Lawrenceville Conference: 2016
Table of Contents
Exodus 12:1-6
Justification
Address—Nick Simon
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If we could begin this afternoon by singing number six.
Jesus, how much thy name unfolds to every opened ear the pardon sinner's memory holds. And on other half. So dear Jesus, the one who knew no sin made sin to make us just. Thou gave thyself. I'll love to win, thou fool confiding trust. If someone could stop that, please.
We just pray.
Our God and Father, we do look to Thee as we open up Thy word. Just cry to Thee for Thy help. We pray that it would speak to each one of us in the room. We thank Thee that Thou did send Thy Son into this world, the just One who was made sin for us.
That we might, we may, just in Him, we just thank Thee and praise Thee for this opportunity. We just pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, Lord willing, this afternoon I would like to begin with a word of exhortation.
And then I'd like to speak on some doctrine. And then I would like to end, Lord willing.
With some comments as to the practical application of that doctrine in our lives. If we don't get that far, it won't matter.
00:05:06
But I'd like to begin in First Kings and the 21St chapter.
Just beginning at first verse one, and it came to pass after these things that neighbor off the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel.
Hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab spoken to Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs.
Because it is near unto my house, and I'll give thee for it a better vineyard than it, Or if it seemed good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.
A neighbor said Ahab. The Lord forbid at me that I should give the inheritance of my father's.
Unto thee in Israel land wasn't bought and sold like we buy and sell land. In fact, selling a piece of land was far more like a lease and land was not to move from one tribe to another. If you look at the end of Numbers, the last chapter and read it, the story of the daughters of Zelophehad.
It was a family that had only daughters and if they married.
Someone from another tribe in the inheritance, their inheritance would move from one tribe to another and so it was determined.
By word of Jehovah that they were to marry, but only from their own tribe.
And so in Israel, land which was really Jehovah's land, they were the caretakers of it was carefully preserved. No tribe could grow larger the land that was allotted to them.
Their land couldn't move to another tribe, so the land for each tribe was preserved. There are also laws about moving landmarks. You couldn't take your like on my property. You stand in front of my property on the front right hand side. It's just a city block, half acre. There's a post in the ground, a survey mark.
Theoretically, I could take that, move it over to my neighbor's yard and gain 1/2 a foot.
You weren't allowed to move landmarks either.
Land was valued. Naboth had a vineyard, and I pictured it as a vineyard with nice walls around it. It doesn't say explicitly, but I believe from the word of God we can conclude that it almost certainly had a nice wall around it. But it was hard up against the palace of Ahab, and Ahab coveted that piece of land.
And he went to Naboth and he said, I would like your vineyard.
And he said, I'll give you something better. You pick whatever vineyard in Israel you like, and that is yours. And if that doesn't work out for you, I'll pay for it to you in money. Ahab was being very fair. You know, there's laws in this country that says the government can't just seize your land without giving you a fair compensation of whether or not they do is besides the point. But Ahab was being fair about it.
Why then didn't they both say no No?
Is because he valued the inheritance that he had received.
And you and I have received an inheritance. We have a heritage. And there are those saying to you, there is a better place over here come. The music is more entertaining, the people are more friendly.
There are many reasons why.
You should give up your heritage.
Name us valued the inheritance he received from his fathers.
And based on the word of God, he would not relinquish it and give it up. It cost him his life.
Do you and I value the heritage that we have received?
To that degree.
Are you ready to accept a better offer elsewhere because it's more attractive to you?
Am I?
You know, it just struck me recently that there are many precious truths that you and I have been taught that we just simply take for granted.
And it is my intent to take up one of those truths.
And spend a little time on it. I trust I can do it justice. That's kind of a pun because I didn't intend it to be.
00:10:04
They just. You'll see why in a minute, but.
And and maybe some of you listening to the doctrine, we go, Oh well here we go again and your eyes will glaze over or whatever its doctrine.
I trust that won't be the case. I will admit I spoke on in Denver on this a week ago in a gospel meeting. It was an all day fellowship team. We have a.
Half an hour gospel meeting. Normally it's 45 minutes.
And I was pleasantly surprised that after the meeting a sister came up to me and I usually have notes to keep my mind in order.
I wish I didn't have to have that crutch.
But she asked me for the notes and I shrugged and said if you wish.
With every doctrine, there's an associated walk, and another thing that has occurred to me recently is these precious truths that we have.
That when you give up one, it affects the next, which affects the next, which affects the next, and so on.
So I would like to take some time.
And look at the subject of justification.
In fact, there isn't, I don't think there's hardly anything that I am going to say or reversing an attorney that hasn't actually already been covered in these meetings.
A lot of times we hear justification defined as well, at least the outcome of justification defined as just as if I had never sinned.
You know that falls woefully short of what justification is.
You see, the point is we have sinned, and worse than that, I'm not only a Sinner by practice, but also a Sinner by nature.
Justification stands in contrast to condemnation.
And we can read in Romans 8IN verse one.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, I said we take these truths for granted. If you've ever had an opportunity to speak to another believer and you suddenly discovered that while you're certain that they're saved, the conversation is not exactly going the way that you thought it would.
They're seeing things from a very different viewpoint than what you are.
And justification, which is one of the most fundamental truths that we have, is probably by a majority in Christendom, misunderstood.
Misunderstood.
And yet you and I take it for granted, and as I said, I would like, I trust with the Lord's help, and I I admit I take the subject up in great weakness.
But with the Lord's help, that we look at some of the practical implications.
From understanding, justification, Justification according to the Word of God.
So how can God say to me who is a Sinner?
And not only by practice, but also by nature. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, forgiveness addresses itself to the penalty of sin.
Justification addresses itself to the guilt. So what's the difference? So I could be a thief. All right, I stole something. And then I go and stand before a judge and he says, well, this is the first time you've ever stolen anything. You're a pardon. And I walk out that door. I walk out that door as a pardoned thief.
No one would say there goes a righteous man.
But as justified, God sees me as righteous.
In the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two sides to justification.
The negative side, I am cleared of every charge that has been brought against me. On the positive side, God used me in an entirely new position in Christ.
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Just as if I had never sinned. Takes me back to the God of Eden, Innocency. But we are not innocent. Adam and Eve do not know good and evil. We cannot say that we cannot go back to there. In fact, we would not want.
To go back there, you say, why would you say that? Well.
You know, as we get older.
And your little children, as you get older, your little children that understand what I'm saying, you get more privileges. You can stay up later at night, but with privilege becomes responsibility.
A marriage relationship has privileges that go with it, and as a young man.
You look forward to the marriage, relationship and meeting the woman of your dreams.
But once you're in that relationship, you suddenly discover that there's a responsibility associated with it. But would we want to go back to be the babe in our mother's arms again?
No, we wouldn't.
And so we don't really want to go back to Adam and Eve innocency and we cannot, we cannot. Ours is a far, far more blessed portion the privileges that we enjoy.
How far beyond those that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden.
The position that we have.
Well, let's let's talk a little bit.
Trying to collect my thoughts here to see where.
So we've briefly defined what justification in and that we said that it stood in opposite to condemnation. But let's look at that word justification for just a little bit.
Clarify a little more. The words just justice, justification clearly all relate to each other. The word right and righteous righteousness all clearly relate to each other. But what's lost on us in English is the fact that the two are very closely related and in the original language of the New Testament, Greek, the close relationship between righteousness.
And justification is very evident.
Quite Simply put, justification means to declare righteous to declare righteous. So let's look at some verses beginning in Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 verse 24 says being justified freely by.
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So justification is by grace, we cannot earn it. There's nothing we can do to earn justification. And then we turn down to verse 26 just says.
At the end of that verse that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, and then verse 28 goes along with it. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith.
Without the deeds of the law. But we're justified by faith, and we come into the good of it by faith. We are justified by grace. We cannot merit it.
It's a sovereign act of God on his part.
And we can add right now that He is just in doing so because of that work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and we come personally into the good of it through faith.
It said as we just read of him which believeth in Jesus.
So it's by grace received through faith. Then let's look at Romans chapter 5 and verse 9.
Much more than being now justified by his blood.
So the shed blood is the ground of it, it is by grace received through faith, and the blood is the ground of it. And then if we go back to the end of chapter 4 of Romans, it says who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. The resurrection is the assurance of it.
We're justified by grace received through faith. The blood is the ground of it, and the resurrection is the abiding proof of God's satisfaction in that work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That is the doctrine of justification.
I just read those verses from Scripture. They're clear, and I trust that they're clear to you. So then where does the confusion concerning justification lie?
Most of Christendom, I shouldn't say most because I really don't know the percentage, but certainly Reformed theology and anything that derives from it will teach you.
That Christ's death on the cross hardened me for sins that are past.
And it's the righteous life of Christ that has been.
Imputed to me that God can therefore justify me.
I don't really like to wander off into discussing doctrine which is false.
And perhaps some of you at this point are going This is too deep for me.
But bear with me. Please bear with me, because seriously.
What you and I?
We if you've grown up in the assembly, you've grown up in relative isolation, and I don't think you and I really value these simple truths that we have.
And you speak to someone, In fact, a younger brother was talking to me about where he works and.
Conversations he's had with other Christians there, and he immediately discovered that there's this.
You're not on the same page and justification the very thing that concerns our salvation.
Immediately there's a divergent in understanding.
You might say, ask the question, if these things are so evident from the word of God.
Why doesn't everyone believe them?
Why don't they believe what we believe?
You know, I think it's very important at this point to say that it's not a question of what we believe.
It's not our truth, and I am thankful that there are those in Christendom that are probably clear on justification.
These are not our truths. I read a book recently by about 2/3 of the way through it. Very interesting book.
It's written by a preacher in England.
Of a sizable church, I think of Baptist persuasion.
And probably half of the book is a defense of Mr. Dhabi.
And in particular, a defense.
Of his eschatology, in other words.
What he taught concerning the end times.
Now I object to the fact that it's called Mr. Darby's eschatology. It's not, it's not. It's the Word of God. And you know, much of not much a certain segment of evangelical Christianity took up with so-called Mr. Darby's eschatology concerning Israel and the church.
But they rejected his ecclesiology. That is to say, they rejected what he taught concerning the assembly. But that's another subject. But Christianity is not a smorgasbord of items where you get to pick Mr. Darby's eschatology and and this brothers that and someone else's that.
No, it's from. It's the word of God. And if it's not the word of God.
And we really don't want it. And we need to be careful about saying our truth or my truth or.
It's the Word of God. So back to my question. If these things are in the Word of God and they're so clear as those verses that I read concerning justification, why doesn't everyone believe them?
You have to go back to the Reformation and I liken it to a painting, a beautiful work of art.
And over the years, it gets covered in grime.
And dirt and the colors become faded and all become Browns and muted.
That's what centuries of theology have done to Christianity.
And a lot of times the material that's on the painting was added there deliberately to preserve the painting. Many of the paintings they're restoring today, they're removing material that was deliberately added to preserve that painting. But it's had exactly the opposite effect, much of what man has added to Christianity.
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I should say everything that man has added to Christianity has detracted from it.
And so if you've grown up in the Reformed Church and you've heard something over and over and over again.
The things of which we are speaking will seem foreign to you.
Now one thing I wanted to point out that.
You might ask the question.
Why do people interpret the scriptures differently? We are not called upon to interpret the scriptures. We are called upon to understand the scriptures. It's when we impose our interpretation on the scriptures that we run into danger.
Before I talk a little bit about.
The era.
Of and I want to be careful because.
It's not a question of being judgmental of others, but we can judge the things that we hear from the word of God.
And we need to judge the things we hear from the Word of God. And so I want to take up what I said about justification as much as Christendom understands it, and compare it with the Word of God to see whether it stands up.
But before we do that, we actually have to talk a little bit about salvation.
If we don't understand what salvation is.
Then again, all these things fall apart is salvation.
God.
Filling up those bits in us where we're deficient.
Is it?
Is salvation merely God fixing man? Let's look at John chapter 3.
In verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, verily, I send you, except a man be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And then in verse six, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. There is no reforming of the flesh. There is no reforming of what we are by nature. We have to be born anew.
And that word in you is literally from above.
But it has the sense of a new Oregon from the first. We talk about the top of the hour.
I think I'll use an expression correctly. It's a particularly American one.
But.
We have to be born and you, with a completely new source from above. That which is flesh is flesh.
In Romans 8.
Romans 8 and verse.
I know it's staring at me somewhere here.
It talks about not being able to please gods.
It's knowing that Christ being raised. Oh that would help if I was in the right chapter.
I could have sworn it was verse 8, but it wasn't.
OK, thank you. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You know, again, these scriptures that we've been reading, John three, what we have here, they seem so straightforward and they are straightforward. That's the point. They are straightforward. The centuries of theology have twisted these things. We're being born anew doesn't mean what you and I understand being born and you is.
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Or being born again, or being born above. But the flesh is flesh. You cannot get away from that.
We're not reformed. Reforming us does no good. The flesh is flesh.
In Two Corinthians chapter 5, this verse has been read at least twice. This meeting I think Second Corinthians chapter 5.
Verse 17, I'll read it from the new translation. So if anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Colossians, chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3 and verse 3YE are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. That which we are by nature is seen by God as being dead and we are seen as now having a new life in Christ. It's not a reforming of that which we were that has to be completely set aside. We are seen as dead in Christ. Galatians 2.
Galatians 220 I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me.
