of Christ for your soul.
God will make a way for you to get it. He'll make a way even if all of the difficulties are so great that it looks as if there is no way out.
There are those who would say, Oh well, everything's falling apart, what's the use? Oh, no.
The last little while I have been emailing with a young man in England who has an earnest desire to please the Lord. I have never met him, His name was passed on to me by someone else. I have very much enjoyed getting to know him as well as anyone can by e-mail, and he really wants to follow the Lord. But he is raising big questions about whether.
It is really possible to do that today anymore, and I hope and I trust with all my heart that I have given him the right answer when I have said, Brother, the Lord is the same, His Word is the same, the Spirit of God is still here and everything in God's Word that anyone ever enjoyed is yours to have if you will have the diligence and the energy to go after it.
There may have to be some difficulties. Gideon had to hide it here. We won't go into details, but it was that kind of a man on whom the Lord's eye rested, and to whom he sends an Angel and says.
The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
It must start individually on your own before the Lord.
Let's go on.
Verse 13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might.
And thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee?
The second point we want to make is this, that here was a young man who knew that the Lord was able to deliver.
He looked back to those times long before, of course, he was born, when the Lord with a mighty hand had delivered his people from the land of Israel, or the land of Egypt, I should say, and how God had brought them out, brought them through the Red Sea, brought them through the wilderness, and eventually through the Jordan and into the land of Canaan. And I am sure there are some here who would look back, maybe with names that come to your mind, brethren, and going back further, people that you never knew.
And perhaps there is a longing in your soul for something of the power and display of the Lord's power that perhaps took place in those days. Is there a desire for that? I must admit there is in my soul. I was talking to a dear brother again in another country. I think it was in England as well. And he, he was, I think, a little older than I am.
And I was talking to him. I have never met him either, but we also had gotten to know one another by e-mail. And when I was talking to him, he said, Bill, where are you going next? Well, I said, I'm taking a trip out West. And ultimately, we expect to be at a conference in a place called Walla Walla, WA.
Oh, he said, and I could hear the longing in his voice. Oh, he said. And how, how many will be there, do you think? Oh, I said, I can't say for sure, but I would suppose 6 or 700 wouldn't be, uh, out of line, maybe even more than that. Oh, he said, just imagine to be able to sit down and sing a hymn with 700 brethren, to be able to have the Word of God opened.
00:20:31
He was old enough to remember in his lifetime when there had been meetings that size where he lived.
But there weren't any more.
He wanted them, and there was nothing wrong with that. I could sympathize with him. I wished I could put him in a package and bring him over here, but his health wasn't good enough for that. But he was longing for something and was. Gideon was too. He remembered the miracles. He remembered what the Lord had done. Oh, he said, if the Lord is with us, well then. But you know, we have to be careful about what the Lord says.
Had the Lord said God is with?
Israel, the almighty man of valor, is that what the Lord had said? The Lord is with thee, with thee.
Oh, Gideon had to realize that it started with him as an individual and that God had not in that sense forsaken his people, Israel, but for the moment he was dealing with them. And in that sense the Lord didn't say to Gideon, I'm with Israel, the Lord is with thee. But notice this time when Gideon talks back to the Angel, who answers the Angel? Oh no, it says in verse 14. And the Lord looked upon him and said.
Sometimes that happens in scripture where someone is speaking, but then part way through it's the Lord that's speaking. It happens with Job, and if you read the book of Job carefully, you find that Eli who speaks to Job there toward the end of the book. But then it seems as if suddenly Job is all alone with the Lord and Eli who has lost sight of. And here I believe the Angel is lost sight of.
And Gideon is face to face with the Lord. I say it to each one of our hearts, but I say it particularly to you young people. Don't be afraid to be face to face with the Lord. Sometimes we can almost. And I don't say there was anything of that in Gideon's voice, but I allow for the possibility that there might have been almost the same. Why? Why did the Lord do this to us? What have we done to deserve this? What have I done?
And sometimes we're a little bit afraid to get into the Lord's presence because we feel that the Lord is against us.
If we're living a life of sin, if we're living a worldly life, the Lord does have to speak to us about it, no question. But never, never get the idea that the Lord is against you. The Lord is for you, and the Lord wants your blessing. The Lord wants your happiness and your joy.
But he wants it with him at the center, not something that you and I want. And here Gideon had a heart for the Lord. He couldn't see very far as he will see a little further on, but there was a heart for the Lord. And the Lord says, Gideon, I have sent you, I have sent you. And I say to each one here today, if you are willing to get into the Lord's presence, I believe you will get direction for your life.
We see a lot of young people today, and I don't want to generalize because there are so many of you that are a tremendous encouragement to us. I love to be around young people, even though it makes me feel old, but I still love to be around them. They have energy and they have an ability that I don't have any more. And I love to see the enthusiasm. And very often they don't see all the problems and difficulties that I see after 40 or 50 years. They don't see all of them. They haven't seen all those problems. It's just go for it.
I like that expression if it's in the right direction. And so it's a wonderful thing to see young people that have a heart for the Lord. But there are some dear young people who seem to lack direction in their lives, who seem to have a, shall I say, a difficulty knowing which way the Lord would have them go and what they should do. And I see dear young people trying this, trying that, going here, going there.
00:25:08
And it can have a multiplicity of causes which we won't try to go into this afternoon. But I do say to you that it is possible to have clear and definite direction from the Lord. But there's an if. And the if is this if I'm willing. And I think brother Don Rule put it well this morning. If I'm willing to have before me what the Lord Jesus had before him when he said, I delight to do thy will, O God.
And we'll see that in the case of Gideon. Well, let's go on here because our time is going #3 verse 15.
And he that is Gideon said unto him, That is to the Lord, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
There's something here that I want to lay a bit of emphasis on.
There was in Gideon something which I feel we need very much in these last days, and that is in Gideon there was a very healthy tone of humility.
Gideon might have gotten up and said, Oh my, well, I guess I'm somebody now. The Lord's put his hand on me and tells me to go and save Israel. Let's do it. Go for it.
But he doesn't talk like that.
When he answers the Lord there, some would call it unbelief, but I don't think that's what it was. Gideon had no doubt about the Lord's power. He had no question about what the Lord was able to do. The big question was, is he going to use the likes of me? Me. Who am I? My family doesn't amount to anything. In Manasseh, the tribe that he came from, and in my father's house, I'm I'm a nobody.
Me.
You know, it's those who approach the situation in humility that the Lord can use. Somebody spoke up this morning about spiritual pride.
And I suggest that it is one of the biggest dangers that we have today. And pride can work in two ways. It can be pride in what I think I am or pride in what I am not. And the devil doesn't care which it is. He doesn't care whether you're occupied with yourself in a positive way or whether you're taken up with yourself in a negative way, as long as you're occupied with yourself.
I would suggest that Gideon was neither. He wasn't taken up with himself, but only to the extent that he thought, Lord, is it possible that you are going to use me?
I see two dangers, as I say today. On the one hand, there is the danger of saying it's all over with, it's all finished, and we just have to muddle along as best we can until the Lord comes. Because everything is breaking up and falling apart. And you just have to go wherever you can and do what you can for the Lord. And there's no point in being too particular about what the Word of God teaches or being too particular about where you break bread.
Or being too particular about the lives and otherwise of believers that you spend time with. Because after all, everything is falling apart so well, I had a brother tell me that some, not not so long ago actually, that it's all over with Bill and ******. You keep on plugging away at something that's just falling apart.
Or there can be the other thing on the other side. There can be, and it happened in Israel's history and it has happened in secular history. The getting too big for our boots.
You see it, for example, and I hesitate to speak I'll of him because he was a godly king, but I think you see it in Josiah in the Old Testament, whom the Lord used in a wonderful way and had a wonderful revival under him. But then he got thinking he was somebody and that he could start interfering militarily with the conflict that the Lord hadn't told him to get into, and he lost his life. You've seen it in secular history, haven't you?
00:30:11
Those of you that have studied ancient history will remember the name of a man by the name of Charlemagne. He was a great king of the, uh, ethnic group called the Franks in Europe. So incidentally, and you know, this probably is well or better than I do, we're partly responsible for overthrowing the Roman Empire.
That's where France got its name from, the fact that the original people there were called Franks.
And Charlemagne, even though he saw that his people had helped to overflow overthrow the Roman Empire, had a tremendous admiration for that empire, and he tried to reestablish it, and he compelled the Pope to crown him Holy Roman Emperor.
But was he a Holy Roman Emperor? Did he restore the Roman Empire? No, I can still remember on a history test the question being proposed to us. Discuss the question Charlemagne Dash Roman Emperor or only a Frankish king?
And the fact of the matter is that while he did a tremendous amount of good for his people and was greatly used in that sense to establish schools and many other good institutions, he was and remained a Frankish king. God wasn't going to restore the Roman Empire at that time, but sometimes you and I can get the idea that we're going to restore things as they might have been a generation or two ago or 100 years ago.
And I say to you, beloved young people, as I say to my own soul, don't try it. Don't try it. No, we find that David served his own generation by the will of God, and then he fell on sleep. Don't try and put things back into a state that they might have been previously. It's not going to work. But what I do say with all, shall I say, conviction that God will enable you and me to live for his glory in the fullest way.
In the situation where you find yourself and Gideon had the same. But what it takes is humility and a willingness to be used of the Lord and not pretending to be something. Because God can't use pretenders. He can't use those who pretend to be what they're not. He has to bring them down to where they say, Lord, thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. Well, let's go on here #4.
What happens?
Verse 17 It seems as if finally after, if I could say it reverently, after three tries, the Lord finally gets through to Gideon. All right, Gideon says, all right, I guess, I guess it must be true. But what does he want? Verse 17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me.
Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
Was this another lack of faith?
This isn't the only sign that Gideon got. You'll remember if you read his subsequent history that he got at least three more signs from God. Were they a lack of faith?
Possibly, possibly. But again, I suggest that the Lord went along with Gideon here in asking for signs because it was not so much a lack of faith in what the Lord could do, but a lack of faith in himself. And Gideon was like some of us in that he needed to be taken by the hand and let alone by the Lord, step after step after step. And you know, in one sense that is humbling because.
We don't read, for example, that a man like Joshua, whom the Lord used to conquer that land of Canaan, We don't read that Joshua had these same experiences as Gideon did. No, it was a different day. And Joshua relied on the Lord, and he went forward with a boldness and a confidence that Gideon did not have. But remember, Gideon was surrounded by all kinds of failure. And for that reason, I believe.
00:35:08
Gideon proceeds cautiously and carefully. Show me a sign.
I'm not suggesting to you young people that you ask for signs.
All I say is that if you feel the Lord is leading you in the right direction, no I let me rephrase that, that's not very good if you feel that you are being LED in a direction that is of the Lord.
And yet you are still not very sure.
I don't think it is entirely wrong to ask the Lord to make it abundantly clear. Now I don't mean to take away from scriptures that say I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Yes, that is the preferred way to be guided. And here Gideon had the word of the Lord three times over. I'm with you, Gideon, I'm with you, I'm with you. But Gideon says I'd like a sign.
I'd like a sign.
And the sign is a nice one that he has here. We aren't going to go into it in detail, but in verse 19 it says in Gideon went in and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an IFA flour. The flesh put he in a basket and he put the broth in a pot and brought it out under him under the oak and presented it. And what happened? Verse 21 Then the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the flesh in the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh.
And the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
The Lord gave fire from heaven, but notice Gideon brought what he wanted to present and what the law gave as an offering to the Lord. Now we made a mistake here too, and it might seem on first glance to be a serious mistake because.
The kid that was good, the unleavened cakes, that was a meat offering that was good. But broth?
Broth. Broth. Did you ever find that mentioned in the law as part of an offering? No. No. And so the Angel says. You pour that broth out, Gideon. Oh, how gracious the Lord is. And he'll be gracious to you, too.
Beloved young people, as some of us that are older can make a personal reference. Don't think that we haven't been there.
I know when I was your age, I used to look at some of the older brethren and I could name them. They're long since with the Lord and I used to think, well, I'm sure they never ran into the difficulties and the problems that I did. They never had the questions about their pathway that I did.
But I want to tell you now that I'm a little older.
We've been there, some of us.
Pardon a personal reference, but I can well remember when I wanted to go to medical school and my father did not think it was a very good idea.
Not one little bit.
And another brother, who is now with the Lord, who shall remain nameless, venture to tell me, Bill, doctors don't make good brethren.
Had to swallow that for a little while.
Then another brother came up to me who was also full time in the Lord's work. Well, Bill, I think you better give it up. Give it up.
And I'm not throwing stones at them. I appreciated their interest and their advice, although I must confess, when I reminded the one dear brother that made the first comment about 30 years later of what he said, he was about ready to crawl under the table. But anyway, the point is, I appreciated their interest, but it put me in an awful quandary. Was the Lord speaking to me? Was he telling me something through these brethren that I needed to pay attention to?
And I asked for a sign. I asked for a sign.
And I believe the Lord gave it to me. And probably you obviously know what the result was. And I'm not suggesting for one moment that those brethren shouldn't have said what they did. I never forgot what they said and I appreciated it. But I say to each one of you young people, some of us have been there, I think all of us have, and been through the questions and the concerns. And we put out a request for a sign and Gideon got the sign here. Wonderful.
00:40:12
And what's the result? Verse 24?
Then Gideon built there, or built an altar there unto the Lord, and called Jehovah Shalom unto this day. It is yet an Oprah of the Abbey Ezraites.
I don't know whether I'm right in this. I submit the thought though for others to consider.
Gideon had already offered this sacrifice, and the Lord had graciously sent down fire from heaven, which provided the sign that Gideon was looking for.
But it was done, as it says here, under an oak, and it was done on a rock. It was done on a rock.
A rock is something that's pretty stationary, but there can be lots of rocks in this world, and I could find a rock just about anywhere probably suitable to do something on. Some of us that have done a bit of wilderness camping, we sometimes look for a nice broad Flat Rock. It makes a nice convenient place for a table and maybe to set up a camp stove on or something like that and cook with and so on. But then the next day you get in your canoe and go on somewhere.
And when you get to another campsite, very often there's another rock, lots of rocks around.
But Gideon builds an altar, and I would suggest, and this is an application of the Scripture, not the only interpretation or application of it, I would suggest that the altar here speaks of that which is more a permanent thing, more abiding.
And that bears very obviously the marks of the hand of man in it. The rock. Didn't God put the rock there? And when the sacrifice was consumed, I suppose unless there were a little blackening on the rock afterward, no one would have known for sure what took place there.
And sometimes it's like that. Excuse me?
Sometimes it is like that in your life and mine. There are times in our lives when the Lord would perhaps show us a rock on which something can be done and where He gives us a real and definite sign that we have His mind about going ahead in a certain path.
But then there is a time that comes after that, when perhaps the Lord leads us to put up something more permanent, to put up something that bears the marks of our hand in it. Not that we can do anything in that sense, but if someone saw that altar, aha. There is an altar to the Lord. It isn't just a rock that someone used for the occasion. It is an altar that marks out that place.
In perpetuity.
As a place where the Lord acted.
And you know, there comes a time in your life and mine when I believe the Lord would ask us to put a semblance of permanence on what we're doing. He can show us things wherever we are. But then there comes a time when we build an altar. No record that Gideon ever used it. We don't say he didn't. No record that he used it to offer a sacrifice. But it does say that it's still there under this day. And it had a significance for Gideon. It was a milestone in his life.
And he calls it Jehovah Shalom. The Lord send peace. Isn't that beautiful?
I have seen many believers today who long for peace. I don't mean peace necessarily in the sense that they're afraid of a suicide bomber coming along and blowing them up or they're afraid of something in that type of thing happening to them. But there is fear, fear of something that might happen. There is a lack of peace in their lives. There is a pursuing after. They don't know what, whether it's in the world or among believers, but I have seen dear believers doing that.
And I say to you and to me, the Lord wants to give you peace in your life. I don't mean that it'll be a life without problems. I don't mean that it'll be a life without questions and burdens and difficulties. The whole of our lives consists of adversarial circumstances and burdens and difficulties.
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But the Lord Jesus could say, peace I leave with you, that's peace as to our sins forgiven. But then he could say, My peace I give unto you. So he builds an altar.
What else happens here? Verse 25 And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Notice this the same night. No time to think about it. Take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of veil that thy father hath, and cut down the Grove that is by it, and build an altar under the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock.
In the ordered place, and take the second bullet, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Grove, which thou shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him. And so it was because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
Right away the Lord speaks to Gideon, this time something with a direct command. What he had done before was more, if we could use the expression, for Gideon's own soul, his doubts, his fears, his questions. He needed the sign. Everything was yes, it was in view of the Lord, but it was done for him.
But now that the Lord has Gideon building an altar, he says Gideon OK.
Now I want your thoughts to be turned in a little different direction.
This time, he says, as it were. Gideon, I want your thoughts to turn toward me. And you know, once again, I say it to each one of us, but particularly to you beloved young people.
The secret of a happy Christian pathway, among other things.
Is not to be taken up with yourself at all, but to have the Lord's interests before you. And God gave Gideon so much to think about with his interest. That is the Lord's interest. The Gideon didn't have time to think about his being happy or his doing something for his own enjoyment. But you know what the wonderful thing was? The Lord looked after his happiness. The Lord looked after his happiness. And to go back to what we said this morning.
The one who said.
In this world, lo, I come to do thy will, O God, and who gave up everything, far more even than the apostle Paul who wrote that chapter we had this morning. Far more than anyone will ever be able to give up the one who gave up everything to do the Father's will.
And who never pleased himself, you know, and I know was the happiest man that ever walked through this world. Why? Because he set out to be happy. Because he set out to do everything that would make him happy. No, but because in doing the Father's will, there was a happiness and a joy that nothing else could produce. And so the Lord speaks to Gideon now, and he says, OK, Gideon, now I've got something for you to do.
He had to go and build another altar it seems.
And take his father's young Bullock, the second Bullock of seven years.
You know, those two words are significant, and again, we won't dwell on them, but why was it the second bullet? Why was it the second bullet?
Oh, I believe because the 1St man, Adam.
And the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The first man, Adam was made a living soul. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven. Oh how many times in the word of God you find that God picks out the second one in a family and he is the one that is the channel of blessing instead of the first born?
I remember well in India, not this year but last year, saying to the children and young people, I said if anyone, up to the age of 16.
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Can find 7 couplets in the book of Genesis where the second one in a family was used of the Lord more than the first born. I promised them a reward. I said I'd give them some money.
And a brother immediately spoke up and he said, could that age be extended to 20? And sure enough, it was. And for the children, we said it had to be fewer. Now there are more than that, but it was interesting what they came up with. And if you want to do it, some of you children and young people, take a look just in the book of Genesis and see how many occasions you can find where the second one or one younger than the second one was a greater channel of blessing than the first born.
There are sometimes more than one in the same family. But anyway, I believe that's the point here. The second Bullock speaks of Christ, and it was the Bullock of seven years old. Oh, isn't it beautiful? How long have the children of Israel been delivered into the hand of Midian? Seven years.
The very year that God delivered them into the hand of Midian, that Bullock was born, and God had it waiting there all along. And all I say to you, beloved brethren and young people, God.
Way back in the past eternity, before you and I were ever even thought of, He chose you in Christ. But right from the foundation of the world, as soon as man sinned, God had the remedy for it. And now God takes Gideon's heart. Fact.
To Calvary's cross he takes him back to Christ as the true burnt offering.
But there's a significance in what happened here, and I want to lay some emphasis on this.
Gideon had to start at home.
