Lawrenceville Conference: 2019
Table of Contents
Ephesians 5:1-4
Ephesians 5:5-15
Reaction to News
Open—David So
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.
243.
200.
And 43.
Right.
Yeah.
You're saying this him?
Oh Lord.
We were delighted.
And on all thy care depend.
I'm sure we know this him well.
But how often?
Do we really believe and what we say, what we're saying, what we do?
I'm finding it difficult in life in the sense that.
It's easy to say things.
In fact, it's easy to encourage someone else.
And then?
When the circumstance happened.
To me.
It seems to be a different story.
With the Lord's help, I won't take very long. I like other to be able to share thoughts from scriptures. I like to look at just couple two or three examples of how ones behave when the news when news were delivered to them.
00:05:03
Let's turn with me to Luke chapter one now in In these instances, I'm not looking more at the story itself.
But the response I use this example, I believe that the Montreal conference, but my thought would enlarge a little bit past this year. I was thinking of this man.
And his wife, this man Zechariah.
What's interesting is.
He's a very godly man, we know that, and so was she. And they've been praying. I was thinking, is it not like us? Have we prayed and asked for something?
And it seems that.
Doesn't seem to come.
But let's just read a little bit of this.
Umm, just for time's sake. Verse 13. Luke chapter one, Verse 13. For the Angel said unto him, Fear not Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
Wow, This is why I learned that he was praying. You would think, well, the story tells us that they are old. We know that.
But they didn't have children. They continued in faith, praying for it.
And now the Lord said.
You're going to have a son.
Now the set is very old so I don't put myself in that category. I feel I am still very young, but oh enough.
But I don't think I want to be the one that my wife said to me we're going to have another baby.
I'm going to find that to be very difficult at this age, so I can empathize with.
Zechariah in a way, but we learned too. If something happened and you can read two of this, it didn't believe. Isn't that our problem? Unbelieve sets in. He prayed and prayers answered.
He was made down. We know the story, don't we?
Why can't we speak for the Lord?
Why can't we speak for him?
How come sometimes we feel that we do with me?
Could, and I'm only merely suggesting could One of the many reason is unbelief.
And you know, the good news is.
Being made dumb is temporary.
He believed afterwards, didn't he? And he was able to give glory to God when they said, what should we name him? Oh, he piped out, John.
What a wonderful story, but I thought more for ourselves is what if we're the one You know? I think too sometimes we pray for the Lord to use us in different ways and we have in our own mind what that way should be.
So I know maybe I'll share too much information, the family life, but I'll share with you this. My wife wanted to go to Hawaii. I promised her that on our 25th, I thought I'll start up for 25 years. Well, that's long past. I said, well, maybe on our 35th. We haven't yet, but Can you imagine? And I say, Lord, yeah, Hawaii, I'll serve you there.
And what if the Lord said no, David is Malawi?
How would we, how would we behave and react to that? Because we pray, don't we? Lord, send me to Hawaii. No, Malawi.
Do we listen? Do we truly believe that the Lord?
Have something for us. And are we truly saying that our life depends on him?
I will leave that thought with you. Now I want to go to the another example. Luke's Gospel chapter I believe is chapter.
4 Oh, I'm sorry, Chapter 5.
So we know the incident here. The Lord asked Simon to use his boat.
Let me just do a little sidebar before I get into the story. The Lord is no man's better.
00:10:00
I looked at it. Here is he rented the boat from Simon. He really did because we find in the story he pays him afterward.
To vote for fishes. So we have to remember that, but that wasn't my thought, but that just came. So let's look at Lukes Gospel chapter 5. So here the Lord said to Simon as he's trying to pay him. Let's read just a couple of verses verse four and now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your Nets for a draft and Simon.
Answer said unto him, Now this is the part that I had in my heart. I'm thinking what Simon about to say is often something I would say, Now let's look and see what he said. He said, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.
If we ever find ourselves in that kind of situation that we said to the Lord Master, we worked all night, I've done everything.
And what's the result we've got?
Nothing. Still you ever felt like that?
What a terrible answer question that we should never question the Lord. Why?
I believe if we talk to the Lord with the word, why?
That's already a bad question.
But let's see what he learned. He's a quick learner.
But he used to work nevertheless.
Add thy word, I will let down the net.
Oh, what a wonderful lessons that he learned quickly from the Spirit of God.
Lord, there's no sense. Oh, wait a minute. Well, if you say so.
Let me just do it.
We know the result, don't we?
You know Peter, you think about assignment. In this case, I'm quite sure he is a well seasoned fisherman.
He knows what he's doing. He knows that body of water. He know where the fishes are.
But the Lord knows better.
Is that a lesson for us?
Rather than saying and say there's nothing, Lord, nothing, why done everything there is to do? Can we learn a little lesson in our heart nevertheless?
At thy word, I will let down the net and we know the rest of the story.
He was blessed more than he could done anything on his own. I'll put another sidebar there too. The Lord not only bless Simon, we won't have the time to go into details. If you read through that, you see the word partnered use at least twice. Did you know Peter Simon had a partner? James, He's in another boat.
You know that when you serve the Lord, when you receive blessings from the Lord.
Those who are around you receive blessings to the Lord loved the bless he blessed families. So we learn in the gospel, if thou shalt believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, that's not the end of it, is it? And thine house we find here, blessings come to him, to Simon and his partners.
Looking at the time here when they said I will leave room, I'd like to turn to one more. There are many examples in the word of God of how we answer sometimes how we give the wrong answer, wrong thoughts of the Lord through His help would guide us to lead us to the thoughts and ways that we should have.
Luke's chapter 15 wonderful chapter 3 pair of boats all connected together with the grace of God the the third parable, the prodigal son. Again, it's not my thought about the story of Salva. Some of the comments that one could have made that's very close to.
I was going to say we, but let me identify it as. Use the word I and I will let you choose to see if you can identify.
Yourself with that phrase. So the first is in verse 12. Perhaps I'll read verse 11 and 12 together just to get the connection. Verse 11, Luke chapter 15, verse 11. And he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father.
00:15:21
Use the first phrase that I had on my heart.
Father.
Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
I was thinking of that phrase Father give me.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes in our prayer we may have that sense of attitude of Father give me.
If we ever pray, have we ever made comments? But I prayed about this.
I've been praying about this.
I think that's good, is a good start, isn't it? And not just young people, older one. I've seen difficulties even in the assembly was that we're going to pray about this moment. We've got our knees, we'll say well, what, what should we do? We don't wait. And sometimes the attitude that we are demanding the Father, Father.
Give me I want it. We have children here.
And I'm sure even the young parents already learned that. Isn't that a common phrase with little children? Give it to me, it's mine.
Common, isn't it?
And I guess we they say we really never grow up. Those attitude stage Father give me incidentally, the Lords prayer is a good lessons for us to learn. Actually, it's not the Lords prayer. You know, just side comment for your edification. It really is the Lord teach his disciples how to pray and really to me it should be the disciples prayer. And if you notice what he said to them, he taught them the right way to pray.
Now remember, he told them, don't use repetitious words, so I keep repeating. The Lord's Prayer itself is not good, but the principle he taught them is very good.
He taught them to address God the Father.
Thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Do we acknowledge we have one who is the Supreme above all, and he's holy.
And then he taught them to say, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Do we have that attitude? Do we say, Father, do it as according to your will? That's what our prayers should be, not what I want.
Can you see the difference? Thy will be done, Father, give me.
What's the prodigal son's first communication we read off in?
This parable.
Now let's look at another phrase. So we know he got in trouble. He took his money. He squandered his money. We know the story.
And then in verse 17 they said he came to himself. Verse 18.
Something interesting now is that I will arise.
And go to my father.
Interesting.
I often took it as he finally wake up he realized the father's house is better. But now I see he still has an attitude problem.
I will.
Do we find that?
We find in scriptures often the Lord let His people go down to the lower stages if it were until they realize there's no strength of the home, they realize that they need to learn the word dependence.
You look at the Israel old.
Take the example of the Red Sea.
They were stuck. They got the Red Sea before them, they got the mountains beside them. They got the Egyptians armies behind them.
What can they do?
And precisely that when they recognize they can't do anything.
And holy depend on the Lord.
So I believe that's another.
00:20:01
Lesson we have to learn when we still think we can do. I know I'm like that and I don't know if you can relate, but just this is one more thing I can do there's one more thing I want to try. I'm not at the end of it yet just just.
I will. What a terrible thing. But it was. At least he recognized he wanted to go back to his father's house. And then when he saw his father, what did he say? He said.
Umm, verse 19.
He knew he didn't deserve to be.
A son, so he said in verse 19. Make me.
As one of our higher servants.
Has he really learned his lesson now? He said, make me? Well, really he didn't, because he still was son. You never lose the sonship.
But he still thinks that he can do something on his own.
He got into trouble by saying Father give me and then he said I will.
And now he wants a father to make him.
I believe.
Brethren.
Young people.
These are lessons we need to learn.
That.
Let me just go back to the M We don't. It's hymn book we have here, so rich from Scripture. I know we have scriptures before us. We ought to, but sometimes those words rings in our heart. Let me just see if we can relate to what we just talked about and then I'll sit down. We say, Oh Lord, we would delight in thee, and I believe most here do have that desire. And on thy care depend.
To thee in every trouble flee. I will save.
And failing friend and then this prodigal boy knew that learned this when humans, cisterns all are dried. Oh.
Our ways is not a good way. Thy fullness is the same. May we with with this be satisfied and.
Glory in Thy name, and then I'll go to the last verse. Oh Lord, we cast each care on the and triumph and adore of that our great concern may be to love and praise the more.
Having Christ Before You
Open—Mark Jennings
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We had.
Such a good.
Portion before us in Ephesians and I just.
Had one thing on my heart. Really. 2 verses.
In Ephesians there.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Excuse me, Ephesians chapter 5, the first verse.
Be therefore followers of God.
As their children.
It reminds us, doesn't it, of that verse in first John chapter 3?
Let's turn to that. This wasn't the verse that the other verse that I had on my heart that it's so good.
First John chapter 3 and verse one.
11.
What manner of love the Father had the bestowed upon us?
That we should be called the sons of God.
Back to Ephesians.
That.
Word.
Dear children.
We're told to.
To walk as God's dear children walk in love, a brother mentioned.
Brother Darby's translation.
To be imitators.
We have on the outside of our meeting room.
God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
And were his children each one of us young people?
You know the Lord Jesus is your Savior. You're his God's child.
It's a blessing.
To be God's child, isn't it?
And as we went through those verses, we kind of cringe a little bit, don't we?
Kind of cringe about how.
We can go from simple justing to fornication.
It's kind of a downward spiral, isn't it? If you read that those verses in reverse?
And.
I don't think that.
I is a 60 year old man.
Know what you as college students and high school students.
Know as being a part of a school.
I get drifts of conversation from teachers about what's going on in the classroom.
We find things.
In locker rooms that.
Shouldn't be there?
But I love the end of that verse and we'll we'll cover it, so I won't.
I won't mention it.
Except to say.
As we were saying, we need to replace these things with something, and that's giving thanks, isn't it?
The end of that verse, but rather giving of thanks, let's turn to Ephesians chapter.
Ephesians chapter 4. This is not new to anyone of you.
And as we consider.
The things that can creep into our lives and destroy us as Christians, Young people, you're not any different than I am standing up here.
I've enjoyed.
A tape by our dear brother Buchanan, now with the Lord.
I think he was in Toledo and.
So the only problem with you young people is you're just like your parents.
And that's true.
So as we, we wouldn't point the finger at any of you young people, but I know that there's a lot out there.
00:05:04
At school, on the Internet.
That certainly can destroy your life and I would just like to finish this with.
If Philippians chapter 4.
Verse 8.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just.
Whatsoever things are pure.
Whatsoever, things are lovely.
Whatsoever things are of good report.
If there be any virtue.
And if there be any praise, think on these things.
This is not new. It's not rocket science.
It's a word of God.
And it's true.
And if you'll follow the guidelines of that verse, it'll save you so much heartache.
It will set you on the right path as Christ as your object.
To be of service for him.
Worship 1St and then service. Our Lord Jesus was that perfect example.
Of everyone of those attributes, His glory shine out through the pages of Scripture.
You'll see each one of those things in his life and if you're occupied with that?
There will be praise for coming from your heart and you'll be fruitful for Him in your life.
Walking Worthy
Open—Jim Hyland
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Like to go back to the book of Ephesians for a moment, to the 4th chapter.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
In taking up the 5th chapter this morning, it was stressed as to how practical Christianity really is. And we need the doctrines and the principles of Christianity laid out for us because that's the foundation of everything. We really can't know how to walk for the Lord's glory unless we have those foundation truths brought before us. But sound principles should lead to sound behavior.
And so there's a very practical side of Christianity, and it was mentioned in the Reading meeting this morning.
That in the book of Ephesians we have a number of exhortations in connection with our walk. I'll just say in passing that there are seven times in the book of Ephesians that our walk in one way or another is brought before us and it's a very edifying and helpful meditation. I would encourage you to do that. We're just going to look very briefly at this one and then we're going to go to some other scriptures that bring before us this little expression that I know we've often taken up before.
But this little expression to walk worthy, I'm not going to make a lot of comments on each of these portions. We're going to read them.
We'll make a few comments and I will leave them for your further meditation. Because I suggest that ministry in a setting like this is really to give an outline and to whet our appetites. That we would be like the Berean Brethren. And we would go home and search the scriptures daily to see if these things are so. And if meetings like this have that practical effect on our lives, then they'll be true blessing following for each of us.
We're going to notice that this little expression as to an exhortation appears four times in the New Testament. And again it was brought out this morning, but will repeat it, that in each of the writings of the apostles, when they bring out certain principles and truth, then the exhortations are in keeping with the truth that has been expounded. Because the only happy thing in our Christian lives is to act.
On what we have heard or what we have read from the the word of God.
And so the apostles they set forth, usually in the beginning of the epistle, they set forth certain principles and doctrines, and then there are exhortations to walk in keeping with that. And we're going to notice this as we briefly touch on these four portions, that it is always in connection with the character and the ministry of the book. And in the book of Ephesians, as we well know, we have our heavenly calling or vocation brought before us.
Vocation is just another word for calling. We understand this in natural things, don't we? A young person may not have such an aptitude for study or academics, and so they may opt for a vocational school and at that school they learn plumbing or carpentry, electricity, whatever may be. It may be because they feel they have a certain bent to their nature, God-given ability, and they follow that calling.
And Our Calling as believers is a heavenly calling because Ephesians attaches us to Christ where he is now. In fact, that's what Christianity really is. Christianity is Christ. I remember one time being at a Bible conference like this and someone raised the question in a meeting, what is Christianity? And someone said, well, Christianity can be summed up in one word, Christ, but that needs explanation.
Because Paul said henceforth know we know man after the flesh, though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more. In other words, it is Christ, but it's Christ, not the way the disciples knew him when he walked here in this world. They knew him as a man walking here, the apostle John said Our eyes have seen and our hands have handled of the word of life. It's not in the way that Israel is going to know him in a future day when he comes back and there's a shout of a king amongst them and there's rejoicing and blessing.
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For Israel and ultimately for this whole world know we know Christ, and we are connected and associated with Christ where he is now. Christianity detaches us from this world in every sense and aspect other than the fact that we are still physically in it. And so, as we have earlier in this epistle, we're seated together in heavenly places in Christ. Positionally, we're already seen as there, and so having taken this up in the previous three chapters.
The Apostle Paul as the prisoner of the Lord. And notice he doesn't say he was the prisoner of the Romans or the prisoner of Nero. No, he was the prisoner of the Lord. He took his circumstances absolutely from the Lord and how good that is for us because if we consider second causes, then we're going to be discouraged and it's going to cause failure in our lives. There are second causes in our lives, but the first cause is always the Lord.
And as the prisoner of the Lord, he beseeches them to walk worthy of what they had been called to. And brethren, I need this exhortation for myself. What I'm saying this afternoon is not pointing the finger at anyone, and I've been impressed in recent circumstances in my own life to realize how short life really is. We are only called to walk for God's glory in this world for a very brief time.