Again, I want you to understand that these are precious truths.
That are not widely understood.
Or at least not as widely understood as we would hope.
These are truths that you and I take for granted.
It's important to be clear on them, even if you cannot articulate them, and I'm not saying that I'm doing a very good job here.
I'm not saying you need to articulate them, but you need to understand some basic things. The flesh, what we are by nature, cannot be reformed. It's done with. It's seen as dead in Christ.
That we have a dead.
Crucified with Christ and we now have a new life in Christ, a new life which comes from a new source from above.
So with that, let's just examine three points.
Concerning what?
A large segment of Christianity understands.
By justification.
Again, let me just repeat what they believe. They believe that Christ died for the sins that have passed.
His righteous life has been imputed or put to our account.
And we can now stand. God can now justify us. He is righteous because we have been.
Clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Now what is?
Particularly sad is in Roman Catholicism. They have long believed that the merits of Christ and the merits of the Saints could be purchased.
You can pay literal dollars and cents.
And you can buy.
The merits of Christ, the merits of the Saints, to shorten your time.
Of suffering in purgatory.
Now Martin Luther, that was one of the that was the primary thing that he objected to when he nailed his 99 thesis to the church door. Was this so-called sale of indulgences?
And they may have said that.
We cannot buy the merits of Christ, but nevertheless they still believe that His merits have been put to my account.
Maybe by grace, but since when has righteousness been a commodity that we can buy and sell or trade?
What is equally?
More concerning.
Is that even if I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ?
It doesn't address what I am by nature. Even if I could be, it doesn't address what I am by nature.
00:35:01
And every religion of man.
Seeks to dress him up.
To make him acceptable to God, Islam.
That's what it seeks to do, but none of them get to the core of the problem, that which I am by nature.
Now it came out in the meetings already someone.
From a Reformed background, perhaps might say to you, Does the obedience of Christ mean nothing to you? Oh, it means everything to me.
But as a basis for justification, I can say yes, but only in connection with what we find in Philippians 2.
Where it says in verse 8, and this verse has already been read. I said that every verse that I'm going to give you this afternoon has already been read in these meetings. It says in verse eight of Philippians 2. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
Christ's obedience, His perfection in his walk.
Did not make him who he was, it manifested who he was. So if we we had that with the Lamb, the Lamb was kept for four days and a brother suggested this interpretation that it was in a time when that Lamb could be viewed to see whether it had any blemish in it.
The Lord walked this earth.
And.
There was time for man to view him and.
All that ever showed up was his perfection.
His perfection. All that was ever manifest was His perfection. Is that of interest to me? Yes, it's of interest to me. But if He never went to the cross, I am as lost today as I ever have been.
In first Peter.
Chapter 3.
First Peter, chapter 3.
And verse 18.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Unless the corn of wheat fall in the ground and diet abideth alone, it's only in the cross that we're brought.
To God only in the cross that we brought to God.
The doctrine of imputed righteousness is called goes a little further than what I've already described. Generally it is explained that it's Christ's obedience to the law that is transferred to us and therefore God can justify us. Let's look at a verse. We can easily dismiss that from the word of God, not because.
We don't believe it, but because the word of God says it. Galatians 2 and verse 21 Says I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And you might point out to me and say, but Nick, that's Speaking of my obedience to the law. We're talking about Christ's obedience to the law. And you'll say, and I will say in reply to that, no, that's not what this verse says. It says if righteousness come by the law, the principle of law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And we can go back in this chapter to verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. What could be more plain than that?
We cannot be justified by the works of the law. Whether it is Christ that keeps them or I that keeps them, We're not justified.
By the principle of law.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ now that expression will cause some.
Confusion. What does it mean by the faith of Jesus Christ? Many modern translations translate that as faith in Jesus Christ, and that really is the sense of it.
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If you want to get technical, it is something called the Objective Genitive and you can go to Wikipedia and look it up and it explains it.
But.
It's when the noun receives the action. It is faith that has Jesus Christ as its object. And if there is any confusion, it goes on to say even we who have believed in Jesus Christ. Many modern translations incidentally translated by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, which just confuses the issue. It's not a question of His faithfulness.
In this sense.
But our faith in that work, that's what justifies not by law. You see, the fundamental problem that people make is they see the law as being the full measure of God's glory.
The law was not the full measure of the glory of God. I will never be able to stand before a holy and righteous God in His Majesty on the ground of the law.
The law was given to a people chosen by God, separated to Himself, and the law was given to them in a relationship suited to that earthly people where God was very much behind a veil.
If the law is a full measure of the glory of God, then why does it permit divorce?
You see?
So many of these fundamental truths that you and I have received and justice take for granted and never really think too much about.
Our thoroughly confused and Christendom. I had an opportunity once of speaking to a bright young Christian.
Who came out of the Dutch? Who not came out? He was in the Dutch Reformed Church, and after about 20 minutes of talking, I realized that we were not talking the same language at all.
Everything Have you ever in art school? We were in The Art Room. The other.
Last night, praying I can remember when I was a child in Art Room at school. You know, it's fun to take all the colors and mix them together. What do you end up with?
Brown.
And you speak to someone that has been raised in this?
Background again, please understand young people, because I know you're very sensitive to being us, being judgmental. It's not my desire to judge individuals. This young man was a bright Christian.
And I will see him in glory, I have no doubt.
He had a desire to preach the gospel and to spread the gospel, and he went downtown and handed out gospel tracts. And he knew that salvation was through faith alone in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he did not understand justification.
So one more point.
Everything about the concept of imputed righteousness never addresses if I've already said of what I am.
By nature. And that's where I would like to move on to the practical side of things. You might say this has been way too technical and maybe your eyes are just already glazed over and you've tuned me out. And I don't blame you in one sense.
But the truth we hold effects our walk, it affects our lives. And I'll get to this in a minute, but many Christians in Christendom are living in the 7th chapter of Romans because they don't know they don't belong there.
They don't know, they don't belong there. That is not the normal Christian experience. It's an experience we have to pass through.
I grant you that, but it is not the normal Christian experience.
I just want to reemphasize again the only way that that old nature of mind can be addressed is if it is seen as completely done away with, unimproved, and that I now possess a new life in Christ.
And this, very much as I've already said, effects a walk our life.
Well, one thing.
One thing I just want to touch on.
As you might point to me to 2nd Corinthians 5 and the last verse of that chapter, the end of that verse is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And you might say to me, well right there it says I made the righteousness of God in Christ.
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But it is not in connection with His life. It is not in connection with His obedience to the Law. It is when He was made sin for us who knew no sin. When was He made sin for us who knew no sin? When did He bear the wrath?
Of our righteous and holy God on the cross.
You might also say, well, we go back to Romans 4 and the word imputed appears there.
Let me get there.
And indeed, the word does. In fact, it's translated, reckoned, countered, imputed. It's all the same word.
And it occurs a number of times in Romans 4. There's only two places in Scripture where the Greek word meaning to put to the account of is used, and one of them is in Philemon. Paul wrote a letter to a man by the name of Philemon who had a slave called Anesthemus.
Had run away and he had probably stolen. And Paul says, you know, Philemon, if he's taken anything, just put that to my account.
The other use of the word to put to the account is in Romans 5.
Where it says in verse 13.
For until the Lord should just be until law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed or put to the account when there is no law.
So there's only two things ever put to the account of Indiana Scripture in the New Testament. One was concerned money or goods, and it was, as I've already explained, in connection with Paul and a runaway slave. The other is sin.
Righteousness is never spoken of as being put to my account. In that sense, the word that appears in Romans 4 and translated counted, reckoned, imputed is also translated thought.
God sees us as righteous because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's inseparable from Him. A woman may be independently wealthy.
But a poor woman?
And this.
Analogy is probably a very bad one in the world in which we Live Today.
If she marries a rich man.
He is considered wealthy, but her wealth.
Is intimately connected with that of her husband. It says here in Romans 4 verse three. But what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted or imputed unto him for righteousness. Do we not read of anything being transferred to him? It said he believed God and it was counted him for righteousness.
It wasn't Abraham's faith. Oh, there's a man with faith, so therefore he is righteous.
Because that would mean that there is some good in man. But it was the fact that Abraham laid hold of God and his word.
That God could account him righteous. But I wanted to move on to the practical side of this. What is the practical side of this? Well, in Romans 6 we begin to get the practical side of it.
If we understand that what we are by nature is seen as crucified with Christ.
And that we now have a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. A life.
The same life that he possesses.
And that outstanding before God is in fact.
In the same place that he stands before God.
We find here in Romans 6 and verse three, know ye not there's so many of us were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death.
In baptism we are identified with Christ in his death. Baptism is burial, simple and straightforward. Baptism is buried. What do we bury? Do we bury the new life that we have? No, we buried that which we are by nature.
00:50:11
We don't bury living people, we bury dead people.
Now, it is true that we don't leave the person underwater.
And it's also true that when we go to a funeral of the Saint of God, it is anticipating its anticipation of the resurrection. Nevertheless, what we have buried is a dead person. So in baptism we have identified with the death of Christ. Therefore, in verse four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead.
On the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. This thought of being baptized, I mean being crucified with Christ and raised with him is one that we find elsewhere in Scripture. So the end of Ephesians, we won't go into it. We find there I will turn to don't, don't bother, but you'll find the same.
Thought that in the end beginning of end of the first chapter of Ephesians.
Paul prays that we might know the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, when He wrought, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from.
The dead. And when we get to the next chapter, we find that we were dead.
In trespasses and sins, but we are seen as quickened to get in verse 5 together with Christ.
We are seen as dead and raised again in newness of life.
But I mentioned Romans 7.
You know when we're saved.
Or hear the truth.
Of salvation, and the Lord begins that work in our hearts.
There is a period of struggle.
And for many, that struggle goes on for many years.
Even after they are truly saved and should know better.
And it's because we try to wrestle with that which we are by nature, the characteristics of which are called the old man.
Scripture speaks of the old man.
And it speaks of.
The new.
In connection with the Newman.
We can turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 24 says and that ye put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness.
And true holiness. Again, this whole idea of imputed righteousness, of Christ righteousness imputed to us, is a clear misunderstanding of the character of the new man. The new man is created in righteousness. And true holiness. Do we need? Does it need fixing?
No in first John third chapter.
It says concerning that new nature, verse nine of chapter three of first John, whosoever born of God doth not commit sins.
Or his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
Back to what I was saying earlier, we probably have all gone through this struggle in our lives and maybe still do struggle with it, of dealing with that which we are by nature.
And one of our first attempts to subdue that old nature is to put it under law.
But what we have to learn is that new nature is so incorrigible.
There is nothing that can subdue it. There is nothing that can reform it. It is to be done with altogether, as seen as dead in Christ. And I see how time is slipping by. I don't know if these two clocks are In Sync.
But in Romans 7 it says.
Verse 14 will begin. For we know that the Lord is spiritual, but I am carnal.
Sold under sin. That which I do, I allow not.
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For what I would that I do not, but what I hate that I do, that is what we are by nature.
The law can never subdue it.
There's no point in wrestling with it. That will come to no good. It is not until we reach the end of our souls.
Realize that we have to be done with that old nature altogether, and to see it in the place of death.
Do we have deliverance? We don't have time to go through these portions.
But in verse 18 he says, For I know that in me this is the lesson. This is the lesson we each have to learn. We each have to come to practically in our lives. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
When you see things on the computer screen that you should not be seeing, there is an attraction.
And when that attraction occurs, we should not be surprised because the old nature is attracted to those things, but we no longer have to live under the power of that new nature.
Sorry, we no longer have to live under the power of that old nature. We no longer have to live under the power of sin.
We have a new nature now that is created in holiness and righteousness.
We have a life now in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That we can live with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the natural desires that we have.
Our God-given. Our God-given.
If you and I did not have hunger.
We would die.
God has also given us.
Desires.
That he intended only to be fulfilled in the marriage relationship. Those desires are not sin.
They are not sin how we fulfill them.
Is where we can sin.
And those desires are very real, as hunger is very real.
So how do we deal with them?
A man asked me that recently, How do you deal with those desires? And you can say, I know that the the wrong response is coming from that old nature and I recognize that and I want to be done with that. But those desires are still there.
Well, our response to many of those desires are going to depend on what we feed upon.
Which of those natures of ours we're feeding?
In Rome and Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 says wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways?
By taking heed thereto. According to thy word, you know if you're hungry.
And you stand outside of the pastry store, staring at the pastries inside. What's going to happen? You're going to be drooling.
If you have desires which you know can lead you into sin, and you sit there staring at things that you know you should not be staring at, or stand before a door that you know you should not be standing before.
What are you going to do?
Proverbs, chapter one.
Verse 10 My son, if sin is enticed, thee consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us look privily for the innocent without cause, and so on. In verse 15, my son, walk not with them, in the way with them.
My Son is sinners. Entice the consent, thou not.
On the positive side, so we're to flee those things and we can look at Timothy. I just close with one verse, the end of Philippians.
Last chapter clippings verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely.
What sort of things of good report, if there be any virtue, there be any praise, think on these things. So I know I've covered a lot of material. I know too that what I've covered will be considered.
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Deep. I don't know what word you might use. I don't consider myself a deep person.
But I want you just to undertake away from this meeting the fact that there are very, very fundamental truths.
That you have been raised with, that you have accepted.
That much of Christendom does not know.