Gideon had to start at home. It would have been a lot easier, wouldn't it, to have gone somewhere else and offered that sacrifice because where was this idol? The Grove here, You know, we sometimes think of a Grove, and properly so, as a group of trees. And when I was younger, I used to think that Gideon had to go with an axe or a saw or whatever and cut down a whole group, whole group of trees around, and then use the wood from those trees to.
Uh, offer the sacrifice. And I remember as a young man scratching my head and thinking that would not work. Greenwood would never burn, and how could he cut down a Grove of trees and build a fire that same night? It just wouldn't work. But that's not what it means. The word Grove here has the thought of an image to a God or a goddess. It was doubtless made of wood, but it was the image to a false God.
And yet Gideon, who had not he but his father, that idol right in his own backyard, could say to the Angel, why is all this evil befallen? And you know, sometimes we're blind to the very things that are the biggest hindrance to God's blessing. But if our heart is right, God will put his finger on it and say, deal with that, deal with that. And sometimes it is something right at home. It was not easy for Gideon because evidently this was his father's idol.
And he was afraid. And so instead of doing it by day, he does it by night. Takes 10 men, goes out there, smashes that idol up.
Kills the bullet, builds an altar, uses the wood of that Grove that idle the image of the idol to offer the sacrifice.
And there's something else I believe here that is important.
When you start out to be used from the for the Lord, there is going to be a cost involved.
Don't shy away from it. Don't shy away from the cost involved. All too often we do. And you read about the man in Luke's gospel who set out to build a tower and the Lord Jesus said he gets so far and then he's not able to finish. Oh, the world mocks at that. Just as they mock at believers who start out well and then find the cost is too high and they don't finish well. Or the one who goes out to battle with another king.
And when the other king has 20,000 and he has only 10,000, he's tempted to sue for peace. Oh yes, you can have peace. You can have, you can always have peace as long as you're willing to have peace. On the terms of the one who says I've got the biggest army, yes, you can have peace, but it'll be on my terms. And the devil will give you peace if you are willing to submit to his terms.
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But the devil's peace will be a little bit, and pardon the reference to it, but it'll be a little bit like the kind of peace that existed in Europe in the 1930s when Hitler said, well, just let me have this. And then there will be peace. And then a little while later, just let me have this, and then there will be peace. And then just one more thing.
And one more and one more until finally other nations had to stand up and say that's it. But you know the devil Devil will keep grabbing more and more from you and me. He'll never give you true and lasting peace.
And that's what's happening in among believers today if we're not careful. But here Gideon was willing to begin at home. And I say to you, beloved young people, don't look for some great work of the Lord outside your home environment. Don't look for some foreign land to go to. Yes, it's wonderful to go and be used to the Lord in a foreign land. And it's just a tremendous encouragement to some of us that have the privilege of going out to foreign lands to have young people go with us.
As I said earlier, they lend an energy and an enthusiasm that I love to see, and it means so much to our dear brethren too. But don't think that that is going to fix something in your life or my life that needs to be dealt with. I have to fix something at home. Here was an idol right in the backyard. And God says Gideon, deal with that idol first. I can't use you until it.
Is out of the way. He had to destroy the idol to have the sacrifice. And you know, the idol in New Testament terms speaks of that which would take my heart away from Christ.
Paul could say, or rather the apostle John could say, children keep yourselves from idols and Paul could say covetousness, which is idolatry. The idolatry of the Old Testament is the worldliness of today. And I've told this story before, but I remember while reading about two sisters, one of whom was living for the Lord in a godly way, and the other one who was trying to live with one foot in the world and who was most unhappy.
And she came home one day and her sister was just playing at the piano, playing a hymn and enjoying it. And the sister, who was trying to live with one foot in the world, came in, listened for a moment, then said to her sister, you know, I give the world to have the joy and peace in my heart that you have.
And the older sister took her up on it and she said yes, she said. And that's just what it's going to cost you. That's just what it's going to cost you.
I'd give the world to have the peace that you have, and that's what it's going to cost you. This idol had to go for that alternatively built and that sacrifice to be offered at Gideon did it one last thing.
Verse 34 or 33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East were gathered together and went over and pitched in the valley of Jezreel. Oh, if you set out to do something for the Lord, you're going to be a marked man or a marked woman. How do these Midianites know to come together? How did the Amalekites know to gather together? Oh, no doubt the devil knew very well that there was a Gideon who was there, who on whom the Lord had his eye, and whom the Lord was going to use.
And they say we've got to stop this man in his tracks, and the devil's trying to do that today.
There are young brothers over in India whom the devil is trying to stop, whom the devil is going after in a terrible way. Why? Because he does not take kindly to the invasion of his Kingdom. And they are having an impact and an effect because of their freshness and their energy and their ability to go out and preach the gospel in. The Lord is working. But the devil isn't lying down either. And so here all of this host comes together.
But verse 34 says, But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet. Oh, there will come a time in your life when God will say, as it were, blow a trumpet.
But I suggest that that's not the first thing. We'd all like to be the one to blow the trumpet, wouldn't we? We'd all like to get out there and say that's cool, but there had to be a long process before all of that could take place. But there came a time when the Lord used Gideon, and we know the history, how it went. We don't have time to go into it. And I say to each one here today, Lord can use you in a wonderful way if you'll only be willing to follow Him.
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And I suggest to you that these examples in the life of Gideon show us in picture how that God can work even under the most difficult of circumstances, and how he can use you and me in the day in which we're living.
Let's sing another hymn before we close, and if it's all right, I think that him that our brother Dave suggested at the beginning is a good one. 3/18 Was that the one? Thank you. Oh Lamb of God, still keep us close to Thy pierced side. Is only there in safety and peace. We can abide the foes and snares around us, and lusts and fears within the grace.
That sought and found us.
Alone can keep us clean 318.
10-4 oh 10-4 8 oh 10-4 Do you believe in real life and do you hear me alive now?
Nsnoise.
Philippians 3:10-21
Reading
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We get done in our chapter, we kind of talked in general terms, but is there a point where we should start?
I suggest we start at verse 10.
Olympians Chapter 3.
Beginning at verse 10.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
If by any means I might obtain unto the resurrection of the dead, notice though I had already attained, either were already perfect. But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I can't not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth, until those things which are before I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
If in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, where to we have already attained? Let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walked. So as we have us go in and sample for many walk, of whom I have told you often.
And now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, whose mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.
According to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
You don't want to draw things back, but I would like to hear perhaps a little bit more, what does it mean at the end of verse 8?
That I may win Christ? What does it mean to win Christ?
The one verse that comes to mind, we know that when he shall appear, we shall see Him, for we shall be like Him as he is.
That seems to be winning Christ.
To learn by seeing him.
The translation reads game Christ Note says have Christ for my game.
Everything in this chapter is so beautiful. Everything centers in Christ Himself to have Him for one's gained not by anything he did or could do, but.
He is everything to Paul. He was nothing in the 1St place to solve.
It's so beautiful that God chose a man like that to be the he was the chief of sinners, and now he's the one that wanted to gain Christ, to have him for everything.
What a what a transformation took place. Don't ever say I'm so bad I could never be saved because this man said he was the chief of sinners saw Paul and he got saved. So no matter what you've done or how bad you've been.
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The door can easily be opened for you.
That's the step.
To salvation is convincing. I'm not worthy.
I'm a center and I need help.
It's looked at here in this chapter as something that he was pressing towards, that I might have Christ for my game, and I suppose as we're born into a world.
We tend to be formed by the world we are growing up in, but when we are called into God's family, there's a totally different objective before us. We've been.
Predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. And it's something that through this world, as we pass through it, we are pressing towards to have Christ as our game.
And I suppose in our experience, this is an experience book. We have experiences where we show the futility of everything around us apart from Christ.
God's eternal purpose is to make us like Christ, not only morally and spiritually, but out of here is coming again. Like you say, Uncle Fleming, physically they're going to be like him.
So the prize attaining the prize is the other side, like you were saying.
More in Dawn than.
I wish, uh, we could get a little more handle on what that means to understand what it means to have Christ for our game. Is that in contrast with verse 7?
What things were gained to me?
As a Pharisee, as a Pharisee and there were things that were his by birth. He didn't plan on being a Benjamite, He didn't plan on being a Hebrew, He didn't plan on being circumcised the 8th day. Those things no way could he planned on. He could affect being a Hebrew of a Hebrews and ardent Pharisees and his zeal but.
The gospel has to be so simple because man is so lost.
God binds it all up in one blessed person.
Hello G And that site on the road to Damascus and those three days without sight.
Remembering that site was part of it.
He's ready to put it all his refuse.
I wanna be recognized for one thing.
Right from my game and pursue that in I think when you get.
Well, sometimes.
Families, as they grow, maybe they've moved and the day comes from the family goes visiting back to the old homestead and father takes the children said, well, this is the house where I grew up and this is where I played and this is.
So forth, and children may look around and try to take that in.
But with Paul it's much, maybe that's a pretty only example, but Paul wants to experience everything, tries to experience, including I believe here, so we can make spiritual application, including physical death, that he might know resurrection out from among the dead because Christ went there. He wants that experience too.
I'd like to go ahead to chapter verse 10 because for my own soul, the understanding of the end of that I may win Christ like for me it's.
From what it said in the beginning of verse 10 that I may know him.
I don't know how to say this.
I would like to as simply as I would like to, brethren, my.
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It's an incredible thing.
To get a hold of God and let our souls get a hold of it. The expression that I may know Him.
Two weeks ago at the detention center, there was a boy that made a statement like this. He said he lived a long time ago.
None of us have ever met him.
So we can only know about it.
There is something within us that tends to think that we can't know unless we've met the person.
Bill this afternoon when he was speaking referred to this kind of situation when he said I have had e-mail correspondence with this person.
And I forget your words exactly, Bill, but it was something like the best I can know him because I haven't met him.
It's extremely important thing because I'm speaking to my fellow believers in this room. All of us have heard facts about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And based upon those facts, we have put our faith in Him.
As our Savior, and we don't doubt that. We don't doubt His love, we don't doubt His work. Our lives, our eternity depends on it. And so we love Him.
But there can still be in us a sense of I'm looking forward to the moment when I see him face to face because it will satisfy that thing that is in us that hinders us from his sense of really knowing him because we've never met him.
And in other relationships.
There's a brother in India that Bill told me about a year or two ago, and there was reasons to start to correspond with him by e-mail.
And in the last month another situation came up in this brothers umm Jonathan John's life. And I said to myself I'd really like to meet him because I'd really like to get to know him. And the sense was I really can't get to know him until I have met him.
And so we love the Lord Jesus. We.
Have absolute faith in Him as our Savior. We have no doubt that we're going to heaven and we're going to see Him and meet Him face to face.
But the point I wanna make and I don't know if I can.
Get it across.
Brethren, we do know him.
We know him now.
It's not a question of waiting until we get to heaven to see him face to face, to be able to say I know him.
I enjoyed recently thinking about it and saying I know his heart.
In many ways better than I know my own.
Think of that he is hard as expressed to me through the word of God. And you too is perfect without alloy, without corruption, without anything. It's it's a pure heart. And when I look upon him in the word of God and and see him, I can see in his heart better than I can see in my own within me there is.
Does the scripture says? Who can know it?
It's full of deceit and at times it's right and at times it's wrong, but with Him it's not. So when I say I and you say I know Him, this scripture says in John 17 this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ.
So that I can know him.
And I speak in the first person, but it's for all of us so that I can know him, he says. I give you my life.
Can you tell me I don't know a person whose life I share?
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I share his life, it's mine, it's my life. And in fact, the emphasis of this chapter is, uh, I don't know where to stop with this, but.
We don't know him after the flesh, and that's where Paul is going here.
He, some of them, knew him after the flesh. They saw him. They knew him face to face. They knew him as a man on earth, as part of, you might say, Adam's creation.
Although He was the head of a new creation, but it was in that way that they knew Him. When He has risen from the dead and Mary comes to Him, she has to learn to know Him in a new way, and instead henceforth know we Him no more after the flesh. I know, my Lord Jesus.
Not as a man in the flesh. I read in the Word of God, and I rejoice with all my heart and all. And tomorrow morning we will sit down in His presence and remember Him in death.
As he was here on earth. But the way Paul is Speaking of having Chrysler's gain and knowing him is that's not what he is today.
He is a man.
In heaven, who is part of a new creation?
And my knowing him is to lay hold of Him and he of me, or he already laid hold of me as he already says he's been. We've been taking possession of him. But it's to apprehend Him, it's to enjoy him. It's to know him in new creation that is on the apostles heart. How do you know somebody in one sense? Well, you have to have a similar life. I don't know ants. I know about him, but I don't share their nature. So I don't know an Ant in the sense that's talked about here.
God has given us a nature that we may know the Lord Jesus intimately and personally. Now, if you're going to really know somebody, you have to have shared experiences.
I want to know the Lord Jesus better and so do you. How do we know Him better? You have to walk in fellowship with Him so that together we may share and have experiences. How many times have you known somebody you thought and something happens in their life and you say I thought I knew that person?
But this helps such has happened and I guess I don't really know as well as I I thought I knew them.
Umm, I don't know my wife and some of the sisters here know my wife in the matter of childbirth. I can't. I've never shared with her that experience. And so it's a limitation in the sense of knowing what it means to her as other sisters here know her as I don't. In that RE relationship, the Apostle Paul said I want to know and he went through death.
If that experience shared with him will let me know him better, I would like to go through that.
And experience the power of resurrection from the dead as he experienced it. And in that way, I will know him in a way that I, I haven't experienced, I haven't expressed, I haven't, umm, I haven't gone through that. And so I, I don't know him in that way. Some of us may avoid persecution or something in our lives. It hinders us from knowing him because we, we are not sharing with him.
In that which it was his path through this world. Well, I wanna stop so that others can say but just don't wanna repeat the same point rather than we haven't met him face to face.
But we do know him, and when I see the Lord Jesus, I'm not looking in the face of the stranger. I am looking into the face of one that I know.
I talked to, I talked to I don't know how many times today.
And he, he knows me. His side of it is wonderful because he knows me perfectly.
And my side is learning to to get to know him better. And Paul, when he says I wanna have Christ for my game, to me is I don't know him completely as I want to. And I want to put absolutely everything else aside, treated as nothing of no value to me that I might have him.
00:20:14
Himself to my heart as to know Him as everything.
I'd like to add to what you said.
You can turn to it if you want. Matthew 16.
Verse 13 When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man AM? And they said, some say Thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others Jeremias are one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am now notice? And Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. But my Father, which is in heaven, I say unto thee, that thou art Peter. And upon this rock, that confession that he just made, as to who he is, I will build my church. And so on now, John 20.
Now it was Peter.
That confessed him, that knew him the Christ, the Son of the living God, and in John 20.
Verse 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
And then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then say it to Thomas.
Reach it to thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach into thy hand, and thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.
Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord.
And my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Now this last part, so precious blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed, that you and me, we haven't seen it. Peter saw him, and he denied him with oaths and curses. I know not the man.
He has two apostles that went to the depth of of evil. Peter denied him three times in the Lord restores him and uses him, uses him the head of the apostles and the and Saul of Tarsus despised him, did everything he could to get rid of the Christians, and he is used.
By the Lord, I will show him how great things he will suffer for my sake. So those two men, Peter who denied him three times of those in curses and solid Tarsus who did everything in his power, Pharisee of the Pharisee, and all these things we've been reading about in Philippians. If there were any two men on the earth that could have said I, I'm ashamed for what I've done.
And they were the ones that he would reach down. This magnifies the grace of God like nothing else can.
He took the worst. He took the one that cursed and swore and then denied him three times and he took solitarsis and did everything he can to kill the Christians and to snuff out that hated name of Jesus. He said he's going to be. These are the two that will head up that which magnifies the grace of God like nothing else.
There are at least three words.
Regarding all we're discussing.
That are exceedingly precious and important.
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And they are.
Love. Respect.
And devotion.
Uh, what have I received?
That I do not deserve.
I'm not going to receive the Lake of Fire.
I deserve it.
Look at my Lord Jesus Christ received it at 12 noon on Friday on the cross of Calvary.
God laid on him the iniquity of us all believers.
And my, my eternity is positively secured by virtue of that suffering, that cup which he prayed that the Father would remove from him if it was his will. Not my will, but thy will be done so.
The Lord Jesus.
Stood in my place and death in judgment. Now then, what is the result in my heart?
That I may know him.
The power of his reservation, fellowship of his suffering and being made comfortable unto his image, and so forth. What I have I am thankful for, and I want to know him better and serve him more devotedly.
I think it's nice to see the same devotion that Paul has used as a pattern here and what man in the flesh could do and attain to by his being born of Hebrews and and being zealous beyond anybody else in his state. He used that same devotion and pursuit of knowing Christ after he was saved.
But it involves a totally different pathway. It wasn't what man could attain to and comprehend and appreciate anymore. It's rather a path of surrendering and learning what Christ was, the one He saw in glory. And when he got a glimpse of that, then he wanted to know Him better. And the way to know that better wasn't the way He had his past life had been.
It says about him when when his past life it is hard for thee to kick against the ******. There was something there in Paul's past life that he saw that he was resisting. God had given some wetness. Now he surrenders with a whole hearted life to pass through the ex experiences that led to Christ being exalted on high. And then he wanted to get to know that man.
By going through those experiences and learning what Christ was really like, because those are the things that the Lord went through when He was ascended up on high. The past to the glory was by way of the cross and by death and resurrection.
And so it's, it's so contrary to our own nature to travel that path, Brethren, we, we don't, we don't like it. It's against us. And we have to set aside our own wills.
And the devotion that Paul did to that, I think is the model here for us to, to do that, not my will. And even to suffering and death. He would, he would gladly walk that path experimentally, go through it, find out what it was like in order to know Christ. And so I believe we get a sense of that little by little as we go through life. And he made sure that we do surrender and obey.
It's worth it, brethren, we find it so who are happy Christians. It isn't the ones that have it easy.
Like to connect what we have before us with Second Corinthians chapter 5?
00:30:06
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14.
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
And that He died for all that they which lived should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh? Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
These verses are directly, can I say doctrinally, underneath what Paul is expressing to us as to the experience of what's before his soul, and that is.
Man knew Christ after the flesh.
But when he man in his condition was dead, if he wasn't dead toward God, Christ would not have had to die. And so, as he says there in Second Corinthians, all are dead or all were dead. The Lord Jesus came into this world in the condition in which we were sent apart, a holy being.
Not tainted by our sin, but still truly a man. He lived here in the first creation as a man, but because before God it had no hope, he died.
And before God, his death is the end of anything that God is doing with respect to mankind.
Has to do with the original creation.
So he died, and he rose again, and now we are to know him as that man.
Who's who is on the other side of death in a creation that God is working with that will be permanent and eternal for the soul. So he said we didn't know him after the flesh, but we don't know him that way anymore.
Neither do we. We never knew him that way. We we study his life and we get to know him as a man on earth, as men on earth. But that's not what he is today. He's still a perfect man, but he's man in new creation to us. And it's in that way that Paul said, I haven't attained yet, but he's the one I want to know. And the beginning of you might say getting to know him in that way is through death.
And resurrection, because that's the beginning of it all, as to where He is today as a man at God's right hand in the glory. So if I'm to be in Christ, I'm part of a new creation, as he says here. Uh, I'm a new creature. All things are passed away. All the old is gone as far as our coming to really know Him as He now is. And that's what we want, brethren, to get to know Him as He now is.