You blink and it's gone. I know that's a hard concept for some of you children and young people, sometimes it just seems like life drags and you'll never get to another stage in life. You want to get that license. You want to be of age and all those things, those landmarks in our lives.
But for some of us, we look back and it's gone. And for some of us too, as we feel the weight of years a little bit and circumstances in our lives, we realize we only have a short time to walk for God's glory, to serve the Lord Jesus, and to glorify him here in our pathway through this wicked world. And so we're to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. We're not going to comment on the statements that are that follow, that are all part of the same sentence.
But I just say this, that we then are told in the next verse the spirit and attitude with which we are to walk through this world.
There is an attitude that is in keeping with one who has had who is given a heavenly calling.
And is to walk worthy of it, lowliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Do we really seek in our interactions with one another to have that spirit and attitude? It's really the Spirit of Christ, isn't it? The one who was meek and lowly in heart. The one who said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. The one who humbled himself as he walked through this world and took upon him the form of a servant.
And when we do that, what is going to be the result? Well, he says here, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If you're walking worthy of your vocation, if you're walking according to truth, if you have that spirit and attitude that was exhibited in the man Christ Jesus, what's going to be the result, brethren, We are going to be found endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. We're going to be found going on in happy fellowship with one another.
Because God has not just an individual path for us, but a collective path for us as we walk through this this world. And I believe that collective path is preserved to us until the very end, when Timothy was told continue thou that was individual. And like Second Timothy the the last days are characterized by individual faithfulness to the Lord. But he was also told in that epistle.
To go on with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And I say, if you walk with the proper spirit and attitude in obedience to the word of God walking, worthy of your vocation, you will find there are others who have the same desire. And you will find yourself in fellowship with them. Because God's desire for us is that we would go on together until the Lord comes and we're all together finally in the Father's house. But now let's go to the book of Colossians.
00:10:01
For another similar exhortation, but in a different context.
Colossians Chapter One.
And I'll begin reading verse 9.
For this 'cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled with all null, all the with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering.
With joyfulness, well, here we have a similar exhortation. But notice here it's not to walk worthy of our vocation, it's to walk worthy of the Lord. Before we put this in its proper context, it might be helpful to say that if we had backed up a couple of verses, we find that Paul the apostle Paul who writes this to the Saints at Colossi, he had heard from Epifras a good report of the Brethren.
Isn't that commendable if someone came to visit your assembly and then they were going to?
Speak of the assembly in general in another to someone else. Would they be able to give this kind of report? Epiphras had told Paul that there was blessing in Colossi and the Saints were going on well, and Paul immediately says that from that day on they'd not cease to pray for them. You say, did the Saints at Colossi really need prayer? It's very remarkable as you go through Paul's epistles.
That we find that the more faithfulness there was in there in an epistle, the more Paul speaks of praying for that assembly. Now we need to pray for one another when there are troubles and difficulties, when there are assemblies who perhaps are going on poorly, or individuals who are taking up things in their lives that are a detriment to them in following the Lord. They certainly need our prayers. But I believe, brethren, it is good to pray for one another as a preventative measure.
Perhaps if we were more faithful in praying for our brethren when they were going on well, we wouldn't need to pray for them when things went wrong. Paul, I believe, recognized the power of prayer as a preventative measure. He also recognized that the more faithfulness there was in an assembly and the more desire there was to go on in the truth, the more the enemy was going to be right there to trip up and discourage.
Because whether it's collectively as families or individually, the more faithfulness there is, the more the enemy hates that. He hates everything that glorifies God and brings glory to the person of Christ. He hates everything that brings blessing to the Saints of God. And I say in the measure in which we're faithful, the enemy is going to be right there. This is a little aside, but I was touched by what a sister's asked me one time.
We were at a prayer meeting at an assembly many miles from here, and there were many prayers went up for different brethren, some who weren't at the meetings, some who drifted away and weren't coming on a regular basis or at all. And after the prayer meeting, this sister who I knew very well, she said to me, Jim, why is it that a prayer meeting, they pray only for those who are not out or those who have real problems? What about the brothers and sisters who?
Go on faithfully in the assembly. What about those who are seek to attend all the assembly meetings? Don't they need prayer as well? You know, that was a good word to my own soul. And so we need to seek to pray for one another. Epiphras, if we were to read later on, he sought to do that. He labored in prayer for his brother not only in Colossi, but nearby the nearby assemblies of Heropolis and Laodicea.
And now we find that part of Paul's prayer for them is that they would walk worthy of the Lord.
Why is it walking worthy of the Lord here? Because that's the subject of the Book of Colossians.
In Colossians we sometimes say that they weren't holding the head, that is, they weren't owning the Lord Jesus as their head in heaven and looking to him for direction. It was mentioned, I think in passing that in the book of Ephesians we have what the churches to Christ. But any Colossians, it's what Christ is to the church. He's the head of the body.
00:15:14
And as the head of the body, we need to look to him for direction in every matter.
We need to look to him for direction in the assembly. When there's a difficulty faces the people of God collectively, what are we to do? Take a vote? No, the Assembly is not a democracy. It's not where the majority rules. What we do is we look to the head for direction.
One time we were ministering on this and someone raised the question well. In the first chapter of Acts. They took a they cast lots when it was a question of choosing a replacement apostle for Judas, and the lot fell to Matthias. God honored their the lot, and so on. Why can't we cast lots? Why can't we do the something similar or take a vote when problems arise in the assembly and we have a brother's meeting?
But it was quickly pointed out that while God honored that because the Old Testament tells us the lot is cast in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord, and God honored that. But once the Spirit of God came in the second chapter of Acts, and they became connected as the members of the body of Christ to their glorified head in heaven, they never cast lots again. When problems arose in the early assembly, what did they do? They looked to the Lord for direction, and they took their direction from the Lord.
In the power of the of the Spirit. And so we need to own collectively the Lordship of the Lordship and authority of Christ. As families we need to do that too, and we certainly need to do it individually. When I was growing up, we used to often sing that hymn Lord of my life, I crown thee now thine shall the glory be. And in a very practical way I just want to apply this Do we really seek to walk worthy of the Lord?
To realize that he is, he should have that place as Lord in our lives. He's our savior and we're thankful for it. But he wants that place of Lordship in our lives. And you say, but Jim, you don't know how difficult it is in the world in which we find ourselves. Well, perhaps I don't.
I really don't understand what you young people face today. You know, when I was going to school, there was some line between right and wrong.
There was some demarcation between right and wrong when my girls were going to school. The line was blurred and now I realized the line is completely gone. As we said this morning, we live in an amoral society. And you say is it really possible to own Christ as as Lord and to walk for His glory? Well, He goes on to speak here of the the strength that He gives and all the resources that we that we have.
And we can still bear fruit in this day and age for God's glory. In fact, brethren, if the day ever gets so dark that we can't live for God's glory, that we can't own the lordship of Christ in every sphere of our lives, then the Lord will take us out. But as long as we're left here, as he said in the previous verse, there's the knowledge, there's the wisdom, there's the understanding to go on, even in days like this.
I think we mentioned in passing this morning Daniel and his three friends. And when they were faithful and you know, they didn't know how the story was going to end, It was great faith. We read the story with confidence because we know how it ended, but they didn't know how the story was going to unfold. But they were faithful to their God and as a result they were given these three things, knowledge, wisdom and understanding. As most of you know, I never was a math student, but I have appreciated this little.
This this little equation.
K + W = U yes, as we've said we need knowledge and.
Peter's last desire for the Saints was that they would grow in grace and the knowledge we need that.
But then there's there's wisdom. Because wisdom is the ability to take that knowledge and apply it to the situations of life. And when we do that, then there's going to be understanding. I think it was the men of Issachar who had understanding of the times, how to go in and how to, how to go in and go and go out, go out and come in. And so he provides everything. Well, are we seeking by the grace of God? And it's only by the grace of God, brethren, to walk worthy.
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Of the Lord. Now let's go to the book of First Thessalonians, chapter 2.
I Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 12.
That ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you.
Unto his Kingdom and glory well here we have an exhortation to walk worthy.
Not worthy of our vocation, not walk worthy of the Lord, but to walk worthy of God. If we were to back up to the first chapter, we would find that these Thessalonians had recently been converted from heathendom, from idol worship, it says. They had turned to notice this God. They turned to God from idols, to worship the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. There were many things that these Thessalonian believers didn't yet know.
About Christianity, they were fresh converts. There wasn't really any point of telling them to walk worthy of their vocation that hadn't been unfolded to them yet. Perhaps they weren't even clear as to the Lordship of Christ in their in their lives. But one thing they knew, they were now brought into relationship with the true and living God in contrast to the dumb idols that they had previously worshipped.
And so the Apostle Paul. In writing to them, he tells them to walk worthy of God. But as we said this morning, I suggest this is a good exhortation for all of us, whether we've been saved a short time or whether we've been saved for many years, to never forget the source of all our blessing as we had before us this morning, when Paul wrote to Ephesus, he wrote that wonderful truth of their heavenly calling.
But he does remind them that God was the source of everything, and we never want to forget that. To walk worthy of the One who has called us, the one who has provided everything that's needed, provided His Son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. It was God that sent the Son into this world. It was God that had that plan from a past eternity. And it's God that has reached out to us in all our need, brought us to the Savior.
Opened our eyes to see beauty in Christ and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him. But maybe I can just say this too, before we pass on. Maybe there's someone here and you're a little bit discouraged because you say I've only been saved a short time. And there's lots of things I don't understand about how I should follow the Lord. Lots of things I don't understand about my heavenly calling and those things that the brothers talk about in the meetings and so on.
Oh, don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged. Those things will come if you seek to to walk worthy of God. Those things will come line upon line, precept upon precept. Hear a little there, a little. It comes. It doesn't come all at once. It comes gradually as we go on and grow in the things of God. And so don't be discouraged. It's a little bit like the blind man in John Nine. He came to the Lord.
And the Lord healed him. And when they came, and they asked him all kinds of questions about who'd healed him in exasperation, finally he said, I can't answer your questions, but one thing I know, he knew one thing. He'd been blind. And now he saw he wasn't going to let the one thing he knew discourage him. And all the things he didn't know he wasn't going to let keep him from enjoying that one thing he knew. And so maybe you're like these Thessalonians. You haven't been saved very long.
Maybe you haven't been going on for the for the Lord very long, but to walk worthy of God, you know that God has called you, you know he's provided that wonderful blessing through his son and walk worthy of him, and things will open up to you as you go on in the path. Now there's one more exhortation. It's in the book of Philippians.
Philippians chapter one.
Verse 27.
Only let your conversation be be as it becometh the gospel. I'm going to read this in Mr. Darby's translation only conduct yourselves worthy of the glad tidings of Christ. Here they're told to walk worthy of the glad tidings of Christ. Or another word, the gospel. You know in Philippi. If you read this epistle very carefully, there was a great testimony and zeal in the gospel.
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There was great joy as a result too, because I believe when we're exercised individually and collectively in regard to the gospel, there's a great joy that comes in working together and in that outlet that is needed in our Christian life. You know, water running into a pool and never running out makes the pool stagnant. And I find as I visit my brethren in various parts of this continent and in various parts of the world.
That those who are really exercised in the gospel, there's a freshness in their souls and in their ministry because there's that outlet that we need and so we need to be exercised as to the gospel work in our lives collectively as families and individually as well. But there's a conduct that's in keeping with that. With our testimony later on, Paul said to them that he may be blameless and harmless.
The sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life. One is the life we live and the 2nd is the words we speak and the life we live needs to commend the the gospel. But it's very significant that this exhortation was needed here in Philippi, because later on we find that there was some contention coming in amongst 2 Sisters.
Now it happened to be two sisters in Philippi, but it could have just as well been two brothers or a brother and a sister. Because I believe that the enemy is ultra successful in hindering the work of the gospel by bringing in contention and discord amongst the people of God, I suggest there's nothing stifles the gospel work like that, that like contention amongst the people of God. And Paul saw this and he later on very carefully and delicately takes up this matter.
He didn't want something to come into the assembly in Philippi that would hinder.
The freshness and joy that was there because of their testimony to not only those in Philippi, but it seems like it had spread to other places as well. And so let's take heed to this little exhortation that we conduct ourselves worthy of the glad tidings of Christ. We're here in this world to tell forth the glad tidings like those lepers in the Old Testament. This is a day of glad tidings, and we hold our peace.
Brethren, are we holding our peace? This is a day of good tidings. We have good things to tell. But I say again, our life needs to correspond with what we say and and and our work. So again, as young people we used to sing that hymn. Your life speaks, Your walk speaks so loud that the world can't hear what you say. Isn't it a sad thing when a believer or a group of believers gets into a such a state of soul that they, when they seek to preach the gospel?
They seek to propagate the the glad tidings. It's spoiled. There's reproach because their conduct, either individually or collectively, doesn't commend the glad tidings. They're not walking worthy of the gospel.
I want to, in closing, turn to one more portion and this portion is not going to be an exhortation.
But I trust it will encourage and thrill our hearts in relationship to the subject we've just considered. Let's go to Revelation.
Revelation Chapter 3, I believe it is.
Yes, Revelation chapter 3. This is in connection to with the John's letter to the brethren at Sardis and Justice. Notice what he says in verse 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and I want you to notice this.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. What an encouragement, brethren, does this. Thrill our souls. There's a day coming when we're going to walk with the Lord Jesus in a sphere of things where we're no longer going to need the exhortations to walk worthy. We're not going to need to be told in that day to walk worthy of our vocation. We're not going to be need to be exhorted to walk worthy of the Lord. We're not going to be told to walk worthy of God or to conduct ourselves worthy of the gospel. No, we're not going to need those exhortations anymore.
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And we're going to walk with the Lord Jesus, and we're going to walk because we are worthy.
Why are we going to be worthy? Because of his worthiness, Because of what he has provided. But it thrills my soul to think that there's a day coming, and I'm going to stand with the Lord Jesus, and in his righteousness I am going to walk beyond the defilements, beyond the need of exhortation. We shall walk with him because we are worthy. And if, brethren, if that isn't the springboard or the motivation for us to walk worthy now in regard to the exhortation.
We have been given in Paul's ministry then. I don't know what goes on within our hearts but to look forward to that day. And as I said earlier, life is short. We've only got a few moments at best to live for his glory and to walk for him in a worthy fashion. Here, brethren. May it encourage our hearts to do so in light of what is ahead, and to realize that in that day he's going to joy over us with singing. He's going to give commendation for any little exercise.
Any little desire that he put in our hearts to walk worthy, and he's going to say, come walk with me, we're going to walk with him because we're worthy. In the meantime, let us, by the grace of God, take heed to the exhortations to walk worthy now.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Bernie Roossinck
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We certainly like to give a warm welcome to everyone that's here for the Gospel meeting tonight.
The message of the Gospel.
Is a beautiful story of God's love for me and for you. That's what the gospel is. Good news, the word of God says as cold water to a thirsty soul.
Or as good news from a far country.
Got it wrong, should look it up.
The gospel is good news from a far country, friends.
This is a message from God to you. Let's begin by singing #2 on our hymn sheets. Come tis Jesus gently calling.
Ye with care and toil oppressed.
With your guilt, how are appalling come?
And I will give you rest for your sin. He once has suffered on the cross. The work was done, and the Word by God now ordered to each weary soul has come.
Maybe we could stand up and sing this hymn together.
I would also like to sing #9.
On our hem sheets.
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. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you now.
Where Jesus shed his precious blood. That's what the Gospel is about, friends. That lovely man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world.
To save sinners of whom I am chief, we read.
Let's sing #9 together.
Before I open God's word.
I would like to ask you.
To listen carefully to what God is saying to you.
Never mind the person that's sitting next to you.
I know that many of you use your phones for the Bible, and I'm fine with that.
But I would ask you don't be texting your friends.
We'll be looking at Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook Listen.