Value them. The thing what I took up was just one. Like a building. Like one stone in a building.
And these truths do have very fundamental effects in our life and our walk and the way we outlook on things.
I tried to bring that out a little bit too.
Encourage you to look into these things yourself, to realize what you've been given and to value it yourself. It's just closing prayer.
Exodus 12:7-10
Confession & Faith
Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening.
A few minutes ago we there were some brothers gathered in a room down here. Room 105 for, therefore, a prayer meeting for the gospel. Well, there's a couple brothers there waiting outside the door. I got there and the door was locked. We were too late. We couldn't get in. We were too late for the prayer meeting.
Thankfully, your brother saw us. He came open the door.
Allowed us to come in.
We have the Gospel Meeting here again tonight. You have heard the gospel many times.
But if the Lord were to come today?
And you were not saved. You would not have another chance. You could not knock on the door and have the door open to you. The door would not open. You would knock, and the Lord would say, I don't know who you are.
Let's sing hymn #9 come every soul by sin oppressed.
There's mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest.
By trusting in his word only. Trust him. Only trust him. Only trust him. Now let's sing #9.
Come every soul by sin.
We will say good evening, we'll save you, he will say.
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Let's pray our God and Father. We give thanks for that the gospel can go out once again. And we just think of anybody here who might not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. That there might be a conviction of soul. That they might listen to the word of God tonight. That they might receive the word of God and believe in their heart. That God hath raised him from the dead.
And that they might be saved tonight. We just asked for this blessing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
We start at the beginning, back with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam had no sin.
But then Adam was disobedient and he became a Sinner.
At this point.
Sin became a part of Adam's nature, and this in nature was passed down to all of Adam's children. And this sin nature of Adam has been passed down to your parents and down to you and me and to everybody else in this room. We all have that sinful nature of Adam, and we call this nature an Adamic nature.
Because it came from Adam and this nature is a part of you, a part of who you are, and it's been passed on to you through your parents. Just like you look similar to as you look like your parents, your mother, your father, you have received that that sin nature from your your parents and it's been passed down from Adam. You do sins.
Because you have the seed of sin in you.
And the same as an apple tree produces apples, you the Sinner produce sins. Let's go to Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and we'll read verse 12.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Just interesting that I went and checked through the whole Bible and if I'm not mistaken, it never says that a plant or an animal dies.
In the Bible, death is reserved for people.
For sinners, the soul that sins, it shall die. We read about animals that are slain, or they're killed or they're sacrificed, but we never read that they're put to death, Unless I'm mistaken, the Bible.
Reserves death for people. The wages of sin is death. Death is a punishment for sinners.
And an animal is not a Sinner. And so our verse here in verse 12, because of Adam's disobedience, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And so Cain was a murderer. Lamech was an adulterer. Job was self-righteous. Jacob was a schemer. Ananias and Sapphira they were liars.
We know Judas was a thief, and when the Lord Jesus came into his own country, he marveled at their unbelief. Unbelief may be the worst sin of all, because if you don't believe, there will be judgment, there will be hell, there will be death. And so all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then Rahab was in Harlot. I was a prostitute.
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She was a bad woman.
And her body became it was a temptation for many men.
And many wicked men had succumbed to the lure of gratification with this woman.
And they use this woman as a means to their selfish end.
Maybe you are not involved with a prostitute.
But maybe you are involved with your boyfriend or your girlfriend at a level that would dishonor God.
The time that you have intimate relations with a person.
Who is not your own husband?
Or your wife and you have lost something because they have gotten something from you which does not belong to them. Let's go to 1St Corinthians 6 and very clearly tells us.
That fornication is a sin, and it's a bad sin.
First Corinthians chapter 6, verse 15.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What Know ye not, that he which is joined to in harlot is 1 body? For two saith, he shall be 1 flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, But he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.
So these verses are pretty straightforward. If you have had sexual relations with another person before you get married, it will be difficult for you to give yourself completely to your husband or wife because part of you belongs to that other person because you too have become one body outside the bounds of marriage.
Well, maybe.
You say, well, I have never done such a thing, and maybe your sin is not as egregious or as or as as bad as rehabs sin, and maybe you are very careful how you live.
Yeah, maybe you've told a lie, or maybe you've disobeyed your mother once, and you may think that you're not bad enough for this gospel stuff.
Or this punishment in hell. You're not bad enough for that.
But that doesn't matter, because just the fact that you were born into this world means that you are a Sinner. Do you remember? You have the nature of Adam. You have that sinful nature in you, and just the fact that you have been born with that sinful nature qualifies for you, qualifies you for hell. It doesn't matter if you haven't told a lie or anything. You are a Sinner because you have the sinful nature, and so if you repent.
And you turn away from your sin and you trust the Lord. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is faithful, and He's just to forgive your sin. And there's no sin too little, There's no sin too dirty. There's no sin too bad that God cannot forgive if you repent in faith.
Well, Rahab was repentant, and I believe there was evidence of her repentance.
She turned from her wickedness and she went to help the people of God and she rescued 2 spies that had been sent to Jericho to spy out the land.
Rahab had become a woman of faith and when a person is saved, there are two requirements for salvation. One is belief and the other is repentance. They go together. Let's look in Acts chapter 20.
Acts, Chapter 20.
In verse 21, we'll see how repentance and faith go together.
Acts 20 verse 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Well, that is the crux of our message tonight. Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
There was a way of salvation.
For the people of Jericho, Rahab told The Good News of salvation. You come into my house, you will be saved, and by faith.
Her family came into that place of salvation. Now I want to talk about the Battle of Jericho. The children of Israel had just won a great victory at Jericho. Nothing like this had ever happened before. They had marched around the city once each day.
For six days. And then on the 7th day they marched around 7 times and after they marched around seven times the priests blew their trumpets and there might have been 2 million plus or minus people in the in the in the nation of Israel at that time. And they were marching around the walls. And after the priests blew the trumpets the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell down, they came tumbling down and it says they fell down flat.
Well, some days earlier there were two spies.
Who had come into the city of Jericho to spy out the land? And as we had said earlier, they came into the House of Rahab, and Rahab hid these two spies. Because the villagers of the city, the city people, they were coming looking for those spies and they were going to kill them. And so she hid them so they wouldn't be killed. And so the spies promised Rahab that if you put a red rope in your window, that she and everyone else who would be in the house with her.
Would be saved from the destruction of Jericho. Let's look at the story in Joshua Chapter 6.
Joshua Chapter 6.
And it reviews and it goes over what we have just spoken of.
Joshua Chapter 6 and we'll start at verse 20. We'll start with the people shouted.
When the priests blew with the trumpets, and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet.
And the people shouted with the great shout that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they took the city. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, an ox and sheep and *** with the edge of the sword.
Wow, this sounds rather brutal, but let it be a warning to you. God is no respecter of persons. They destroyed everyone who was in the city, men and women.
Young children, old people, everybody was put to death because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know boys and girls are sinners too. Maybe you've stolen something or you lied to your brother or sitter sister.
Maybe you have an argument with them. Maybe you cheat in a game because you don't like to lose. Maybe you're taking the best for yourself and you may think that you're not so bad. And yeah, you may be a good person, but if you do not believe in God, if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
You are lost in your sins.
And you are condemned already, and you are on your way to a lost eternity.
In hell. And if you do not believe on the Lord Jesus, the wrath of God's judgment abides on you even now.
It abides on you and you will be destroyed, just like all the people of Jericho.
You will be destroyed.
But wait, what about Rahab? Remember the promise that she had?
She was in that city that was just destroyed. She was still in the city.
Was she under all the rubble?
Her house was situated on top of the wall and we read it in the verses. The walls fell down flat. Where was Rahab?
Well, we're not told exactly what happened to her house. Perhaps one section of the wall was still standing with her house on top. But what we do know is that everyone in Rahab's house was safe.
She and her family who were in the house, they escaped the wrath of God.
Joshua told the spies go in and rescue Rahab.
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So let's look at verse 23. Joshua 623. And the young men that were the spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father, and her mother and her brethren and all that she had. And they brought all her out, all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel. And they burnt the city with fire. And all that was there in only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury.
Of the House of the Lord.
And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had.
And she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And so they rescued the household of Rahab. Judgment and destruction were all around her, but she was safe. It was a great day, a great day of blessing for Rahab and her family. Rahab was saved by faith.
She had that red cord in her window and she was confident that she would be rescued.
But we too have a red cord. You have a red cord available to you, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's look at Romans Chapter 3.
We had those verses today in Exodus chapter 12. When I see the blood, I will Passover you.
The believer does not need to fear the Angel of death.
And justice. Like the Israelis, we're covered by the blood over the door. The blood completely makes you safe and removes your sin and removes the judgment that abides on you. Romans 3, verse 25. Here we see that our salvation is sure and steadfast. There's no uncertainty that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved in Romans 325.
Says whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God.
Remission of sins is forgiveness.
And God is righteous to forgive sins because it is because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, was shed there at Calvary's Cross, and it is the blood that cleanses us.
From all our sins.
Well, we have spoken about the salvation of Rahab the bad woman.
She was saved by faith and even her sin was remitted, was taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ when the Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood. But notice in the story.
That she never did confess her sins.
She was saved by faith.
Let's go to Joshua 7.
And this brings us to our next story. It's about Akan and.
Some days after the great victory at Jericho, Israel was fighting another enemy at the city of AI, and the spies were sent out.
To see what they were up against.
And the spies went in and then they saw what they were up against. And they came back with the report. And the report came back that the city only had a few people and they were weak and there would be no problem for Israel to destroy this city. And so the spies said they should divide the people and just send in a few soldiers. Well, we're told that pride goes before destruction. And so Israel, they felt they were too good and too strong and they didn't need God's help. And this time.
So they they do. They split up and only 3000 men went into the battle. Well, we read the story, we know that Israel lost badly, and they turned tail and they ran.
36 men were killed and Israel was afraid. Joshua, he couldn't believe it. He was astounded that God would let him down like this and lose the battle. And so he gets down on his face.
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To the dirt. And he puts, and he puts the dust on his head, and he bows before the ark of the Lord.
And he prays. And here's Joshua's prayer in Joshua Chapter 7. Let's go to verse 6.
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord, until the eventide he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord.
God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over, Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites? To destroy us would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side. Jordan, O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environment around us, and cut off our name from the earth.
And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
We see that Joshua, in spite of the loss and the shame that would come on the people, Joshua was concerned about the dishonor to the name of the Lord. And Josh, the Lord says to Joshua get up. Israel has sinned and Joshua realizes that this, the battle that was lost, was the judgment of God because of the sin of Israel. And what is the sin? He wonders.
Was it the sin of Israel or was it the sin of one person? And let's go look at John at verse 10.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up.
Wherefore lies thou Thus upon thy face Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have taken even of the accursed thing, and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
This is a story about a can. Was it the sin of Israel or was it the sin of Akan? The sin of Akan affected the whole nation of Israel. And this is so true that when one person does, it can affect many others. You may think that you are not so influential that you could disturb so many others.
But people are watching you, and what you do will affect the actions of others, and the things that they do will affect you. And so back to Joshua and Akan.
By some means they had a system to choose the guilty person, and so at first the the tribe of Judah was chosen. They they had some sort of. I'm not sure how they did it, but they chose.
The tribe of Judah and next the family of the Tsar Heights was chosen. Then the man Zabdi was chosen and then his son Carmi. And last of all it was determined that Akan was the guilty man.
Let's look in verse 19, Joshua 17, seven verse 19. And here Joshua says to Akan he says, my son give.
Glory to the Lord God of Israel. Give glory to the God of Israel.
And make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me.
So Joshua says to Akan, give the glory to God and to confess your sins.
And so I ask you, is it possible for an unbeliever to give glory to God?
Yes, it is true because when a Sinner bows the knee and confesses to God, God is glorified. It does not matter whether a person is saved or not. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Verse 20 And here's Akin's He makes his confession. Verse 20 and a can't answer Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw this among the spoils, A goodly babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold, 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them.
00:30:09
And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
You might say that Akan suddenly had heightened awareness syndrome. He remembered in explicit detail the events of his sin.
Some of you, like Akan, will give an account of yourself at the Great White Throne and you at that time you will also have.
Heightened awareness and there will be no medical excuse. There will be no psychological excuse.
You won't have an excuse for sin in that day. You will not be able to say I was Born This Way. If you have rejected Jesus as your Lord, you and every other unbeliever will be forced to bow the knee to Jesus Christ and to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And you will do this.
To the glory of God the Father.
Well, God will receive all the glory.
As you and all the other unbelievers.
As all those sinners are bound, hand and foot, and cast into the lake of fire and into outer darkness, and there will be weeping and wailing, and the gnashing of teeth, and you will be angry at God, you will be full of hatred at God, and you will be ever forever quivering in your condemned conscience.
A conscience that will never let you forget for all eternity that you rejected Jesus.
As your Lord and savior.
But the eternal damnation of your soul is not the will.
Of a loving God. There is a way of escape through Jesus Christ.
Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father.
But by me you must come to Jesus Christ, to the Father, through Jesus Christ, Jesus loves you, he says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, and the Lord Jesus gave himself for you. So the message for you tonight is come, admit that you're a Sinner. Come to Jesus with your burden of sin yourself, righteous sin, your immoral sin. Come to Jesus. Jesus says, come, and I will give you rest.
You must come believing, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you will be saved.
And if when you are saved, you will receive.