And the only way we can know him as he now is, is like Paul said, he wasn't mentioning sins here, but he was mentioning things that had to do with the first creation, what he was in the flesh way he had been born, and so on. You and I each have our history in that way. But you can't know him that way. You're not going to know him. I'm not going to know him in those things. And so he says that's.
That's useless.
There's nothing in that. I I don't care about that anymore. I treat that as dumb because I want him as he is, and the only way I can know him is to see him with the eye of faith and to experience that fellowship with him as he is.
And so we, our hearts are drawn away from the first creation. We live here, we have to, we live in the body. There's a balance here.
But as to knowing Christ, it's to to be occupied with Him in a totally new world.
00:35:03
And Paul said, I haven't attained to that price yet, and I won't. He knew he would, not until he was right there with him in his glorified body. And then he would say the prize here is mine. I have him where he is. And for us, we can't say we've arrived, but we can put everything else aside.
As it were in our hearts that we might focus on him and say, that's the priority of my life. I want to know Him and we can. And in our measure, each of us does.
I like to thank Don and uh, what you mentioned about Second Corinthians 5, that we know not Christ after the flesh is the reason why when the Lord Jesus rose, the first person to see him was.
Mary Magdalene.
She wanted him back as she had known him according to the flesh. But he says, touch me not. I have not yet ascended to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God. In other words, he was saying to Mary, Mary, you're not going to have me back as you knew me down here. You're going to know me in a far deeper and fuller way.
In new creation.
And create a new creation begins with Christ and resurrection. He's the head of that new creation and resurrection. And I suppose that's why it says the power of his resurrection. Oh, brethren, the power there is in that resurrection life. We already have resurrection life. That's the life we share that you were mentioning with Christ and glory. It's beautiful to look at the apostles in the book of the Acts.
What a marked difference there was when the Holy Spirit came down and they came into the realization of where they stood in relation to the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus on high in the glory and the Holy Spirit down here to make it real to them. The power of resurrection, I've often thought.
To understand resurrection, you have to know what death is.
And when the apostles were preaching the gospel in the first days of the Acts.
The religious authorities threatened to kill him. Kill them. Can you scare a man that has already been dead and is enjoying resurrection life with threatening to kill him?
Has absolutely no effect. And that was just baffled. Those religious authorities, there's a power there that they didn't know how to touch.
I think that new creation is an important part of that.
There are two other scriptures that are expressed a little bit. We've already had that in a second, Corinthians 5, uh, 1415 and 16, no.
Yeah.
The uh checking current is 5/17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. And then you get it in Galatians chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
1St 15 were in praise. Jesus. Neither circumcision available anything nor uncircumcision.
But a new creation.
And then you get it in Laodicea in Revelation 3.
The Angel of the Church.
In the.
Revelation 3.
Hersh.
1414, yeah.
We're all starting the 13th heat.
You want to read it for me in the morning?
00:40:01
He has half a new year. Let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and unto the Angel of the laid of the Church of the Laodiceans. Right these things say, Amen, the faithful and true witness.
Of the creation of God.
Jesus was the beginning of the creation of God.
He was both a beginner and the beginning. I think he had the power, but he personally was the beginning of the new creation.
That's what God revealed to Peter, I think. Uh, Chuck?
Reveal something special to Peter there.
The living or the Son of the living God?
New creation.
So for us that has never seen him, when he reveals himself to us, that's every bit as strong and good as those that accompanied him with him here on Earth. In fact, we know him now as the glorified man, the head of the new creation. They didn't know him that way yet when he was there on Earth, but now he's the head of a new creation.
We have part in that, nothing higher.
They have never, they never saw him.
In the way that you have to know Him now. So we are not one tiny bit behind them when it comes to knowing Him as He now is. Because they had to come to know Him in a new way that they did not know Him when He was among them until His resurrection. And then they get to start to know Him in a new way. The end of the old is His death.
And Paul emphasizes that in this chapter, as he says in verse 10, the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
Tomorrow morning, the Lord willing, we will sit down with the Lord Jesus at His table to remember Him in that death.
And.
When we do so, in the sense of you do announce the Lord's death till he come, in that expression, we are going to identify ourselves with Him as the one who was put out of this world in death.
We are going to say, as it were, I identify myself with this man.
In his relationship to this world as crucified.
And I stand with him on that's, that's my relationship with the world.
I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me, and if you will, I announce it when I remember Him in his death. And so we too have no longer an association with this world.
Where our associations are the other side of the cross, He died, He rises from the dead, and now our relationship with Him is there where He is in the glory of His resurrection.
That puts us there.
And so it's, it's a blessing thing, but if it's if the Spirit of God lays hold of us in it, then it helps us to say, I don't care about the things of this world.
Yes, I have to live here. I have to make a living here. Yes, I'm still in the body and I'm in nature and I have to take care of of those things of nature as long as I live here. But my heart, my life is not here anymore.
It's with himself in the glory and I am livingly associated with Him where he is.
And we live in the spirit of that, in the enjoyment of that, and Paul is telling his brethren, the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, as he now is, is everything to me, he said. I treat that as such a wonderful thing that I don't care about the rest anymore.
00:45:03
Let the man that's got only the Earth worry about the earth.
Yes, it doesn't set aside wanting to to.
Help other people go, come join us if you will, and leave the world. But Paul here is focusing on on something else and it's not here in this world.
We're there in position, but he says not as though I had already attained.
Either we're already perfect, but I follow after is that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. He's laid hold upon me, upon you brought us into that new creation, and now we're to apprehend that we haven't fully done it, not yet. We're not home yet.
But it's ours.
So it's looked at as a thing that we are striving to attain.
It's uh, presented here as a race and it's, it's a beautiful verse. UH-13I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do just one thing for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Remember Mr. Chapter Brown mentioning this and.
He he translated verse 14 this way, He says, down to the goal. I press.
And he gave the word picture of a athlete getting close to the goal and putting every ounce of strength he had to get to that goal. That's the picture we have here.
Is there something else?
Worth striving for in this world? Is there something? And I think that's what we have here. We have displacement of this world because of something we have found.
A far greater value. Sometimes they've given the illustration of.
Latin brethren, here's a dog. He has a bone. I'm gonna see if I can pull that bone away from that dog.
He doesn't wanna let loose of it. He's gonna wrestle to keep his bone. Now I'm gonna go out in a different way. I'll take a great big chunk of meat and flop that down in front of the dog. Now, does he let go of his bone? He sure does. Why is there something so much supremely better?
What is going to liberate us from worldly mindedness that we have later in this chapter?
His brother and seeing the supreme value of that which we have been laid hold so that we can lay hold on ourselves, presented as something to be run towards, to be running towards.
If we could put it in perhaps practical terms, and I'm not excited, I'm not suggesting what we have had isn't practical, It's very practical. But we were talking earlier in this morning's meeting about how we can have all kinds of other goals. There are those, for example, with some athletic ability, as we've been mentioning. And for them the goal is to get into the Olympics and to win that gold medal and everything for that period of time, perhaps several years.
Is made subservient to that goal or some would start out perhaps to make money and for them everything becomes subservient to that making money. And there can be any number of other things that could capture our imagination and our desire, whether it's to travel, whether it's to attain a position of prestige and power in this world or whatever it might be but all through man's history men and women have.
Gotten something before them and have made everything subservient to that.
And then what happens? Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't. But even those that get it will find to their sorrow that it does not satisfy. Their heart is too big. As we get an Ecclesiastes freely translated, Thou hast set the world in their heart. And our hearts are so big that no matter whether we do get what we set out together or not.
00:50:23
Were not satisfied but then God says now I'm going to set something before you an object that is so large so satisfying that instead of it's not being big enough to satisfy your heart. The problem will be in the other direction. Your heart will not be big enough to enjoy the object to the full. And so if we could put it this way and I I it's not really brought in in this chapter so much but.
When we pursue after Christ.
We have the enjoyment of him right now, but in a measure because we're pursuing after him and there's a day coming when we'll be able to say, now I have him and Paul says I don't care what it costs. His brother Dawn was bringing out. Even if I have to go through death, whatever experience it takes, I want to know him better. But then what will it be when we get to the glory?
Oh, I remember reading in a book once.
Uh, the author was saying.
Don't marry someone that you can live with. Rather marry someone you can't live without. Marry someone that it takes a lifetime to get to know.
Is it possible? Yes, it is. You can have someone who is so interesting that you find out more about them all the time.
Now I hope that's not being irreverent, but we will enjoy and learn more of the glories of Christ for all eternity. We say, how is that possible? How can there be someone whose person is so vast that.
We will be all eternity learning Him, and yet we will. But Paul says that I may know him because God wants us to enjoy it here and now. Now you can. Now you can never be able to say, now I'm satisfied.
You know, I've had enough. I don't need any more. You know, keep going.
You'll always be satisfied, but you'll always get more anyway.
In the races of men.
There's always a winner and all the rest are losers. Or there's a team that wins and all the other teams wish they had with that one team has the whole structure of sports is set up to ultimately get down to one winner and everybody else wishes they won and they're ready to try next year to try to be the number one football team, the number one baseball team, and all the major sports and all the minor sports are always organized toward.
Somebody to win and everybody else.
Toulouse and wish they were the winner, but you have a sports event and if it's half of the fans are one team and half represent the other, half to home happy and half to home sad. It's the nature of everything that man sets up. But the 14th verse is a wonderful contrast to that. This is talking about a race and at the end of a race there's a prize.
And this 14th verse tells us what the prize is for the race that we've been talking about. It says the prize of the high calling, or Mr. Darby translates it, the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. That's the prize, the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, if we don't look at it from our side for a moment, but we stop and sort of see it from God's side of it.
God said I want all of you to have a prize.
I'm gonna take you right up here where I am.
And I'm going to sit you down with me and together we are going to enjoy my son.
The son of my love.
And we're gonna do so for eternity, and you're gonna be perfectly eternally satisfied. And we'll never stop enjoying more of what we have. That is a price. And that's the price of God. And every single believer in this room is gonna have that price.
00:55:16
There's not gonna be winners and losers in that. Some of us may be more like the Apostle Paul, some of us less.
In that we are getting to enjoy the prize ahead of time and in and entering into a fuller knowledge in our hearts of an of our relationship, our personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus and to know him. But at the other side of it, every one of us is going to have this price. We are going to be called upon high by God to forever enjoy our relationship with him without hindrance as it says in verse 21.
In order to fully get enjoy and we couldn't enjoy having completely as we are in our present condition and so when the.
Up call comes, then our bodies will be changed to be like unto His body of glory, so that we will be without any hindrance in order to be perfectly morally like Him and physically like Him. And God sing children to us, and in Christ Jesus we look upon Him as our Father and our God. And we have the price.
As the the, uh, calling on high in Christ Jesus.
Is that the beginning with the rapture and that which follows them?
Yes, that's when it'll take place for us at the rapture. We will be called on high at the rapture and we will then, and that from that point onward, uh, enjoy the prize in its fullest extent. Now we wanna put everything else aside so that we can, you might say, make as much progress as it's possible to make in the enjoyment of those things. But God apprehends us. He, he, he says, I know what I'm planning.
I understand perfectly what my plans are for you. And Paul says I want to know him too, Let me enter more into them. And he wants to enter into the enjoyment of that for which God has purposed him. And that is the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus without being in Christ Jesus without him in the picture where there's nothing.
Everything that God purposes is with centered in His Son and so in all of heaven will be will be totally delivered from self occupation.
When the prize is realized.
All things are of God at that time, but it begins with the gospel calling. It's nice to take that and look at the 1St chapter First Corinthians.
The ninth verse so simple and so beautiful and expresses that calling.
Wonderful verse to the assembly at heart and all in every place, calling the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. He says God is faithful by whom he were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. It'll be fully developed in that scene that day when all but the new creationists, all things are of God.
Call the heavenly calling to or call to heavenly things, aren't we? And that's what we have here to the calling, the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. We're called the heavenly thing. We are passing through this world, but we're called to it. And the measure that we apprehended, brother, and it, it really makes us run properly as a Christian ought to in this world.
Not getting snared and things down here, not getting tangled up with them, but running towards this price.
It's not the focus of this chapter. We're looking at the chapter as it is, but perhaps as a side point, it's well to recognize.
All that we've been talking about is in heaven. It's it's where Christ is, but it's well to understand that in other scriptures he has interest in this world right now himself. The Lord Jesus God has interests presently in this world too. And our lives are to be as relating to this world occupied with those things that are his interest in this world now.
01:00:14
And so God is seeking.
Souls, that's his interest in this world. He's seeking souls to take him out of it for the glory. And so should we be interested in and fellow laborers with in that servants of God. In addition, God is forming a habitation by the spirit of a body which is to be the bride of Christ. And so the Lord Jesus is interested in every member of his body.
Ministering to it, just as this afternoon he is ministering to us to build us up in that body that we are members of. And so we ourselves should be interested in that as well. So it's there's another side of these things that has to do with the earth. But it's like the Apostle Paul, as it were, God took him.
Associated him with heaven.
And then does it work? Said to Paul, this is your home, this is your focus, this is your glory. But Paul, you're going to have to go back to earth, as it were. I have some work for you to do there until the time. And so Paul is a pattern. Christian had the experience of going into the glory that totally spoiled him for anything in this world except to be here as a servant.
Of the Kingdom that is to be fully enjoyed in that which is future. And so he came back to suffer and to serve as it were, uh, until the Lord says, now you can have the better part.
And you may be absent from the body and present with me, which is the better part. But Paul knew that for a time it was more needful for him for the Lord's sake, to be here in the place of suffering and service, until the Lord gave him. You might say, OK, now you can come.
And you can be with me until the moment of the resurrection for all. And so we have interest here too. But our interests here are those things that God is presently interested in, in the world that he has judged.
And then it's just waiting the carrying out of my sentence of judgment.
I'd like to ask a question just so that it's clear. The word perfect is used in verse 12.
Or as the Darby puts a perfect touch, and then further down in verse 15, the apostle says, Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded. In chapter and verse 12 he says, not as though I had already attained.
Either we're already perfect or perfect. But then in verse 15 he says, let us therefore as many as be perfect. Be thus minded. Is there a difference in those two words or the meaning of them as they occur in those two different verses? I think they mean the tour and total growing, and we haven't arrived at that point yet.
Does the one in verse 12 mean that too?
Either we're already perfect, we're we're on the way, but we haven't been made perfect yet.
You have a different thought.
Look on your face. Say yes.
Well, in verse.
15 he implies that he is perfect, and in verse 12 he says I'm not there yet.
So I asked the question, so I'm just like brother, Clem said this morning. I'm listening.
Verse 15 The goal is set right.
Yes, it's Christ himself and he says.
Oh, as many as are perfect. This is the way you want, and if there's anything contrary, finding yourself that'll reveal that to you. Because I know you'll want to go on with that one precious goal in mind.
01:05:04
N.
Again, I'm listening.
If you'd be in anything otherwise minded, I mean who can know our own parts but the the spiritual life we have?
The character God has given us in the new life.
It wants nothing but Christ and we often hear the quotation of Harry Hango. You can have as much of Christ as you want, and your life shows how much you want.
But then.
RL Hunt writes in his little book.
You can have as much of Christ as you want, and God knows you want him all.
There is that perfection that has him as its goal and you'll surely want to know anything else contrary and judge that and go on with that goal.
We're not fully there yet, right? Right, astronomers. There's one little section in the 1St Corinthians 13 at the end of the 12Th verse that satisfies me, and that's about as far as I can go. It just says then.
Shall I know even as also I am known?
That's when all things are of God. I believe. Then shall I know, even as also I am known, for God knows me perfectly.
Verse 12 is still future.
We make progress in one sense toward it, but.
Paul says not as if I were already perfect with respect to himself or already perfected. The perfection that he refers to in verse 12 awaits the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. Then he will be at what you have in first Corinthians. The brother Clem just read it awaits that time.
And that will be the time of. That's referred to in verse 12.
But in verse 15, he's referring to himself and others, and he says as be perfect. And in that sense Paul was speaking in the present tense as someone who as well as others to whom this verse could be said. And the expression that's commonly used, and I think myself that helps us to understand it is full grown.
But it has the sense in it as this.
Paul had put aside everything that Christ may be everything, as Lemoyne just said. And in that sense, if you have put aside everything that Christ might be all to you, you can stand with the apostle Paul and say.
As let us as many as be perfect.
And he was referring to himself, and he was speaking in that sense. It's not the sense of the word today which means without flaw. It doesn't have that sense of perfection in the sense of being without a flaw. It is in the sense of Paul had no other object before his soul but the man in the glory and others he would include with himself.
And say, if you are with me in that, brethren, then let's walk.
And if others are not, if we fall within the class of of, uh, those that.
Can't say that if we're otherwise minded, then God is able to reveal to our souls that we have other motives to our lives. We have other things that are drawing us away from that simple pure object, and God will work in our lives to reveal to us what those things are that are hindering us from the practical.
Carrying out an enjoyment of that which was Paul speaking to us and exhorting us to do. And then he goes on in the verses which follow in verse UH-17, he says, brethren, you've got to mark those. There are those who are going to try to keep you from going on to this.
01:10:29
Who are going to?
Introduced to you other objectives, other purposes, other activities than this that are really enemies of the cross, because the cross is the starting point, if you will. It's the end of the old creation. And when Christ rises from the dead, their enemies, they want something still of this world and of the flesh and of that creation which God has judged.
To be part of the Christian life. And he said it's really an enemy of the cross and it's really a hindrance. You can't be perfect in the sense of verse 16 or full grown of a simple one object like Paul didn't sound perfect in everything I have done, but he had a pure motive and he knew it and he rejoiced in it. And he said there's no other motive. It's a pure one. It's it's a perfect one.
And it's mine, The last verse of Hebrews 11.
I think is very wonderful in this sense.
He's got that list of heroes of faith right through the chapter, and then it mentions them and mentions us in the last verse. And what does it say? The last verse of Hebrews 11.
Well, I'll read the 939th verse to get a start. These all these heroes of faith having obtained a good report through page.
God having provided some better things for us who are living.
The day without us should not be perfect. You're going to get the new body all at the same time. Paul doesn't have his new body yet.
It's wonderful to be with Christ, but to be have a new body, you gotta wait for it. Don't get it at the same time. That's the end of the race.
Right, so there is that which we will obtain when the Lord comes, and the apostle refers to that, but.
As Dawn says, I believe we're right in saying that there is a sense in which.
The Word of God looks upon the believer as being perfect in the sense of being full grown. If as far as he is aware, his motives, his heart, his life are following after Christ. Paul could say in 2nd Corinthians 4 I know nothing by myself, meaning that he wasn't aware of any other motives in his life. But he says thereby I'm not thereby justified, but he that judges me as the Lord.
There might be something there that he wasn't aware of, but even in the Old Testament, God could say to Abraham, Walk before me and be thou perfect. Was Abraham perfect in the sense that he never made a mistake? No, he was not, but his heart was in tune with what the Lord was doing during that time of God's dealing with man. He had responded to God's call. He had given up everything in order to follow the call of the Lord.
And the Lord says, Abraham, you walk before me and be thou perfect. So it's the sense perhaps of having clear and definite purpose in my soul relative to the time in which God has placed me, the dispensation I am in. And as we said earlier, Paul had, as far as he knew, thrown aside everything that might be a hindrance to him in winning Christ, and so he can include himself and others in that.
Character of being full grown are we, are we?
Association associating this full grown or condition of being made perfect with the position that Paul's doctor brings us into as as related to Christ and glory and not just the Lord. The Lord Jesus is an earthly man doing good things here on earth, but really full grown Christian position is knowing a man in the glory and that he's taking us there and he's preparing us. Is is that right?