To what God is saying.
But I am OK if you're using your phone to use the word of God. So we all know this book that I have in my hand, it's God's word, God.
Revealed truth to us here.
Let's open with a verse in Matthew Chapter 11.
Verse 28.
Matthew 1128. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's beloved Son.
This is the invitation of the gospel to you. Come unto me.
Come unto me.
All ye that labor and are heavy laden.
And I will give you a rest.
You want to rest in your soul, friends?
The invitation of the Lord Jesus has come unto me.
All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Let's turn to a verse I love in Isaiah chapter 55.
If you don't know where that is, that's okay.
Just listen.
Isaiah 55 verse one Ho everyone that thirsteth.
Come ye to the waters.
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He that hath no money come yell.
Buy and eat, yay. Come buy wine and milk without money.
And without price.
God's invitation, friend to you, is come. There's no cost to you to the gospel.
God has provided a way of salvation and He has paid the entire bill.
And his invitation has come. You don't need money. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
I would like to look at a passage, short passage in the Old Testament. It's in First Samuel 22 and I hope it's OK if I move around a little bit. I like to interact with you kids.
Lineal Have you ever heard of King David?
Yeah, most of us have heard of King David. King David in the Old Testament was a man after God's own heart, and he shows out to us in many, many ways.
The love of the Lord Jesus sees a picture of the Lord Jesus in many ways, so let's turn to a short passage in.
First Samuel, chapter 22.
At this time, David had been anointed to be the king of God's people, Israel.
But it wasn't the king yet. Joy. There was another king and God said.
I am removing that person, King Saul.
And I'm going to make you my chosen person.
And David wasn't king yet, kids, he was in rejection. So I wanted to kill him. And he haunted him like a Partridge that says chased him throughout the wilderness. He wanted to kill him. So let's read first Samuel 22 verse one. David therefore escaped this departed fence and escaped to The Cave of Dolem.
When his brethren and all of his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
Stop right there.
Lord Jesus, God's Son.
In this world, today is in rejection.
God sent his Son into the world to be the savior of the world.
We read in John 316 for God so loved the world.
That's the people, not the planet.
For God so loved Lennie, will you and Bernie.
Each one of you kids, God loved you. He sent his Son into the world.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so the day came.
When the Lord Jesus was born into this world.
To marry.
His father was God.
So this baby was born in Bethlehem. It says they went there to be taxed. They were doing a census in the Roman Empire and everybody had to go to their home family's roots. And so that's why they were there. And the hour came for this baby to be born. And this says there was no room for him.
In the end, no room the very first moment that the God.
In the person of his son, Jesus came into this world. There is no room for him. They laid him in a Manger. They wrapped him in swaddling clothes. I think that means grave clothes. And I don't, you know, I, I work on farms. That's my work. I've been in some pretty cool barns, big barns.
That might not be that bad to be born in, really. I don't think it was that way with the Lord Jesus.
I think they said we don't have any room here, take it outside. And I think that was more or less a cave, a dark, slimy, dirty cave. And they laid them down there on that old hay, wet probably.
Says in John One, He came unto his own, His own received him not.
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The Lord Jesus was rejected.
He went through his life.
His path was to obey his father and to go to the cross of Calvary and die.
We had this earlier in our meetings.
How the Lord Jesus did every single thing in perfect obedience to His Father's will.
He said us in John for my meat, that is my whole purpose is to do the will of him that sent me.
And God sent him to die in the cross.
He sent him to die in the cross while the Lord Jesus was in rejection. He's still in rejection today. When the day for his trial came, you know what they said? Oh, we made a big mistake. Is that what they said? No, they said, we will not have this man. Away with him. Killed him, take him away.
One time in our assembly I was speaking on this and Drew Vandenberg was a little boy.
And I was trying to emphasize the rejection of Christ, and I picked him up like this with one hand, and I hauled him out of the meeting room and I shut him outside the door.
And I instantly regretted doing it.
It was not in the spirit, I'm afraid to say, because Drew was terrified.
And he was weeping and.
Immediately the Spirit of God said to me, whosoever so offend one of these little ones, it's better than a bill stone be hung around his neck. But anyway, thankfully Drew forgave me. But that's what they did to the Lord Jesus kids. They said we don't want them, kill them, and that's what they did.
Well, the Lord Jesus is in rejection, just like David was in rejection here and here he is in The Cave.
I used to think it'd be neat to live in a cave, but I don't think so now.
Now look what happens in verse 2.
And everyone that was in distress.
Friends.
If you are in your sins tonight. If you do not know God's forgiveness.
You're in distress and maybe you don't even know it.
But you're in distress.
God who loves you, he says.
Come unto me, Lily.
The Lord Jesus says, Lily, come unto me. You may not know that you're in distress, but unless your sins are washed away.
You're in distress, you are. What else? Everyone that was in debt?
You know, before I got saved, before I met the Lord, before He washed my sins away, I was in debt. What kind of debt? The debt of sin. A debt that I could never pay. How many sins is it going to take to keep you out of heaven?
How many sins, kids?
Will it take to keep you out of heaven?
God is holy. There can be no sin in heaven. One sin is too much.
Now.
How many people have sinned in this room?
The scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Let's use an example.
Suppose that.
Can I use you hands? Hands is a medium stature person.
Andrew is tall. If we asked Andrew to touch the kids, if we asked the Andrew to touch the top of that door, he probably could do it. And maybe hands could too.
And your your dad could do that, couldn't he? But.
If we asked Andrew and Hans to touch the ceiling, how about that? Is that? No, they're short. There's no way. And the Bible says Zach.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means me and you.
Our sinners, and we can't get out of it by ourselves. And your dad too. Yeah.
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I think, though, that you're dead. Has his sins washed away? Are you glad about that? I am too. But we're short. We're in debt to God. We can't pay. We can't pay.
OK, what else? And everyone that was discontented.
Friends.
Without Christ, without salvation, there is no satisfaction in life.
Discontented.
Look at all the advertisements that you see in the newspaper, in magazines, on billboards, on television. Everywhere you look on the radio, you hear stuff.
Discontented. They're telling you, Bernie, you can't be happy unless you're driving this car.
You can't be happy unless you're eating at this restaurant or wearing these kind of shoes or vacationing in this place.
We all know what it's like to be discontented, you know, Without Christ there is no satisfaction. None.
Tell you something that happened to you, my daughter Brittany and I recently. I hope this is OK.
I know there are some people in here that like hockey.
I like hockey, I think if you're Canadian, which I am.
You like hockey?
And there was a day that the Detroit Red Wings were going to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
And.
I have made it to try to make it my habit to date my daughters.
So Brittany and I went to this game in Detroit.
And I didn't know this was going to happen. When we got there, they were honoring a man, an old man named Red Kelly.
And he had been a player for Detroit and also Toronto.
Won the Stanley Cup three times in Detroit, three times in throne.
He was a good player.
And so they had a big red carpet ceremony and they were going to retire the man's number. What that means, kids?
They were honoring him, and no other player would wear #4 ever again in his honor.
And it was interesting to watch that. And he came shuffling out with his family.
And.
People were clapping. You know, this man had probably one of the most successful careers in hockey playing that you could have.
And he sat down there and it was pretty clear that he couldn't hear a thing.
He could barely walk.
His wife was hollering in his ear. They're clapping for you. What?
Then you would kind of raise his hand like this.
And he came up to the mic and he just said in a really low.
Broken voice. I wish I was better.
That's it.
You know my.
Everybody else was cheering for the man. I wanted to go down and give him a hug and say Mr. Kelly.
You're on your last step right now. God loves you. All of that success that the man had, and I don't take away his confidence. He was a good hockey player. But you know what?
Probably in a month or two or three, that man will enter eternity and all that fame and all that ability. It's not worth anything. He didn't look contented and he didn't sound contented. I think he would have traded it all.
To feel better for one day.
You know, friends, that's what sin is like.
Seeing this a robber.
We read in John chapter 10.
Turn to it so I don't misquote it like I did before.
Or in John chapter 10 here.
Verse 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
That's what Satan wants to do to your life, young people, the thief. He wants to get you into sin, and you're bound by it. You're a captive of it. Does he have your good and blessing in mind? He does not. He's come to steal and to kill and to destroy.
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But that's not the end of the verse. The Lord Jesus says I am come that they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly. I love that.
Now I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. You know when the Lord Jesus was here.
We read in Matthew in AI. Think it's Chapter 9.
The Lord Jesus was walking down this road, it says. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.
Moved with compassion.
Because they were as sheep, having no shepherd.
That's where we are friends. Without God in our sins, sheep having no shepherd lost, wandering around. We need to be saved.
And the Lord Jesus, I love that says that a few times in the Gospels about the Lord. He was moved with compassion for you, friends, for you and for me. He looks down and he says there's Bernie. I love that boy.
I'm going to go to the cross.
Looks at you, says I love you.
I'm going to die for you and he did do that. On what basis can we say that says in Galatians chapter 2, the son of God who loved who?
Me and gave himself for me. You know, kids, if you were the only person in this world, the only one, the Lord Jesus still would have come down and given up His life on the cross for you. He would have done it.
The Son of God, who loved Bob, who loved Bernie, who loved Lemuel. Put your own name in it, friend. God loves you.
The problem is, as sinners, we can't come into God's family in our sins. We just can't.
And those people that came to that cave with King David?
Everyone that was distressed and in debt and discontent gathered themselves unto him.
It's like the Lord Jesus saying, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I think it's in John Chapter 7. The Lord Jesus says that last great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying.
If any man thirst.
If any man or woman, or boy or girl thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
The Lord Jesus wants to save your soul. He loves you.
So here we have the shepherd giving his life for the sheep.
You know, the Lord Jesus went to the cross and he died there. The one person in all of the history of time that did not deserve to die, He died.
He died for you, He died for me.
When I was a kid we used to sing a little song that went like this.
3 crosses standing side by side the.
Oh, at a site Sublime.
Two for their own transgressions died, the middle one for mine.
Can you say that?
That's what the gospel is about.
The Lord Jesus went into.
Death for you. Why did Jesus have to die, kids?
We read in Romans the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death.
We're all sinners.
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The payment? Somebody had to die.
The message of the gospel is it doesn't have to be you.
Our bodies may die.
But our soul and our spirit will go back to God who gave it, and there will be a judgment. The question will go out, What have you done with my son Jesus?
If your name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, you'll be cast into the lake of fire. That's not a popular message today, but it's what the Word of God teaches that if you die in your sins.
You will pass eternally ruined into a sinner's hell.
God didn't create hell to put you in it, since Hell was created for the devil and his angels.
But God is holy.
And he cannot have sin in his presence. And so somebody had to pay the penalties. Somebody had to pay the wages of sin is death. That's why Jesus had to die.
Now, there's a verse that I have dearly, dearly loved in Leviticus that we'll read here.
Chapter 17.
You know Emma, when you got leukemia is when I started loving this first.
Do you know that?
But I want you to listen to what God is saying. This is a lot deeper than somebody having leukemia.
Leviticus 17.
Verse 11.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood.
And I have given it unto you, given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, or it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Now this in this context, is speaking about animal sacrificing that the children of Israel did in the Old Testament. But I want to bring it.
To you right now.
As the Lord Jesus giving his life for you on the cross, he says I have given it to you upon the altar. We're going to say that altar was the cross. We talked earlier in our Reading meetings about the offerings. There was a offer, a burnt offering of sweet saver, and then there was a sin offering made and the Lord Jesus was both of those.
When you will, when the Lord Jesus died, it was a sweet smell to God.
That his son perfectly obeyed him in every way. But it was also that year in my sins could be washed away. Aren't you glad he did that? I am too.
I love him for that.
The life of the flesh is in the blood. Now the Lord was hanging there on the cross, or before he got through the cross, really. You know, they, they jammed the crown of thorns on his head. I don't think they just placed it on there. I think they yanked it down big thorns.
And I think blood began to flow.
They scourged him, it says in the Psalms. The flowers plowed upon my back. They made long their purpose.
Coming out.
And they laid him on that cross. I take it it was there on the ground and they stretched him out and they grabbed his hands and feet and started pounding these big spikes right through his hands and feet. Think about that, boys.
Sound fun to you?
Terrible agony and more blood comes out.
And then the Lord, they lift it up and they set it there, and he's hanging up between heaven and earth. There he is, kids, God's beloved son, and he was hanging there for me.
And he was hanging there for you.
There he is.
And then?
It says there was darkness over the whole land for three hours.
God blocked out from man's view what was going to happen, and in those three hours, God poured out.
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Upon the head of his own son, Every single.
Stroke of punishment that I deserved and that you deserved. That's what was happening in those three hours of darkness.
Wave after wave stroke.
So, precious friends, and it was for you.
He took all of it.
Upon his sacred head. And when it was done, he cried out. It's finished. Completed. It's done.
Spinach.
I already said.
Gave up the ghost, dismissed the spirit that says.
Laid down his life for you and for me. That's what he did for you.
And then?
A soldier came by. We read this in John.
They wanted to get the process to go faster.
So they started breaking the legs of these three men on the cross.
I don't know how they did that. Maybe they took that spear and hooked it around their legs and leveraged it against that wooden cross and snap, boom, broke their legs. But it says when they came to Jesus, he was already dead, already dead. And you know what they did that soldier, I think he was mad about that.
And cruelty took that spear, and he true.
Right up into the side of a blessed Savior.
This fourth with came their out blood and water.
And here, back to our verse in Leviticus, the life of the flesh is in the blood that I have given it to you.
Upon the altar.
And that was proof that the Lord Jesus was dead.
He died for you, He died for me.
They took him down from the cross.
They wait him in a tomb.
But that's not the end of the story, friends. I love this. The first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came.
It was empty.
He rose from the dead.
God raised him from the dead and put His stamp of approval on everything that His Son had done for you and for me. And the Lord Jesus is a living man right now in the glory.
A living man Now I ask you, is he your savior?
Does he mean anything to you?
You know God doesn't force his way into your heart.
He doesn't kick down the door, as we might say.
He's inviting you, he says. Come, come.
Come to me.
I know that some of you were at the art this week.
In Cincinnati, I haven't been there, but I'd like to go see it.
You guys remember what God said to Noah and his family?
Right before the judgment fell.
He didn't say go in the ark.
He said come.
Thou and thy family into the Ark.
The word come means leave where you're at and go to where Jesus is. That's what he's saying.
You know that may mean changes in your life. It will mean changes in your life.
The gospel calls us to repent. That's a We don't use that word a lot. Basically it means.
Change your thinking.
It means take sides with God against yourself.
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In my own strength and my own thinking, I might say one pretty good guy.
I may have a few bad things, got a lot more good things.
I don't really need to change much. That's not what repentance is. Repentance is is stop and turn around and go the other way. Agree with what God says about sin.
That no sin can come into heaven. God has given his Son the Lord Jesus.
To take the punishment for you and for me.
And really, all that there's left is to come.
Say Lord, I believe it, You did it for me. I accept it. I take it.
Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, what does the word Lord mean? It means authority. It basically is saying if you give the Lord Jesus authority, you put him as your guide. He is your authority, He is your.
Savior, we're not trusting in what I can do or what I think or.
It's saying Lord.
I give myself and all of my own thoughts and all of my own ambitions. Lord, I give it to you. You're my Lord, You're my savior. I also confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe.
And thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Believe you know kids, when you stand before God, there's will be a long list when I stand before God. You know, if if Steven could come up here and write all the things that I have ever sinned on this wall.
I wouldn't be able to stand here. He'd probably be shocked.
But I would be if I was writing his right, Stephen. But you know what?
When you're standing before God, there's one thing.
That God is looking for and that is did you believe in my son or didn't you?
Says he that believeth on the son have life.
He that believeth not is condemned already.
It's simple, friends.
God has provided salvation, a way to have our sins washed away, gone, to be brought into God's family as one of his children. Will you have them?
Will you take him? Will you say yes? Lord Jesus, I believe that you did it for me.