A new life you'll receive, An eternal life that loves the Lord Jesus.
And you will receive a guarantee that you will enter into heaven, into the presence of the Lord.
In the Father's house, you will have a guarantee that you will never perish.
You know, it's a beautiful thing to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
As your savior, let's go to John Chapter 5.
John Chapter 5.
And verse 24.
And here in this verse we'll find the way of salvation.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me.
Has everlasting life.
And shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. This is a most beautiful thing. Here believe and receive eternal life.
I ask some people, how do you get saved? How can you get saved? And they often respond to me. Confess your sins.
Or keep the commandments.
And that sounds nice to confess your sins. But what happens if you forget one of your sins and you forget to confess that one sin? All your confession is worthless because it only takes the one sin for you to be lost.
You are going to a lost eternity. You are doomed to hell.
I hear others say, well, in order to get to heaven, you have to ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart.
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And you will be saved. Well, how is that going to work? That is a sure way to send your child to hell. Tell him to ask Jesus to come into your heart. It's not even biblical.
To ask Jesus to come into your heart. But I hear so many people saying that. And if you notice the verse that we just read, it says you must hear the word of God and believe on the Lord Jesus and you will receive eternal life. There's nothing here about confessing your sins. There's nothing here about keeping the commandments. There's nothing here about asking Jesus to come into your heart in order for you to get to heaven.
It's important that the confession of sins by an unbeliever does not bring forgiveness of sin. You can only be justified by faith. And This is why you must come to Jesus. You must come believing. Let's look in Acts chapter 10.
Acts, Chapter 10.
And verse 43.
Partway through the verse Acts 1043, all the prophets give witness.
That through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission.
Of sins.
There's nothing in this verse about confessing your sins. There's nothing in this verse about your ability to do good work. There's nothing in here about confession. Don't believe in your confession. Rahab did not confess her sin, but she had faith in God and she was saved.
Akan He had no faith, but we see that he confessed. He gave glory to God and he confessed his sins.
And he was immediately sentenced to death. Remember, we started out the meeting by understanding that death is a term of judgment for the Sinner. And Akan was immediately sentenced to death when he confessed. You are no different than a can. Your sin is that you believe not.
Your sentence is that you are condemned already.
And your judgment is?
The wrath of God abides on you.
You also.
Will have to come and and give glory to God and confess your sins. You will give an account of yourself to God, and then you will be summerly dispatched into the lake of fire.
The angels, they will bind you hand and foot, and they will cast you into an eternal damnation in the pit of Hell.
Joshua 7 verse 22.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran into the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent and the silver under it.
And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel. With him took Akan the son of Zira, and the silver, and the garment and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his ***** and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
And Joshua said.
Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones, and they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day.
It was a public display of Akan's greed and his lust, and of his selfishness and of his covetousness. A can despise the name of the Lord. And he stole a goodly babylonish garment, and he took 200 shekels of silver, and he took a wedge of gold.
The gold and the silver were supposed to be put into the treasury of the Lord.
So Akan stole the money.
From the Lord.
A can and all that he had were taken.
They were stoned to death.
And they were burned with fire and they were buried out of sight.
00:40:05
You'll notice that Akan's wife was not included in the destruction. Why do you think that?
Perhaps she did not agree with the actions of her husband and her children and she wanted no part of it.
Ladies.
Even though you are one body with your husband.
You are still an individual before God.
And you one day will stand before God and give an account of yourself.
And it's better to obey God rather than your husband if you are asked or expected to be a part of some sin against the Lord Jesus.
Such as cheating on your taxes. April 18th is coming up very soon, and that's the day of reckoning when we have to pay our taxes by that date.
Maybe you're not giving to the Lord Jesus what belongs to him.
A can and his children and even his children were destroyed.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord, we can destroy our children with the lust of riches, just like Akan did. The children were a part of the deception in this story.
And they were part of the covering up of the truth. And they had lust for riches in their heart, just like Atan did.
Well then they took a pile of put stones. They put a big pile of stones on top of a can's grave as a sign to the people of Israel so they would remember the wrath of God against sin. Verse 26.
So the Lord turned.
From the fierceness of his anger.
After sin.
Has been put away.
God can. If I can say it this way, he can relax.
He can rest.
And what does this mean for you?
God sent the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross to be punished for sin. And at that time, during the three hours of darkness, Jesus took the fierceness of the anger of God against himself. And he did this in order to have a basis by which to turn away his fierce anger that is building up against you.
Jesus loves you and he offers this gift of salvation.
He offers you salvation. He offers you a sinless life. He offers you a holy life.
He offers you eternal life.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved that verse John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever it's for everybody, it's for you, that land that we talked about in Exodus 12. They made sure the lamb the lamb was or they made sure that if the household was too little for the land.
The lamb was never too little for the household. That's a provision that the Lord gives. He gives us the satisfaction that God needs in order to cover our sin. And it can never be too little to cover your sin and my sin, Eternal life. It's a gift from God to you. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Won't you receive it tonight?
Won't you receive it tonight? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
In closing, I want to compare the end of rehab to the end of a can.
Rahab did not confess her sin, but she was saved by faith and she lived.
Akan confessed his sin and he died without faith.
Rahab was saved with life. Akan was destroyed.
With life, and God was glorified in both.
Which way will you give God glory tonight?
Will you give God the glory by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? By receiving the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?
00:45:10
Please don't walk out of the door tonight.
Don't turn your back on God and walk out that door. The Lord Jesus is here tonight. He's saying to you, come, come believing. There's that him that says come believing. It's not in here, so he won't sing it. But that's the importance for you to come in faith, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe we could sing #12.
Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Why don't you pray that prayer tonight? Sing this song as a prayer tonight, Lord Jesus, I come. I come just as I am.
00:50:50
I may have been locked out of that that room for the prayer meeting tonight.
The door was shut. Soon the door of heaven will be shut and you will not have a second chance to get in. But right now, you still have opportunity. You have opportunity tonight to accept the Lord as your savior. And if anybody here has questions or you you want to consider salvation, I'll be sitting over here for a while.
And I'd like to talk with you. Let's pray.
Checklist
Children—John Whitaker
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.
How's everybody doing this morning?
I think you said good.
Well, who has a song they would like to sing?
You like to sing #1?
Let's sing #1.
And after we sing that.
Are most of the Sunday school songs on the back?
Let's sing #1.
Almost persuaded now.
To me leave.
To receive things, not just all the strange.
Grocery and gone.
Who has another song they'd like to sing?
46.
Let's sing #46.
Glad T ID.
I am.
I have a question. Why did your mom or your dad or your grandpa or grandma, why did they bring you here? Why do you spokes?
Any idea?
You know, you just can't quite put it into words. Sorry. Learn about Jesus Christ. That's right. You know, there's a verse in Timothy, I think, and it says God would have all men and that could be boys and girls, men and women, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
If I asked your mom or your dad, I would have to guess that that's probably one of the biggest reasons why they brought you here. Now, some of you, most of you maybe.
Christ died for our sins. You're right.
That's right. And we're going to talk about that verse. In fact, before we get going, why don't we ask the Lord for His help? Because we're going to need some of it. I think quite a bit of it. Let's close our eyes, OK?
Our God and Father, thanks so much for this morning. We can be here together.
Thanks so much for each boy and girl and young man, young woman and the older ones too. And we're thankful for the story of salvation that we can tell here this morning about how Christ died for our sins. And we pray that if there's a boy or girl here who's just now starting to understand that they're a Sinner lost, need to be saved.
00:05:01
That they would accept the Lord Jesus and be saved. So we ask for help, and we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's sing another one.
Do you have one that is like a Sunday school song?
I don't know Psalm 100 unless I have a hymn book and it's not in this one you have another one.
Someone else?
You're like Jesus loves me.
That one is that's kind of a let's choose from this side here. Just point to one.
#41 Let's sing 41.
Around the throne of God in heaven.
And shining from the start of this by each one with a video.
Glory, glory, glory.
We acknowledge.
Most precious blood behold, and wine and Queens hanging. Glory, glory, glory.
Glory to glory.
Stand up. Hey, let's do this.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians.
3/15/15 Very good.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures First Corinthians 15 three. Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture 1St Corinthians 15 three.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three.
Rice died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. First Corinthians 15, three and four. Thank you. If you didn't know this first a minute ago, you probably do now, right? You've heard this very clearly.
Price tag drawer sins according to the scripture. He was buried in Rose again on the third day according to the scriptures. First Corinthians 15, three and four. Thank you.
Guys for our ten and a clear thank you. You want to say it?
Christ died for our sins, but according to the church reports verse 15 to 3:00.
Come on.
Don't be shy.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture First Corinthians.
1St Corinthians 15 Three.
I forgot Christ, I pray our sins according to the scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three. Thank you.
00:10:06
Maybe next time.
Christ died through our sins according to the scripture of Corinthians 15. Three. Thank you. I started according to the security.
Perth Grantham's fishing through.
Sins according to the Scriptures. And he wrote and he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three. Thank you.
Christian Russians according to the scriptures First Corinthians 15 Three Christ die forced Christ according to our sins according to scriptures.
Were scrappy and.
15/3.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
1St Corinthians 15 Three.
Christ died according to the Scriptures.
Oh, I said first, since according to the switches, First Corinthians.
Price that we are sinned according to the scriptures.
1St Corinthians 15 three How about this second row?
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15, verse 3.
Would anybody else like to say it that we missed?
You'd like to say it. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three I thank you. I was going to call on an adult and you volunteered. Thank you.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. First Corinthians 15 three.
Price Price died persons according to the scriptures.
15 three Thank you. Anybody else?
Way back there.
I didn't see your hand, sorry.
I can't see it.
Doesn't get any cuter than that.
I start license contour.
Scriptures first contain interesting things.
All right.
So let me reattach this thing.
Did you know that when God made Adam and Eve, he put them in the most beautiful place in the universe? If you could take a telescope and you could look out and you could see as far as you could possibly imagine.
I tend to think that you would find that the most beautiful place in the whole universe is right here on planet Earth, and in planet Earth, they're on it.
There was this place called the Garden of Eden. It was so beautiful. They had everything until sin came in and then you know something, Every baby that has ever been born.
On this earth has been born into the most dangerous place.
In the whole universe.
Did You Know?
That you are going to die.
We're all born with a death sentence. That sounds like pretty heavy stuff for a little kid, but you know something?
The Bible says.
Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. All of us are going to die if the Lord Jesus doesn't come and take us home first. But if you don't know Him as your Savior, that doesn't apply to you yet.
00:15:03
You know something when I was a little kid.
Well, I was probably 10 or 11. I could read. I remember that. My grandpa, none of you know him, but maybe some of the older ones remember him. Grandpa Whitaker, he.
Love to preach the gospel and he had bumper stickers all over his car.
And as wonderful and as kind an old man as he was, he was probably the world's worst driver. And us grandkids, we learned that the safest place was way, way well behind Grandpa's car. We did not ever ride with him. We were scared. And we remember, or I remember that on.
Most people put bumper stickers on the back of their car, but my grandpa on the very front, front and center was a bumper sticker that said prepare to meet thy God.
And on the back there was this verse that you all told me Christ died for our sins. And as grandkids we wanted to maybe, just maybe, we wondered how many people that was the 1St and the last thing they ever saw.
So, well, Grandpa might have more people in heaven than than even he knew about, but anyway.
I want to talk to you about checklist. Does anybody know what a checklist is?
Yeah, and there's a bunch of things that you have to do, and you check them off so that we don't forget. You know, when I go to the grocery store, my wife often gives me a grocery list.
Because.
I forget if I can remember three or four things, but she always gives me a list and if I try to remember 4 things, usually I come home with three. Well in my job.
I fly airplanes. That's what I do when I go to work. I fly airplanes. And if you've ever climbed up into the front of an airplane, you've noticed that there's all sorts of buttons and switches and levers and handles and stuff. And when you first look at it, you say how in the world?
Do you ever remember which one to push and when to push it and when not to push it? And so everything that I do when I go to work, I sit down and I put on my seat belt and I reach down and I pull up this little page. It's 8 1/2 by 11 and it has maybe 100 things on it. And there's maybe a dozen or so little checklists that we do depending on where we are on the flight.
And they're very, very important things on that checklist.
So where if I forget one I might get hurt and so.
Let's see.
Almost two years ago, it was May 31St, 2014. There's a town that I go to often. We play there often. It's up just outside of Boston and it's called Bedford, Bedford, MA. And there was an airplane there that was, it's called a Gulfstream 4. It's a large business jet and it holds about 2025 people, something like that.
And.
There was a man named Louis Katz. Lewis Katz was 72 years old. He was very wealthy. He had all sorts of money. And he had just signed an agreement four days earlier. And he was going, he was going to bring the Philadelphia Inquirer. It's a newspaper. He was going to bring it out of it wasn't bankrupt, but it wasn't doing too well. And he had these great plans and he was so happy. And they were up there signing the deal and.
Celebrating and they were going to go from Bedford, MA down to Atlantic City, NJ.
And they had flying that airplane, they had two men and they were very experienced pilots. The guy who was flying, I don't know his name, he was 44 years old. And the newspaper said that he has 11,250 hours of flight time. You know how many hours there are in a year if you multiply 24 * 365.
It's about 8500 hours somewhere around there. This guy had 11,000 hours, so he'd been up in the air.
An entire year plus some.