01:15:22
Actually, I would see it, yes.
It's right if it goes beyond knowledge. If it's only a knowledge of what you just said, that's not enough. But if you have that knowledge and in a practical sense are acting or living on it, of having one object before your soul, then you can say you, you, you. Well, I don't know anybody want to say about themselves.
So maybe Paul, but you, you, you can be put into the the position practically of verse 15. So if we if we only know these things in our head and don't walk it, we're not perfect in that sense. We're not full grown, we're not enjoying it.
Exactly.
It's this chapter is not the doctrine side, but it's the practical side.
Side of it.
It's not that we wanna focus on how we're doing. It's good enough just to have him before the soul and run toward him. But at the same time, Paul couldn't say I know that's what I'm doing. And he did not have the world he didn't have on his objective list other things added to it. Yes, I want that. I know that that's my position. But I also want this, that, and the other until I get there.
We do have to know it before we can learn to walk into it though, right?
Him it says there no stranger God shall reach stranger thou in courts above I I can't find it. 76 OK, could we say part of that?
Well, that's the last verse, so you tell us how much we should sing.
Maybe she's the last two.
About the first two and the last two.
Prize my soul, thy God, thy right.
Blind Bartimaeus
Gospel—Norm Hiebert
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Walmart.
00:05:55
So we ask the Lord's help and prayer. Our blessed God and our loving Father, we thank thee for the simplicity of this little hymn that we sunk together to simply look to the Lord Jesus and be saved. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for thy power to save. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for thy finished work on Calvary's cross. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that thou just rise again from the dead.
And are seated on the right hand of the Father at this very moment, a real man in the glory. But we thank thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou art still allowing the gospel message to go forth in this great country. And we pray tonight as a few of us are gathered here, that thy word would reach into the hearts of each one of us, Those of us who are saved, who know the Lord Jesus as Savior, that our hearts may be encouraged. And for those that are not saved, that they may realize the terrible chance that they're taking of going into a lost eternity.
And so, our God and Father, we just cry to thee for thy help, that thou wilt use Thy word to speak to the hearts of each one. Here. Lord Jesus, we ask this in thy blessed and precious and perfect name, the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to sing one more hymn. We don't need a hymn sheet or a hymn book. This one's for the kids. Jesus loves me, this I know. We'll sing the 1St and 2nd verses only, and let's see if the children can really turn up the volume on this one.
Jesus loves me.
I know what I would have made so that no one can hear you strong.
Yeah, because what made you not find me?
Yes, she's also I've seen.
We love you. Yeah, she's a Plus me revival. Tell me so. Thank you.
We have a very solemn responsibility here this evening, and there are two verses that I'm going to start with before I go to the portion of the story that I would like to read. The first verse is found in Matthew's Gospel Chapter 7 and verse 23, Matthew's Gospel 7 and 23.
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me ye that work iniquity.
Then in the book of the Revelation, chapter 4.
And verse one, Revelation chapter 4, verse one, the last three lines.
Or the let's just read the three verses. Come up, hit her. That's the choice tonight for you, my friend, whether you're ready to come up, hit her to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, or have them declare to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. That's the choice you have to make.
00:10:03
And in the prayer meeting before this gospel meeting, there was an earnest mention made of some who have heard the gospel message time and again and are sitting here this evening invited to the gospel meeting for which we're very thankful and maybe have not accepted Jesus as Savior. If that's the case tonight, keep those two verses in mind. It's a very solemn thing. It's the Word of God. It's the truth. Depart from me. He workers of equity, I trust.
That there won't be one person who will hear those awful words. And don't wait till the end of the meeting, because the Lord Jesus Christ might come before that, and then you would be forever lost. Let's turn to the book of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10.
And we'll read from the 46th verse. A familiar story to many. Mark chapter 10, verse 46.
And they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples.
And a great number of people, blind, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, sat by the wayside begging. And when he had heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me.
And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.
And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, Rise, he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Well, you know, this story starts off. They came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, a great number of people followed. There's a large number of people here this evening and they're following. We're following. We got an invitation. We came out here. Many of us took the same highways to get here to this location.
For the occasion of this conference when we will be discussing and have been discussing the word of God, the Bible, that's what we've been talking about and you know about it, probably most of you. But if there's someone here that is not saved, I warn you again that if you don't believe that this is the truth of the word of God and that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners and that the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, you're in deep trouble. You're on the broad Rd. that leads to the to the destruction.
Well, here was Jesus. He was moving along and there were others with them, and no doubt some of those that were following him knew Jesus in a genuine way. But I dare say that there may have been a few that had a lot of doubts. But there was one person in particular that the story tells us about, and that's a man by the name of Bartimaeus. Now, I don't know how much stock to take on the meaning of names.
And people's names. And in fact, what I tried to find out what the word Bartimaeus meant. There was no explanation. There was no description of what his name meant. I thought, well, how beautiful, How beautiful. Here's a no name man. He's a nothing. He's a nobody. Nobody wanted him. He was a cast off. Nobody wanted this man because he was a nuisance. He was a man who.
Wasn't like too much. He was blind. And what a testimony that is to a lost condition of man. Are you blinded tonight? Oh, you say I can see you. Yes. That's not the kind of blindness I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of blindness that obscures from your mind the reality of eternity. You haven't just been born into this world to die like a dog or a cat.
00:15:00
You have a an everlasting soul. An everlasting soul that will have to give account to God.
I can tell you this evening that when I was a youngster, I had the privilege of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior when an edge of mine faithfully told me a story from the Bible of the three friends of Daniel who were cast into the furnace. I didn't want to go into that furnace. I didn't want to go into that furnace. That was a message I got from it. And you know, this may scare you, but if it does, I'm glad. Scares you to such an extent that you will turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you don't know it, follow the word, Follow the stories that we've been reading. Bartimaeus had no definition for his name, as far as we can tell, but it tells us that he was blind and he was the son of Timaeus. And as far as Timaeus concerned, is a question mark polluted? And I thought about that and I thought, Oh dear, how sad it is. If there's anyone in this room who has parents who are not encouraging you, I thank the Lord that if there's someone here that you.
Have had the courage to come into this room and to listen to something that is real and defined. Many years ago when I was still working before my retirement, a group of businessmen including myself were invite invited to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to attend a luncheon. And they wanted to. They were doing a little promotion and they wanted to demonstrate something just what it was like to be blind. As we went into this dining room, we saw all the beautiful foods spread on the table.
And then what they did is they took a blindfold and put it around our eyes and tied it in the back and then LED us to the table. And then there was a person that was standing up front. After they had given thanks for the food, they said, now we'll tell you how a blind person eats. So the first thing they said, well, your peas are in the 2:00 position. Wow. You go around feeling for your plate and you go to the 2:00 position. Can you imagine lifting a fork full of peas and getting them to your mouth?
Safely. And then we have that whole half hour when we were blindfolded and we had to eat our food. Well, I'm a great eater, some of you know, but I didn't enjoy that too much because I couldn't see what I was eating. It didn't taste the same. Blind Bartimaeus has was blind, but it was more than that. He was lost. He was lost in a world where no one could help him and no one cared. In fact, they told him to be quiet when he started to call out.
So first of all, we find that he was blind. Then we see that, uh, he was sitting. Well, you're all sitting in chairs here this evening, and that's good. But are you sitting in your sins?
If you're not saved, you are.
And you know something, we're getting very close to the edge of the Lord Jesus Christ coming back. You said, I don't understand that. Well, let's break it down a little further. In the Garden of Eden, there were two people. There was a man by the name of Adam and a woman by the name of Eve. And they had a wonderful place. They had a garden like you. And I just can't imagine.
My wife is quite a gardener, She has good garden, but it's not couldn't, I'm sure couldn't compare to anything that was in Eden.
And these two people were in that garden where God had placed them, and God said for them to enjoy it, to dress it, to do anything they wanted, eat of all the fruit except for one thing. They were to remain away from one tree.
That's all the restrictions that were put on them. So what happens? What happens? It's like a little child. See. Now, look, Mom's baked those cookies. We want to save them for the next meal. Don't eat any of them. What? What are you doing? You're inviting trouble. Because they naturally gravitate towards those good cookies. Well, Adam and Eve were close to that tree. He certainly was. And there was somebody in that tree that was speaking to them.
And that someone is Satan who is a real being. Don't let anybody tell you that he isn't. And he told him. Has God told you such and such and such and such? They put a doubt in their mind. And Eve made the mistake of answering the devil. She made the mistake of answering him.
And the devil had her.
There was a display of that beautiful fruit. It was good to the eyes and all. It would taste so good. And after all, what's the big deal? Just fruit. The big deal was God had said no.
00:20:16
They desired after that fruit.
He took of that fruit, she tasted it and gave to her husband, and he ate it, and there was disobedience.
And disobedience must be punished.
Disobedience to God is punished, and those that have done that, have disobeyed will be cast into the lake of fire if they do not confess that they're lost.
So that's where it started. There was a fall in the garden. The sin came in. God had prepared a good place for them. God had walked with them in the cool of the day. And that scenario came to an abrupt end. God had to put them out of the Garden of Eden so that they wouldn't take the tree of, of life. Well, you know, that's, that's sin. They were separated. God couldn't walk with sin. God is holy.
God cannot be touched by sin.
He had to do it.
That the end of the story. Oh no, no, that's not the end of the story. God's plans can never be frustrated. God had a plan. First of all, he killed an animal and he took the coat, the, the, uh, the coat of the animal and dressed him because they discovered they were naked. They hadn't realized it before then. But you know something tonight, my friend, God can look right into your heart, dear young people.
God's looking right into your heart tonight, and older ones and children, and he knows what's going on in that heart.
He knows exactly what's there. Your mom and dad may not know. The one sitting beside you may not know. But he knows. He knows what's there. He knows what's in my heart tonight.
And if your heart isn't right with God, my friend, you're on a dangerous path.
Well, God killed an animal and dressed them.
God had a plan and that plan came to fruition in about 4000 years. God tested man, his creation, men and women. He tested them to see if they would obey the things that He asked them to do. And they didn't. They didn't. They failed and failed and failed. And finally God said, I'm going to send my son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to send my son. And so he's born a baby in a Manger.
Jesus came into this world as a baby in a Manger.
We all like babies. They're beautiful.
Sometimes fathers have said that's my baby. Uh, babies are beautiful. No matter what they look like, they're beautiful. But Jesus was perfect in every way.
And man rejected him. There wasn't room for him and there isn't room for Jesus tonight. For many people, they do not want or love the name of Jesus. I remember hearing his story of a man who is a Christian loves the Lord.
And he was raised in a very rough part of the city in the West Coast. And, uh, one day he was running away from some younger fellows that were trying to beat him up, several of them. And he happened to dart into the back of a little Chapel where there was a, a meeting that was about to take place. And he snuck into the back seat and kind of slouched around, look around, see what was going on. Well, when the speaker got up to speak, he mentioned the name of the Lord Jesus and he slid under the Pew. He thought the man was swearing at him.
And that's the only name that some kids know and some young people know. We have kids in the in the East End of Hamilton that have never heard the name of Jesus. What a delight it is when they come into the Sunday school and you tell them about Jesus. But I dare say that there's probably nobody in this room that hasn't heard the name of Jesus. But let's go a little further.
This man, when he found out who Jesus was, he was brightly saved and became a testimony to his love and grace. That's wonderful and that can happen to you. I thank the Lord that I was brought up in a Christian home where the Bible was read and where I had friends who read the Bible. Some of them are sitting in here. They've known me for many years. What a happy times we had together.
Now, is that going to be good enough?
00:25:01
Those of you who come here to have a happy time, is that enough? Is that going to get you to heaven? No. I'm glad you're here. But if you're here only for a good time, remember, we all want to have a happy time. But if you don't know Jesus as your savior, you're going to leave here. Are you leave here without accepting Jesus as your Savior, doing it again and again and again?
This is a serious issue. You can't just wash it away, wipe it away and say, well, that's the way it is.
Because Jesus, if you persist in that way.
And you don't accept Jesus, and he comes, or you pass it to death, and you come in front of the Lord Jesus as judge, and you're knocking on that door. You'll have to say, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You know who's a Christian in here. You know what happens here? You know what we had this afternoon? But that isn't enough. You have to repent of your sins.
And come to the Lord Jesus Christ and all that. You are a lost, guilty Sinner.
Bartimaeus was sitting.
And he was begging.
What's begging all about?
Oh, I I've never been to the point where I've had to beg for anything. As far as food is concerned, there's always enough food. This man had to beg for his food.
I know one kind of begging. I can remember one of our children who had done something wrong.
And had disobeyed and punishment was coming. There was begging. Begging for what? Oh, I'm not. I'm going to do it again. I'll never do it again. I'll never do it again. Oh, I hope not. But you know something sin cannot left to be unjust. And if you are persisting in your sins, you're gonna be judged if you accept Jesus as your savior. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken the punishment for my sins and the sins of each one in this room. Who is accepted? Jesus as Savior and you.
Can be included in that. How do you do that? How do you do that? You wait till you get to your bed tonight and kneel down and pray. Well, that's a good place to do it, but I would suggest that you can do it right here, right now, this moment, and cry to the Lord Jesus and repent of your sins and come to the Lord Jesus.
So begging is not a good occupation. It doesn't have any pension plan, it doesn't have any health plan or dental plan or anything like that. It's just for now.
Are you just going to enjoy the pleasures of sin for now or Are you ready to realize that there's much more for you? The Lord Jesus Christ has said I'm going to bless you. He says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You understand that? Just come to him. We were singing this him in here. Look, look, look and live look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And accept them as Jesus and Lord, and you will live. You will live.
Well, Bartimaeus.
Heard something, he heard a noise.
Just before this gospel meeting, I was coming out of the washroom and I heard some laughing. You know what brought a thrill to my soul? To hear the kind of laughter I heard. I think it was laughter of those who enjoyed each other's company. And I trust that each one, they were all young people that were there. I trust that each one of them know Jesus as Savior. You know, there's a lot of.
Shallow laughter going on in this world and in fact there are many Men and women are paying large amounts of money to be entertained and to be made to laugh.
Man wants to be entertained. He wants no silence.
Young people, you won't be offended for those of you who are going to college or university or high school, whatever it may be, that I, uh, was talking to some young people who say, well, I can't study unless I have my ears plugged into some music. Two things there. Your death. Second, I don't think that's the real definition of music.
00:30:03
I don't think it's a real definition of music. When we were driving out here and coming through a town just yesterday, we suddenly heard boom, boom boom. What's going on? What happened? I said it's the car just behind us and as they were going by I saw a set of speakers. You guys probably know what that's all about, but 8 speakers in it all blasting it. Noise, noise. What is it all about? I believe.
My friend, in all seriousness, that the devil wants to deafen you so you do not listen to the reality of what's going on. And so some young people say I gotta be plugged in to be able to study.
I don't know how that works. I don't think it'd be too easy to read the word of God, have your ears plugged into the noise. Can you sit in silence and enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ? Or do you have to be active continually, to be stimulated, to put away, to hide all these things that are brought to your conscience? The time is coming when all those things are going to be exposed.
And you're gonna stand there if you don't accept Jesus as your Savior and have no plea, there will be no rebuttal because God has a book. And in that book, He's got my name. In this book, He's got the names of all those that are saved in the Lamb's Book of life. But there's another book too. But you know, it's recorded exactly what you've done. And not only what you've done, but your thoughts are recorded. Can you imagine that?
Would anybody here volunteer to put their thoughts on the board right this minute? You know, it's amazing. Even in a gospel meeting, sometimes we have some strange thoughts go through our mind. The devil is trying to pick up the sea tonight and say don't listen to the gospel.
That's his aim and ambition, to destroy the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He hates the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my savior, and if he's my savior, then he's going to attack. He's going to bring all kinds of strange thoughts to your mind. Well, blind Bartimaeus heard some noise. Oh, good thing he was blind, but he could hear. He had ears to hear.
You've all got ears to hear, and I hope I'm talking loud enough that you can hear me.
But it doesn't matter what you hear from me. Do you hear the word of God?
And Are you ready to respond to it? That's the question. That's the question. I remember talking many years ago to a a friend from school. We were driving back from I can't remember where. And his father was a devout Christian as it was his mother. And we were talking about spiritual things. And this is when I was a teenager and he said to me, well, you know something, The only reason you, you think and do what you're, what you say you're doing is because you were brought up that way. Well, praise the Lord.
That's good.
But it's got to be more than that. I will not get to heaven on the faith of my mother and father.
I have to make my individual decision, which I have and many others here in this room have. How about you young people? Have you made your individual decision for the Lord Jesus Christ?
Or are you sitting here and waiting? And if you're waiting, what are you waiting for?
I used to take the train to Toronto to work. As you know, you see some very strange things on a train, some very strange things. One thing I've noticed over a period of time, there's a lady and she would wait till the last, second, last stop before we got to where we were going off. She happened to go to the same place I did, and she would get up and she would walk to the door. She would be the first one in a train to get a seat and two stops before the last stop, she would hurry to the door.
And I can remember the train pulling in to the station and she stood by the store. I could see her slow down, slow down, slow down, slow down. She's just waiting. She wanted to be the first one on that train and on her way home to watch television. I don't know. I don't know what she wanted to do. She wanted to get out fast. What's the point I'm making? I'll tell you something. I wasn't one of the first ones off. I'm not normally at the end of the crowd either. But I got in my car and left the parking lot. And who should be two cars ahead of me? This lady.
Here time after time she was stand for that period of time.
Wanted to get off. She was so eager to get off. Would it be that you were so eager to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ that you couldn't wait, couldn't wait to spend some time with him? You couldn't wait if you don't know Him, to accept Jesus as Savior. Well, Bartimaeus heard the noise and it tells us he cried out. Oh, he had a second thing that worked. He had ears that worked, and he had a voice that worked.
00:35:30
And he used it. He heard the noise. He cried out.
Probably told the story before the gospel meeting. But you know, a number of years ago we were cleaning a yard, My mother in law's place, and we're raking up some leaves and I went to the shed in the back. I wanted to get a hole or something out of it, a spade. And so I went there and I opened the door. You know, if I talk aloud, you should have heard me holler. That time sitting there was a beautiful Pussycat with a white stripe down her back.
I was fearful of something. I was scared that something would happen, but I.
Pretty sure that I outran it if whatever happened did happen. I was gone and I think he was as scared as I was because when I came back he wasn't there.
Cried out. There was a noise. Well, here we are. He cried out. He wanted something. He had a problem. He wanted to address that problem. And let's read the verse.
Verse 47, Mark chapter 10, verse 47 and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth.
He began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Oh, Jesus means Savior. He knew that and he wanted something done. He had a sincere desire. He wasn't running away because he couldn't see where he was going. He was blind, but he could hear and he could call out and he knew it was Jesus, Jesus.
Of.
Nazareth.
He said, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.
You know there are times.
I can recall when our children were young and we go shopping.
And my children sing loud like.
I do.
And they would sing Jesus Loved Me at the top of their voice in the shopping center.
Well, you know, you're kind of, that's a lot. You know, it's not necessary. That's what they did to this man said calm down, don't be so noisy. You're distracting everybody else. Nobody wants to see you. After all, they all still thought he was nothing. He was no good and he wasn't.
But the people that were trying to prevent him weren't any good either, So it tells us here. And many charged him that he should hold his peace.
There are many today that will say, calm down, it's not serious. This world is getting better. Whoa, where have you been? This world is getting better. Better and what?
Not the last time I checked.