I acknowledge that in my own thinking and in my own way, I'm a lost Sinner because that you are a lost Sinner if you don't know Christ.
Say, Lord, I can't save myself.
But I believe that you did it for me.
That's what the that's what the invitation is.
Friends says in Romans 10/13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.
So be saved.
Shall be saved. You want that? Dear life, friends, I hope you do.
The Lord Jesus says, Come unto me.
Come unto me.
You know, I some of you have probably read the book Pilgrims Progress.
And that's I enjoy that book. It's probably not totally spiritual in every aspect in it, but I really enjoy there's a scene where Christian is the traveler and he's carrying a massive pack on his back and it's such a burden.
Such a burden. He's so troubled about his sin. Huge amount of weight on his back and he gets to the cross. I love this.
He stands there and he's looking at the cross.
And he says thus far did I come loaded with my sin?
Is that where you're at, friend? Right now this is decision night for you. Either you're taking him or you're rejecting him. That's the way it is. There's no neutral ground here thus far. Did I come loading with my sin?
00:40:04
Nor could ease the grief that I was in till I came hit her.
There at the cross, friends, that's where God would have you right now, standing before the cross. There's a man that many of us remember that used to say God puts the cross, blocks the path of every Sinner with the cross, Christ.
There's that cross before you.
And Christian continues, and he says, what place is this?
Must here be the beginning of my bliss. Must hear.
Must hear the burden fall from up way back.
What your load of sin gone, friend?
Bring it to the cross, say Lord Jesus, I believe it. I.
I love you, I take it.
And then he says.
Blessed Cross, blessed supplicor, yay, rather blessed be the man that there was put to shame for me and that big old pack of sin fell off.
And it was gone. You want that in your life, friends. That's what the invitation of the gospel is.
Blessed cross, yay. Rather blessed be the man that there was put to shame for Bernie.
Oh, I love the Lord Jesus, friends, do you? I can't wait.
I can't wait to get to heaven.
Be with him.
But you know, kids, there's something better than.
Knowing that your sins are washed away and that is keeping company with the person that washed them away.
I'm looking forward to that.
Sins are gone into God's family and.
Spending time with that man, that lovely Lord Jesus that washed my sins away. Do you love them?
I hope you do.
Let's end with another him.
Sing #12.
If you.
Are not.
A Christian if you have not.
Open your heart's door.
Do it now.
While we're singing this hymn.
You don't have to raise your hand or come up here or fill out some survey or.
Just quietly in your seat, friends, bow your head. Speak to the Lord Jesus, Tell Him.
You'll love them. Tell them you believe you accept him.
Ask him to wash her sins away. He'd do it right now.
He loves you, let's sing #12.
John 5:25
Children—Stephen Rule
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.
You both have a song you're ready to sing.
You already.
Good morning.
Good morning. Good morning, Mecca.
I didn't. Yeah, we could start. What song would you like?
#5 You can pick songs from anywhere. If they're a little longer, I may shorten them a little so that others get a chance. So this one, maybe we'll sing the first verse in the chorus of #5.
#18 They will sing the first verse, the chorus.
And maybe the last first two, so the first and last verse in the chorus.
The greatest fall?
Why turn from the turn away?
God so love the world.
That you.
Only saw.
Hey, how about another one?
OK, Jayden, what number?
#11.
And maybe we'll sing the first and last verses on that one too #11 The first and last verse.
Then the storms of light.
When the walkers cold shield your blades and spread on the right same time, you can never see what you're going through.
With all the neighbors that Christmas.
Good. How about another one?
00:05:01
OK.
Jesus loves me OK on the back #40.
I guess we'll have time for one more if we sing the whole of #40. So we'll sing the whole of #40 and then we'll have time for one more, I think.
Jesus loves me. Blood tells me so.
Little one still can be wrong. They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, it's a small state. Yes, Jesus loves me.
His heart drops me. He could die.
Have I'm scared to open why he will wash away my sins?
It's missing from every heart.
Yes.
Yes, it's me.
Yes, she's just lost me the Bible.
So he has lost me, loves me still.
Where my furry will handle from his shining hold on time, He will watch me where I live. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yeah, she has lost me.
Yeah, she wants to speak. The Bible helps me so.
Jesus loves me. He will stay.
Close beside me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die?
He will Take Me Home my.
Jesus, lovely.
Yeah, she's response me.
Yes, she's a ****. Speak. The Bible tells me so. OK, one more. All right, Becca.
#44 OK, let's sing the first and last verse is a #44 and that'll be our last one, at least for now.
Gypsy Boy Lane dying.
At the close of the day, meals of salvation, we can be sent me. Nobody ever has spoken to me.
Tell it again. Tell it again.
Salvation.
Can't say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
Handing me off the last words of his breath just as he has answered the lovely.
00:10:25
Salvation Story.
No one can say all the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
OK, who has a verse that you'd like to say this morning? Doesn't have to be the one out of the Sunday school paper, one that you've memorized that you'd like to see. OK.
OK, that's fine. Who else has a verse that you'd like to say?
No, I won't put anybody on the spot. I think that might be embarrassing.
Give unto them eternal life, and they should never perish.
Neither Shelly man plucked them out of my hand. John, 1028.
Had I given to them eternal life and.
They shall never perish, and I give an error. They shall never perish, and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
June 1020.
To them eternal life so that they can never perish. Neither show any man. Pluck them out of my hand on 10/28.
I give unto them eternal life.
And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John, 1028.
A couple more, all right.
I shall, I shall never pay. I give unto them eternal life. And no Montreal never.
They shall never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hands. John 1028.
I give them to them eternal life. Neither shall.
They shall never perish, neither shall any man poke them out of my hand. John 1028.
OK, a couple more can I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man put them out of my hand. John 1028.
I give one to let me turn our life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
John 1028. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my head. John 1028.
All right.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never purse you. So many man pluck them out of my hand. John 10/27/28.
Anyone else?
OK.
OK, now we have a few minutes together and I would like.
Anybody noticed something strange about the room when you came in? What's strange?
There's a person, Yeah, this person you can see a little wiggles once in a while. With this person, we're pretending they're dead. They're representing somebody that's dead.
And when we're talking about what we're going to talk about this morning, I want to tell you ahead of time what I hope you'll get from it, but I hope you'll get from it is that the way to come to the Lord Jesus is very simple.
It's not hard, it's not complicated.
It's not meant just for somebody that's older than you are. The way to come to the Lord Jesus is as simple as it could possibly be. I suspect all of you have heard the gospel multiple times, including probably last night. Probably most of you were here last night, and we'll talk about what the gospel is. But more than anything else, I want you to know that to come to the Lord Jesus, you're coming to a person that loves you. And it's very, very simple.
00:15:14
So we have a dead person here. We'll pretend they're dead.
And do you happen to know who that is? Who is it? That's Adam. We have a dead atom here.
OK, so we have a dead atom here. Would any of you like to call to dead Adam and tell him to get up, see if he'll get up? All right, go ahead.
I don't think that was anywhere. He's pretty dead.
Why don't you try get up?
Hey, he doesn't want to listen to you.
You want to try get up.
Maybe you're not using his name. Maybe somebody needs to use his name.
Adam, get up.
Doesn't work.
All right, Becca, maybe you can say it nicely and he'll get up. Get up. Adam, please.
Now, anybody else want to try? All right, anything you can find just the right way to say it? Adam, can you please get up?
Nope.
How many of you have ever gone to a graveyard where there's a bunch of tombstones and you started, you saw the name on the tombstone and you tried to say to that person, get up, did it work? No, it didn't work.
One of you wanted to try.
You want to try.
Adam, get up.
He's not listening to you either.
Listen to me, right?
Oh, maybe what we need to do is I think these are hands right here. I'm going to try to poke it right here.
Nope, didn't work. This looks like an arm right here. I'm going to squeeze a little bit on the arm. That doesn't work either. He'll listen to me though, won't he?
You don't think you'll listen to me either? How many think you'll listen to me?
You trust in me, OK. Thank you. Anybody else trust in me? Not very many. Don't have very many here. All right, Adam, get up.
You know, I don't think that worked very well, did it? I think what we need is somebody that loves Adam a lot more than I do, Then maybe that'll get him up. You think that'll work?
We'll see. Maybe.
Wake up.
One more time.
Hmm.
I want to try one more time.
No, I guess we got a cozy spot here. I'm going to read you a verse that.
I you can.
You can sit up. That was your dad there. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Adam. I appreciate it.
I want to read you a verse that I was trying to illustrate there and John chapter 5 and read you a verse because it's very, very simple.
John chapter 5 and verse 2520 verse 24 is a wonderful, wonderful verse, but we don't have a whole lot of time. So let's read John 5 verse 25 with one of you with the Bible mind reading John 5.
Verse 25.
You're going to read. You have a Bible on your lap all ready to go, and you can read verse 25.
OK.
Not sure. All right, there we go.
Verily, verily I send to you. The hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the the voice of the Son of God, and today that hear shall live. All right. What?
00:20:02
To the dead do right here and the verse we just read what happens.
What happens?
OK, I'll read it again.
For verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is this is the Lord Jesus speaking, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. I want you to think about this. I was trying to illustrate for you that Adam wouldn't listen to you and he wouldn't listen to me. There's only one voice that he could hear. And he did kind of sit up there when his dad first spoke up and sat up a bit.
And moved for the rest of us. He didn't move, did he? But when he heard the voice of his dad, Somebody that loves him a whole lot more than I do.
He started to sit up right, and maybe it took a few more tries, but Adam was able to get up. When God speaks to you, he speaks in his word and he says to you sort of something like get up.
And we're able to hear him talking to us through his word, the Bible. That's how he talks to us. The Lord Jesus talks to us in his word, the Bible. So that's why it's so important when you memorize the Bible verse, when your parents speak to you about the Bible, when you listen in Sunday school, you're listening not to your mom and not to your dad. So it's good to listen to them.
But you're especially listening to the person who loves you more than your mom or dad to the Lord Jesus.
And his voice is talking to you in his word and he's saying, if you don't know him, a savior, he speaks to you and he says, get up. I want you to think about this. When the Lord Jesus came to the earth, how many people were there that were spiritually alive? There are people that have bodies that were walking. And maybe that's not totally fair. How many people when the Lord came to this earth, I'll just put it this way, When the Lord came to this earth, think about this for a minute. Watch for a moment. When Lord Jesus came to this earth, it was.
As though the world was full of tombstones. Can you imagine how many of you have been to a graveyard?
Every graveyard you've been to has had maybe a fence around the edge or a border, some flowers or some bushes, but it came to an end, right?
When the Lord Jesus came down to this world, it was as though the whole world was dead. And I know they were there. That one's there that had he gave faith to and they believed on him. But not a one had life in himself, not one of them. It was all dead. So what did the Lord Jesus do when he came down to this world? Did he walk around and find all kinds of dead people and go back to heaven?
No.
He went to the cross and then he died. He'd on the cross and then he shed his blood and he went into a grave and did he stay there? No, he didn't. He came back up out of the grave because he defeated death. Do we have a dead person on this table now? We never did. But the person that we were pretending was dead is gone. It's empty because somebody came along and got him up and he's gone.
And that's what the Lord Jesus wants to do with all of us.
He wants to come and speak to us in His Word so that dead people will get up and follow Him. So I want you to turn to another. We're going to turn to maybe two more verses, including the one you memorized that just wants you to remember. That's very simple.
The next verse is in John chapter 6, verse 37.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me.
I will in no wise cast out how many of you have been afraid that somebody wouldn't like you?
You, you're just like Adam if you don't have your hand up, I suspect.
You're you're asleep because I think all of us have been afraid that people didn't like them. I suspect you didn't notice that I have brand new shoes on. You didn't notice that? But see, I forgot to bring my shoes to the conference. So when we got here, oh, no, I got these old tennis shoes and they're muddy and they're great for walking on down along the Wabash here. But if I wear those up in front, everybody.
Some people would reject me. Maybe they wouldn't think I'd better get dressed up so nobody notices. And now you've all noticed. But I went to Walmart and I got a new pair of shoes to put on. How many of you have to get all dressed up and ready to come to the Lord Jesus? What's it say there? Does it say you have to get dressed up and ready to come?
00:25:12
No, it says him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out. It's a really strong word. It's really strong. He's not going to turn you away. He says come and he loves you. He tells you to come to him.
To be your savior.
Because he died to wash away your sins. He says come. And he says when you come, I'm not going to cast you out.
Have you ever heard somebody laugh at somebody else? Kind of make fun of them?
How many people have heard someone laugh at somebody else? May kind of make fun of them because maybe they didn't say something quite right?
I want to tell you, the Lord Jesus loves you. You don't have to say it just right. You don't have to come just right. You just need to come. The Lord Jesus loves you. You know my mom right now, I'll tell you a little story from last week. My dad got her out. See, she's pretty old now, and she doesn't talk very well. In fact, she almost doesn't talk at all.
You can go a few days and there aren't any words and so my dad got her out in a wheelchair and he took her to the end of the street.
And he said, hey, look, there's some deer because there was some deer there at the end of the street. Do you see the deer? You know what? She answered, she said.
And Dad got home and he was all excited. Mom said, mm-hmm. And when I heard that, do you think I said, oh, well, why didn't she speak in full sentences?
Do you think I did that? No. Dan was all excited, Mom said, And he was happy. Not because she said it just right, no, because she spoke to him when he spoke to her. And you know the Lord Jesus is talking to you this morning. He's got something in his word for you. And he says come to me. I'm not going to throw you out. You don't have to come a certain way. You don't have to say a right set of words. Just come to me and I'm not going to reject you.
And one last verse, the one that you memorized in John, chapter 10 and verse 28, there's wonderful stuff. I'm going to read the prior verse too. And Jayden said it for us.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I know them. How many of you have ever tried to get your mom or dad's attention and they were busy and they didn't even know you were trying to talk to him?
Yeah, and how many of you have ever said something to your mom and dad and they didn't get it, They just didn't understand and they answered you it? No. And they're busy again. They didn't get it. They didn't understand. How many of you have done that at least once in your life? That includes all of you. Wow. Some of you had the most understanding parents out there. I said things to my parents sometimes and I say some things to my wife and to lots of people, and they don't understand.
But you know what in this verse which does it say, They talk to me, and then I know them.
No. How'd it go, Jayden?
I know them and they follow me. See, it starts with Him. He already knows you. He already knows everything inside of you. You don't have to come to him and say the right words. You don't have to come to him and get it just right. The Lord Jesus loves you and He wants you to be with him. So he's called to you in his word and he says, here's the story, here's what I've done for you.
I went to the cross and I shed my blood for you to put away your sin. Come to me. I know you and I want you. I want you in my house forever and that's the next verse. You'll never perish but have eternal life. Let's thank him.
Ephesians 5:16-33
Paul's Farewell to the Ephesians
Address—Bill Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good afternoon.
Could we sing together the 1St 3 verses of #168?
168 Very beautiful hymn.
Reading Verse.
Three What is loss?
In this world, when compared to that day, to the glory.
That then will from heaven be revealed 168.
Just the 1St 3 verses.
Turn with me, please, to the 20th chapter of the book of Acts, Acts, Chapter 20.
Before we read this chapter.
Perhaps I can make a few introductory remarks.
A few days ago, just before these meetings began.
Some of us had.
A rather emotional.
Conversation over the state of things in this world and perhaps more to the point, the state of things among believers.
And perhaps more specifically, the state of things among those of us that are privileged to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In that conversation, it was brought out and most of us didn't need to be reminded of it. How that the days are becoming more difficult for believers in every part of the world. In some places there is savage and.
Very real persecution for the name of Christ. It seems that Satan is doing his best.
To try and stop the spread of the gospel.
We thank the Lord that it's going forth perhaps as never before. But in these favored lands, as our late brother Eric Smith used to call them, we have different problems. We have the liberty to come together like this. We don't have any fear that someone's going to come in the door and stop us or take us off to prison.
But on the other hand, there are attacks made from other angles.
Life is becoming more difficult.
And it is becoming more and more difficult to stand for that which God has given us in His precious Word.