The other guy.
He was in his 60s and he had 18,000 hours. He'd spent two years up in the air. That's a long time to sit up in the air, isn't it? So anyways.
What often happens is you get the airplane ready and then you wait for your passengers. But sometimes the passengers show up early and you get in a hurry and it's all you can do not to skip things on your checklist.
00:20:12
Well, these two guys.
The passenger showed up. It was a little bit late at night. They had flown together many times, very experienced. They knew each other frontwards and backwards. They kind of knew what to expect, but they probably hurried a little. They jumped in their plane, they fired up the engines and they taxied out to runway 11.
They got out on the runway, they shoved the throttles up and off they went, but not as quickly as they might have hoped.
And they?
Took off and next thing you know, we read about it in the paper and then the next day, actually, I flew right over the record. They went off the end of the runway, they crashed, there's a big ball of fire and all seven people on board died.
Several weeks later, months later, the NTSB, they went and did an investigation to see why did this happen, Why did this happen?
And they discovered that in 175 of the previous flights those two men had done together, 98% of the time they skipped things on their checklist.
Airplanes of that size have a little cockpit voice recorder in them, and there's a recording of the last 30 minutes of the conversation that went on in the cockpit.
And the last thing that they heard on that cockpit voice recorder was one of the pilots saying the lock is on, the lock is on.
I can't stop it.
From the moment that you shove up the throttles when you hit about 80 knots.
Things are moving pretty quickly. Usually in your car you travel about 65 miles an hour.
So you're going a little bit faster than that. Things are starting to whiz by, but in like 5 seconds more you're doing 100 and 3140 and it accelerates right on up to two hundred 250 really quickly. You don't have very much time at all, and you've got to make sure everything that was supposed to be done was already done and you have to use a checklist. These guys cut corners. On that particular airplane. There's a thing called a guest lock and a gust lock.
Is something that you put on when it's parked and that keeps the wind from banging the controls around their hydraulic controls. And when you don't have power to the plane, the controls can flop around in the wind. Well, that damages them, so they put on the gust.
Gulfstream had made this design so that you weren't able to shove the throttle throttles all the way up to take off power with the gust lock on. Except for the fact that the FAA, when they tested it, just went off the drawings. They didn't actually test it. It just so happens that you actually could shove the throttles all the way up to take off power and you could accelerate very quickly.
The bad thing is, is that the controls were locked. They could not step on the rudders and make the rudder.
Go left or right and they couldn't pull up on the elevator and make the nose come up off the ground. Their ailerons were locked. They couldn't turn left or right, so they were flying.
A missile basically without any ability to control it. They crashed and they died. Now I want to read you a verse.
In Psalms 90.
And verse 10.
Psalm 90 and verse 10, the days of our years.
Our three score years and 10A score is 20. So if you do the math, what's 3 scores? 60 + 1070 years. So that's how many years we have to live.
And if by reason of strength they be 4 score years, that'd be 80 years. Yet is there strength, labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away.
You know, I've been to the cemetery and I'm sure you have too. There's little graves and there's big graves.
Death doesn't seem to care how old you are when it comes calling.
You don't know how much time you have.
And you are going according to this verse, fly away.
00:25:04
Where are you going to go when you fly away?
You're gonna go to heaven. That's wonderful. You know this verse says Christ died for our sins. So before your flight.
You don't know when your flight is going to be.
It might be today, it might be tomorrow, it might be 70 years from now. According to this verse, we don't know, but I want to give you a checklist, a preflight checklist that you need to check and you need to make sure that you've checked every item on this list. In fact, I'll make it very simple for you. I'm only going to put one item on your checklist.
And you can put a little box at the end of this and you see whether or not only, you know, maybe whether or not you've checked it.
Before you take off and fly away, has Christ died for your sins?
If the answer is yes, then you're cleared for takeoff.
The flight is very short. You know that story about Lazarus? When he died, it said the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom, the rich man.
He found himself in a place of torment.
No second chances for him.
It's a very short flight, but it's a very, very long time. You're going to stay. When you get to your destination at the other end of that short flight, where will it be? Will it be with the Lord Jesus?
If Christ died for your sins, then you will go to be with Him.
If Christ did not die for your sins.
Then you are going to go to a place.
Where you will have to suffer for your sins. God does not want that. God wants you.
To be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Does anybody have another song they'd like to sing?
#45.
Two little lies too. Love to God.
Numbers, sorry, number six.
Let's sing the first verse and the last verse of #6.
God in mercy sent his Son.
By Lord worship and making the sky.
00:30:28
Let me just say one more thing before we close.
In aviation, there's a little saying, and the saying goes like this. Complacency kills.
These two pilots, they were very, very experienced, but they got complacent. You know what that means?
They got to thinking, oh, we've done this so many times, we've heard this so many times. We're pretty good at this and we're kind of in a rhythm. We don't really exactly need to hit everything on the checklist. We'll be good. It didn't happen last time, so why could it happen this time?
And so you know.
That's true. You maybe have heard this gospel story many, many times. Or maybe you're just understanding it now for the first time.
Don't get complacent. This is very real. Time is running out, you do not know how long you have left until your flight. Do not get complacent if you have not checked that box that said Price died for my sins. You need to be in a hurry to make sure that you check that box.
You really need to be sure whether or not Christ has died for your sins, has he? Let's pray.
Knowing God in His Glory
How we can Refresh the Lord's Heart
The Lord's Provision in a Time of Famine
Exodus 12:11-51
Peace, and at Such a Time.
Gospel—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Like to start the gospel meeting this evening with hymn #19 on the gospel hymn sheet. Oh Christ in thee my soul hath bound and found in thee alone the peace, the joy I sought so long the bliss till now unknown Hymn #19. If someone could please start it.
Let's ask God's help and blessing our blessed God and Father how thankful we are for our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're so very thankful for everyone in this room who has come to know that Blessed One as their Savior, had their souls satisfied and come to know that one too.
As the great provider all along the path of faith and service, we rejoice too, as we think of all that is ahead in that future day of glory, when we will be with and like that blessed one for all eternity. But now our hearts are burdened as a gospel meeting has been announced once again. And our God and Father, We pray that as we open Thy Word and seek to present the gospel, that it might be clear and simple that Christ might be presented in all His loveliness and beauty as the Savior of sinners.
00:05:15
And we cry to Thee that there would be a work of Thy grace in the power of the Spirit, that would open the eyes of the spiritually blind, and that would draw souls to that one. So we ask Thy help and blessing. We think of Thy word going forth around this planet today, many special efforts to reach the lost, and by many means our God. We pray that there might be much fruit, but particularly we look for blessing here, and we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Like to begin by reading 2 portions of the word of God.
The first one is in the book of Ezra.
Ezra, Chapter 7.
Ezra Chapter 7 and I want to read just an expression at the end of verse 12.
Perfect peace.
And at such a time and then in Luke's gospel.
Chapter 2.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 2.
And verse 13 And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest.
And on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. I read these verses at the beginning of the Gospel meeting, because as we present the Gospel as simply as we can tonight, I'd like, in keeping with that which has been before us in these meetings, to speak a little bit on the subject of peace. And here we read in the book of Ezra, perfect peace, and at such a time.
I'm taking a little bit of liberty with this expression. I'm taking it a little bit out of its context to apply it to the day in which we live. Because, you know, there is, this is a day of world turmoil. This is a day when men's hearts, it says in scripture, are failing them for fear and looking for those things that are coming on the earth. And those of us who travel the world realize that it doesn't matter whether you're in North America.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the Caribbean. It doesn't matter whether you're in South America. It doesn't matter whether you're in Egypt. It doesn't matter where you are in this world. There is fear in the hearts of men, and I have sometimes watched as I rub shoulders with the upper echelon of the political and economic world in the airports, which I find myself from week to week.
I have learned to look into people's faces and to see the fear and the distrust that you find in the faces of people in high places. Because they realize, while they may not verbalize it, they realize that they are dealing today with an interplay of economic, political and social forces that are beyond their control. They realize the elastic is being stretched further and further.
And it's not if the elastic is going to snap. But when it's going to snap, people realize that this world cannot go on in the way it has gone on for all these centuries. Men's hearts are failing them for fear. But isn't it wonderful that tonight we can open the word of God and we can offer a message from this blessed living book? A message of peace and a message of hope? No peace and hope in this world.
Apart from what this book has to tell us concerning the person and work of God's beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, some of us often have sung A hymn where there's a little refrain goes, he's our peace, He's our peace. Because tonight it's a person that we have to present to you and we're going to speak of that person a little bit. But here we have perfect peace, and at such a time.
You say, can you talk about peace at such a time as this, when this world is in its frightful condition, when this world is really winding down for the judgment of God and things are becoming worse and worse? Why, even here in the United States of America, the political turmoil that we hear about every day has men really shaking their heads and wondering where it's all going to end, but perfect peace?
00:10:28
And at such a time, but before we go on to some further scriptures, we read in Luke's Gospel chapter 2.
Because I want to tell you about a piece that we cannot have this side of the return.
Of the Lord Jesus to planet Earth. There will never be peace on earth.
In an outward way, until the Lord Jesus comes back to reign in righteousness. All the angels announced it here, Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. But you know, they rejected this world, rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord said later on, think ye that I have come to bring peace on the earth, I tell you nay, what does that mean? What did he mean? He didn't mean that he was happy with.
Division and confusion that had come in, but it means that he realized.
That his coming into this world had indeed caused division because there were those who received him.
And there were those who rejected him. And so there really can be no peace in spite of the angels announcement. There will be no peace until the Lord Jesus comes back until as it says at the end of the Old Testament, the son of righteousness rises with healing in his wings until the Prince of peace comes back to reign. It says in that day a king shall reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment. Oh what a wonderful day it's going to be.
For the for this world, but I'm going to read you. I just jot it down. Some statistics I thought were rather striking in regard to this subject. Before I read these statistics, just mention that some time ago my wife and I were visiting in Belgium and we had opportunity to go to a museum on the French Belgium border near the city of Eepers in the heart of Flanders fields.
And to visit a museum called Deadlines, and it is a very, very sober look.
At both of the great World Wars, World War I and World War 2. But what was most striking about our visit was that as you were about to leave the museum, there was a monitor. And on that monitor is a continual scroll of wars and their dates, starting with the First World War and going up until the present time.
Some of those wars you and I have never heard about. They're little skirmishes, little civil wars and skirmishes in Africa and different places, but war nevertheless. And I stood and watched as those dates scroll by, and there was hardly a year since the First World War that there hasn't been some conflict somewhere smaller. Great.
Here in this world.
All men are looking for peace in this world, but I say they will never have peace, outward peace in that way until the Lord Jesus comes. Subsequent to that visit, I jotted down some statistics I found that I thought were rather interesting.
These statistics are put out by the Society of International Law in London, England.
And here's just a summary of some of those statistics.
It is estimated that in the last 4000 years there have been only 286 years of peace.
In the last 300 years, there have been almost 300 wars in Europe.
In recorded history, 8% of the time there has been peace. I'm not saying these statistics are completely accurate, but I thought they were interested.
There have been over 8000 peace treaties made in the last 300 years made and broken. Isn't that interesting? You think there's going to be peace on earth until the Prince of Peace comes back? I say not a chance.
00:15:13
And yet we go back to the verse we began with peace and at such a time and you say, how can it be? How can we read a verse peace and at such a time?
Well, I want to go on, and I want to look at some other scriptures that bring before us that we can have an inner peace, that we can have a peace, a peace that this world never can understand, a peace that the man of this world, who knows not Christ, will never know, experience or understand. Let's go first of all to the book of Job.
Job, Chapter 22.
Job, Chapter 22.
And verse 21.
Acquaint now thyself with him and be.
At peace. I read this because we want to stress, as was stressed last night and as is always stressed, when the gospel is presented faithfully, And that is this, that the gospel has to do with a person. If there's going to be an inward peace in the soul, it is in connection with a relationship with a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, men are searching for peace everywhere.
But they're looking in the wrong places. They're looking for it in culture and technology and science and the betterment of this world and a better environment and and bringing people together and sitting them down at a table and being an arbitrator or a mediator and signing, as we've said, treaties and all this kind of thing and the UN and NATO and all these kinds of things. Is it working? No, it's not working.
Don't misunderstand me. I'm thankful for the measure of stability we enjoy here in North America. I'm thankful that tonight we can have a gospel meeting. We've had Bible meetings without having to bar the doors or do it in secret. We've been able to sing with all our hearts without fear of the police coming in and shooting us. They're arresting us. I'm thankful for the measure of peace that we enjoy in a land like this and in Canada, where I come from.
But again, tonight, we're not preaching reformation or sociology. We're not even preaching theology. We're preaching Christ because it's Christ. And Christ crucified the Apostle Paul when he went to the to Corinth. They were an intelligent people.
They were the upper echelon of society, so to speak. What did he do? Try to bring some new doctrine? Try to present things in a fanciful way? No, he didn't use enticing words. He presented the simple gospel to them, that he died, he was buried, and that he rose again the 3rd day according to the scripture. And oh, here we read a point. Now thyself with him and be at peace. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? Have you acquainted yourself with him?
How thankful we are for friends and acquaintances that we can go to for help. Sometimes in a difficult situation we can go and we say, I know that person well enough. I've been acquainted with them, they know me and we don't mind going to a person like that. But oh tonight, if you want to obtain peace in your soul, there is only one person who can give you peace. There is only one way that you can have peace and rest of soul.