You know, I like to kind of keep TAB to see what's happening in the political world, in our country of Canada, because we have a Prime Minister who loves the Lord.
I'm so thrilled to hear that he loved the Lord Jesus Christ, that he had some values that he wanted to adhere to. Unfortunately, he got a government that was a minority government, and he had to make some deals on the way. And also, we just pray that he won't compromise his Christian position. I don't know how you would do that in a political setting.
But, you know, he loved the Lord Jesus, he and his wife. Well, that's wonderful to have that the Lord put somebody in there the same as he did in this country with the president.
But, you know, it's a very, very dirty field, very difficult to walk through and maintain a testimony. Well, these people said quiet, quiet. But did that stop this man? No. He had a voice. He had ears, and he was kept on shouting louder. Isn't that what it says?
But he cried the more a great deal.
Thou, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Oh, I love that. And somebody says something and puts it right down there and you know exactly what he's saying. No doubt about it. It's put right on the line. And I want to put it on the line for you tonight too. My friend. If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, I'm telling you on the authority of the Word of God, you're lost. You're lost. But there is at the alternative, the gift of God is eternal life.
00:40:27
Through Jesus Christ the Lord.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And I wonderful God's word tells us that beautiful verse we all know for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not, Oh, there's that word perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, you know, we sometimes stress the parish a lot and I think that's necessary.
But you know the key in that verse, John 316, is the love of God, For God sent not His Son unto the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
The Lord Jesus Christ was God's plan. When man fell in the garden, he was born into this world. He walked through the scene in perfection. He did only good. He got all his instructions from God the Father, and he followed them exactly.
Man did not want him.
They said we will not have this man to reign over us. They said crucify him, crucify him.
They had no mercy on him. It tells us in Matthew that they sat down and watched him. That is the heart of man. They sat down and watched him. These people here told him to be quiet. You're disturbing the peace. But then something happened.
Jesus stood still.
He heard this man.
And tonight, my friend.
Boy, girl, young people, older ones, if Jesus is speaking to your heart tonight.
Will you listen to him?
Jesus stood still. He will listen to you.
Will you accept that? But then he said something, then he just stop and then keep on going.
That's the way sometimes some of us Christians do. We just hear it and then keep on going. But Jesus didn't do that. He commanded him to.
Be called.
Jesus is calling. He called this man. He knew what was wrong with this man. He knew what was in his heart. He knew what he could do and couldn't do. Jesus invited him to come. And so as one who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, I believe I have the responsibility and the privilege to invite you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you prepared to repent?
Please don't remain in your sins. You know this meeting is going to end in a few minutes and I know what's going to happen.
The volume will go up and maybe you will say, well, doesn't sound like it's a continuing thing. Please don't take that attitude. If you are under conviction tonight, if you realize the need that you have and you don't, you're not sure what to do when you come and see somebody come and see me or somebody up here in the front row, Sisters, brothers, young people, children. It's just so nice if you would come.
That's a privilege we have. It was a young lad a number of years ago in our Sunday school.
Again, another story I'd like to tell. He was saved. He was in the basement of our Sunday school at the hall and he was saved.
He didn't know anything about Jesus, but he knew that Jesus could save him. And you know what his testimony was? When he came up those stairs and I met him, he said, you know something, they're having a party for me in heaven tonight.
He had her diverse joy in the presence of the angels of God were one Sinner that repenteth. That was all he knew, and He said what he knew.
00:45:11
We have another little youngster in our Sunday school, quite a few coming.
They come from some pretty bad homes.
This young fellow says I'm a loser. My dad says I'm a loser.
This young fellow is only eight years of age and he says I'll probably get married and have kids and, you know, do what the rest of them are doing in this community.
What an outlook. An 8 year old who already have seen what was going on. That mess, that awful mess in that I won't even call it a home in that house. What a sad thing.
We're not talking to those tonight because they're not here. We're talking to you. Do you have a situation that you need to deal with? Is there some sin in your heart which you feel is just too great? Our brother said this afternoon that you can be saved because the chief of sinners is already saved. His name was Paul. He was saved. Beautiful story. He was saved. And if he can be saved, you can be saved.
And if you want to be saved, it's simply a matter of saying, Lord Jesus Christ, I need you as my savior. I need you to wash my sins away.
Well, in this case we find that.
This man threw away all his all the clothes on the out, the outer clothes, and away he went to see Jesus. And Jesus says, let's read it. What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? What do you want me to do for you?
He knew what he wanted. He said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. What do you want the Lord Jesus to do for you? You want the Lord Jesus to maybe intervene in a problem that you have in school of your lessons, or maybe your best friend has given you up, or maybe you've done something which is really, really, really bad and you just say, well, I can't talk to anybody about it. Whenever I talk to somebody about it, they just go and tell somebody else, tell the Lord Jesus.
I'll guarantee you that there's people here that wouldn't tell anybody else if you need help, would you like to accept Jesus as your Savior? That's the first step you have to take because all those other things are the things that Satan has on his buffet for boys and girls and men and women today.
That tells us here that after he.
Made us request that something happen.
And Jesus answering, said unto him.
What will thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately, immediately he received a sight, and followed Jesus in the way.
Doesn't take time. You don't have to go through all kinds of torture. You don't have to go through all kinds of petitions and all that kind of thing and, and go to a church and it's not necessary. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross of Calvary to die there. He is the one that is waiting for you to come. He is making an offer.
For you to come.
Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That is the solution.
That is the solution. Just wanna re our time is gone. I just wanna read a couple of verses in First Corinthians chapter 15.
I want to bring the word of God before you to show you what this means. The person who was guided to write these words was the chief of sinners. And he said in the first verse. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried. And he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. Verse 51 Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound in the dead, and then the dead shall be raised.
00:50:24
Incorruptible and we shall be changed.
There it is. There it is.
Jesus is coming. Before Jesus suffered on the cross, he said to his followers, If I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.
That only applies if you have taken the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and applied it to your heart. If you accept that the Lord Jesus suffered in your stead on the cross of Calvary. If you accept the fact that on those three dark hours in the cross of Calvary when God punished His only begotten Son so that I could be saved and so that you can be saved, I thank the Lord that I am saved.
That was a promise. That promise holds in the year 2007.
We may not see the end of 2007.
So how it's going to be you have to make a decision tonight, not making a decision as a decision, as we sometimes say.
If you're still in your sins and you persist in that and you die in your sins or you persist on that, when the Lord Jesus comes, he's going to have to say, I didn't know you.
I didn't know you. It's such a simple thing to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, here's the promise. Thou shalt be saved. You understand that you shall be saved.
What a wonderful thing to be able to respond when the Lord Jesus comes and he says come up, hit her, come up, hit her.
The decision is yours.
You can reject them. You have the power to do it. But if the Holy Spirit is working in your heart, my friend, don't put it off again. I would say, as I said earlier, if you're not sure, if there's something that hasn't been clear, would you please come up here after the Gospel meeting and speak to some of these people over here and myself glad to talk to you. Please do it. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ and Savior and nobody else knows it, tell somebody about it. If thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
That is a promise. That's a guarantee, the best guarantee that you could ever have.
Let's see another hymn #232.
Just as I was without one plea.
But that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou babest may come to thee, O Lamb of God.
I came 332. Sorry, 332. Thanks, Bill. Now, when you're singing this, are you going to be able to say I came, I'm going to be singing it, Caleb is going to be singing it, and many others are going to be singing it? What about you? You better tell the truth.
You better tell the truth. God knows what's in your heart. And if I look around and I see somebody singing that.
And they're not saved. There isn't much I can do about it.
Like the Lord knows, let's sing it.
Just as I am.
With my.
Day.
By.
Shame for me.
And thy thou bearing.
In December of 1982.
I was in my office back in Winnipeg. We had some difficulties after lunch. I was looking.
For our Chief Executive Officer.
I found them.
Under his desk, on the floor, into eternity.
That man's name was Ralph.
And I remembered.
And say to me, you wanna have a revival meeting? Don't have it near my office.
I don't know whether that man ever changed his mind. I didn't see it. He's an eternity.
If he didn't accept Jesus as Savior, he's in the lost eternity. No further opportunity.
Few years before that, a little brother, 10 years of age.
Lee Dive.
I remember his sister telling or him telling my sister.
When she wept, she says don't cry for me.
I'm going home.
What a difference. That's the difference that you have to face.
Can you make that decision tonight? Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, we thank Thee tonight that Thou art the Savior of sinners.
Tonight we thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for each one of this room.
Who has accepted thee, Lord Jesus as Savior?
Now we just pray for Thy word, Thy word alone that has gone forth, that Thou wilt use it mightily to stir up the hearts of anyone who still may not know His sake. We pray that Thou will give them a convicting power that will give them the courage to turn to Thee. Now give them the courage to speak to someone if they need any help, Lord, and help us to be.
Useful in that way too. We ask Thy blessing now and Thy word to night as it has gone forth in this hall and wherever else it has gone forth. Blessed we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Life Preserver
Children—Norm Wood
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning. Good morning, good morning.
Good morning. This is.
Good morning.
Last night was a good night because it was preached faithfully last night.
I imagine everybody that's here was at the gospel.
And so last night you had an opportunity.
If you didn't do it.
For.
Now we don't have a lot of time, so I'm going to.
And I have it picked out here. It's a little Gypsy Boy hymn #4.
For a #44.
Sea boy lay dying alone at the circles of the day.
1770.
Ever has known it.
And nobody ever has told me before.
And it's not taught me I'm bored. It's a boy and I'm doing like a tiger. Cut your face will be home. Nobody.
Nsnoise.
Salvation.
No, nobody ever has scolded for.
Now one question.
That was a good night, that we.
Because this happened just at the close of the day. A gypsy boy that nobody loves.
Just about to take his last breath, just about ready to step into eternity and somebody came and give the sweet story of the love of the Lord Jesus to this little boy. And he latched onto that. Then he said, oh, tell it again.
And so this morning it's our privilege to tell them again, not just a word of prayer. Our God and Father is at the start of its meetings to come to the East and to thank me so much for the gifts the Bible of His Son. And we thank thee, Lord Jesus, for that marvelous love that drew thee from those heights of heaven down to Calvary's cross without it lay down highlight.
00:05:10
Without it take our sins upon thee, and was punished for every one of those sins.
Oh Lord Jesus, thy love continuous till this very moment as the gospel goes forth again. And so we pray that hearts will be opened here the sand this morning and may accept thee of Savior. We thank thee, Lord Jesus and thy precious name. Amen. Amen. Now we don't have much time. I'm going to ask a boy and a girl.
To say the verse for today.
Here we are. I have the 1St.
That is here for today.
Personal copy and do we have a book? There's a boy there that would play the first four. Please go right ahead. Yep.
The World to save sinners First two He's 115.
All right, young lady.
I'm going to allow.
Tennessee 1:15, thank you very much. That's very lovely. It couldn't be a better verse on the sun used to all paper for today. Christ Jesus came into the world as a centers. And where are we going to? Where are we going to find centers? Well, we look around here and everybody in this whole room is a Sinner. They were born sinners. They've been born centers and.
You know.
Yes, yes, Sir. Again, I'm not sure it's working, but uh.
Umm, everyone of us is born in it. But there's two classes of sinners in this room this very day. I'm sure there are. And a group this large. I'm sure there are those that know the Lord Jesus as Savior. That is their safe sinners. And I'm sure there's some boys and girls in this room that aren't safe yet. They're lost sinners. Oh my boy or girl, have you listened to the gospel last night?
Umm, I hope you're safe. If you weren't, one of the first things to do is to include yourself in that group of sinners. You know, years ago, Albert Hale was down in the West Indies and he met a little girl named Eden and.
15th chapter of Luke's Gospel starts this way. The publicans and sinners accused the Lord.
I've I've.
Being with sinners and eating with sin. This little girl's name was Edith. And you know she thought that this word uh in the Bible was Edith. He thought it said the Lord Jesus received sinners and Edith wisdom. Well you know that little girl included herself.
In the the the huge group of people that are called Centered, and that's a marvelous thing to do.
Because we really need to be safe. The Lord Jesus came to save sin. Now I want to talk a little bit about water today, and I'm going to read the in Matthew 14.
Just a few verses, Matthew 14 and verse 25, OK.
The setting here is that the Lord Jesus had his disciples get into a ship and to go out into the the the big sea and going on to the other side and the storm came up and the sea and the waves they were in the midst of the sea and tossed with waves where the wind was conquered. And verse 23. And in the 4th watch of the night Jesus went on to them walking on the sea and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea.
They were trouble saying, it disappeared, and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus speak unto them, saying, Be a good cheer. It is I be not afraid. And Peter answered him, and said, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, come. And when Peter would come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. And when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.
00:10:16
And began to think things, and began to think. And beginning to think, he he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus dredged it forth his hands, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore get thou doubt? And when they were coming to the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying about truth, Thou art the Son of God.
That's a this is some quite some picture, isn't it? And we see Peter there. He steps out of the ship and he starts to walk on the water and he starts to think and what does he do?
He could, he says, Lord save me. He was too far from the ship himself to grab hold of the ship, he said. Lord save me. He was in earth, he was thinking and the Lord Jesus just stretched out his arm and he saved Peter.
Isn't that a marvelous thing? And you know, he can say you today just as easy if you introduce yourself as a Sinner, You say, oh, I'm a Sinner. Lord, I need you. A savior. Save me and the Lord Jesus will save you. Right now. You know where I live, we live on a lake, OK? And I'm sure lots of you have been in boats and that type of thing. And.
There's something that we use around boats and around docks and around lakes and I got the loan of this just for this morning. It's a nice small, what would you call it?
OK, this is a life jacket and it's a life preserver. It's for a little child and they're sitting here and when they're in the water, their head comes back on this and that keeps their head out of the water. It's a life preserver and they're a very important thing. Anybody that is in a boat and can't swim must wear a life preserver.
And if they fall over for it, this will save their lives. So what a marvelous thing there is. You know, we have to use those last year.
Six strong young men from Toronto went to Rice Lake, which is South of Peterborough in Ontario, and they went out in a boat on Rice Lake. Now Rice Lake is a Big Lake and it's a heat lake and they get out of ways and it's tremendous.
The storm came up, flipped over their boat and as six of them went right in and landed right in the water and three of those people were saved because they had light preserves up. So many of you all know that story because it is in the paper. The other three, right, because they didn't have life preservatives. And so my boy and girl, this afternoon, are you wearing a life preserver that really counts and that is Lord Jesus as your savior.
Now I'm going to tell a story.
Down in the Lake Ontario and it dropped down all the way along. It dropped 326 feet.
From Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. And of course on this way how long it drops over that huge Niagara Falls, which is 161 feet straight down. More than 800,000 gallons of water a second go over Niagara Falls.
The river up near Lake Erie, of course, is kind of peaceable, and you can swim on it and have goats. But as you come further down toward the falls, the river gets rough. There's a lot of rapid, a lot of white water, and then finally it pitches in over the balls. I want to tell a tragic story, but also a happy story about what happened there one beautiful Saturday.
00:15:02
And the 8th of June or July?
19 and 60, OK, There was a man there named Jim Honeycutt that worked for the hydroelectric plant there, and he was from, uh, North Carolina. He came up there looking for work and uh, so he thought it'd be nice to buy a boat. So he bought a small aluminum boat that was about 14 feet. That's not very big. And the 7 1/2 outboard motor and uh he uh, he lived at a trailer park about four miles above the falls.
On the river and he docked his boat there, but he had a good friend that worked with him and this day he said, you know.
What were you? You've got a son and daughter there. I want to take them out on the river. And he did. And one of the girl was 17 years of age. Her name was Deanne and the boy's name was Roger and he was seven years of age. Before they left the house, the mother grabbed the two children, 2 youngsters, about the 17 year olds and children child.
I grabbed him and said, look here's some life preservers for you. I want you to put them on and they put them on right there, right in front of them up. And so uh, Honeycutt said draw them up to where he lived. And so they got out on this boat and got it started a little 7 1/2 uh uh engine. And uh he got out into the middle of the river and the river was so calm and peaceful there and and he turned the the boat downstream and even let little Roger hold on to the tiller That is the handle.
And so they enjoyed themselves there for maybe half an hour and as they were enjoying themselves both with Terry.
And finally.
Honeycutt started and noticed that the water was getting very rough and so he tried to turn the boat around.
And uh, he turned the boat around. But you know that little 7 1/2 horsepower engine? It just kept chugging away, but it didn't make any any, uh, headway against that current. And all of a sudden the sheer pin sheared.
And uh, there was no more power.
And the posters adrift violently about a mile above the fall. And Honeycutt tried to grow this boat and he can't do anything. The boat's just gone toward the fall as fast as I can. And you know, in the middle of the uh of UH, the Niagara River is a large island called Goat Island, and it flips the river and the falls into two the Canadian on one side and the American on the other. The Canadian is a horseshoe fault.
OK now all right, so the vote is that it's moving backwards towards the fall. The ends in the back seat and the honeycuts and little Rogers up front. The boat hit a rock in the river and it just went straight up in the air, threw them all into the water and the honeycutt tried to grab Roger and hold his head above water. But the the the force of the water just ripped Roger away and down the river and right out over the falls and down 161 feet.
Then who knows what underneath? There were rocks and Shoals and.
That that boy, real go, the little the girl, little Deanne, she's in trouble. She's over a year Goat Island and uh trying to, uh fight against the current. Can't make any headway. Keys drifting towards the bulk now a a a a tourist by the name of John Hayes.
He sees the the situation here and he rushes down and over the guardrail and reaches out to this girl who's trying to swim and move over toward him and this little girl, Deanna. She just says help help and she's about 7 or 8 feet away. She's slipping further towards the falls. This Mr. Hayes. He runs further down, hooks his foot around the rail and reaches the way out and as that girl.
We passed. He just reaches out and grabs his thumb.
And he's able to close his hands around her and there, just hold on the two of them and it looks for a while like both of them are going to go over the phone.
And its just an equilibrium here. Another student, another tourist, name of petrocy. He jumped over the falls too and he grabbed her arm and slowed me. They pulled this Colonel Dean to safely. She'd been within 10 feet and blown over the phone the closest ever to the fall and yet saved no.
00:20:30
A little while later you know there's a there's a a tourist boat called the Mazes and myths that can take the tourists up and come as close to the falls down below as a dam and then goes back down. Captain teachers at the wheel this day and they're about to turn around and captain one of the seamen sees that reddish thing floating in the water and they look more closely.
And Captain T's radio says you know.
There's a life preserver floating in the water here and there's a little tin and the kid looks like he's still alive.
And you know, he's he's floating there, close to the opening of one of the big ports of the hydroelectric electric tube which takes water down the to uh, make electricity. So he's not out of danger yet. But uh, the first maid throws out a a rope, and he missed. The second time he throws the rope, he doesn't hit. The third time he came within a foot, a red Ranger and Roger crabbed a foot of that rope.
His only hands have escaped.
And pulled himself onto the toward the boat. And of course they helped him on and this little boy.
Is still alive and Stillwell and they put both of these youngsters in the hospital for two or three days. That is the AM and the little boy Roger and after two or three days, the release module and they're just as well as anybody that's sitting here today now.
Four days later, Mr. Honeycutt's body showed up at the maid of the list Lane, Maid of the Midst Landing, and the story here is in many stories, but the story here is that 2 individuals that wore a light belt in that boat left the one that didn't send my boy or girl. If you've got on the war teeth as your life belt, you'll live on in heaven.
For all eternity.
I want to tell you the rest of the story.