Young families are finding more difficult.
To raise their children in the fear of the Lord because of what is going on in the world around what is going on in the school system.
What young people and children are being exposed to not only in school, but through the Internet and every other form of social media.
The list could go on and on, and we who are older are not immune to all of this.
Because Satan is attacking us too.
I was so thankful that it was brought out in the reading the readings yesterday that there is a path for faith.
Through all of this because the Lord knew exactly what the last days were going to be like.
Let's read here in Acts 20 a little bit of background.
The apostle Paul had more or less come to the end.
Of his public ministry.
Oh, I don't say that he didn't have some ministry after this. He did and we are very thankful that when he was a prisoner in Rome shortly after this.
He wrote some of the epistles which we are enjoying today.
We know that after this he did appear publicly before Kings and.
People in positions of power and authority. But more or less, his ministry was winding down. He's on his way up to Jerusalem, and on the way there he calls for the elders of the assembly at Ephesus.
I've tried to picture that scene.
00:05:01
Here was Paul he calls himself in one place, Paul the aged.
He was probably a fair amount younger than I am when he said that.
But he had been through hardships and difficulties that most of us have never faced, and he was probably, in that sense, physically at least, old before his time.
But here he is calling for these elders of the assembly, where perhaps he had.
Ministered more truth.
And in more depth than any other place.
And he wants to have one final visit with them because he doesn't think that he'll see their faces again, nor is there any record in Scripture that he did. So let's begin to read.
From verse 17 of Acts 20.
And from Melitus.
Not at all to be confused with the island of Melita, on which Paul was shipwrecked. This is a different place. He sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church, and when they were come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.
Serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many.
Tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews.
And how I kept about nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly.
And from house to house.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit under Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.
Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, shall see my face no more.
Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you.
All the counsel of God.
Take heed there, for unto yourselves, and do all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.
To feed the Church of God.
Which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore, watch.
And remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
Which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.
Yeah, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with the mall.
And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him.
Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake.
That they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him into or unto the ship.
It isn't my intention to go through this chapter verse by verse and comment on each one.
00:10:03
But rather to look at some of the high points here.
That, I trust, will have a message for all of us, whether we are older or middle-aged or young people or young families or perhaps even the children.
Yes, you can get something out of an address.
Allow me to say, and I don't say it's any credit to me, but I can remember today listening to an address when I was seven years old, a young people's address, and how it took hold of me even at that age. Why? Why did it take such hold of me? Because the brother who spoke spoke on Josiah.
Who became king when he was eight years old.
And I remember thinking, wow, and I'm seven, I'll be 8 next year.
This man, this boy had to be king at 8 years old.
I listened.
But in this chapter we are talking about a man who is winding down his ministry for the Lord.
And I believe the way he ministered has a voice to each one of us in these last days.
And the first word Paul says in verse 19 is.
Serving the Lord with all humility of might.
We're not going to dwell on that except to call attention to it.
And to say.
And maybe I have been guilty of it.
That pride has done more damage in the Church of God, and especially in these last days.
Than perhaps anything else.
A dear brother once made this remark many years ago. It stuck with me.
He said, referring to those gathered to the Lord's name in these last days.
He said how inappropriate it is.
For us to be lifting up our heads in pride and boasting of the great things that we have done.
Just at a time when God has shone the light on everything in Christendom and made us realize how little we have done and how much we have failed.
May we all take that to heart. Humility of mind.
I know I'm quoting different brethren. Pardon that.
Someone else has said.
That to talk about separation without being humbled is to make fertile soil for one of the most noxious weeds in the human heart, and that is sectarianism.
Very, very sad. Let's remember that. And let's remember that when Paul said these things.
He said them not merely as a minister of Christ, although he was that.
He said them as the one whom we might call the standard bearer for the dispensation of grace.
That's why Paul could, say, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. He didn't mean that he never made a mistake, and he wasn't suggesting that others should follow him into his failure. But the lifestyle and the pattern of Paul's life was a pattern for those who had a heavenly calling.
But who walked down the pathway in this walk, the pathway down here in this world?
Faithful to the Lord in the world, but not of it.
In all humility of mind, and yet in all the dignity that characterized one who recognized his place as a sun and air of God.
That takes real communion with the Lord.
Secondly, it says many tears.
I have seen many people shed tears.
I don't cry easily. Those that know me know very well that that doesn't happen very often.
00:15:04
But do we shed tears?
For the right reasons. I've seen many people shed tears because of how circumstances affected them, and that's not wrong.
As long as those tears do not have my will involved in them.
Remember that, please, And I speak to my own heart. It's all right to shed tears for circumstances in your own life, as long as your will is not connected with them.
What do I mean by will connected with them?
Pardon a medical story. When I was on duty in the emergency ward in the hospital where I worked, I can well remember a man being brought in.
And he was beyond anything that we could do. He was dead on arrival. And it was no, there was nothing more we could do for him. But the story was pitiful. He had been on the side of the road of the Queen Elizabeth Way, which is a four lane highway that went right past the hospital.
And he had had a flat tire pulled over to the side. And he wasn't a young man, but he was capable of changing a tire, as most people in my generation knew how to do. And he was there with his wife, engaged in getting the spare out of the trunk.
And all of a sudden, he heard a blast on an air horn, apparently.
Turned around to see that there was what we call in Canada, a tractor trailer. What you call a semi down here, same thing.
It had lost a wheel and that wheel was hurtling straight for him at 60 or 70 miles an hour.
The truck driver knew what was going to happen and all he could do was blast his horn.
That man turned around, saw that wheel on top of him, gave his wife a tremendous shove, sent her head over heels into the ditch and smack and he was gone.
But what I could not help and I did shed tears that time.
Seeing his son who got a phone call that his father had been in a serious car accident, and seeing the tears flowing down that son's face. But were they tears of the right kind? I didn't blame him in one sense. I doubt if he was a Christian. I can still see him standing there in the emergency ward.
Smashing his fists against the wall in frustration and anger.
That such an event should have occurred, his father taken away so violently and so suddenly.
Why me? Why did this happen to me? Those aren't the kind of tears we should be shedding.
Why did Paul shed these tears? He shed them.
Because he knew what was going to happen. He saw on the horizon.
The giving up of that precious truth that he had labored so strenuously to teach.
He served with many tears. May we do the same.
And temptations.
Now the word temptation is used in two ways in the word of God. Sometimes it means being tempted with evil, tempted to sin.
But that's not the thought here. I don't think that's what Paul means here. The thought of temptation has more the thought of testing. Testing.
If you and I seek to follow the Lord, we are going to be tested on it.
And it's interesting here that Paul says, which befell me by the lying in weight of the Jews.
Yes, the Jews.
Were on Paul's trail, if we could say that, all his life. Many times they sought to kill him, which they, as far as we know, never succeeded in doing. It's very likely that Paul was executed by the Romans.
But they were always after Paul.
And.
We don't want to go into the details of it, but we will mention it later in this chapter.
Paul actually did fall into a bit of a snare that I believe Satan had set for him because those Jews were so fanatical and so attached to their religion. And Paul, having been raised in the Jewish religion, realized this and he thought he could reach them by accommodating them.
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And what happened? Paul went up to Jerusalem and those in Jerusalem said Paul, if you want to reach the Jews.
Here's what you need to do, and we won't go into it, but they said, Paul, they're all zealous of the law. So if you'll go along with some of them and purify yourselves with some men that have a vow and so on and go into the temple, everybody will calm down and they'll all realize that you're behaving like a good Jew even though you're a Christian.
Who are we?
To sit in judgment on Paul.
But he was wrong.
And it didn't work. It only caused all kinds of trouble, and the brethren had witnessed to him that way.
Are you and I in danger of the same temptations? Not quite the same.
But the importing of Judaizing principles into the church has gone on throughout the Christian dispensation, and it's going on today.
We are facing a different problem. We are facing covenant theology, and it's sweeping Christendom today.
And it's making Jews out of Christians. It's making Jews out of Christians because the Jews in the Old Testament were to lay claim to the world in the name of the Lord. And now Christians are being told that they are the extension of Israel today, and they're to go out and straighten this world out and get it ready for God's Kingdom.
It's Judaism being imported into Christianity.
John has some strong words for that in Revelation chapter 3 in the address to Philadelphia.
He calls that kind of thing a synagogue of Satan. Ouch. Strong words, but their scripture. Why? Because Satan knows that if he can bring the church down to the level of a worldly religion, it will lose its effectiveness. Let's remember that.
Well, as we go on here, we find that Paul in confidence could say that he had kept back nothing that was profitable.
He had been faithful in committing all those precious revelations.
From a risen Christ in glory.
Not just to Ephesus, but to other brethren as well.
And may I say that God and His goodness and in His grace has restored that precious truth to us in these last days. I ask my own heart. I ask your heart.
Do we remember it?
Do we value it?
And don't think that you can look at someone like me.
Who is getting older now and think, well, he's immune to all that kind of stuff.
Were never immune to the attacks of Satan and I can remember when I was young seeing another man and all reminisce a little bit. Another man who didn't shed tears very, very easily.
John L Erisman. Would you agree with that, Bob, that he didn't cry easily? He didn't.
But I saw him do it once.
When he was ministering on this very subject, not this chapter, but this very subject.
And he said I trust.
That if I'm left here till the Lord comes, I'll be found.
Faithfully going on with that which the Lord has committed to me. And there was a tear or two running down his face.
Never saw it happen before or after.
Anyway, the point is here that Paul says in verse 22.
And let's read it a little differently here, because this is not the Spirit of God about which Paul is speaking. It should read. And now behold, I go, bound in my spirit under Jerusalem.
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He didn't have the mind of the Lord in going there. It was Paul's spirit. He was so anxious to reach his own nation, the Jews, even though the Lord had told him to depart out of Jerusalem. And you go to the Gentiles, Paul.
He wanted to make, if we could put it this way, one last real attempt to reach his own nation.
We could admire that, even though it was not the Lord's mind.
But there was failure there.
His brethren had been admonishing him all the way up to Jerusalem. Paul, don't go. No, Paul, don't go there.
One man even took a piece of Paul's clothing and bound his hands and feet and said now this is what they're going to do to the man that owns this piece of clothing.
Paul should have listened.
And he didn't.
But it hits a big **** and this is what I want to emphasize. God wasn't finished with Paul. God was still going to use him in spite of failure. And many others continued to honor Paul. And when he was in Rome, he wrote some of those beautiful epistles that we have today.
I want to make a comment on this.
If I may, to some of the young people.
If you look at your older brethren.
You're going to see failure.
And it's easy to discount them on account of that failure.
Recognize the failure? Yes.
One time a young man said something to his father.
About an older brother who had obviously failed.
In his father's comment to him was good, he said Son.
It says whose faith follow, referring to Hebrews 13. It says whose faith follow, not whose failures follow.
That was good.
If you find young people that some of your older brethren fail, and maybe sometimes the way they minister, the truth doesn't really get home to your soul and they seem out of touch with the world in which you live.
Try and look for what is of Christ.
Because you can learn more than you think from some of those older brethren.
And you know what will make a big difference?
Reach out to them. Reach out to them.
Tell you a story.
Quite a few years ago now, there was a brother older than I, not a whole lot older, but he was older.
And more than once, I don't mind saying he roughed me up.
And not just a little bit either. He roughed me up well.
And as a result of that.
I did not. I'm very thankful to say, and I say it with I trust all humility. I did not react.
In a way to say anything back to him. I listened to what he had to say. I took it to the Lord.
And after a long time, came to the conclusion.
That about 90% of what he had said to me was wide of the mark.
He had misunderstood me.
Which was all right.
Maybe I needed the roughing up, but what he said to me.
He really didn't understand.
And I think he got the impression that as a result of that roughing up that I didn't like him.
And the time came when he got older and his health started to fail.
And I can well remember having a conversation with him and his talking about that and about how he probably didn't have any longer or much to very much longer down here.
And I said to him, and I really meant it. I said, well, I'm going to pray that the Lord will come in and strengthen you. I said, because we need you around a little bit longer.
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I wasn't expecting it.
But you know, it was amazing how his attitude changed after that. I couldn't help but notice the difference.
I had appreciated him and I did. I did, even though perhaps he had said some things that were the result of not really understanding someone who was younger and so on.
Reach out to older ones and try and understand, and if they say things, perhaps that isn't quite on the mark. Remember that they didn't grow up in the same generation that you did, and the world is changing rapidly.
Let's go on here.
It says in verse 14, none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself and.
Here's the phrase that I want to emphasize so that I might finish my course with joy.
Now if you look in the Darby translation, I believe the words with joy are left out.
It simply finished my course.
And we won't turn to it. But if we went to second Timothy, chapter four, we would find Paul saying, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Pardon me.
Why is it not necessary to put the words with joy in?
Oh, because if we finish the course, the Lord has set out for us.
It will be with joy.
May I say.
That it pains me.
To see how many dear believers are not finishing the course.
That the Lord has set out for them. In one sense, we all finish our course. I know that.
Every true believer will be in glory. Every true believer will enjoy the fullness of blessing in that day.
But there is a course that the Lord has set out for you and for me down here.
And it has been recognized even in worldly circles how important that is.
Maybe some of you have heard me quote this before, but it's.
A true quotation came from an English sea captain who lived back in the 1500s by the name of Sir Francis Drake.
Even though he was.
In some ways, a bit of a Rascal, he may have been a believer.
And he used to pray something like this. Oh Lord God, when thou giveest to thy servants to endeavor any great matter.
Give us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished.
That yieldeth the true glory.
Yes, God will reward whatever faithfulness there is in your life and mine, but how good to finish that course and not be turned aside from it?
How can I do that?
We're going to read on here and see.
There were three things that characterized Paul's ministry, and we aren't going to dwell on them. We'll just mention them here.
The first one is at the end of verse 24.
Did I say verse 14 when I refer to that verse before? Sorry, beg your pardon.
These are progressive bifocals, and once in a while when I look at the audience and look down, they play a little trick with me. So I beg your pardon, Verse 24.
It says the end of the verse to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
I say to each one of us here, if you want to be happy, give out the gospel.
I didn't say preach the gospel because everyone isn't called to preach publicly, especially sisters.
00:35:06
But have a gospel testimony and remember this, and it's often not realized. The Scripture always presents the gospel as an individual responsibility, not an assembly responsibility. It can be collective in the sense that believers can come together with a mutual interest in the gospel and do it.
And for that reason, it's quite an order for there to be a gospel meeting.
Connected with the local assembly. But to think that that is enough and that if I attend the assembly gospel meeting, that's my gospel testimony, I believe that's a mistake. Each one of us should be.
Using every available opportunity being instant as we get in Second Timothy 4 in season and out of season.
Have a gospel outlook.
The second thing is in verse 25.
Paul goes around, he says here among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God.
We had that before us yesterday, a moral state, a moral walk in keeping with those who honor and own who the rightful king is.
The world will be very quick to recognize if you and I don't exemplify the things of the Kingdom of God.
How important.
Very often believers lose their testimony in this world, and I have been guilty of it by not following the things concerning the Kingdom of God.
And finally, we have in verse 27 all the counsel of God.
Paul was the one, and we get it in Ephesians. He completed the word of God.
He completed it. What does that mean? It means in simple terms that there is no new revelation since that which God gave to the apostle Paul. Others wrote after Paul, like the apostle John and so on, and they filled in details, but there is no new revelation. Does someone come along and say I have a new revelation from God?
Does a Muhammad come along and say I have a new revelation from God?
Does someone like Mary Baker, Eddie, come along or Helen White, Ellen White or somebody like that in the 1800s and say I have a new revelation from God? Don't believe it. Paul completed the word of God and so.
We have all the counsel of God. God has told us everything that is going to happen.
He shared all his mind with us.
All the counsel of God.
And there are many dear believers. And I say this I trust again with humility. There are many dear believers today who love to enjoy.
Hearing about all the counsel of God.
But.
Then do I want to walk in a pathway?
Where all the counsel of God can be ministered.