And that's by coming to know this person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Tell you a little story, perhaps I've recounted before, but took place many years ago on the East Coast of the United States. There was a farm along the coast, and it was a farm that was somewhat exposed to the elements and the storms that blew in from the Atlantic. And the farmer who had this farm found it very difficult to keep good health because when the storms raged, often there was loss of livestock.
00:20:04
Loss of property and damage and so on. And there were very few farmhands that wanted to deal with that kind of thing. And so one day the farmer interviewed a number of men.
For the job of hired hand.
And everyone he interviewed seemed unsatisfactory and he dismissed them. And then there came in a man he was slight of build, didn't really look that robust, but.
Sat down in the presence of the farmer and the farmer began to ask him questions. And then the farmer asked what he always asked a potential employee. He said. What would you do if a storm struck the coast here and was going to affect the farm?
Oh, he said. Sir, I can always sleep when the wind blows.
The farmer thought that was a rather unusual answer.
Because most people he interviewed had some great explanation about what they would do and how they would tie things down and get the animals in and so on. But this man simply said, oh Sir, I can always sleep when the wind blows. Well, as the story goes, the farmer wasn't completely satisfied with this man, but he was desperate to get a hard hand right away, and so he hired the man, and the man proved himself very well.
He was very adept at taking care of the animals and the crops and so on, and the farmer was quite satisfied until one night the farmer woke up and he could hear outside that farmhouse, A fierce storm raging. He immediately jumped out of bed and got dressed and ran outside, ran to the bunkhouse where the hired hand slept. Into his horror he found he had his face turned to the wall and he was sound asleep.
And this farmer was irate. He shook the hired hand. He said, What's the problem? There's a there's a storm raging. The farmer sleepily looked out of one eye and said, Sir, I told you, I can sleep while the wind grows. The farmer was incensed, but there was no time to lose. He raced out of that bunkhouse. He raced around the farm, only to find that the haystacks had been secured. The animals were all in their barns and coops.
Everything was tied down. Nothing was being affected by the wind and the rain that was lashing at that by that time. And all of a sudden the farmer realized what his hired hand meant when he said I can always sleep while the wind blows. You see the farmer, the farm hand, anticipating what was going to happen That night before he went to bed, he secured everything. He made preparation for the storm that he knew was going to hit the East Coast of the United States.
That night and he could go to bed in perfect confidence and sleep while the wind blows. There's a storm of judgment brewing over this world. There's a storm of judgment going to fall just as sure as the destroyer went through Egypt on the night that the first born was slain. So just assure God has appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.
And the Lord Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this world. As sure as we're sitting here tonight, judgment is pending. It's coming.
Are you ready? Can you like that farm hand? Say I'm ready. I've made preparation. We read that statement so often. Prepare to meet thy God.
How solemn to reject or neglect the gospel. Message a point. Now thyself with him, with the Lord Jesus Christ, and be at peace. Let's go to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Any of us who've traveled to other parts of the world where something other than Christianity is the main practice of the day, we'll realize that most people in this world today.
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If they have any conscience about God, or a God, if they have any thought of trying to better themselves for the next life.
They will spend their whole lives trying to make peace with their God or gods.
And it is a very, very sad thing. I have heard people wail out their hearts at the hour of prayer. I will. I have seen people almost starving to death and neglecting to provide for their families the necessities of life because they're giving their money and their food.
In sacrifice to their gods, trying their whole lives to appease their God. And there are people who will at great expense take pilgrimages.
To various corners of the world, to different shrines, people who will abuse and neglect their bodies, thinking it is going.
To provide them something better in the next life, I remember one time in the mountains of southern France, we visited a monastery and there in the room where the monks slept several 100 years ago, they had a little rectangular place for each monk, and they slept on a hard stone floor with nothing between them and the floor. Why did they do that? They thought it was going to.
Obtain something better in the next life.
But thank God we don't have to make peace with God. You know, people say, have you made your peace with God? If I had to make peace with God, I couldn't. If I had all eternity to do it, I couldn't. But thankfully I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You see again, it's a person. It's the person of the of the Lord Jesus.
God's son who went to Calvary's cross, who stood in the brink, who stood in the gap.
Who took my place there on Calvary's cross? Who bore my sins in his own body on the tree? Can you say that? Can you say that Jesus died for you? You know I love to stand here and say the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, oh, what a thrill that gives to our souls tonight to know that the Lord Jesus gave himself at Calvary's cross and now I'm justified as we had this afternoon.
I'm more than just a forgiven Sinner. I've seen before God and all the perfection and righteousness of Christ.
So that I am perfectly comfortable and will be perfectly comfortable in the presence of the Lord Jesus and the Father's house for all eternity. Oh, I'm a forgiving Sinner, thank God. But I'm far, far more than a forgiven Sinner. I'm justified. I'm seen in all the righteousness of Christ.
I know it's perhaps a feeble illustration, but I have enjoyed it.
For as far as the illustration will go in connection.
With the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. Because you remember in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, there were boards that went to make up that building where God dwelt among his people in the wilderness. And I suggest that those boards individually represent to us individual believers and their standing before God. First of all, we find that they stood in two sockets of silver.
Silver in Scripture always speaks of redemption, and I'm thankful that I'm redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world. But there was something else about those boards. They were covered completely with pure gold. It speaks of divine righteousness. And as the eye of God rested on those boards, what did God see? Not that rough, rough cut lumber underneath. He saw that which spoke of Christ, because I'm seen in Christ.
As a result of the work of Calvary, and by the grace of God, having availed myself of the finished work of Calvary, I'm seeing justified before God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace. Let me repeat a little illustration that I've sometimes used in this regard.
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Brother Nick won't mind since he was the one that brought before us the subject of justification this afternoon.
But let's suppose for the sake of illustration, that I go to Nick's neighborhood. I go to his house one night and I break in and I steal some of his valuables. And I don't get very far. And the police catch up with me and they bring me down to the police station and they call Nick and they say, Nick, we've caught your thief and he has the goods on him. Come on down and press charges and collect your your goods.
And so Nick ends up at the police station, and as he's approaching the counter, he looks over and he sees me sitting handcuffed on a bench, and he realizes who it is. And he comes over and he sits down beside me and he says, now, Jim, what you did was wrong, but I know you and I know you're sorry and I'm going to forgive you. And I'm not going to press charges. And not only that, but come on over on Friday night and have dinner.
With Amy and I and let's just go on like nothing's happened.
Would I ever be comfortable again in Nick's presence? He might say he forgives me, but my grandmother used to say I forgive and forget, but I always remember.
I would always feel in Nick's presence like a forgiven thief. I would always have on my conscience what I had done. But I am perfectly comfortable in the presence of God.
In the presence of the Lord Jesus, I have perfect peace because I say I'm more than a forgiven thief. I'm more than a forgiven Sinner. I'm justified. And you can have this too. You can have this peace tonight. I have no doubt there's somebody in this audience whose heart is in turmoil as you think of circumstances in your life or circumstances in the world, your circumstances in the political arena here in the United States.
You're just overwhelmed.
But you can come tonight and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go on to the book of Colossians.
Colossians Chapter One.
Colossians chapter one and verse 20 and having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Having made peace through the blood of his cross, I want to stress for a few moments the value and the importance.
Of the blood of Christ. I don't believe a gospel message is complete without stressing the blood of Christ and the Lord. Jesus has made peace through the blood of His cross. You see, that's why I don't have to make my peace with God. He's done it for me. He's made peace through the blood of His cross. God is satisfied with the work that his Son accomplished on Calvary's cross. Again, it's illustrated in the Old Testament with the Passover lamb.
Whose estimation of things made the Israelites safe? Was it the Israelites estimation and value of the slain lamb in the blood? No, it was God when God said When I see the blood, I will pass over you. What was it that satisfied God?
That night, it was the blood. It was the blood that was on the door. It was the blood.
That was shed and sprinkled on the lentil in the side post between God, that is, between the Destroyer.
And between the first born, it was the blood, and so it's the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
That cleanseth us from all sin. You know sin separates.
As soon as Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, separation.
Came in, and Adam, with a conscience, hid himself behind the trees of the garden. But it tells us in the New Testament we're made nigh by the blood of Christ.
It is the blood of Christ that brings us back into the presence of God. It's that which again has.
Stopped the gap. Taken the gap away. We, you know, this morning we sat down, many of us in the presence of the Lord Jesus. How could we do such a thing? All the blood of Christ, the blood of the Lord Jesus. We sometimes sing our title to glory. We read in thy blood, because every person who eventually is gathered around the Lamb in the Father's house will be there on no other basis.
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Than the blood of the Lord Jesus that was shed on Calvary's cross.
There will be no one get into heaven apart from the blood of Christ.
I have sung from the very early days of my childhood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
You know, it's one of the things for which there is no substitute. You know, we're always substituting for something. I do a lot of Bible and book ordering online, and they always ask you at the bottom of the invoice, are you willing to take a substitute? In other words, if we don't have a certain line of book or a certain title, a certain line of Bible or a certain title of book, are you willing to take these substitutes?
I suppose the ladies substitute all the time. Maybe you have a favorite detergent, but you go to the grocery store, the supermarket, and there's another detergent on sale. Or they didn't have what you normally buy, Tide or cheer or whatever it is. And so you substitute does the same job. Basically. In the end, we're always substituting different things in this life. But there is no substitute tonight for the Precious Blood of Christ.
It's the blood of Jesus that is going to take away your sins. It's the blood of Jesus that satisfies the claims of a holy God. Oh I know. We've gone in our minds eye over and over again to that scene where the Lord Jesus at Golgotha cried. It is finished. Then he says, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. He bows his head and he lays down his life in a way that no other ever had or could.
And then we read.
A soldier with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came the route, blood and water. Oh glorious seemed my own soul, and oh I thrilled to think of that day when I'm going to lift up my voice and my heart in the Father's house, and sing of that blood for all eternity, And to see a lamb as it had been slain, and as we were reminded today, to see those wounds in his hands and in his feet and in his side.
And to praise him for all eternity. But we have often sung another hymn.
Will you be there and die?
Solemn question, isn't it? Will you be there? And I go to the book of Hebrews 13 Hebrews, chapter 13.
And verse 20 Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. I read this because I want to stress another very vital point when it comes to the gospel, and that is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Again, I don't believe a gospel message is complete without stressing this vital truth of the resurrection. Because we read if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins.
But as was pointed out earlier today, he was raised again for our justification and they took the Lord Jesus down from the cross, and the God made sure that it was loving hands that touched the dead body of the Lord Jesus.
After the Lord Jesus died.
Sinful hands never touched his body again, and so the Lord Jesus had two men ready.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and they so lovingly took the body of the Lord Jesus down from the cross.
And they wrapped it, and with the spices they put it in a new tomb, as it had been prophesied so many years before.
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They put a stone against that the door of that tomb and then they were told by the authorities to seal it.
Hoping that he wouldn't get out, that he wouldn't rise from the dead.
But oh, a moment came in this world when the Son of God.
With power.
Came forth from the dead.
As he had said that he would, he could say of his life, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father, oh glorious truth. Christianity presents to us a living savior. We have a grave, a tomb in Christianity, but it is an empty tomb. It's not a coffin with the bones of some so-called great religious leader that lived and died here in this world, but it is a tomb with a stone rolled away and over the door.
He is not here. He is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. But not only did the Lord Jesus rise from the dead, but after he had remained on earth long enough to give complete and ample witness to his own, even appearing to about 500 brethren at one time, a moment came when his feet left the Mount of Olives, and the cloud received him out of their sight.
And he went back to sit down eventually on the Father's right hand. And I love that glorious hymn we often sing in the gospel. There is a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree, a Savior as willing to save. Now as ever, his arm is almighty. His love, great and free, all come now to Jesus.
That dear loving Savior, receive him this moment and peace shall be Thine. You want peace. It's only in a glorified Savior. And again, we're not presenting Christ where He was. Yes, it's all based on the fact that he came as a man in incarnation, and that he went to Calvary's cross and that he laid down his life, that he shed His precious blood. But the Savior we're presenting today.
Is not a savior hanging on a cross or laying in a tomb. There was an evangelist many years ago visiting in a small village and he was going from door to door giving out some gospel tracts and he came to a certain door and there was an elderly lady and answered the door.
And he asked her if she'd like to have a gospel tract concerning the Lord Jesus. Oh, she said to him, Thank you. You know, I often look at him.
Thought that was a strange response, and so he queried her as to.
What she meant, she said. Come on into my home and I'll show you. She took him into her living room and on the wall was a crucifix with a figure of a man supposedly to represent the Lord Jesus hanging on that cross, She said. You see, Sir, I often look at him, but he was able to tell her, and she was a true believer, but he was able to tell her the Lord Jesus is not on the cross. And though she knew it in theory, it was a thrill to her to get a hold of the fact in her soul that while the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
Yet he wasn't on the cross now, and he wasn't in the tomb, but that she could look up by faith and see him as her Savior, her friend, her great provider, seated at the right hand of God. Our time is gone, but I want to read two further verses in closing.
They're both in the book of Isaiah. The first one is in the 57th chapter.
Chapter Chapter 57 of Isaiah.
And verse 21 There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked, and then back up to the 26th chapter.
Chapter 26 and verse 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.
Whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusted in thee no peace to the wicked. You know those who reject Christ, not only do they not have peace of soul, rest of heart in this life, but they are going to go out into a lost eternity where there will never be peace.
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A place called Hell, the Lake of Fire.
Where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Oh, how solemn.
If you leave this room tonight without Christ, and you pass out of this world through the article of death.
Or the Lord Jesus comes, which he is going to do at any moment.
And you are left behind. You will never know peace.
You will eventually stand at the Great White Throne judgment and you will be cast into the Lake of fire. But oh, what a contrast we have where we read in the 26th chapter that will keep them in perfect peace. We started with perfect peace, perfect peace. And at such a time, and you know, for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can have a perfect inward peace in spite.
Of circumstances in our personal lives, in the family, in spite of circumstances at work, in spite of circumstances in the political arena, in spite of circumstances at any level in the world, you and I can be kept in perfect peace.
By having our minds.
Focused and stayed on the one who died for us.
The one who is our Savior and the one who is going to carry us safely home to glory.
Paul's prayer for the Saints was this. Now the God of Hope fill you?
With all joy and peace in believing Romans 15 verse 13, let's pray.
Open Mtg. 2
Open—D. Rule, R. Bouland, D. Mearns
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Can we sing #318?
#318.
Still keep us close to my.
It's all day.
I believe.
To force and slam slaughter.
Two 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 live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that which died for them.
And rose again.
And then?
First Corinthians, chapter 6.
First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20.
For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body.
And in your spirit, which are gods?
And one more verse.
In John's Gospel chapter 17.
John's Gospel chapter 17 and verse 4.
I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do, and now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
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Scripture teaches us that God is light and God is love.
And we naturally.
Enjoy, focus on, appreciate the love of God more than we do, that God is light.
The God being light brings before us.
His Holiness and His glory.
And the point I want to make.
Is to encourage our hearts.
To seek to know our God better.
In his glory.
And to know His glory better.
Because of our need as sinful creatures, we easily go to God in that need after we come to the Lord Jesus and draw for our need on His love.
And thank him for his love and appreciate it.
In our measure.
And when we see a need, we go to God to meet that need, and we think of his love as that which we seek to take care of the need.
We recognize God is holy and just. And so in some way, I say more.
Less we tend to say, well, God has to do it right. He has to do it in a certain way that takes care of that side of things. But I would suggest sometimes we don't focus on it in a way that.
Would help us to know God better.
God.
Does not, cannot, will not do anything in love which is inconsistent with His glory.
And we do well.
To think about that, to appreciate that, to sometimes when we want God to do something, to stop and ask our own hearts.
Can God do this for his glory or can he not?
In our own lives and in our own little way of love and so on, we will sometimes.
Do a little less.
On somebody we really love and have a close relationship with, we might do something that kind of sets aside some of the aspect of what I would call God's glory for the sake of the circumstance and that individual. If it's somebody we don't know so well and don't have such a close relationship with and so on, we're a little more.
Inclined to uphold righteousness, then.
Maybe in the personal family, brethren relationships.
We had this morning the Lamb of God and the fact that God will provide for himself a lamb for the burnt offering.
If we could stop and look at God's side of it for a moment.
We would recognize that in all his love.
For the Israelite and all this love for you and I.
There was number solution to our need in His love.
That, in the tiniest way, sacrificed his glory.
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It must be anything that could be done has to be done in a way that maintains God as he is.
And for God.
The cost of redemption.
To satisfy his heart of love.
Required the ultimate price for him to pay.
His son.
His son.
We can't measure. We can't appreciate.
What it cost God?
To save our souls.
In measure because perhaps we don't appreciate his glory.
But it is valuable for us to seek to know it. And that's the burden of my heart to share, to seek to know it, because in any measure in which we seek it out.
Will know God better.
And we'll know his love better.
We will know and appreciate him more.
And so the Lord Jesus, who perfectly.
Understood.
When his life was coming to a close.
He didn't say.
Father, I want you to know that I've showed everybody how much you love them.
True, he did.
It's a true statement.
But he said, Father, I have glorified thee.
I have glorified me.
For the first time in the history of mankind, God had been glorified in a man on the earth.
In a full life.
There were certainly actions that were taken by men that honored God, that displayed His Excellency, His Majesty, aspects of His glory.
But it was the first time that it could ever be said of a life. I have glorified thee on the earth.
So.
The Lord Jesus.
We are.
Exhorted.
The love of Christ constrains us, and the love of Christ doesn't constrain. An unsaved man, doesn't constrain the lost man because he doesn't have a nature, he doesn't have a life that's constrained by love. That is the love of Christ.
But we are. We're constrained by that love.
And.
So that law constrains us to properly in our measure, respond to him.
That they which live should not live henceforth to themselves, because that law of constrains in the sense that we had this morning, that we're not our own anymore.
We belong to him as purchased by his precious blood, and so were his.
We say Lord, and as Lord He has that authority over our lives, and at the same time we enter into His love.
In daily life, that would constrain.
Us to respond properly to that love in our lives. So that's one side of it. The love of Christ constrains us. But we also read another verse.
In First Corinthians chapter 6.
You're bought with a price.
The price?
That maintained the glory of his First Corinthians 6 verse 20, the price.
Paid to uphold the glory of God.
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And save us.
The price, the supreme price that God had to pay.
Which was the giving of the son?
Not only the giving of him, but as was mentioned this morning.
In type and figure, that lamb that the Israelite offered on the Passover night was put to death.
And then it was burnt.
In other words, it was a merciful thing of God that the animal felt nothing of the fire.
In contrast to that.
The Lord Jesus.
Was a living sacrifice.
In those hours of darkness on the cross.
Having refused anything that would dull his senses, not taking the wine or anything else that in the tiniest measure might mitigate or make less what he was going to go through.
Our sins were laid on Him, and He bore the punishment of them.
To exhaust the holy wrath of God.
Which was required according to God's glory.
But also.
And perhaps more difficult for his soul.
Was to be made sin.
Because.
He was the Son of God.
And as the Son of God and understanding the glory that belonged to them.
His holy being.
To the thought of being made sin.
Taking the place of sin, what man is in his nature?
Was.
Almost, you might say, incomprehensible to his holy soul.
His very glory of His being was such that to think of.
Being made sin.
Father, save me from this hour.
That's a significant part of the hour.
If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Is in its greatest aspect, perhaps the being made sin.
Because there the issue of glory was in its greatest intensity.
Having to be born in his person as being made sin and.
Brethren, while we can't understand it, it's well for us to think about it at times and to seek to say, Lord, help me to understand.
And the practical result in our lives. You're bought with the price.
And as we enter into that price in our souls in any measure that we do.
Then comes the therefore glorify God.
Just as the Lord Jesus says, I have glorified not just as, but the Lord Jesus says, I have glorified thee on the earth.
May our hearts also desire.
And satisfying the heart of God.
That in some measure, when life is finished.
It can be said not only this person loved like the Lord Jesus loved.
But this person lived to the glory of God like the Lord Jesus lived the glory of God.
To the glory of God and body.
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And in spirit.
For both.
Our gods.
That was the price of redemption to make us gods.
To make us God's possession in holiness and truth and love.
And so we are constrained by His love.
As we appreciate the price that's been paid, we are also exhorted.
To live life to His glory.
And God found great joy and satisfaction in His Son.
Who honored him?
In His glory, and at the same time, at whatever cost it was to Himself, he maintained that glory and expressed the heart of God's love.
May the Lord help us to do that as well.
Just like to look at a couple of passages of Scripture that have to do with the Saints refreshing the heart of the Lord. I know that we come together like this and we so often have the tendency to think, well, I'm, I'm coming here. I really want to be fed and my soul want to be encouraged, want to be strengthened and so on. And that's those are right thoughts and right feelings.
But oh, how often we neglect to think about the heart of the Savior and how He delights to have His heart refreshed.
In connection with His Saints being with Him, and as our Brother has brought before us the glory of the Lord, how often we think of that verse in John's Gospel chapter 17. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So maybe we could turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 10 and read from verse 38 to verse 42.
And one other passage perhaps in Mark's Gospel chapter 14.
Very briefly to look at these two incidents in connection with Mary's life. Mary Bethany.
So Luke chapter 10 verse 38 it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said Lord.
Dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
That she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary have chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. While this little passage of Scripture we know very well. And Mary of Bethany, and how these two sisters.
Were found in the presence of the Lord Martha, it appears that.
Had a home and here she had the Lord Jesus come into this home and she had a sister. I've often wondered whether Martha or Mary was a little bit younger, but you know, the Lord Jesus says that she had chosen that good part and the world we live in a world that's based, activity based, project based. Everyone has to have a project has to have.
Some goals and be driven, but you know this woman.
Came into the presence of the Lord Jesus and there was nothing more important to her.
Than to sit quietly at his feet, You know, to sit at the feet is a little picture of sitting in submission and listening to the word of the Lord. And she had heard, no doubt, the words of the law, and she had a fear of God, and desired to know the Lord. We know that the law gave a commandment, and the penalties were stiff for disobedience to the law, oftentimes with death.
Sometimes it was something different, and every time that there was a sin, there was an offering that had to be made, had to be given. The Old Testament Saints never knew what it was to have all of their sins forgiven. They couldn't walk down the street and say, all my sins are forgiven.
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One sin was committed. A little lamb had to die. A sin offering a trespass offering.
One more sin, one more offering.
One more sin, another offering, and here this dear woman, perhaps a young woman, sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus and heard things she'd never heard before, how they must have comforted her heart. But you know, brethren, I think it's really a sense that the Spirit of God gives us here in these few little verses, less little nutshell of a story of how it must have refreshed the heart.
Lord Jesus, to have that young woman sit in His presence and to hear what He had to say. I just wanted to give this as a word of encouragement to us, each one of us. Sometimes we have what we feel are more important duties, more important obligations than to be found sitting in the presence of the Lord.
To hear his word. And it doesn't get any easier as we get older, does it?
There are many distractions. There are many things that come in, whether it's an e-mail or whether it's a phone call or whether it's activities. And we're we're getting called away quickly. That's why the children of Israel were to gather manna first thing in the morning before the sun waxed hot.
I just want to encourage us each one.
That the most important thing to refresh the heart of the Lord Jesus, to come into his presence, to be found at the assembly meetings, to be found where he is in the midst and the citizen feet in humility and to hear his word and to be exercised about what we hear and to enjoy what we hear because we're going to hear words from a man that never man spake like this man.
And so the Pharisees and those that came to question the Lord Jesus could speak in that way. How much more can we? And so this was really refreshing to the heart of the Lord. But you'll notice that she encountered this resistance. Lord, doth not, doth thou not care what my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bitter, therefore, that she helped me.
And so perhaps we live in such an active activity oriented.
Society and activity oriented even in our Christian activities, and sometimes we forget how necessary it is just to sit still in humility at the feet of the Lord Jesus individually in our own homes, in our own lives, and then at the assembly meetings to just come and to sit in his presence and to refresh his heart. The Lord's heart was refreshed and when there was resistance to it, Martha was.
Place she was a little bit of out of sorts and even perhaps you might say rebuked the Lord for allowing it to be so. The Lord had to rebuke Martha and say one thing is needful. It was absolutely necessary for his heart. It was necessary for her as well and she had chosen the good part.
So how wonderful it is, what a privilege it is for us just to sit in His presence. Well, we find a little bit later on I should back up. There are different passages we can turn to, but Mark's Gospel, chapter 14.
Let's read from verse 3.
After two or verse 3, Mark 14, verse three, and being in Bethany in the House of Simon the leper, as he sat at meet, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment, a spikenard very precious, and she break the box and poured it upon his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this?
Of the ointment made, for it might have been sold for more than 300 pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her, and Jesus said, Let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. For you have the poor with you always, and whensoever you will, you may do them good, but me you have not always. She have done what she could.
He has come beforehand to anoint my body.
To the burying.
Well, we know in another passage of Scripture it says the whole house was filled with the order of the ointment and Sparknard Spikenard's very costly apparently was an ointment or a.
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A spice that was very precious, very expensive, grows at high altitude in India and different places and very steep, dangerous places to go to get this.
Spikenard and this woman had a valuable.
Commodity. She had 300 pence worth. Apparently she had perhaps an A year's salaries worth of.
Spike Nard, she had a very valuable.
Precious ointment and perhaps had been saving it for some occasion that would be warrant the use of it.
And just in reading some of the commentary on this little passage I've enjoyed, this little comment that was made is this woman may have been the only one that was truly in communion with the Lord as to what he was just about to accomplish. She knew that the time was just about up and that the ferocity, the the hatred of the Pharisees and the scribes and the whole of the nation of Israel had risen to such a crescendo that the Lord Jesus was perhaps about to lose.
Life, and she was the only one that seemed to be in communion with his thoughts at this occasion. And she took this very precious ointment, and she anointed the head of the Lord Jesus. Another place she anoints his feet.
But, umm, it brought that animosity out. It brought the.
Contempt of even the disciples because they understood not. But you know the Lord's heart was refreshed in this.
Occasion the order of the ointment and the cost of what she had done, the price that she had paid, while it was nowhere near what the price would be paid by the Lord Jesus to redeem her. It is as if she said there's nothing more important in this world than for me to take the resources that I have, this spikenard and to anoint the feet of the Lord, to anoint the head of the Lord.
Nothing more important and we noticed that.
Some had indignation, they murmured, and they said that this should have been given to the poor. They murmured against her.