This little boy Roger. Two years later, somehow we got into a gospel meeting and this little boy Roger got to say.
And you know, he used to say, you know, the Lord saved me.
At Nagar, he saved me from the water so that he can save you my sins. And you know, that boy grew up to be a man and he was a preacher of the gospel for many years. As far as I know, he's still living and alive in that area of Niagara. Southwestern Ontario is still preaching the gospel.
Marvelous thing. There may be people here that knows.
Umm, I saw a video tape of that. Uh, I don't know, reviewing that whole story. And it showed little Roger in the hospital bed. And here was the headlines on the paper and it said, uh little boy, California, a conqueror's Niagara. That's what the story says. And an interview with UH Roger later I didn't conquer.
I agree that day.
What we saw here was a beautiful picture of the marvelous mercy and grace of God. Isn't that the most marvelous thing? Well, you know, a boy or girl. Time is going swiftly by, but that's a remarkable story.
I don't think I've ever ran into a story like that.
Where there was so much effort put to to save these youngsters and they were saved. The Lord permitted that they would be saved, and especially Roger, oh, they permitted. He was saved from the water so that he could be saved from all eternity. I want to tell just one other story. And this is a story that Jordan Hagel used to tell years ago. And it's a sweet story. There was a father who had a little boy, I suppose about five years old.
00:25:14
And they were. They had a great relationship. They were very fond of each other. And there was a mother in the family too, and it was a lovely little family.
But you know, this little boy got sick and he didn't get well. I mean, we get the flu and a few days later we're well, it's been avoiding, but it got worse and worse. So the parents took them to the hospital and they diagnosed him.
Doctors examined them thoroughly in chest. All the parents knew and they said, he said, I'm sorry to tell you, but your little boy is not going to get better. He's got a fatal disease.
Last time he said it's quite a bad thing to hear. Well, the parents took it pretty hard and the light went on for a few days. And the dad, I don't know whether the dads are saving or but he's. But he started to worry anyway about this little boy.
Of his in the fact that he was going to go into eternity.
And so he said to the boy's son. You know?
I'm concerned, you know, What's your sense? Oh, the boy said. I'm not worried. He said. I'm not worried about myself. I'm not worried about my favorite, you know, just thought you're going into eternity. What about your sins? You know, he had done some naughty things, as every little boy or girl did, and.
Finally, the little boy said, Oh, Daddy, you know I don't have any. I don't have anything steady. Oh, everybody's in. Jim must have some sins. Oh, no, Daddy, he said. Oh, my sins have been washed away.
In the precious Blood of Christ, my boy or girl, if you were called in just a moment.
Where would you be repressed? That should be with the word Jesus in heaven for holy eternity. What a risk to take. Don't go down life's river without that marvelous life preserver of the Lord. Have we got time? I don't think we do. We'll just.
Pray our God and Father.
Umm, the story about Islam is so great.
And we have some boys and girls here, and then the older ones too, Lord Jesus, that can see down into the hearth. And we pray earnestly that if there's a little boy, a boy or girl here today that doesn't know that at this very moment they'll put on that light preserver. Lord Jesus without us, but I and help you stay upon eternity, we do earnestly pray this Lord Jesus, and in thy precious Navy men.
Oh, there's some.
Messages of love and that kind of thing, Caleb. Do they just come up and get them?
Oh, here's the answer.
Good morning, everyone.
We've got some Sunday school papers as you were saying, and and I think there are some refreshments also in the in the dining room right now, some drinks. Anyway, like to take some of those, Umm, before you get up. Maybe everyone could pass their hymn sheets to the two center aisles here and someone will pick them up.
Uh, the young people might want to check the list in the in the dining room to see if their names are all filled in there for servers needed.
I haven't checked it lately, so I don't know.
The next meeting will be the breaking of bread at 10:30 and I'd like to ask that try to be seated by quarter after. Thank you.
1 Peter 1
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Yes, brethren, that in this reading meeting we take our first Peter chapter one. I believe it's a very suitable.
Follow on on what we've had in the first two readings taking the subject that was before us there another step in the pathway. I think they're very companionable and related chapters.
Do you think we should read the whole chapter done even though we might not have time for it all? Is that good talking is profitable because it gives us the context of what we do take up.
First Peter chapter one.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia.
Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, whose sanctification of the Spirit.
And obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ praised unto you in peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away preserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith and the salvation.
Great to be revealed in the last time, where Andrew greatly rejoice, though now for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the hearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen He loved, and whom though now you see Him not.
Yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. Who brought, Who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you? Searching what? For what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow?
Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Which the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy.
And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time under sojourning here and here. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
But was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God.
That raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.
Seeing you have purified your soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit and to unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible.
By the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grasp, and all the glory of man as a fountain flower of grass. The grass wither it, and the flower thereof calleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
00:05:01
And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
In Philippians chapter 3.
We had the apostle Paul speaking to us by the Spirit of having the Lord Jesus Christ as the one and only and supreme object of our hearts and of our lives, and the fact that the Lord Jesus is now not here, but he is a man in the glory. And so that's where our heart is. That's where the object of our lives has gone. And so our hearts affections are drawn away from this world.
To the one who has them.
Of the hymns of eternal Lover, and that our Lord Jesus is there at God's right hand this afternoon, at the center and source of our lives.
And we are not yet there in that sense. We're not yet perfected, but we have the calling on high of God that that is our destiny. There's a similarity in this chapter that brings a little different aspect of these same thoughts before us in this way Peter was addressing.
Jewish. I didn't say it had previously been Jews believers.
Who had had their hope in the earth?
And through the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is bringing before them the fact that the earth was no longer the sphere of their hopes. They no longer had anything that they could look for with respect to earthly blessing for themselves. But rather Peter, as it were, says, brethren, your home's not here anymore, it's in heaven.
And as far as this earth, you have to look at yourself as a stranger and a sojourner here on a journey on your way to the goal which is before you, and you have been called to it by God, as it says in umm, verse 15, he which hath called you. And so they had been called of God out in the world.
And out of the earthly hopes to have before them the glory.
The calling on high really in Christ Jesus. And here in this chapter he brings before them repeatedly. They are not there yet.
But the provisions for them have been made, and they can now, even though they don't see the Lord Jesus.
Boom, as he says. Umm.
Not having seen or you don't now see them, but you love them, and believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And so they had a choice that before them, and they were on what we would call a very dangerous journey, but they had the assurance that God would safely take them all the way to their inheritance.
Reserved in heaven for them. And so it is with us this afternoon. We weren't Jews, and at least I don't know anybody here that was born a Jew. But regardless, we don't have anything in this world that we should look upon. But we do have repeated exhortations not to be drawn aside, not to allow the enticements of an earth that is judged by God to draw us away.
But rather to set our sights upon our object, which is the Lord in glory, and to go on if need be, going through the sufferings that God appoints at times to our lives for our good, but always with the thought that we're not to become overwhelmed by them.
But to have that trial of our faith because we have to go on the journey in faith.
00:10:02
To the end.
And in enter into the.
Placed an inheritance that God has appointed for us at the end of this journey.
As in all things, it begins with God.
Everything that's worth anything, everything that's permanent, begins in the heart of God. And so this chapter begins with God, as it says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
God begin this whole process that results in our salvation here, our being started on this journey that we take.
That the purpose of God for us might be realized at the end of the journey. And it begins with the foreknowledge of God according to His own heart, that He purposed us for this place which is going to be ours to enjoy for eternity. And so we, we begin, if you will, with the certainty of the One who has appointed us.
To take this place, to have the Lord Jesus as the eternal object of our souls and to start out. And not only did God purpose it, but we see in the rest of that second verse, He did the work too that would be needed for us in setting us apart by the working of the Spirit and bringing us under the shelter of the blood and so on.
What is the force of the verse three? It says, Hath begotten us again unto a living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why do you again?
I can suggest a thought and.
That is, uh, that's what you were just saying. They there were those of the Jews before Christianity came in where they were born again, but not for, umm, heavenly things. So born again or begotten us again to a living open now that's the heavenly thing. Is that the thought?
For them.
It was of course, under the law, and their hope was as to the earth.
But it's a change now there's a very different thing for us because our hope comes first. There was death.
And then the resurrection. And so now we have a hope which lies the other side of death, and we have been born again, Brother Chuck said. To this new and living whole for us lies.
For us by the resurrection.
Israel's hope was the earth.
And continuing to live upon the earth and the blessing of God was seen in earthly prosperity. But with respect to that, if a person died, that was the end of it. I'm not saying they didn't have the idea of the resurrection, that it hadn't been revealed in measure to them. They knew there was to be a someday down in the future, some kind of resurrection, but that isn't really what was before him here.
But we have Our hope begins with the resurrection of Christ from the dead, so that we look forward to a glory over which death is irrelevant. It has no power, no place. There will never be that for us.
00:15:12
OK.
Before God, when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus were never looked again upon from God's perspective is dead.
Among men, if a man dies, we say he died, but from God's perspective he just sleeps. The Lord Jesus took that view when Lazarus died and he said he sleeps and they couldn't understand. So he had to switch, if you will, from God's perspective of things to their own and said, well, Lazarus has died.
But we participate in a living home over which, by the resurrection of Christ is the proof of it. And the same power of the Spirit working in US puts us in a different sphere of things altogether into the new creation.
A Anyone that, uh, enjoys the coming Kingdom, which is an earthly thing, has to be born again.
Any St. of the Old Testament has to be born again, otherwise they are not the same. They don't have divine life. But what is the difference between in Christendom Born again is the sum total, the way it's presented, of everything. But it's not, it's the beginning, a Cornelius.
His his arms, his prayers went up before God. He was a born again soul I believe. But.
He didn't He didn't come into the knowledge of Christianity, the coming of the Holy Spirit and indwelling them, and so on until the.
The full gospel was preached and the full gospel is not you must be born again. That's just an essential, but it's the beginning, so to speak. And for Christians it's it's through the resurrection, at the resurrection of Christ. Now the Old Testament Saints were born again, but the Christ had not been raised.
He hadn't come yet, but still they needed a new life. And the Lord said that they could do this. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. And that's an essential, basic, fundamental thing. But we, we've got so much more. It's just step one, so to speak. And then his death and then his resurrection, and now our associations of life are there, not here. That's what you've been saying. And what a difference. Yeah.
So in that sense, the hope that they had in the Old Testament was not really termed a living or lively hope, was it? They had a hope. And it's true that there were those of whom it says in Hebrews chapter 12 or 11 rather that.
They looked for a city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God. That is, they did look beyond this present scene.
But they didn't know anything about the details of it. They didn't know what God had in store for you and for me, did they? And so here there is a whole dimension put upon it, which they knew nothing of in the Old Testament, and now it's been revealed through the Spirit of God after the resurrection of Christ.
I'm gonna ask you, Chuck, would it be like a little bit like what you referred to yesterday in Matthew 16?
Verse 31 Where is the Lord asked us.
Uh, sign here. Do you say that? I asked. He says the Christ there aren't the Christ, the son of the living God. He said blessed in our town for push a button. Don't reveal it. My my father, which is in heaven. Peter got I mean, you know, Peter got the.
I'm talking about meters. Yeah, Peter, you got that revelation from the Father, the living God, kind of a new thing. Although the Jews had some kind of a hope, didn't they? Like you said, they had a hope of the earth. They were.
Verse two speaks of election according to the foreknowledge of God. It's interesting words. Election is choosing, He's chosen as.
When did He choose us? Did we find out in Ephesians? It was before the foundations of the world. How could he have known us before the foundation of the world? There's no world in existence, no human being. That's where the word foreknowledge comes in. God knows everything beforehand. God inhabits eternity, and so He knows everything beforehand and according to that foreknowledge.
00:20:22
He chose and then it says through sanctification of the Spirit. That's a wonderful thing too, being set apart.
There were people who were set apart by sanctification of the Spirit.
And the fossil Paul says of himself that he was set apart from his mother's womb so that he was a vessel specially chosen. And the Spirit of God began that work before he ever realized what was going on and set him apart.
For a specific purpose that God had in mind.
As Christians, I think the verse in First Corinthians 1:30 at the end where it says of him, that's God, are ye in Christ Jesus?
Who of God is made of us? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption tells us a lot.
That's where where our we came from too. God is a source of all things.
And the sanctification comes before they in this verse 2, the sprinkling of the blood.
Remember an illustration that Gordon Hayhoe gave that helped me to understand this is that good of the grocery store? And I get a card and I start pulling things off the shelves, down the rows. Box of cereal and some cans of this and that and other things and what, what are you doing?
I'm separating that for a purpose I have in mind.
That sanctification, God had us in view and he separated us. But you haven't paid for it yet. No, I haven't paid for it yet. But when I get up to the front checkout counter, I'll pay for it. And so in time came the question of redemption, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. So those are things that God works in those ways. It's it's interesting to see it the way it's put.
In verse 2.
We have the Trinity elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
Through sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's Christianity, The whole Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. It's not always put in that order. It's put in various orders to show that not one of those three is superior to the others. They're all one in the deity. And uh, that's, it's the only, I don't like to use the word religion, but I don't know what else I could use. Faith maybe.
That believes that the Jews don't believe in the Trinity, the Muslims don't believe in the Trinity, and other religions believe in a multiplicity of gods and so on. But we believe in one God, three Persons, and one of those persons. One of the things that Cornelius had to learn when he was sealed by the Holy Spirit, just like the Jews had been sealed and they spoke in tongues and so on, the Gentiles were brought in.
Umm, the Spirit of God, the book of Acts is not titled properly the Acts of the Apostles. It's properly titled the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit through the apostles and men of God was bringing out these new truths. But one of the most thrilling experiences I've had, and you can have it too. It goes through the New Testament and put your finger on the the Trinity, the Trinity.
The Trinity, it's there all through the New Testament. Sometimes it's the Father and the Son, and then a little bit later down, it's the Holy Spirit is brought in. It may not always be in one verse, but here it's in one verse and many others in one verse. But, uh, it's, it's in the, it's in the chapter, it's in the, the, the, the truth that's being brought out. All three persons working together in perfect harmony and each one equal to the other, no one superior to the other.
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But it didn't come out in that fullness until one of those persons came down.
To where we are and became one of us. God was manifesting the flesh justified in the spirit scene of angels priest under the Gentiles believed not in the world and received up into glory God coming down and God man going up. That's Christianity and it's it's it's just precious and wonderful that it's all here so important, especially young people.
To read the whole word of God, yes, but more important than anything else, read the New Testament.
That's where the full truth is gonna hit you and, and, and, and teach you and the Spirit of God dwells in you. How many times a day? Shame on me. Maybe you have to say the same. Do I even think that the Holy Spirit do? I was in there. Do you? But he dwells in each one of us collectively in the church and then individually in each one of us. And he's here to, uh, to magnify this Father and the Son. Beautiful.
MMM.
This living hope that we have that.
That we are all of God too.
It's the.
Spirit of God chooses to tell us something else about the way in which it started. In verse three it says according to His abundant mercy. Mercy is the love of God in action according to me.
Grace is the love of God in action according to the heart of the one who acts. Say that again. I have missed the first part. Say it again. Grace is the love of God in action according to the need.
Mercy, mercy, all right. And love is, I'm sorry. Grace is the love of God in action according to the heart of the one who acts that is gone.
Mercy keeps me from hell.
My knee as a Sinner would take me to hell, but God steps in and says, well, no, you're not going there. I'm going to take you, save you from hell. That's mercy. But when God says I'm not just going to save you from hell, but I'm going to make you one of my children and take it out and live with me, that's great.
Mercy is Grace is great in the greatness of the need her see. Grace is great in the greatness of the giver.
But I as I was in this particular verse three, it's it's his abundant mercy because.
What condition or what state were we in when God began this work to fulfill His elect purpose of taking us to heaven to the glory to have an inheritance there? We were sinners in our sins.
We were people who delivered who in our condition.
And the holiness of God acting on that would say we have to be banished from his presence forever. And hell.
But according to his great mercy, he stepped in, just like in the first verse.
And or the second verse it says, speaks of the foreknowledge and election of God unto obedience.
Because Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were in relationship with God as to obedience. But then they rebelled.
And then Israel under the law was under the covenant relationship of obedience, but there was nothing that produced it in them. It only manifested their state that they couldn't keep it and wouldn't keep it, no different than we would have been.
But God stepping in and giving us a purpose and inheritance that I'm going to produce.
And obedience that wasn't there before. And so by new birth, God gives us the life and nature that is that of Christ, which delights to obey. And so we've not only been called to an inheritance, but God has done a work that we can and should be. And obedient preachers, it's not the basis of our relationship. That's the sprinkling of the blood.
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But man as a creature was always intended of God to be obedient to him. And that's true even in a coming eternity. We will always be before God is obedient children in heaven. It's not the basis of our relationship. That's the work of Christ, but it is the character of the child before God to be obedient. And so as he says in that second verse.
We were elected, according to the foreknowledge of God, unto obedience.
And now we can be in proper relationship to God in that living new relationship where before and Adam all die. There was no hope for obedience in Adam's race after Adam and Eve sinned. Don't leave out the true sanctification of the Spirit. You can't have obedience without that. Well, that was what separated us to it. It was the working of God separating us to the two purposes, obedience.
Well, I should say to the unto obedience and the sprinkling of blood. God the Spirit was the work behind unto obedience and unto the sprinkling of blood.
Here is my point. Through sanctification of the Spirit comes first and then then comes the obedience, then comes the blood that.
You seem to leave that out.
It helps to, uh, connect this, uh, Exodus 24, you have, uh, under the law when the law is given.
It says here in verse 6, Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. He took the blood of the covenant and read it in the audience of all the people, and they said all that the Lord had said, Will we do and the obedient.
And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. And this is what relates to Christianity. So they knew what that meant, the sprinkling of the blood. It was an obedience. They were to be obedient to the law. That, like you said, there was not the motivation. Now in Christianity we get a completely new life. We get the life of the Lord Jesus.
And so there is a delight to do the will of God.
Edit a little bit but it.
Expresses that in verse four. It's all to an inheritance.
The Israelite had an inheritance, but it was corruptible.
And it had to be passed on to the next generation. When he died. It was only his for as long as he lived, and then it even in itself, could be spoiled. It wasn't a perfect thing. And then sometimes, even in the governmental hand of God, he put his hand upon the people, and the land didn't produce.
The place of their blessing and they were constantly concerned about that, if God would put his hand upon them and spoil, if you will, their inheritance.
Through his government. But in a contrast, Peter is bringing to these dear believers, he said, But brethren, we have an inheritance through this living hope, which is.
Can't be spoiled. It can't be corrupted. It's an incorruptible one. It can't be defiled, it can't be tainted. It's not gonna fade away from us.
And it's reserved. It's ours. Nobody's gonna take it away from us. But it's not here. It's not here. It's reserved in heaven for us.
Sometimes we act like, or maybe some of us would say we act like.
We wanna have an inheritance now as long as we live here, and then when we have to leave here, we can't enjoy it anymore. Well, we're thankful we've got one in heaven and we'll have one there. And you might say we want the best of both worlds.
00:35:12
But that's not.
A right attitude, that's not a right thought. The Lord Jesus was cast out. This world said you don't have an inheritance here.
And if we want to follow the Lord Jesus, we have to follow him where he is. And so the inheritance for us is not get the best you can now until you've got to leave it, and then you'll have something in heaven. But it is more, as Peter emphasizes in the rest of the chapter, you must take hold of these things only in faith. There's no other way to enjoy them but to go on.
And so he says in verse five, you're kept through faith.