Oh, that's another matter. It's a humbling place to be in.
Why is that?
Many years ago in a reading meeting.
And this is long before my time. I only read it.
A brother raised a question.
He said. Why is it that many dear Christians?
Do not want to hear all the counsel of God.
And a well taught brother gave a good answer. He said they will probably listen to you.
Until you want to take them to heaven.
What did he mean?
Did he mean that every believer wasn't going to be with the Lord in heaven when the Lord comes, or when we might be called upon to leave this world in death? No, that's not what he was talking about. He was talking about Ephesian truth. He was talking about the heavenly calling of the church. He was talking about the present enjoyment.
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Of the fact that we're already risen and seated in heavenly places.
That's not popular.
Why? Because it takes me out of this world. It takes me away from getting involved in the things of this world.
And if I tell this world that I am here as an ambassador, that I don't want to get involved in the things that are going on in this world.
The reaction is then we don't want your company. Oh, I don't mean that the world rejects the good things that a believer might do.
But someone who walks in the sense of his or her heavenly calling is not going.
To be popular.
All the counsel of God.
What a precious thing it is to enjoy and to walk in the good of it, and to be where that precious truth can be ministered.
Paul gives some warnings here.
And those warnings are needed more than ever today. Verse 28. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock.
Over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God. And this last phrase is perhaps a little accurate. Again in the Darby it should read, which he hath purchased with the blood of his own.
Oh, the Church is precious to God. Why? Because it cost him the blood of his own beloved Son.
That's why the church is precious to God.
Someone has said if you want to be happy, preach the gospel and that is true. We just commented on that.
But if you want to shed many cheers, seek to serve your brethren. And that doesn't just apply to those that are so-called full time in the work of the Lord, it applies to all of us. If you are going to try and be a help to your brethren, whether you are young or old, it is going to mean tears and sorrow, yes.
And sometimes it's easy to wash my hands of that and say, why do people, why do the Saints of God need to get into so many difficulties in their lives?
Why can't they walk a better Christian pathway and quit getting into trouble?
And then the Lord may allow me to miss the path or do something and then I realize that.
Maybe I need the help and encouragement of my brethren too. No, none of us are immune to these things. And here was the Apostle Paul. Did he need encouragement? Yes. He missed the path.
But did the Lord say Paul? I guess that's it, You're finished. You went up to Jerusalem like that and I told you not to. I had multiple brethren warn you about it, and you were stubborn and you said you were going anyway.
Paul, that's it.
What does the Lord say to him in chapter 23? Just turn the page a couple?
To chapter 23.
And verse 11.
What's happened?
Paul's been arrested.
He's put in prison and he's not going to get out of prison for a number of years.
But what does the Lord say in verse 11?
And the night following, the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.
Maybe some of us have failed. I certainly have, and I say this to each one here. No matter what age you are, sometimes we have failed.
And the devil will come in and say to you, look at what you did, look at how badly you messed up. You can't do anything for the Lord anymore. You can't say anything. Everybody knows what you did.
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No.
Yes, there are consequences sometimes to our failure. There were with Paul's failure.
And there can be lifelong consequences from failure. But as I've often said before, there are no qualifications on 1St John 1:00 and 9:00. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And sometimes.
A vessel, if I could use the term that has been broken.
Is more valuable in one sense than one that perhaps is still in one piece. Why is that? Because we realize our weakness, we realize our failure, and then perhaps if someone comes along.
Who also has failed?
O that one who has also failed can go and be more of a help than one who has never been down that road. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's a good excuse to go into sin and fail in order to be able to be a help to someone else who fails. That's not the thought, but sometimes a broken vessel.
Can be better than a one that's in one piece. Was Peter more useful to the Lord after his failure than before he was?
Because he realized what had happened to him and his ministry was characterized by the remembrance of how he had failed.
Verse 30, verse 30, or verses 29 and 30 bring before us what Paul said was going to happen to the testimony. And if you read church history, it is absolutely amazing.
How fast it happened. How quickly the truth was thrown overboard.
And how quickly.
The system of hierarchy and all the things that came into the church developed after the apostles passed off the scene. Paul warns about that. And I say to you and to me.
If we are not careful.
This same kind of thing can happen. It has been wonderful, hasn't it, what the Lord has given in blessing in the last almost 200 years. It has been wonderful to be part of that preciousness of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to know and to enjoy the precious truth of the one Body.
To enjoy the preciousness of the fact that the Spirit of God is here on earth, not only.
Every true believer, but dwelling collectively among believers as the House of God to realize that precious truth, and many others.
What a privilege.
But we could give it up. We could lose it.
If we're not careful Now don't get me wrong, I believe the Lord will have a Philadelphia right to the end. I believe as we get in Second Timothy 2 and 22, there will always be the with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
These warnings are needed.
But what is the remedy?
What is the remedy? How can I finish my course to go back to what we had in verse 24?
How can we avoid these pitfalls? Do we have to fall into them? Do we have to go into?
That attitude that says it's all over with, there's too much failure, too many things are happening, too many difficulties are coming in. Yes, Satan is active and sometimes we're, shall we say it, material that's a little too good for him to work on too.
What does he say in verse 32?
And we want to emphasize just a few things in the last couple of minutes.
And now, brethren, I commend you to the Local Assembly and to those dear brethren who minister to you.
That's not what it says, does it? I commend you to God.
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And of the word of his grace, two things that are never going to change.
Even the very best of your brethren can fail. Even the very best can miss the path.
The Lord will never fail.
And his word will always be there.
I say to each one of you young people, young families, the word of God must be our final authority for everything. Don't bend it, don't twist it, don't try and get out from under it. This world is corrupting the word of God and out in Christendom and we're part of Christendom. Don't let me try and isolate ourselves from them or don't let us try and isolate ourselves. We are part of the great House of.
Them. But in much of Christendom, that Word of God is being corrupted, and we can fall prey to it too.
By rationalizing our way around scripture. Oh yes, I know it says that, but.
My situation is different and well, it's just a complicated world today and this doesn't fit my situation.
Yes it does. We're never wiser than Scripture.
End of verse 35.
We wouldn't know the Lord Jesus had said this except that it's here in the Word of God.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
That can have very wide ramifications, but.
I want to emphasize it this way.
Sometimes, as believers, we look for certain things.
That will minister to me and if it makes me feel comfortable then.
To use a common expression, then maybe I can be OK with it.
I remember talking on the phone to a dear sister. She wasn't gathered, but she was in a place where.
There wasn't, as far as I knew, an assembly gathered to the Lord's name and she was saying, well, I was just hoping there'd be a nice group of Christians that.
We're going on well and she had a bunch of things she wanted to see that had a good gospel testimony and had happy fellowship together and were going on in peaceful and quietness and enjoying the Lord together that I could be part of.
Nice desire, would God that we're always available.
But I said to her, you know, I said it has to start sometimes with individuals. It has to start with individuals. Now, I don't mind. I don't mean that she is a single sister could suddenly start forming an assembly there. But I was pointing out to her what God is saying to us here.
Christianity is characterized not so much by what it finds.
But by what it brings.
Are you finding things not quite the way you want them? Be someone who brings. That doesn't mean taking over the reading meeting and trying to shape everything the way you think it ought to be, but it means bringing Christ in it. Meanings means being a help in whichever way the Lord would lead. And above all.
Being more than doing. It's not so much what you do that counts, it's what you are.
And if what you are is right, what you do will always follow.
Be a giver.
And you'll always end up being a receiver.
And finally, one more thought here before we close.
There were other tears here at the end of the chapter.
Paul has to tell them that he doubts very much that they'll see him again. And as I said at the beginning, as far as we know from Scripture, they didn't see him again.
It would seem from the way scriptures written that perhaps Paul was released from prison after a while in Rome and was at large for a short time, how long we don't know, and perhaps was re arrested this time to be put into a much more serious situation and perhaps a more difficult prison life. But we don't have that.
Detailed in the Word of God.
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And they sorrowed.
They really sorrowed most of all, it says.
Because they wouldn't see his face anymore. We can understand that.
We can understand some of those dear brethren who ministered to us and whom we valued.
I can remember very well getting choked up.
When a brother at the end of a gospel meeting at a conference in Montreal, Canada.
Back in 1966.
Just as a bit of an announcement said, I just heard that Brother Paul Wilson went to be with the Lord.
He was a brother I had enjoyed, learned much from, valued greatly.
Yes, I shed tears at that time.
Nothing wrong with that.
What was wrong with the tears?
The little phrase most of all.
They should have shed tears because of what Paul said in verses 29 and 30.
They should have shed tears because the grievous wolves would come in not sparing the flock. They should have shed more tears because of their own selves. Men would arise speaking perverse things. They should have shed tears because of the reality of the warnings Paul gave them.
Wasn't wrong to shed tears over Paul's departing. That was quite an order. But that little phrase, most of all, was perhaps where the problem was. And what happened? Did it happen as Paul had said? Indeed it did, because probably something like 30 years after all this was written or all this occurred.
The apostle John has to write to the assembly at Ephesus.
And tell them.
That the Lord had some things against them because they had left their first love, the very assembly whose elders were listening to all this.
None of us are immune to it all. How needful then to watch. But each one of us can do that at any age. And as I say again, without any question, we may be burdened in these last days. We may shed tears. Very appropriate we should be in all humility, but never discouraged, never discouraged.
Paul could have been a very discouraged man.
But you don't read one hint of it in anything that he ever wrote, including Two Timothy, the last epistle he wrote. Not a hint of discouragement. Why? Because he knew that what he had said and what he had done for the Lord was there as a deposit up there in glory.
And he knew, as he says in the last chapter, that he had.
He was going to or he had finished his course.
And kept the faith. You and I, I trust, will be able to say that too. Let's sing those last two verses in closing, not 168 the last two verses.
168 verse 4.
O pardon us, Lord, that our love to thy name is so faint.
With so much our affections to move.
168 versus 4:00 and 5:00, and we'll sing it to the same tune.
May I take 30 seconds to set something straight that I said in the address? And it's a small point, but I referred to the fact that Paul said that he completed the Word of God. And I think I said it was in Ephesians, and probably some of you caught that it's in Colossians.
The Good Samaritan
Gospel—Jim Hyland
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Like to welcome everyone to The Gospel Meeting this evening. We're glad you came, and we'd like to start this evening with Hymn #7 on the Gospel Hymn sheet. God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Salvation full at highest cost, He offers. Free to all Hymn #7. If someone could please start it.
I'd like to turn tonight to Luke's Gospel and read a very, very familiar story. A story that I suppose most of us have heard from the very early days of our youth. It's in Lukes Gospel chapter 10. It's a story told by the Lord Jesus himself when he was here on earth, but we're going to read a few verses prior to him telling this story to see why he told the story.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 10.
And verse 25.
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right this do, and thou shalt live.
But he willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side, And likewise A Levite, when he was at the place came.
And looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.
And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the Morrow, when he departed, he took out 2 Pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee, Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?
And he said, And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise Well, as I say, most of us, if not all of us in this room this evening have heard this story before. It's a story that we usually tag as the story of the Good Samaritan. But I think it's important when you take up these stories that the Lord Jesus told to see who he was speaking to.
And what prompted him to tell the story? Perhaps I'll just say this too, that these stories are more than just interesting stories. When I was a boy, they were interesting stories. I found these stories fascinating. But as I've got older, I realized that these stories, told by the Lord Jesus and recorded so carefully in God's living word by inspiration, are more than just interesting stories.
These stories are to illustrate the truth. These stories are to illustrate the gospel because God wants us to understand this evening very clearly what it is to be saved, what it is to not only know that we're sinners, but to realize that God has a great salvation for us and He His desire is that the way of the gospel would be made so plain tonight that no one would leave this room lost and in their sins.
And so these stories illustrate certain aspects of the truth, certain aspects of the gospel, and that's why they're important. And that's why so often on occasions like this, we open to the Gospels, and we read these stories, and we seek, by the grace of God as simply as possible, to present the way of salvation. And so we find this story is told to a man who came to the Lord Jesus.
And this man had a question, and he seemed fairly sincere. But his question was, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? But we want to make it very clear at the beginning of this gospel meeting that there is nothing in ourselves that we can do to inherit eternal life. In fact, I want to make a little application here, because I realize that there are all ages here, but there are some children here.
00:05:19
And some young people, some children, and young people who have been brought up in Christian homes by Christian parents don't think that that you inherit salvation because your parents are Christians and brought you to the meeting. You may inherit something after your parents die. You may inherit something of this world's goods, but you will not become a Christian simply because your parents are Christians.
You know Timothy had a God fearing mother and a godly grandmother. But the day came when Timothy had to make it his own. And that's why Paul spoke to him of the scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. The day came when Timothy had to put his faith in the Lord Jesus. He had to appropriate the work of Calvary and the gospel for himself.
It didn't count that he had a godly heritage. And so we find this man. He came and he asked this question, and the Lord Jesus asked him what it said in the law. Now he was a lawyer. And when it says a lawyer here, that's a little different than we think of a lawyer. A lawyer in those days was a man who had read and understood, interpreted and taught the law of Moses, the Old Testament law.
And that's why the Lord Jesus questioned him about this. And he knew the law. He was able to recite it right off. And maybe there's someone here tonight. And if I were to step down from this platform and ask you how to be saved and ask you to give me scriptures as to how to be saved, perhaps you could rattle scriptures off. You could tell me the way of salvation. This man knew the Old Testament law, and maybe you heard the way of salvation so many times.
That you can tell it plainly and clearly. Maybe you can recite verses that you learned in your youth that you learned in Sunday school.
But that isn't enough either. It wasn't enough that this man simply could recite back to the Lord Jesus part of the law, and so the Lord Jesus. Then as a result, he tells this story. Now, sometimes the Lord Jesus told actual stories about people who actually lived in this world. Sometimes he told he used current events. If we were to go on a few chapters in Luke, we would find the Lord Jesus drew on some current events of the day.
He talked about those eighteen men that the Pool of Siloam had fallen on. He talked about those Galileans that Pilate had mingled their blood with their sacrifices. Those were current events of the day, and he used them to bring before his listeners the solemnity and the reality of eternity, and the fact that they were no better than the ones that had died in those tragic events, and that they needed to repent.
Just as much.
And sometimes, he told parables. Parables were not fairy tales. They were not fables. Parables are stories that the Lord Jesus told to make a point and to clarify certain aspects of the truth. And so here we have this story of the Samaritan and the man who fell among thieves. And this story, I believe, illustrates so very beautifully the true condition, first of all, of a person born into this world as a Sinner.
Helpless before God to do anything to better his position before God. And it illustrates the beauty in a beautiful way, The Lord Jesus who came into this world to save sinners. Isn't it wonderful that we can speak of the Lord Jesus tonight? Because this is the theme of the gospel? We're not talking tonight about philosophy, We're not talking about Reformation, We're not talking about theology even.
We want to speak about Christ. You know, I grew up under the preaching of an evangelist by the name of Ernie Wakefield. And he used to often tell us, when you preach the gospel, preach Christ, because it's Christ that's the Savior of sinners. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
00:10:13
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. But before we continue in that theme, let's impress upon our souls the condition of the man in our story, relative to how it applies to you and to me Today we find there was this man, and he was he decided to travel from Jerusalem to Jericho.
Now Jericho is a place that has a very interesting history. If we were to go back to the Old Testament, you remember when the children of Israel crossed the river Jordan and went into possess their inheritance, there was a formidable city blocking their way, and that was the city of Jericho. And we know the story about how God delivered Jericho into their hand as they marched around that city so many days and so many times.
But there was an interesting there's an interesting statement made about Jericho back there. Because when Jericho fell under the judgment of God in those days, God said that whoever rebuilt Jericho, two things would happen. First of all, when he laid the foundation of Jericho, he would lose his first born son, and when he finished the city and and put up the gates of the city.
He would lose his youngest son. And if we were to go over in the word of God to I believe, its first kings, I think it might be chapter 16. We find there was a man named Heil, and Heil did rebuild Jericho, and what God pronounced as judgment happened when he laid the foundation, he lost his eldest son. When he set up the gates of Jericho and its completion, he lost his youngest son.