And so sometimes we think that these resources that we have that are delivered to us, that are given to us are to be used for all kinds of activities, all kinds of different occasions that. But when it comes to glorifying God in connection with the resources that we have, sometimes we're not as exercised as we should be. And so this woman.
Who had sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus? Who had heard his Word, and whose word?
Had refreshed her own soul, and whose soul apparently was in communion with the Lord.
Why she takes this spikenard she anointed the Lord and he had value it refreshed his heart and she he says in verse six let her alone. I've thought of this. You know the Lord Jesus defended Mary and your brethren may not value some of the things you do try to do for the Lord.
In the using the resources that you have to be a blessing to the Saints of God to be a support to the Christian testimony to the assembly where you are. But you know it's it's really is affects the heart of the Lord refreshes the heart of the Lord. If you use the resources that you have to refresh the Saints of God and to really bestow some glory, some honor upon some dignity upon the Lord Jesus. And so he defended her, he says.
Trouble ye her, she hath wrought a good work on me. So as I say, she may have been the only disciple that really was in communion with what was going on at this time. And she offered this spike nard anointed the Lord, and there was evident blessing. We know that in another Scripture. Well, verse nine, it says, verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world.
This also that she hath done shall be spoken of her for a memorial of her. Isn't that nice? You know you never do anything for the Lord that you'll forget about, that escapes his memory. But as He has purchased each one of us with his own precious blood, the price was paid to redeem you. It wasn't an afterthought, it was specifically.
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For you, it says, the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.
So everyone of us individually that know the Lord Jesus as Savior, he delights to have us in his presence and he delights that when we desire to refresh him and refresh his heart. It's nice to come to the remembrance of the Lord and to wonder, you know, to to enjoy some little portion of Scripture, some line of things perhaps of the Spirit of God brings before our hearts. But you know how nice it is if we come into the presence of the Lord Jesus and in that burnt offering character of.
Remembrance of the Lord we express to the Father how much the Son means to us and it refreshes the heart of God. It refreshes the sun. Yes, we may receive refreshment ourselves. It says this do in remembrance of me. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do sure announce the Lord's death until he comes. It's wonderful to be able to do it and.
To refresh our own hearts. But it's wonderful to to be able to refresh and to.
Express ourselves in the presence of the Lord and to refresh His heart. So I just had all my heart just to speak of these two incidents in the connection with Mary the Bethany and how she refreshed the heart of the Lord Jesus and to encourage ourselves. Each one of us to seek, to encourage, to seek to refresh the heart of the Lord as we come into His presence. Not to be self-centered, but to offer Him something that would refresh his own heart.
Turn with me please to 2nd Kings Chapter 4.
Second Kings chapter 4.
And verse 8.
It fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunam.
Or was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread.
And it was sold. As often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall, and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a Candlestick. And it shall be when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
It fell on a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber and lay there, he said to Gehezi his servant called the Shunamite.
And when he had called her, she stood before him.
And he said unto him, saying, I want to her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care.
What is to be done for thee?
Would a thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell in mine own among mine own people.
And he said, What then is to be done for her In Gehezi answered, Verily she hath no child, her husband is old. And he said, call her. When he had called her, she stood in the door.
And he said about this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace his son.
And she said, Nay, my Lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid. And the woman conceived and bare a son at that season.
And Alicia, that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank thee for the Lord Jesus. We thank thee for that which sell us brought before us already.
Now let us work things in our lives for Thy glory.
We thank thee for being able to look at these two dear ones too.
The one who found out that Dallas didn't need care Blessed God and to realize that as these two, we too can have the privilege of bringing refreshment to the.
We thank you for this, our God. And now as we have read this further portion in my precious word.
We haven't come here, our God, to hear the ramblings of a brother as he shares the meditation. But our God, our desire is to hear thy voice.
And we thank you, we've heard it already, this meeting, and we just would pray it would continue, so we'd ask for thy help, worthy and precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
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It's it's been impressive to me that.
This woman.
Says she's a great woman.
And the eighth verse that we read it, it says it. So it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. Just the concept of every time that Elijah landed at this woman's door, she had bread for him. That's a that's a challenge to my own soul that those I come in contact with that I would have a portion for them, this woman.
It's as OFT as he turned in there every time he stopped by, she had bread for him. It's a real challenge to my own soul.
She's a great woman and she, as we've as we've read, and there's much instruction in that little chamber. There's much instruction in the the table, the bed, the stool, the Candlestick. It's not my thought this afternoon to take up those things or even to go through what transpired in this chapter, but to realize that.
One of these times.
Elisha said to hazelight this woman and she says to the woman, you've been careful for us with all this care.
What is to be done to you? Would you, would you be spoken up to the king, or would you be spoken up to the captain of the guard? She says. I don't need that. I'm content. I really don't need that.
I covered that.
My own soul.
While she gets a son.
We know what transpires. The sun passes away.
She goes, she knows where to go. She goes further on the passage that we didn't read. She goes to where life is.
And.
Verse 25 It says, She went and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel. It came to pass. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said, Take his eye, The servant, behold, Yonder is the Shunamite. Run now I pray thee to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? And she answers.
It as well.
Boy, I covered that in the very next chapter.
That same question is asked to to get his eye. Is it well? And he answers the same way, but it wasn't well. But here you think of the implications of what's on this woman's plate. And the question is asked, is it well? And she says it's well, it's well.
Well.
The time comes when Alesha is going to send her away, and he says in the 29th verse to gaze. I take my staff in thine hand and go thy way. If they'll meet any man, salute him not, and if any salute thee, answer him not. Lay my staff on the face of the child. The woman of the child said, As the Lord liveth, as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
I thought of that and I thought.
This was really impressive to Elisha because he understood this faith. There was a time a few chapters back when Elisha and Elijah together and Elijah says to Elijah, you stay here because the Lord has sent me to Bethel.
And Elisha says I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to leave you. It happens the second time.
Elijah says to Elisha, you stay here.
The Lord has sent me to. Where is the second place?
Gilgal thank you Lord has sent me to Gilgal and and Elijah says the same thing. I'm not going to leave you and the third time he says it Elijah says to him, you stay right here because the Lord has sent me to Jordan and again Elisha says I'm not going to leave you. So when this woman.
When she says to Elisha when he's sending Ghee's eye off to take the staff to heal a child, all that's implied here and the exercise of heart that she's in with a dead child, she says to Elisha, I'm not going to leave you. I'm going to stay right with you.
You know, we know the end of the story.
Unless it goes and there's much instruction on, unless you're stretching himself and the child. It's not my thought to go into that, but there's tremendous blessing. Turn over now to Chapter 8.
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Chapter 8 in the first verse.
And then speak Elisha unto the woman.
Whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise and go, thou and thine household, and sojourn whithersoever thou canst sojourn. For the Lord hath called for a famine, and shall come upon the land seven years.
You know, I dare say.
Elisha was waiting to hear those words. I'm not going to leave you.
It's not there.
You know, brethren.
A time of famine had come.
Maybe there's someone here in this audience.
A famine has come into your life. A famine.
Famines are going to come. There's ten of them in the word. They are going to come in our lives. What is our reaction to going to be in a time of famine? And so here is a test. It's a time of famine. And Elisha, he says to the woman, go soldier and wherever.
The Lord has called for a famine.
And I dare say there was tears in his eyes as he watched her head off into the sunset.
And that's not fanciful. Verse 2 The woman arose, did after the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
The land of the Philistines. Are you kidding me?
That's what it says. The land of the Philistines. Seven years.
This can't end well. It can't.
Think of a time of famine in Abraham's life. Where did he go? He went to Egypt in a time of famine. Did it end well? No, it didn't end well.
An end well at all. Think of Hagar, think of Ishmael, Think of the Middle East right now.
Abraham's going to Egypt in a time of famine. Think of Elimelech. And if time and famine, where did he go? He went to Moab. Did it end well? No, it didn't. Is this going to end well?
No, it's not what we're talking about. A woman that at one time says I'm content, we're talking about a woman that that that has gone through tremendous trial in their life and is able to say in the midst of that trial.
Well, it's fine.
Here the test comes.
Time of famine, and here she goes off to the land of the Philistines.
You know, if it had been any other.
Any other of the enemies of the people of God we might understand that. Turn with me to First Chronicles.
First chronicles the 1St chapter. This. Just reading this in my personal reading.
Just last week, First Chronicles chapter one.
It's very, very interesting the way it's worded here.
In First Chronicles chapter one and verse 12.
If you go through this this chapter, there is.
Man after man that were the beginnings of the enemies of the people of God. One of them is the Philistines. And we have here in verse 12 Pathrusim and Kaslu him and noticed here it's like in big red letters. Of whom came the Philistines. Now if you go through the chapter in this chapter, we read about Midian, we read about Amalek, we read about Moab, we read about Edom. It doesn't say about them of whom came.
The Edomites, or of whom came?
The Amalekites or of whom came. It doesn't do that, but it does about the.
Those stories and now why? Why is it? Why is it so highlighted in this chapter where the Philistines came from? It's because the Philistines and what they speak of are a constant snare to the people of God. They were an enemy that was in the land, but they didn't go through the Jordan and they didn't they didn't go through the Red Sea and they didn't go through the Jordan.
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You remember, remember Pilgrim's Progress and as pilgrims walking along.
There's the two that came up over the wall. And Pilgrim said, I don't think this is what's supposed to happen. I think you're supposed to come in through the Wicked Gate. And they said, oh, no, no, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. And Pilgrim said, well, you know, I got to scroll here. No, it's going to be fine. Well, it didn't end well for them.
It's like the Philistines.
They speak of religious flesh, you know.
Sampson tried to deal with the Philistines. What happened? He lost his eyesight. That's what the Philistines do. They take away our discernment.
Simpson's hair grew back but never got his eyesight back. Think of David as he goes against the Philistines. Time after time after time, he goes against the Philistines and they're back the next day.
He defeats them entirely and they're right back again.
You know.
The apostle raised at Timothy, and he says.
Flee youthful lusts.
I used to think when I was younger, you young folks here, I used to think that that meant that there was lust that pertained, particularly to those who were in their youth. That's not the thought at all.
Flea Youthful lusts. The thought there is the lusts are always youthful. They never get old, they never get tired. It's like the Philistines. You defeat them and they're back again. You defeat them and they're back again, time and time again. And that's where this woman goes.
To the Philistines, as I said, it can't end well.
So 7 years, it's hid from us. What happens?
In this chapter.
Verse two of first Kings eight. It came to pass the woman arose and did after the man of God. She went with her household and soldier in the land of the Philistines seven years.
It came to pass that the.
At the seven years end that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines, and she went forth to cry unto the King for a house and for her land.
You know, we think what happened to the faith that didn't meet the king. It was offered to her. Would you be spoken up to the king? No, I don't need that. I'm content. Got Elisha. I've got the Lord. I don't need that. But what happens when the Philistines? They work their work? Where does she go when she's got a problem? Does she go straight to Elisha? No.
She goes straight to the king.
Exactly where she goes. And the king talked with Gehezi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done.
It came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life cried to the king for her house and for her land and gaze. I said, my Lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.
And when the king asked the woman, she told him so the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying.
Restore, although it was hers and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.
As I said, you know there was a time in her life when her son had died. She went straight to Elijah.
Now when she's got a problem, she goes straight to the king.
Now you know it's ironic.
Because.
The king appoints an officer to give her back all the fruits from the time she left until now. So we think it was a time of famine. I thought there was no fruit.
And that's the whole point. Is the Lord able to provide for us in a time of famine? Was the Lord able to provide for her? Yeah. There was a crop the first year when she was in the land of the Philistines, there was a crop in Shunam on her property. The second year there was a crop. 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th. A crop every year.
She wasn't there to appreciate it.
She wasn't there to enjoy it.
You know, it's like that in my own life. So often when a time of famine comes, I want to take things into my own hands. And I think, you know, it's marvelous the way the Lord has provided up until now. But right now, this particular situation is just out of the Lord's control, and he's not able to provide in this particular time in my life, in this particular famine. And so I've got to deal with it. And to me, it's so ironic.
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That the king says you go back and restore her everything in the group, all these seven years when she could have enjoyed it. You know what the solemn part is?
We never read she got all her fruit back, but we never read this one ever. Getting Elisha back.
In fact, we never read a verb again.
A woman that showed such promise.
A woman that it says that Elijah could say, you've been careful for me with all this care. A woman who provided bread for Elisha every time he passed by. There was such fruit in this woman's life and in a time of famine.
We would say a moment of weakness. She goes off to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines work their deadly work. There's no discernment.
And she you know, if you look at the story of David and Goliath.
Goliath. He lived by sight and he disdained what he saw. David lived by faith and he looked way beyond it. Goliath.
The work of the Philistines is to see the believer lives by sight and not by faith. So when this woman comes back, they have done their deadly work. As I say, she gets all her fruit back, but she doesn't get Elisha back.
She doesn't, and we never read of her again.
Turn with me for one last verse to the Psalms, Psalm 33.
Psalm 33 and verse 18.
Behold.
The eye of the Lord.
Is upon them that fear him.
Upon them that hope and His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive.
And famine.
Famines are going to come.
And come they will.
Oh, that we would not do what this woman did in a time of famine. We would realize that the Lord is well able to provide in a time of famine.
#276.
Exodus 12 1
Exodus 12 2
Exodus 12 3