And multiple times in the rest of the chapter, the issue of faith is wrought before them, because everything in this journey to the office before them, as it says in Hebrews 10 and then is illustrated in Hebrews 11.
The just shall live like they.
Could could someone contrast that inheritance there in first Peter one and verse four to the comparison that Paul speaks of in Ephesians one verse 11 in whom also we have a faith and inheritance?
There it seems like the inheritance maybe more present tense. I'm wondering if I'm perhaps an interpreted man incorrectly.
Well, I would suggest for us that it is the same inheritance because we have the conscious sense of.
Shall we say, being the inheritors? Now that is, we have it.
In the sense that it is just as sure to us as if we did have it in hand. Sometimes in this world people look for an inheritance, and I've known more than one person who thought that a particular will had been made out, usually of some member of the family, and that they were going to share in the inheritance. But then somehow things didn't work out that way and they didn't get it when the time came that the person in question died.
But God has that inheritance, as it says, reserved for us. I remember, and I'm quoting Clarence Lundin, I appreciated the remark. He said don't forget the words for you at the end of verse four, because he said the inheritance is not in that sense in heaven, nor is it heaven itself. What will make heaven the place that you and I will enjoy?
Will be the person of Christ and all that he is.
But the inheritance is all created things, and God in the purposes that he has for his Son, has made him an inheritor, or not made him, but given him an inheritance of all created things. And you and I are going to be privileged to share in that, aren't we? And so I believe what we get in Ephesians is similar in the sense of what we get here. It's just a different way of looking at it because in Ephesians.
We are already looked upon as risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ, and in that sense God wants us to enjoy in our hearts. Now what will be ours, you might say, in actual fact in the coming day. Is that is that correct? Let me add.
In Peter, the inheritance is in contrast with what they have as an earthly thing. Yes, the Gentiles had nothing. They have now an inheritance. Ephesians is written mostly to the Gentiles.
And to the Gentile believers, and they didn't have anything they could compare this new inheritance to like the Jew had. But what they're brought into is.
Is is beyond, uh, beyond, uh, compare. You might say it's the same inheritance, but it's looked at differently. One for the Jew, one for the Gentile. But I think the the greatest one is the if you can say one's greater than the other is the one in features.
00:40:02
Asians is the broadest view of the inheritance, I think. I like that too. Look at it there in the Ephesians one and verse 10:10 and 11:00 go together and I think it shows you that it is the broadest picture of the inheritance that we will inherit when Christ takes his inheritance, when the Lord Jesus is told.
Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth is thy possession. But here it says in the Ephesians 110, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, the millennial day, he might gather together in one all things in Christ. Now look at this, but both which are in heaven.
And which are on earth even in Him. So every created thing is part of that inheritance. Inheritance in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the council of His own will. Now look down at verse 14, Speaking of the Holy Spirit in verse 13. And he says in verse 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance.
Until the redemption of the purchased possession into the praise of his glory so that we haven't, uh, possessed the inheritance. It is ours in the promise of God. We're going to have it all. But he's given us the Holy Spirit now as the earnest, the down payment of our, of the inheritance so that we can enjoy the fact that we will be.
Possessors of all things, together with Christ.
Been helpful to me to consider where these two apostles saw the Lord and Paul was caught up into heaven and he saw things from that perspective. Peter saw the glory on the mouth on earth and he saw the glory there And, uh, it was a future, uh, revelation of the glory of those who will be here on earth. And so he speaks of it in, in that perspective. And you know, whereas Paul speaks, says the inheritance says.
As enjoyed in heaven or from heaven, Peter, as were from earth noticed in our chapter, uh, uh, in continuing on in the, uh, fifth verse, uh, inheritance is in verse four is reserved in heaven for you. And then verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. That's when it's going to come down on earth, as it were.
And we manifested on Earth. And so Peter looks at it from that way.
And so salvation in Peter is always looked upon as that which we get at the end of the journey, isn't it? We are saved, it's true. And in that sense we know our sins forgiven through the work of Christ. In another sense, we're being saved, if we could say it, from the power of sin on a continual basis in our Christian lives.
But then Peter generally refers to it as that which we will get at the end of the journey.
When we enjoy it to its full, when we have our glorified bodies, when we no longer have the flesh in us, and when we actually have the possession of that inheritance of which it speaks here.
Ephesians 3 add to what Bob said.
Ephesians 3.
14 For this cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole or every family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches.
Of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that she may be achieving, rooted and grounded in love. May be able to comprehend with All Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, the dimensions of the mystery, the breath, the length, the depth and height. We have a head that we sing and apply that and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
00:45:28
It applies it to the, that dimension, it applies to the load, but really it applies to the mystery. And, uh, that's, that's more than the Jews had at all in the Old Testament. It's more than that. It's, you might say God exhausts himself and what he's bringing us into.
If you inherited $1,000,000, what would you do with it?
Ask me after I get it.
Stop.
Well, I think a good answer is you just keep going with what you've got and give the rest away.
There are people in the world today who know that they are to inherit somebody else.
So it's the state, but they never get it.
They may die in some cases ahead of that person and then they die with maybe having lived their lives in anticipation of what Saddam was going to be great and they never never realized it because they don't live outlived the person that is going to give it. And I think that's part of why here is God is saying to us I called you to this purpose and I will oversee.
To be sure that you don't miss out, I'm going to see that you are brought into the full blessing that I have promised to you. And if God be for us, it says who can be against us? We have the one that the only one that could come in.
To state for sure you know, and the things of man nobody could tell a person well, you'll outlive so and so and.
With assurance that they were ever gonna get any inheritance that had been, I'll say, promised to them, but not so with God.
He, he tells them and, and it's given here to encourage our hearts, to encourage our souls not to give up in the journey, not to become discouraged and fall out by the way, and not enjoy. Some people have something but they don't or anticipate something they're going to get, but they can't enjoy it in anticipation.
But God has said to us, I want you to enjoy it.
A lot of things that we enjoy, we enjoy in anticipation of them.
You tell a young child they're old enough not to say now, now, now is now the time. But you say on Tuesday, God willing, we're going to have a picnic on Saturday and we're going to do this or that that they like and they'll enjoy it for the whole week.
In anticipation of it, and if we're looking forward to some events that's really a that we want to see happen, a wedding or something, then often times just the anticipation of it helps the spirit through the day.
Until the day the event comes, it's, I believe partly what is brought before us in this chapter is let's enjoy it. It's ours and it's ours to enjoy in anticipation and encouragement to our hearts. At the same time, sometimes God sees the need to put His hand on our lives and allow us to, as He says.
Experience heaviness.
In things that happen to us.
My wife's father used to make an application of a verse in the Old Testament, I believe the Psalms. It says my heart and my flesh pryeth out for the living God. And he used to comment with respect to the Lord's coming, that God would woo our hearts concerning his coming. My heart cryeth out for the living God. But he said sometimes God also sees the need to wean us.
00:50:07
So that our flesh cries out for the living God, so that we are drawn away from finding a false sense of enjoyment and things that are going to be, that are corrupted, that are defiled, that are going to fade away. And instead of being occupied improperly and unnecessarily with them, sometimes God sees the need in our hearts to wean us.
So that we keep fixed on himself, the Lord Jesus.
And the inheritance that he will share with us.
Rejoicing in verse 6 and heaviness go together in an interesting.
Seemingly contradictory, but I, I appreciated what you mentioned before, Don, in verse five, you get faith and that's really what brings the joy is believing God. Sometimes we look around and we place our enjoyment as to our outward circumstances. If they're all what we like, then we have a major joy.
But that is not the reality of the Christian pathway in this world. There is a lot of things that are not to our enjoyment, but we can still have joy. We can rejoice in the measure that we believe. Look at verse 8. Whom having not seen ye love the Lord Jesus, in whom? Though now you see him, not yet.
Believing there's the key.
Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, how important that is to let our hearts be.
Resting in God, not in a certain set of circumstances that we like.
So important. There's another verse that says basically the same thing in Romans 15 verse 13. That is such a beautiful verse.
The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.
In believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Remember, Brother Smith used to tell us that his first wife.
To whom he was married for five years before she had cancer of the brain and the Lord took her home. She wanted to go back to Julo amongst the Indians to die. And as she was dying on her bed, she said please open my Bible to Romans 1513 and lay my head on it. That's my pillow to die on.
The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.
You may bound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. That's the key is believing you believe God.
Kennedy trusted. He's told us about some magnificent things. Do you believe it?
And he does not diminish the difficulties of the way in verses 6 and seven, does he? They're real.
They're very real. And so as you say, Bob, there is heaviness sometimes. And here it says in verse six if need be.
Sometimes there is a need be as there was with the people of God in the Old Testament.
But then the other aspect of it is in verse 7, the trial of your faith.
I have suggested sometimes that in most of the trials that you and I experience, there is a mixture of the two.
And only the individual going through the trial can say in the Lord's presence where the needs be leaves off and the trial of our faith takes over, and vice versa. We sometimes, for example, hear dear believers who blame everything in their lives on some sin or getting away from the Lord or something like that. And it is well to be exercised about that because that can certainly be there.
00:55:21
I have heard others who seem practically to blame everything or blame everything on an attack of Satan, as if it's the devil and their faith is being tried, never thinking that maybe the Lord is dealing with them for something. But here we get both brought together, don't we? Sometimes there is a need be, and I'm in heaviness through manifold temptation. Doesn't mean I can't rejoice. No, it doesn't.
But it does bring me into the Lord's presence to say, is there a need to be and do I need to deal with it? But then there is the trial of our faith. If a believer always had comfortable circumstances and everything went well, it would provoke the world to make the same comment as Satan did to the Lord concerning Job. Well, Lord, no wonder he is behaving so well and being such a good man. Everything's going his way.
You've put a hedge about them and health and wealth and prosperity are all his, so no wonder. But when there is a real trial of our faith going on, as it says here.
That faith is more precious than gold that perishes, and that trial is going to be found under praise and honor and glory. It is appearing because it proves the reality of what is within, doesn't it? It proves that that faith can sustain the trial and come through it.
And the world doesn't understand that. So I would suggest that many times in our lives there are both of these things, perhaps even combined in the same trial and in the Lord's presence. You and I can appreciate the trial, but at the same time deal with the needs be.
I would suggest that everybody in this room has benefited personally in your life.
From the trial or the proving of Abraham's faith?
That has stood through the Word of God right down to us, and every one of us have seen and in some sense entered into our souls of what it must have meant, whatever capacity we have when God decided to try or test the faith of Abraham to prove it.
And it's a precious thing, far more precious than any gold that will ever perish. Is that testimony to his faith? We learned the secret of what he thought in his soul in Hebrews 11 when he went through that trial. You don't, I don't think, finding it in the Old Testament. But what was he thinking?
He said, well, God promised me a son. He promised me that I that I think would be the seed of promise and the blessing. So to fulfill that promise, if he needs to, you'll raise him from the dead.
As we learn in Hebrews 11, tremendous test of his faith, he'd never seen anybody raised from the dead, never heard of anybody raised from the dead, but he believed God, and God was honored. God was glorified in that.
Acts of faith of Abraham and if I could put it this way, I believe that every act of faith in your life and mine is being treasured of God.
Treasured up of God, he finds great pleasure even though he's the source of it.
As he is, of all things still, God finds a pleasure, a joy. It's a treasure to his own heart when he sees the expression of faith in the children of God.
It's important to realize that the start, the absolute beginning of all dishonor to God and man, started with unbelief that led to the act of disobedience.
But he mistrusted the goodness that's in the heart of God. She listened to the liar and trusted the liar more than God, and brought all the grief that has come into mankind since that moment and ever since then. It's the heart of God to, as it were, have again in His creature.
01:00:12
That trust of himself. And so if He allows in our lives something that is on the side of not the need to be, but the proving of our faith, it's a precious thing. It's a precious thing. It's not. It's more precious, I think, on God's side than it is on ours. But it's a precious thing to God. And yet he'll turn around. And if you will honor us in the coming days for what was there, just like we honor even now Abraham, and we will honor Abraham in the glory.
Giving the credit where it's due to God, but still it will be a eternal joy in heaven.
The proving of Abraham's faith. And perhaps in our lives there will be lesser things. Probably none of us would ever rise to that in the same way. But still every little thing God sees in us, that is, honors Him by trusting Him is.
Precious.
Abraham did say in Genesis 22 This he said, I and the lad will go Yonder and worship and come again. Not only was he talking about himself coming again, but he's talking about Isaac.
Mm-hmm. This was threatened to Jews, that Jews could have been scattered and they were being persecuted and then looked for the Kingdom to be manifested here and then and it was postponed until the Lord came back. So Peter is is describing here. Not only that the wind is going to be revealed. He's been telling them that.
They inherited, this cap is reserved in heaven. They are also kept in the interval and they held them a third thing, the trials. The tests along the way are only for your good, to test your faith, to prove it real.
To to make it good things are not out of control God allowed it isn't just because the enemies at work and God has this frustrated and has to wait until they can make his Kingdom known. It's a wonderful thing to know that the trials.
That He lets us go through or for a purpose of testing, improving our faith so that it can be put on display when He comes back.
It really should encourage it, shouldn't it? We sometimes don't see the reasons of the trial. This really tells us the reasons of it.
Abraham, he didn't have to give his son.
Found a ram, caught the thicket.
But with Joe.
He lost everything.
And he says in the middle of the book, he says, I will not give up my righteousness.
And that's what all of us are guilty of.
All guilty of pride and when he conduct the judge that.
I have heard of me by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see if thee will, before I have for myself.
When we really get in the presence of God, what can we do but abhor ourselves?
And then he got twice as much as he had before. Yeah. And he did have faith, didn't he? And he and it and it, his faith carried him through. God carried him through. So there's a witness there.
Says in verse 8, Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now you see him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, And make a little application of this from the life of Mephibosheth.
David had shown his love.
In his love for Jonathan.
Kindness toward his family. And so he takes up Mephibosheth, and he brings him to sit at his table and enjoy his love and his care of him and David.
01:05:06
Please uh, because of the rebellion of Epsilon.
And my purpose is separated from David.
And as of where he lives in Saquon, nothing mattered to him.
As long as you David didn't have his place.
And when David is restored to his place, that's enough from artificial.
He's satisfied he doesn't need anything for himself, but David has his place.
Brethren.
We should be satisfied with the Lord Jesus presently at least in the heavenly side as its place.
God has raised him from the dead. God has seated him at his right hand.
And if our hearts are in any measure like that of Mephibosheth.
Even though we don't see them yet face to face.
Just the knowledge that he has his place there, he's going to have his place on earth, and we are rejoicing in anticipation of seeing him have it here. But even as we await our place with him, there can be with us a joy that satisfies our souls. Not only in the anticipation of it. Can I say for ourselves, but there's a better motive. There's a higher motive than that.
And that is to say, he has his place at the right hand of God.
Exalted there. And if he's everything, if he is truly the object of the heart, that's everything.
It's not whether I'm gonna have anything. My physician didn't need anything for himself to satisfy his heart.
Let's vibrahathy inheritance, Stephen.
He, he, he, he didn't care.
And, and, and, uh, in the best sense of the word, we don't need to care whether we get into the inheritance anyways. Yes, we're encouraged by it. It's brought before us here. It's really his inheritance that he wants to share with us that forms the basis of it all. He said, well, I won't take my inheritance without letting you be part of it. And so I'm going to have it in you and you're going to be part of my inheritance too. But the other side to me, the more wonderful side is.
The heart can be full of joy now, just thinking about what he has.
That's that's present, isn't that verse?
The salvation of your soul.
Hard to know how to answer that. I'd always taken it to be the present enjoyment of what we will get in the future, but is there more than that there?
There's something a lot more than what we're going to get. We're going to be in his presence.
Well, I'm including that.
Well, man is a tripartite thing. We have not decided only the body, but we've got the soul and the spirit and.
For the southwest of the body, we got to wait until the end of the journey, but I don't think we have to wait for the celebration of the soul and spirit until the end of the journey.
He had all the people on the boat with him. He got a vision.
Anisha Square, for I believe God that shall be, even as it was told me, as faith in what God had said.
And they were all saved. Escape shaped land.
Mr. Darby has a footnote that I think is helpful. He says literally salvation of souls in contrast with temporal deliverances to which, as Jews, they were accustomed to look, that is.
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We know that we have presently the salvation of our soul. We presently in have eternal life. But sometimes Scripture uses the word soul as to that which distinguishes between the body and the spirit.
But I think Mr. Darby's footnote suggests that in this particular verse, it's referring to the soul as the whole person, not as a distinguishing between spirit and body. And in that sense it's still future because.
We're Peter looks at it as you're safe when you're safe home and you're on a journey and it's going to be a journey that.
Will result in the safely getting home to glory and the inheritance and the presence of the Lord Jesus and he says the footnote says it's a contrast to the Jew whose deliverance is on earth is deliverance was from temporal things.
Our deliverance is that which delivers us fully and completely and forever from everything that sin has ever spoiled.
So we look for that still, uh, to be in that place of deliverance, full deliverance. And Peter later speaks, uh, of the body when he's making it as a separate thing. And he says, umm, as to our bodies, to wit, the redemption of the body. Uh, we still wait for that.
When the Lord Jesus paid the price on the cross for us, he not only redeemed our souls, but he redeemed our bodies too. He paid for the body as well, but the results of that payment are still future, Peter says. And so we wait for that.
As a future thing, the redemption of the body. And uh, it's not as Brother Clem says until we're in heaven that it will be, umm, the payment will be realized in its full results. So it's still that which is before us. But when I just make that comment, if anyone's ever been questioned or wondered about the matter of cremation as well, to dwell on that verse that Peter says.
As to the Lord's saying, I paid for that body.
We need to always treat the body with the respect of recognition that it belongs to the Lord Jesus, not to man that is of a believer.
It's hard to think of getting deliverance.
Think of anything better than this.
Because when we're there.
And everyone of us thinks highly of ourselves in some way.
I'd like to mention I mentioned that before, but it helps me greatly in the matter of Jones case.
Job was really everything he said he was.
As far as God's view of it, and God says it multiple times in the book of Job, that there was nobody like him, he was righteous and sense that's given there.
The problem with respect to Job and his pride is that God is the one that had made him what he was.
But Joe turned around and took the credit for it.
And that was the place where his pride came out. And that is the greatest. At least one of the greatest places where pride can come into our hearts and into our lives is the very thing in which God has worked in us, to His glory perhaps, but not certainly always to His credit. And then we turn around in our hearts and take it the credit for it, as if we had been the one.
That made us that way. So Joel said. I won't give up my righteousness. I.
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I don't care what God says or does, He can't take that away from me.
But he didn't recognize in the beginning was Job. God gave you that.
God's the one that made you that.
And it's to God to credit belongs, but you're taking it for yourself.
And that's pride, and that's wrong, and I'm going to have to teach you otherwise. And there are many, many subtle spiritual ways in which pride can creep into us. Suppose we know a little something more than some other believer.
Why do we know more? If we do? The credit belongs to God and He's the one that's to be honored in it.
Do we walk in a path that is according to His Word and we can look at somebody else and point to Scripture and say they don't? Well, perhaps in some things we do, they might on something else. Do the backs reverse with us?
But in some other truth different than the one we tend to emphasize, and whatever thing we think we do right. But God's not pleased with us if we take to ourselves the credit of that which belongs to Him.
Because we're robbing Him of his glory.
Joe was robbing God of a glory that belonged to God as having made Jove a righteous man. And if we take in pride credit to ourselves for things that are really the source of the menace is God, then we rob God of his glory. And he says, I will not give my glory to another.