And I believe we learned from that, that when God pronounces judgment, God means what he says.
You know, it says in the scriptures that he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. And God has pronounced judgment on this world. Just as Jericho was the city of the curse, this world is under the judgment of God. When the Lord Jesus was here feeling the imminence of judgment hanging over this world, he said, Now is the judgment of this world is God fooling around?
You know, sometimes there are those who say, where is the promise of his coming? For since the Father's fell asleep, all things continue as they are until now. They're scoffers, it tells us. And you know, when they come in, the last days shall come scoffers. And they say that when I hear someone scoffing and saying, oh, people have been talking about the Lord's coming and judgment and so on from way back in the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter's day, they've been talking about it for centuries and it hasn't happened.
When I hear people talk like that, I realize it's just about to happen. Scripture says that those are the kind of people that rise up just before the Lord comes and just before the judgment falls. It's serious. Tonight we are on the brink of world catastrophe. And I'm not talking about some nuclear catastrophe. I'm not talking about some environmental catastrophe. I'm talking about the judgment of this world that is going to take place.
After the Lord Jesus comes and calls the true believers home to heaven, This is a reality. We're serious about what we're Speaking of tonight because just God was serious in pronouncing judgment and a curse on Jericho. So today God is serious in warning men and women to flee from the wrath to come. But you know, there's something else very interesting about Jericho.
If we were to go over to the book of Deuteronomy, we would find that Jericho was the city of palm trees. In fact, the name Jericho means a constant fragrance. I come from Canada. We've had one horrendous winter. We've had snow unlike most of us can remember for a long, long time. And you know, those who have the time and can afford it, what do they do to escape winter? They head South. They head to places where there's palm trees.
And fragrance. Fragrant, warm breezes, because they want something a little more conducive to life. They want something a little warmer, somewhere where they can relax a little and not have to worry about shoveling their driveway out in the next snowstorm or driving on icy, treacherous roads.
00:15:13
And I suggest that Jericho would bring before us a place that was very pleasant. You know, as I say, it means a constant fragrance. I have opportunity from time to time to visit the island of Grenada. If you go home and look in your spice cupboard, you'll probably find that a good many of your spices come from Grenada. It is the Spice island, and it's very interesting because sometimes we take a boat into Grenada.
And when you come into the harbor, if the wind is blowing the right way, you can smell the spices long before you land. It's a constant fragrance. There's beautiful palm trees. Grenade is actually one of my favorite islands to visit, and we have wonderful opportunities there to preach the gospel and to visit believers. But Jericho was a place that was pleasant, perhaps a place where this man thought he could relax a little, or a place where he could.
Conduct business and maybe make some money and get ahead of in life.
We're not told exactly why he decided to go to Jericho, but nevertheless he never got there. Because we find that on the road to Jericho he fell among thieves who left him half dead. Now you know these stories often fall a little bit short of the what what they are illustrating, because this man lay in the ditch half dead. But tonight, if you are not saved, you're not half dead, you're dead.
Now, I'm not talking about physically dead, of course. But as we had this morning in the Sunday School lesson, we are dead in trespasses and sins. That's why we're not going to tell you tonight to reform or turn over a new leaf. No use turning it over a new leaf. The leaf is dead. We're dead. That's what scripture says. And being dead, your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And so tonight.
If you're without Christ, you're dead in trespasses and sins. And that's why it's important to open your ears and to listen, because there is a voice speaking to those that are dead, and that's the voice of God. That's the voice of the Lord Jesus. And that voice is calling you to himself. Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The Lord Jesus is saying, come unto me and drink. He wants to give you eternal life tonight. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God.
Is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord here, and your soul shall live. Are you listening? Because we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever. That's why we've read part of the word of God. That's why we're seeking to quote verses from the Word of God, because that's where the power is. It's the living word of God. It's living and powerful and it's not which God can use tonight to impart divine life to you.
If you're listening. And so we find this man. He fell among thieves. It's a picture of Satan because Satans not our friend. Satans A robber and a destroyer. Sometimes people have the impression that Satans their friend, and if they just go along, Satan will give them what they want. And this will be it'll be great. Life will be great. Satan is not our friend. We have it illustrated in another way in the Old Testament. You remember when the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt?
Under the ******* of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Again, a picture of what we are by nature. Pharaoh, a picture of Satan. The Egyptians, a picture of Satan and his hosts. And Satan and his host tonight are seeking to keep souls from coming under the good of redemption and deliverance.
The enemy no doubt is busy in this very room tonight to distract you, to keep you from listening to the word of God, and ultimately to keep you from coming to the Lord Jesus. And that's what Pharaoh and his host tried to do. You know, Pharaoh and his host, they only wanted the children of Israel for what they could get out of them. In fact, one time we were going through the story with my girls that are family reading and we were particularly struck with the fact.
That a time came in their history when Pharaoh told the taskmasters not even to give them straw to make their bricks, but they still had to keep up the same number of bricks every day. That's the enemy. He wants to squeeze everything out of us. If it's if it's the corporate world.
00:20:15
You young men know the corporate world only wants you for what it can get out of you. Doesn't care about your family, doesn't care about you. It only cares about what you can give. And that's the way of the world. But oh, tonight we're presenting one. That's a giving God. We're presenting one who desires your your blessing.
I often have opportunity to preach the gospel in the schools in the Bahamas. We've had wonderful opportunities, an open door from the school board, the government of the school board of the Bahamas with liberty to go from school to school and island to island with no restrictions as to what we can speak.
And I remember one time I was on a plane from Toronto, Canada to Nassau, and I was wondering and praying about what I would present to the youths of the schools of the Bahamas on that particular occasion. And I find it's helpful sometimes to get something from their history that makes an application, something from their geography perhaps. And so as I was sitting on the plane and considering this and praying about, I reach forward and I picked up the In Flight magazine.
In the pocket in front of me and in that in Flight magazine there was an advertisement for a new museum that had opened in downtown Nassau. It was called and is called the Pirates of Nassau Museum. Well, I thought that sounded interesting and I'm always interested in history and museums and so I took a little time on landing in Nassau before I started my school circuit to go to this museum and as I was taken from 1 exhibit to the other and it's very well done.
But as I was taken from 1 exhibit to another, I realized one thing, that the pirates that sailed in and around the Bahamas back in those days came there for one reason, not to give, but to get. They plundered. They killed to get treasure for themselves, and I was able to go around to the schools and by the grace of God tell the children that though the pirates of Nassau came to get and to plunder, there was one who came into this world.
To give, He gave his life. At Calvary's cross, He shed his precious blood at Calvary's Cross, he rose from the dead. He went back to heaven. And he's offering salvation tonight. He doesn't want you for what he can get out of you. That's not the God and the Savior that we're presenting tonight. No, the God and Savior that we are presenting tonight want you for what he can give you.
And he wants to give you eternal life. He wants to bless you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And ultimately, he wants to take you to heaven to be with himself forever. But we would be less than faithful tonight if we didn't mention that there is a consequence if we reject God's offer of salvation. And it's a dire consequence. It's an eternal consequence. You know, sometimes the things we do in our lives have consequences for a little time.
Sometimes for a greater time. And there are things we do in our lives that have consequences the rest of our lives.
But that's not what we're talking about tonight. To reject God's offer of salvation, to go out of this room tonight unsaved and to pass into a lost eternity has a consequence that is eternal.
It will mean that you will be like the man again that the Lord Jesus told of later on in Luke's gospel, who lifted up his eyes being in torment, and he desired that one drop of water be brought to cool his tongue.
That he would have momentary relief in hell. You know he never got it. I have found it interesting in reading that story to realize that the man in hell never asked to be released. Isn't that interesting? He didn't say to Abraham. Try to Get Me Out of here. I suggest that he understood very clearly that his eternal destiny was fixed all he wanted.
Was one drop of water brought to him to give him momentary relief? You know, I have been in some very hot climates. Some of us were talking at the table a few minute moments ago about southern Guyana. And when you're in southern Guyana, you're 1° from the equator and not too far above sea level. It is hot and steamy every day. I have been out on the Sinai Peninsula when it's 130 some degrees.
00:25:26
Little different heat than the humidity of the jungle, but hot or arid or humid, That's hot. And sometimes you wish you could just open a can or a bottle and get one blast of cold air. You think it would just be momentary relief. That's what that man in the Lost eternity wanted. He just wanted momentarily relief. And you know, that wasn't a parable. That was an actual story about a man who lived in this world.
And entered a lost eternity. And when the Lord Jesus told that story, he'd been in hell for some time. But you know, he's been there over 2000 years since, think of it, 2000 years ago or more. He wanted relief. And now he's been there all these these centuries and he's going to be there for eternity. How solemn. But oh, tonight you don't have to go to that awful place. There's a place.
That the Lord Jesus has prepared for those who receive him as their savior. Well, to continue our story, we find that this man, he falls among thieves. They strip him, they rob him. He's left bankrupt. He's left half dead. And there he is in the ditch, helpless.
To lift himself out. I know if you're in your sins tonight, you're helpless to get rid of one sin.
You cannot get rid of one sin as much as you might try, as much as youth may think that you have the answer, there is only one answer, one remedy and one cure for sin. No substitutes. And so this man is lying there helpless.
And then we find two men come along, and they are The first one is a priest, the second one is a Levite. Now, we're not going to take long to comment on this. Suffice it to say that these two men would represent to us the Old Testament law. And it was impossible for these two men to help this man in the ditch. Why? Because the law was never given to save souls.
And the law was never given as a passport to heaven. Why was the Old Testament law given? Well, it tells us why the law entered, that the offense might abound. In other words, God gave his standard to show just how far short man had fallen of God's standard. And that's why it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The law was never given to save souls or to take them to heaven. Not only that, but the priest and the Levite couldn't come and help this man. If they did, they under the Old Testament order of things, they would have been defiled, they would have been defiled, and they couldn't have carried on their function as a priest and a Levite without certain rights and ceremonies having taken place. And so they were. They were just as helpless as the man in a sense. They could not help him. They had to pass by on the other side.
But then comes along the Samaritan. And this Samaritan is such a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus. You know, the Samaritans were a despised people, a despised race back in the days of the Lord Jesus. In fact, the woman at the well said the the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. The Lord Jesus sitting there was a Jew. She was a Samaritan. She was amazed that he would have anything to do with with her. There was another time they accused the Lord Jesus of two things.
They said, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast the devil. And so I believe it brings before us the Lord Jesus as the lowly man of grace, the one who came into this world. And we read of him. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.
Even the death of the cross. And so this Samaritan, he sees the plight of this man, but he doesn't pass by on the other side. No, he has compassion on him. Oh, tonight I wish I could impress upon your soul how much the Lord Jesus loves you. The boys and girls this morning saying that him that I love to sing. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so.
00:30:05
Was another incident in the days of the Lord Jesus when a young man came to the Lord Jesus and it says Jesus beholding him, loved him. Oh, if you could just get one taste, one inkling of how much God loves you, of how much the Lord Jesus loves you, you wouldn't stay away. You know? It's like our children, isn't it? When my girls were were young and at home, sometimes when we sat down to the dinner table and the bowls were passed.
We'd sometimes hear something like this, oh, yuck. Or I don't want any. And we would sometimes say to them, but you don't know. How do you know you don't like it? How can you say oh yuck when you haven't even tried it? And you know, there are so many people in this world who turn away from the gospel. They don't want the Lord Jesus, but they don't understand how precious he is. They don't understand the greatness of his love.
How sweet his person is. Oh, tonight taste and see that the Lord is good.
Sometimes we say to our girls, if you just take one taste, you'll like it. One taste of ice cream and a child is usually hooked for life, one taste of honey and we want a little, a little more. And that's the way it is with the gospel. You know, I've been tasting by the grace of God, the love of the Lord Jesus for 50 and for for over 50 years and all it just gets sweeter and sweeter. And so we find here this Samaritan, a picture of the Lord Jesus. He had compassion on the man.
But not only did he have compassion on the man, he went to him where he was. He went to him. He came right where the man was. And the Lord Jesus came down into this world right where we were, but he came down further than that. He went to Calvary Cross. And as we've been saying there he gave his life and shed his precious blood.
Have you come under the cleansing value of the blood of the Lord Jesus?
From the early days of my youth, I have sung that hymn. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You know I will never have to pay for my sins because even though the wages of sin is death, as we quoted earlier, the Lord Jesus bore my sins in his own body on the tree. I'm reminded of a story that took place in the state of Maryland some years ago, backed over 100 years ago.
There was a young man who was trying to work his way through college and university, and in the summer he would go out and he would sell books, encyclopedias and other books as from door to door and town to town, as they used to do in those days. And he was in a farming community and going from door to door, and it was a hot, humid summer day, and he knocked on one door and a young lady came to to answer his knock.
And he showed her his books and asked her if she would like to buy a set of his books. Oh, she said, My mother is a widow, and we just eke out a living here on this small farm and we cannot afford to buy sets of books such as you sell. Well, the young man said, that's OK And as he was about to leave, he said to her, he said, it's a hot, humid day. You wouldn't be able to give me a glass of water, would you? She said yes, I'd be happy to. But she said, you know, there's lots of milk in the in the milk house.
Some fresh melt. Wouldn't you like a glass of milk? Always said I would appreciate it very much. And so she went and she poured him a large glass of milk, and he found it very refreshing, and he went on his way. Well, years later, Howard Kelly became a very famous physician, and he was working in one of the large hospitals in the United States. And as he was making his rounds one day, he noticed a young lady.
In one of the wards, and he immediately recognized her, recognized her as the young lady who had given him a glass of milk on that hot summer day in that farming community in Maryland.
He made some inquiries to make sure and sure enough it was confirmed to him that this was the same lady.
Things began to happen. She was moved to a private room. She was very sick. In fact, if she didn't have some very major treatment and surgery, she was going to die. But it wasn't long till the wheels of the medical wheels were put in place. She had that surgery and it saved her life and she began to recover. And the day before she was to be released from the hospital, she began to get troubled because she began to think of the hospital bill that must have mounted up.
00:35:30
With her very good care, her private room, the surgery that, the treatments, the recovery and so on. And so when the nurse came in to tend her, she said to the nurse, I'm a little concerned about the bill for my stay here in the hospital, The nurse said, I'll go and find the bill and we'll bring it to you. And pretty soon someone from the administration of that hospital came into that room with the bill.
Handed it to this young lady.
She her eyes immediately went down that long list of expenses, and it was even a greater amount than she had even anticipated in her own mind. And then she looked over, and she saw written across that bill.
Paid in full by a glass of milk, Howard A Kelly, MD.
Oh, you can imagine the relief and Thanksgiving that must have gone through her soul at that time to realize what had taken place.
And oh, it's just a simple story in connection with the Lord Jesus. He's paid my debt in full, not with a glass of milk, but with his precious blood.
All the blood of Jesus is so precious to my soul, and it's even more precious to the heart of God tonight.
When it says I'm redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, thank God that's not my estimation of the blood of Jesus. It's God's estimation. It's precious to his heart tonight. And I trust it's precious to your heart. And I trust every one of us here can say that we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
If my debt is paid in full, I could have never paid the debt if I'd had eternity to do it. But I don't have to. He's made peace through the blood of his cross, and we find that this man, this Samaritan, the picture of the Lord Jesus, he comes to the man in the ditch and he takes care of his every need. Our time is almost gone. We don't have time to go into all these details. It's been suggested that this meeting be 45 minutes, and I agree.
But we find he takes care of his every need. He pours in oil and wine, he takes him out of the ditch. He puts him on his own beast. He takes him to the end and he takes care of him. And I say that because I think sometimes at the end of a gospel meeting, there are people who would like to get saved. But they say, oh, I could never live the Christian life. I'd never have the power to live like I see other Christians living. But none of us could live the Christian life in our own power.