The word glory is used in this next verse, the 11 and our old brother Potter used to teach us that he should make that word plural. The glories that should follow.
And they are infinite. And I believe that's true. There's no end to them. The glory that should follow the sufferings of Christ.
In the Old Testament, they were able to look upon his hindrance parts.
They couldn't look upon him directly.
One where? In his presence.
Insomuch that the creature can look upon him directly, will have that privilege. There's something that's beyond that. I know that, First Timothy.
He dwells in light unapproachable, which no man has seen nor can see. But whatever we can see, it is the fullness of it that we mere creatures can see will rid us of pride. Got you.
They shall see his face, it says.
It's interesting here. The prophets, the Old Testament that prophesied.
The says of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. He prophesied in the grace which should come unto you. They wrote those things by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
And then they looked at what they had written, and they didn't understand what it meant, David wrote. They pierced my hands and my feet. They wrote that he must have looked at that.
They didn't understand what that meant.
Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they'd administer the things which are now reported unto you by them which have preached the holy, preach the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Which things the angels desire to look into. So the prophets of the Old Testament times didn't understand the angels desire to look into it.
But here we are, brethren, we can enjoy it. The Holy Spirit has made these things known to us. Oh, how wonderful is the position that we occupy now in this present time.
Draw Near
Gospel—John Kaiser
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Welcome to the.
2nd and final Gospel meeting The special meeting this weekend. This could be the final gospel meeting. This building for all time, it could be the final gospel meeting.
In this area of all time, we don't know.
It goes right along with the memory verse we had for this morning. That memory verse was Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save sinners. One of the most rich, meaningful statements.
In the Bible.
Think about how much is contained in that Christ Jesus, the Anointed One, the Son of God, came from heaven into this world for the express purpose of saving the very worst thing in this world, which is sinners.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God loved the world.
Of sinners lost and ruined by the fall salvation full at highest cost He offers free to all.
That's something worth thinking about. God loves the world.
And there's long and grave and boy, the fall. Something can fall asleep. And everybody has gone here in awe of the trend of all the whole.
Nsnoise.
Bring my daughter, fall over the space, and to the Lord sake, the most dangerous soul.
And from the power and the power, and cross him.
I'm I'm planning for the world.
Wondered what's wrong twice one Christmas.
Cry to make it.
In from sunset and it comes from the clouds to die on telescope.
Entertainment A lot of different forms of entertainment that are popular in this world, and one reason the entertainment is popular is because people identify with it.
They see a football game and they identify with a team. They identify with a favorite player, or perhaps it's, umm, a movie they see, and they identify with the particular character in the movie or a particular actor.
How well do you identify in the Gospel tonight? You notice the gospel message as we sung in the first verse. It says he offers it free to all.
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That's what it says in the first verse, but in the chorus it says, oh, it was love. Twas wondrous love, the love of God.
To me.
That's the ultimate in identification.
A link between ourselves, the God of the universe.
And me, you personally, you identify with that. Do you recognize tonight that God?
Is extremely.
Infinitely interested in you, each one of us here as an individual. How many of us, of course, would have sent to that? We say yes, it's true.
Well, do you enjoy it then tonight?
Do you enjoy it? You know, sometimes at gossip meetings we sing a couple of hymns to start with. But instead of a second hymn this evening I'd like to to read together the 145th song, Psalm 145.
And I hope.
That as we read it together, I'm going to read it. You can follow.
You identify with.
If you feel like saying Amen at a certain point, there's nothing wrong with that. You might get somebody else back on track.
Psalm 145 is headed David, Psalm of Praise.
I will extol thee, my God, O King, I will bless thy name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another. That's what we're doing here tonight. And shall declare thy mighty axe. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works, and man shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts. And I will declare.
Thy greatness they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.
And shall sing of thy righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Slow to anger and of great mercy, the Lord is good.
To all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy Saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy Kingdom, and talk of Thy power to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His Kingdom.
Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raises up all that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou give us them their meat. In due season thou openest thine hand.
And satisfy us the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all His works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love Him.
But all the wicked will he destroy my mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Now before we pray, I want to read some other verses. It may be that you had trouble identifying with this song, so let's turn to the book of James.
And see if these verses fit.
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James.
Chapter 4.
Mercedes.
Draw nigh to God.
And he will draw nigh to you.
Clamp your hands, the sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
That's great.
This evening, our God and Father we acknowledge.
Collectively and hopefully individually.
Our responsibility before.
We have just read of my great goodness.
Of thy righteousness.
Demonstrated at Calvary.
Our God and Father.
We would pray that each one of us might be conscious tonight.
That thou art and I.
That's an issue of distance is one of our own creating.
And that thou hast provided the remedy.
In our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee and seek thy blessing in His name. Amen.
I want you to think about those words tonight. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
I don't suppose there's anyone here that questions whether those words are true.
It's a statement from the Word of God.
And it's a logical statement too. If I draw near to something, if I approach something in relative terms, it approaches me.
It's the law of physics.
God says draw near. It's God saying it. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. But what I want you to understand tonight is that God.
Has not left.
The ball in your court, so to speak.
He has taken the initiative.
And he has drawn near 1St.
He made the first move.
Someone asked her.
A man about to tell the story of his salvation, and I don't remember the story very well, but.
He was telling how God saved him and someone said, oh, you didn't tell the rest of the story. Oh, he said, I forgot. I ran from God for 30 years, but he caught me.
God is far more interested.
In you tonight.
Than you could imagine his being, and far more interested in you tonight than you can imagine yourself ever being in him.
It may be that you're not very interested tonight.
But God is still interested in you.
God is not only interested in you. God is not a spectator. He's not just an observer. God is involved in every life.
Here tonight, not only involved in your life, but he knows every thought. He knows your feelings. He created them. He can analyze them like no psychologists on earth. He knows how you're put together. Every one of us is wired a little bit different.
But God understands all that. He knows just what we need.
Let's look back at the 1St chapter in the Bible.
And see how God introduces himself.
Genesis chapter one.
Verse one In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What else is there that encompasses all we know of creation? The simple statement is God did it.
All right, so everything you got to deal with, you got to deal with something that God created.
You have problems in life, you're in God's realm. You're in a in a situation that he is totally in control of.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Well.
Darkness is a something we're fairly familiar with.
Some people don't like it at all.
Matter of fact, most of us don't like it in large chunks. It's nice to have a darkened room for sleeping.
But we used to talk, we used to talk about Africa as being the dark continent. They weren't just talking about the the cut, the color of the races there. They were talking about the moral character of the continent. Christianity. The light of Christianity had not penetrated. We talked about the dark places on the earth.
And there's all kinds of them.
And there's dark hearts. Notice what it says here in darkness was upon the face of the deep. There was no light there.
But there was something else there.
Notice what else was there. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.
Was visible. No, the Spirit of God is not visible and there was no light beside.
But the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. Why? Well, we're not told exactly why, but it's significant that God himself would tell us this at all, because it's not exactly part of the creation process, and it's not something that if we were writing this account, we would might have bothered to record. But God wants us to know that at the very beginning. The Spirit.
Of God.
The spirit of life.
Hovered, moved over or upon.
This debt plan.
The first contact.
God.
Demonstrating an interest in this.
Planetary corpse, if you want to call it the disordered mess that's described as it says here, the earth was without form and void. There's nothing attractive about it. Darkness is upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters and I, I tried to visualize that I, I can't, I can't visualize something totally in dark in the dark. It says the earth is without form and void. And so we can't picture that very well either is.
A mess.
But over that mess.
Was the spirit of God and that we can visualize not picture in our minds, but we've seen a fog lie over a land.
This was not a fog, this was the Spirit of God.
I I perhaps.
I've thought of it in other terms.
As an artist looking at a blank canvas, or perhaps a mechanic looking at a wrecked car, seeing what could be done with it, thinking.
Planning.
Purposing something new.
And God had a plan. He had a purpose. And that plan and that purpose encompasses everyone here in this room tonight.
God has a purpose for you. He had a plan for you. God is not an idle spectator. He wasn't just. However, the Spirit was not hovering over the waters just out of the coincidence.
This expression of interest.
Expression of purpose.
And so we find God taking the initiative right from the beginning.
Now let's turn to some instances. We have a couple of instances we have in the New Testament.
Let's turn first to umm. Before we get into, let's just turn to the Gospel John chapter one.
And we have at the beginning described here different beginning in a sense, but.
We'll go back to that John one verse one. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
00:20:14
We'll go down to.
The seventh verse of the umm let's say the ninth verse that that was the true light the shines the light that every man that cometh into the world, he was in the world and the world was made by him.
And the world knew him not. We had the verse this morning. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That was God's idea. That was never man's idea. Even after the Lord Jesus tried to tell his disciples that he had come to die, they couldn't accept it.
But this was God's idea.
God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever.
That makes it personal. Believe it in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let's turn to John 3 now.
And we find the Lord Jesus.
Here visiting Nicodemus.
And I should say Nicodemus visiting the Lord Jesus. I want to just read part of this story, make it umm gospel John chapter 3 verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodel Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God.
Be with him.
So here's a man who knows something.
It's a religious man.
And apparently he had something to say to Lord Jesus. I suspect he was looking for some responses and I don't think he expected the response he got.
Is anyone here like that tonight? You said I've got questions. I've got doubts. I that I've I've I've heard about Jesus.
For a long time, but I'm just not sure, says Nicodemus. Came to Jesus by night.
He came on his initiative.
He came.
But there's some things he needed to learn, and he didn't know what he needed to learn. The Lord Jesus did.
Jesus answered and said to him, verily, verily, saying to thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Now interesting, Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus talking in generality. He said we know.
We know, we know.
And Jesus said.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus took it personally.
He shifted out of this we business and how often I run into this, this sort of thing. You talk to people, you give them the gospel and uh yeah, Jesus came into the world to save us.
It's hard to get people to think about it personally. We, we, we haven't. It's difficult for us to comprehend that God is interested in us individually, but He is.
Nicodemus said to him, How can a man? He answered the Lord Jesus on the same terms. How can a man be born again when he is old? It's no longer this we business.
Have you personally brought your questions to the Lord Jesus Christ?
God hasn't changed.
The Lord Jesus Christ has not changed. The Spirit of God has not changed, just as the Spirit of God hovered over those waters in the beginning.
God is still.
Interested. I like I I sometimes wonder if hovering is not the right word to use even on a congregation like this, because God is just as interested now as he was then and the Lord Jesus.
00:25:04
Hasn't changed. He's approachable. Nicodemus didn't throw up his hands and say, well, I didn't come to find out about that. He was listening and he answered the Lord Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old? He asked the question, he got the answer.
Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the King of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Are you born of the Spirit this evening?
Has there been a work of God in you?
Or is the picture in Genesis does that describe you, the Spirit of God over a dead body?
Which are you? Are you a living soul tonight, or are you dead to God?
Hey, let's look at John chapter 4.
We find the Lord Jesus meeting another person.
John chapter 4, verse one. When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples, He left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Cycar, near to the parcel ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the 6th hour.
You know, it's wonderful to consider the Lord Jesus. We think of the Lord Jesus who slept in the boat and then rose to calm the winds and the waves.
And we?
Forget why he might have slept, because he was weary. It says he was weary here. The Lord Jesus came down and felt what we feel. He suffered what we suffered.
Apart from sin.
And so Jesus.
It says verse six. Now Jacob as well was there in Jesus, and therefore being worried with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the 6th hour. Then cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.
Jesus said to her, Give me to drink, for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then said the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew, ask drink of me, which Emma won't know Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritan? Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me the drink.
That would have asked of him, and he would have given the.
Living Water.
She didn't realize who she was talking to. She saw this tired Jew sitting on the edge of a well, and she was surprised that he would even speak to her.
And Jesus said if you knew who it was.
That speaks to you. You'd ask. You'd ask for what?
You would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.
Do you know who's speaking to you tonight?
No, it's not some funny guy up on a platform.
I could leave this platform and God would still be speaking to you.
God's Word speaks to you, and He speaks to you through circumstances, and He speaks to you through your conscience. Every one of us has a conscience, and we carry God's ally wherever we go.
God speaks to us through our conscience, He speaks to us through creation, but primarily He speaks to us through His Word. And if we know, if we recognize who is speaking and who He is.
We turn around and ask, what have you asked from God recently?
I guarantee you.
So he can supply better than you ask.
He's able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we ask or think.
00:30:04
How often we had the experience where we asked for something from somebody and then later on say, well, I wish I'd, I wish I thought to ask a little bit better.
Whenever you ask from God, He gives better.
Then we ask, and he's because he's able to. Now, sometimes it doesn't look like it's better, but he knows what's better, and that's part of knowing Him and trusting the person. If you knew the gift of God, who was the gift of God? That's Jesus and who it is.
That says to you, give me the drink you would have asked of him.
I want to challenge you tonight. You haven't spoken to the Lord Jesus lately.
Speak to him, ask him. Tell him what you want, what you need.
You know.
None of us are capable of really great communication.
But the Bible says open rebuke is better than secret love. Core communication is better than none. God desires to hear from you.
And he desires for you to hear him tonight, Jesus said, if you knew who it was.
That said to you, give me the drink, you would have asked. Why is it we don't ask?
Because we're not paying attention to who he is and what he can do.
Now.
I'd like to look at.
Of some verses in Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14.
This is a letter to a church.
Letter Revelations, chapter 3, verse 14. And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans rite.
These things saith thee, Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot. So then, because they are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew the out of my mouth, because thou sayest I am rich, and increase with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched.
And miserable and poor, and blind and naked, I countily to buy of me gold.
Tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white, raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, And anoint thine eyes with thy Sabbath. Thou mayest see as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
The beginning our reading I quoted that verse draw nigh to God, draw near to God and he will draw near to you and some people think well that's.
That means go to church.
It's not what it means.
We're talking about a person to person relationship and it's not necessarily found or improved by attending a church.
The reason I read this epistle here is because this section of scripture here is because it's a description of a church where the Lord Jesus portrays himself as outside the church.
That's the picture we get here.
He's standing outside.
He says.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. He's on the outside.
But there's just a door between. He's that close. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
00:35:03
What is knocking for? Well, knocking does several things. It gets our attention.
It directs our attention as well. Someone hears a knock, you run toward where the knocking is coming from is usually right on. The knocking is usually on the door. So it not only gets our attention, it directs our attention to what the obstacle is. Is there something in your life that's standing between you and the Lord Jesus Christ and through your conscience? God has been knocking at the door. The Lord Jesus has been knocking at the door.
And you say I I don't know how to get out, get get rid of it.
You know, I I got good news for you. Most doors are on hinges. It's just a matter of opening the door.
If any man open the door, I will come in.
You say I, I, I've got this, this thing that's between me and my soul and God, I can't deal with it. Look down at verse 7. Interesting here.
Umm.
Revelation chapter 3, verse 7. The Angel of the church at Philadelphia write these things, saith, He that is holy, and he that is true, he that hath the key of David, He that opens, and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man opens. The Lord can handle doors too.
The issue really is, are you willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ? It's a matter of the heart. Are you willing to say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now you say, well, I, I received him as my savior. That's fine. What this section of scripture is actually written to is people who say I've who profess to receive the Lord Jesus as Savior but are not currently enjoying fellowship with him.
Because something has come between.
Did that describe you?
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. But remember, God is taking the initiative. He wants you.
What is your response?
If the Lord Jesus should say to you tonight, I stand at the door and knock.
It says here if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in.
What's your response? Are you willing to open the door to the Lord Jesus Christ tonight? Are you willing to deal with whatever stands between your soul and Him?
Now we skipped over as an interesting passage in John chapter 14, and look at that for just a minute.
John 14.
And uh, we'll start. This is familiar territory here. Very often read. We'll read the 1St.
Six or 7-8 verses of this chapter. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. And my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, you know and the way you know Thomas Beth and him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith in him. I am the way, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father.
But by me?
If you had known me, you should have known my father also, and from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
Philip says in him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you?
And yet hast thou not known me? Philip had been with the Lord Jesus for the better part of three years, constantly listening to him teach and preach, seeing him heal and raise the dead, and he didn't realize who he's dealing with. How well do you know the Lord Jesus?
Could the Lord Jesus say those words to you?
How long time have I been with you and you haven't known me? Been with Him, been in His presence, been in His company? How well do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet he's right there.
00:40:01
You know the the umm.
5th verse says here Thomas says to him, Lord we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said I am the way, I'm right here, I'm the way.
It's just like this woman at the well, she didn't realize with whom she was dealing.
You're not dealing.
With the gospel preacher tonight, you're not dealing with the brethren tonight.
We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, a person, the Son of God.
Who is near tonight?
Who has been near to you?
And how are you responding to him?
Let's look back now. We're gonna close shortly. Psalm 145, and I wanna read those verses again. Psalm 145, just a few verses.
18 Psalm 145, verse 18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him. In truth, the Lord is near you if Scripture says it. If it weren't true, it would not be here.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him.
To all that call upon him. In truth, that's a comfort. It means that the Lord is attentive. He's interested. He's involved in your life.
We have a similar thought in Philippians chapter 4.
Let's look at it for a moment, just to refresh our memories.
Verse five let your moderation or yielding this be known to all men. The Lord is at hand when Paul spoke to the to the.
In in Acts chapter 17 when he spoke to the man of Mars Hill, he brought out the same truth that God is near.
And yet you find this, you find this interesting, you find the heathen situation described in Ephesians chapter 2 That says they are far off without hope, and yet Paul comes and says God is near because Paul had come to them with the gospel.
God is near to you tonight.
Nearer than we can appreciate.
How do you respond to the one who says, Behold, I stand, I'm here, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will Sup with him and he with me. It's his idea, it's his desire, it's your opportunity.
What will you do with the nearby?
Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's close by singing hymn number.
Umm, 38.
I know not why God Wanderers grace.
Here I'm getting alone.
No, why? I murder Jesus as well. I am really straightforward by God's. I have a feeling that you have A and I am down to earth's way that you deny it. Let us hear you and let you hear the balloon.
00:45:05
In the world, I don't know if I get to work in front of you, and I don't know if I'm onto farewells. My God laughing.
A little over 50 years ago I was at a conference in Oak Park, IL.
And I heard that brother preach. I have a feeling it may have been brother Ernie Wakefield.
And I heard the gospel since I was a child, very young child. My parents were very faithful and giving me the gospel and I believed it.
I believe that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
I believed he was the savior. I believe he was everything and more than my parents said he was.
There's no question in my mind about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Except one, I said to my Father after that meeting. I know that Jesus died for sinners.
And I know I received him as my savior, but how do I know he's received me?
I wasn't sure.
That he had accepted me. I had accepted him, but I wasn't sure he'd accepted me.
I think I told this story here once before.
My father quoted a single verse to me that.
I've appreciated all my life.
Jesus said him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.
Have you come to him? It's that simple, just the way. Think of poor stumbling this poor stumbling disciples that spoke to him and got an answer, Nicodemus that came to him and got an answer.
They could come, he received them, he fed them, he met their needs, and he'll do the same for you.
Jesus said him that comes to me, I will in no wise castle, I will turn him away. Some of us have had the experience of of trying to get help from somebody at one time or another and got turned away. We got discouraged. And maybe you've been looking at people and saying I'm not sure I want to be a Christian because of the way some Christians has treated you.
That's not the issue. I haven't said anything about Christians saving anybody, but Jesus is the Savior.
Christ Jesus came. Think about it. He came in the world to save sinners. He didn't come in vain. He came fully prepared, fully equipped.
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Fully purpose and he has safe centers and he saved you tonight. Let's pray.
David A Type of Christ