It's only in the power and resources that have been provided for us by the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus has not only saved my soul, He's not only washed my sins away and given me eternal life, but He's given me the Spirit of God as the power for my life as a Christian.
I have the Lord Jesus living for me at God's right hand as my high priest, to keep me in the path of faith and service, as my advocate, to restore me to the path of faith and service when I sin. I have the word of God in all its living power to read as direction for my pathway, as refreshment for my soul. Every day I have the resource of and power of prayer, all these wonderful things that He gives us.
He gives us more than just salvation, you know, Sometimes when people think about getting saved, they think of what they'll have to give up. You know, the only thing I gave up when I got saved were my sins, and I'm glad they're gone. As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
They're gone. He's blotted them out as a thick cloud. Thy sins and iniquities. I will remember no more.
I my sins are gone, but what I've received in return was far, far more than I ever anticipated. And then to think that I'm not only saved from hell, but I'm on my way to heaven and I'm going to be forever with the Lord Jesus, my Savior. The moments coming. And it's not far off when he's going to give a shout. And every Christian, every believer, and every person that's ever died in faith is going to be raised to go to be with the Lord Jesus and the Father's house.
00:40:17
Oh, I thrill when I think of the nearness of the Lord's return. I love to look up and say Amen even, so come Lord Jesus. But oh, at the end of this meeting again, I feel a burden. I'm solemnized to think that there may be someone here tonight and you're still lost. You're still on the Broad Rd. that leads to destruction. We're going to sing a hymn in closing. And this hymn is another appeal to you and as you sing this hymn.
Or you listen to its song, Think of its invitation, think of its appeal. Not just from myself, not just from the person that brought you to this gospel meeting or is praying for your salvation, but from God Himself, from the Lord Jesus. We're going to sing #21. Decide for Christ today and God's salvation, see, yields soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee, Him #21. If someone could start it, please.
Paul's Seven Visions
Address—Bill Prost
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Maybe we could sing together?
Him #200 #200.
Once we stood in condemnation.
Waiting thus the sinners doom. Christ in death hath wrought salvation. God has raised Him from the tomb. And then verse 5. Now we have a life in union with the risen life above. Now we drink in sweet communion some rich foretaste of His love #200.
Most that are here tonight, we're at the recent meetings in Vincennes, and during the course of the address that we had, Lord's Day afternoon, I mentioned an incident in the life of the apostle Paul where the Lord appeared to him and.
Said be of good cheer Paul and then told him what was going to happen.
In the future.
And I got to thinking about that a little bit.
Because there are a number of times in the life of the Apostle Paul.
When the Lord particularly appeared to him in a vision or somehow at night, somehow the Lord appeared to him and gave him a very special message.
I believe there are seven of those occasions recorded for us in the life of the Apostle Paul.
And in looking at them from time to time, because I have looked at them more than once, it seems to me that there is an encouragement and perhaps instruction too, for you and for me.
Now, I'm not suggesting, and I know you realize this, that you and I are going to receive.
Sudden visions in the night that give us light as to our pathway or instructions. Yes, the Lord could still do that. And in playing in, in matter of fact, He is doing it very much among unbelievers, particularly in the Muslim world. And many are being led to Christ by seeing a dream or a vision.
That is so clear and so vivid.
And so definite that they have no question that it is from the Lord.
And I believe that in the life of the Apostle Paul, these things happen that way.
It wasn't just some dream such as you and I might have, that we laugh about it the next morning and then forget about it. They were clear and definite.
And I would suggest that even though perhaps we don't get dreams and visions, we need to remember that in our lives. The Lord wants to make his mind known to us.
Now, Paul was a special person.
He had a special place as the apostle to the Gentiles, and not only because of that, but because he was the one whom the Lord chose to give those special revelations of the truth of the assembly from a risen Christ in glory, truths that were not known before, secrets that God kept hidden.
Until the time when he saved the Apostle Paul.
So he was a very special vessel for the Lord and used in a very particular way.
But there is no reason why you and I cannot go to the Lord.
Just as freely as the Apostle Paul. And there is no reason why we can't enjoy the Lord just as much as He did.
There is no reason why we cannot live for the Lord.
As faithfully as he did.
Now I hasten to say that don't look at me, and I don't think anyone of us here in this room would say, well, look at me because I come pretty close to Paul.
00:05:03
But there's no reason why we can't.
So let's turn to the book of the Acts, because all of these occasions are recorded in the book of Acts, and the first one is in Chapter 9.
Chapter 9 of Acts.
And because of the time factor, we will not spend a great deal of time on these things. But I believe there's a special lesson from each one.
Acts Chapter 9.
And.
In verse, well, we'll start with verse one.
And Saul, that was his name before he was saved, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went under the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus through the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus.
And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us.
It is hard for thee to kick against the ******.
And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and.
It shall be told thee what thou must do.
The conversion of the Apostle Paul.
What an event.
Short time before.
This same Saul of Tarsus had been one of those who was instrumental in the stoning of Stephen.
Stephen perhaps was the brightest light in the early church. A man, it says, full of faith and power. A man by whom the Lord did miracles of healing. A man who knew those Old Testament scriptures well. And being full of the Holy Spirit, he went around and preached faithfully and from their own scriptures.
Convinced the Jews that the very man.
In the person of the Lord Jesus, whom they had crucified, was really the Messiah.
Saul was going to have none of it.
And you'll remember the story how that after Stephen had defended himself in front of the Jewish Council, they stopped their ears and rushed upon them, and that fanatical mob took him out and stoned him to death.
What a blow to Christianity. What a blow to the Christian testimony.
And it was a blow in one sense, because it says that the people of the Lord were scattered, all of them except the apostles.
Did that stop the work of the Lord?
Indeed it did not so as they went everywhere preaching the gospel.
But then the Lord does something.
Wonderful.
The Lord, as it were, said.
And a brother put it very well.
He said something like this, that when the hatred and enmity of man.
Put out the brightest light in the early church that there was.
He said it was typical of the grace of God.
And the power of God if this dispensation of grace.
God, very shortly afterward, puts his finger on the very worst one responsible.
And says as it were, all right.
Come and take his place.
Then what does he do? Makes an even greater servant.
Of that salt of tarsus.
Than the Steven that they had still.
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Man would have looked on at the stoning of Stephen and say said what a tragedy.
And it was.
But God got the victory through it.
Knocks this man right down with a light from heaven, which Paul himself describes later on in his life as a light brighter than the sun and in such a way that Paul knew it instantly. This was the Lord that was speaking to him and he got a little bit of a picture of what he was doing because.
When Paul Saul says, Who art thou, Lord?
Immediately the response is, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us.
That was Paul's first glimpse of the truth of the one body, and he realized that that very one whom the Jews had crucified and pretended was dead, and pretended that the disciples had stolen the body away, was indeed risen and glorified there in heaven, and among other things had the power to strike a man down to the earth.
And make him realize who he was.
Not every conversion today bears those marks, no, But there have been some remarkable conversions in the history of the Church of God working and turning men and women, too.
Right around and saving them in a short time.
God is still working today, maybe not quite as signally as this in a public way.
God is able to turn lives around.
Well, let's go on.
When does the Lord appear before Paul again?
Same chapter.
And verse 10.
All is taken into the city, can't see anything, blinded for the moment, but in verse 10 it says and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him said the Lord in a vision. That's not the vision we're going to talk about, but Ananias got a vision too.
Ananias And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street, which is called straight.
And inquire in the House of Judas for one called Saul Tarsus, or Behold, we pray.
And of seeing here it is, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive the sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy Saints at Jerusalem, and here that is in Damascus, he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vassal unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things.
He must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house.
Putting his hands on him, said.
This is beautiful.
Brother Saul.
The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest.
Has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales. And he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.
We could say a lot of things about the events surrounding this vision, but the point we want to make is that God spoke specifically to Paul as soon as he was brought to that point and the Lord tells him.
Saul, a man by the name of Ananias, he even got the name, is going to come in and he's going to put his hands on you and you will be able to see again.
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Now you and I might wonder, well, what would that correspond to in your life and mine?
I would suggest just this thought.
That the Lord, when he brings us to Himself, begins a work.
All had new life given to him when he was there on the road to Damascus, and the Lord can do that today too.
He doesn't need to have a Bible in someone's hands. He doesn't need to have a preacher come and preach the gospel to them.
That's most desirable, but the Lord is able to work without that.
And if we had more time, I could tell you at least one or two stories that I heard first hand about people who received life that way and suddenly realized that something was different about them.
Were they truly saved yet? No, I don't believe so. There had to be a point when they realized the full value of the work of Christ.
There had to be a time when the Holy Spirit indwelt.
There had to be a time when they realized the full value of the work of Christ. The first thing is called quickening in Scripture. The second one is what it really means to be saved.
We get new life in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit using the Word of God, and here the Word was the spoken word of the Lord.
The risen Christ in glory spoke Saul.
Any receipt you like, but he got assurance when a man by the name of Ananias came in.
He receives his sight, he receives the Holy Spirit, and he realizes.
That he is truly beautiful.
And that's where we get assurance.
And later on, the Lord gave to Paul a very special revelation, which we will mention at this point, which is most important. And I know this is going over familiar ground with the vast majority here, but it doesn't hurt to mention it. Turn over for a moment to the 13th chapter of Acts.
And we'll read verses 38 and 39.
Acts 1338 and 39.
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
That is what Peter and John and Steve.
And Philip, those early disciples and apostles of the Lord.
Preached. They preached a wonderful gospel with the forgiveness of sins.
Now, this is going a step beyond what I just said about quickening and then being saved, but we want to emphasize this.
But then verse 39 is a special revelation that all got from a risen Christ in glory, and it's not as clear in our King James as it is in the Derby, but it could read more accurately verse 39 and in Him all that believe.
Are justified from all things.
From which she could not be justified by the law of Moses.
The full results of the work of Christ were not brought out until alleged ministry that the believer is not only saved, his sins are not only forgiven, but the believer is.
In Christ.
Tell a little story here for and those here of a Romanian background will relate to it.
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On my first visit to Romania, we had a very, very nice visit with a dear brother in Christ, and I felt hardly fit to sit at his feet because he had been in prison for helping to smuggle Bibles into Romania during the communist years. But the dear brother could not see the truth of eternal security.
You could not see that once the believer was saved.
That he could not be lost again.
I explained it from scripture from a number of different angles.
And our brother Cornell Vichon, who now lives in Gresham, OR.
Well, he did at that time too. Translated for me.
But I could see that that dear brother wasn't getting it.
And finally, Cornell said to me, Do you mind if I say something? I said, please go ahead. And I believe I had said this, but I perhaps hadn't emphasized it enough at that time. I understood very little Romanian, and I still don't understand very much, But I heard one phrase that came out loud and clear over and over and over again.
Unrestos unrestos Unrestos in Christ in Christ in Christ.
He was emphasizing that every believer was in Christ, could never be lost again.
Well, we won't spend time on that. Our time is going the apostle Paul.
Got the assurance of his salvation from Ananias.
#3.
The go to #3 We have to go a long way down the road. Acts 22.
Acts 22.
Because we don't find this out until later in Paul's life when he tells what happened.
Acts 22.
Verse.
17 Acts 22.
And 17.
And it came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem.
This is Paul's defense of what he was doing and who he was in front of the.
Jewish Council, or not the council, but the multitude of the Jews outside the citadel in Jerusalem. Council was there, but a lot of other people.
When I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and I and saw him. That is the Lord saying unto me, Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee.
And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by.
And consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him. And he said unto me, Deep heart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.
All went up to Jerusalem. We won't bother about the time frame here. It was sometime after he was saved. It wasn't right away.
And as you can well imagine, Paul had a burning desire to set things right. Here he'd been a persecutor of the believers here. He had been one who hated the name of the Lord Jesus.
Now I want to try and correct that. I want to try and straighten it out. I want to make amends for what I did, Lord says.
Oh no, I have got other work for you to do. They won't listen to you in Jerusalem.
I am going to send you the gentiles.
I would suggest.
And this is a question that is often asked by believers. How can I know the Lord's mind for my Christian pathway?
I suppose at this point Paul had been a believer for some time, but he was still what you and I would call a young Christian in terms of how long he'd been saved. And no matter at what age we are, I believe the Lord gives us especially when we get old enough. I don't mean necessarily when we're five years old and living in our parents home or something, but the Lord gives us a sense of.
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The direction we should take in our lives now. We aren't all called upon to be apostles. We aren't all called upon to serve the Lord full time without having secular employment. But the point is that Saul got direction for his life here.
Sad to say, as we'll see down the road aways, there was a time when Paul.
Seem to forget this direction the Lord had given him and the reason he's saying this here.
Is in part because.
He had disobeyed what the Lord had told him a good many years ago, so that when Paul says this in front of his huge crowd of Jewish people there in Jerusalem, he was virtually sitting in judge upon himself, wasn't he? If the Lord had said they will not receive thy testimony and you better go to the Gentiles.
Oh, what are you doing in Jerusalem then?
We'll talk more about that later.
The Lord gave him direction and I believe and I speak perhaps if I may do so, not only to the younger ones here, but specifically to you. Many times it's very difficult to have direction in our lives.
But I believe the Lord will give us direction. But He doesn't always show us everything all the way down the road. He does show us the next step.
Does show us the next step and it may not mean perhaps.
So much the direction in a spiritual sense, but even perhaps the direction in what courses we should take in high school. Is that important. It is where we should go, whether we should learn a trade or whether we should go to university or just where we should go. The Lord can give us direction in all of those things, and He did it for Paul.
Well, let's go on. That's number three.
For the fourth one, we have to go back to Chapter 16.
Chapter 16.
Now here Paul has.
Recognized his calling as a servant of the Lord and as an apostle. And I believe others have recognized very clearly that God has given him a special ministry to the Gentiles. And may I say this, that if the Lord has a particular service for him.
And he does. For each one of us, we want to emphasize that man or woman, young or old.
I believe the Lord has a particular service for us and a gift that He has given each one of us to do that service, and you and I.
And do that particular service better than anyone else.
The Lord fits us for that service.
Now of course, sometimes, and I say this just as an aside.
There is a danger when we are young to want to get into service quickly.
I well remember a number of years ago.
At a Bible conference where?
Young sister came up to me and made the comment. I can't remember her exact words, but they were to the effect. You know, the brethren really don't believe much in empowering young people, do they?
Empowering young people.
I knew what she meant. She meant putting young people into positions of responsibility and service and activity.
As soon as possible.
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I thought a lot about that.
I freely confess that sometimes there may be a grain of truth in what she says.
But in going to the Word of God, and this is just an aside, I find in Paul's instruction to Timothy.
That most of what he said to Timothy was could be summed up in a remark that our late brother Eric Smith made to some of us as young people quite a few years ago. He said, remember, it is not what you do that counts, it's what you are.
And he emphasized to Timothy in a number of verses about being an example to the believers in many different areas and soul.
That is what we need to focus on primarily as young people, but if our life is in order and we have understood also the importance that worship comes before service.
Then I believe we can look to the Lord and say, as Paul did on the road to Damascus, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And rest assured a willing heart.
Life that is in order will find no difficulty in something to do. It may not be exactly some great thing, but what's in front of you? Do what you can in your local area and then the Lord may choose to expand. So Paul has been serving for a while here, but notice what happens in chapter 16 and verse 6.
Now, when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia.
Notice this. And we're forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the Word in Asia. Really.
Forbidden of the Holy Spirit who preached the gospel? Yeah.
In that area.
After they were come to miss you, they assayed. That means they tried. They wanted to go into Bathinia.
But the Spirit suffered them not. They were sensitive to the Spirit of God. And the Spirit was saying, no, Paul, no, no, not that way either. No, don't want you preaching in Asia anymore, at least not at the moment. And no, you want to go into Bathinia. No, Paul, not that way either.
Let's be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God.
We don't decide where we go and what we do. The Holy Spirit is here to lead in God, and He will do it today if we give him his place. Sometimes a man thinks that he's better at it than the Holy Spirit. No, let the Spirit of God lead and guide now, I hasten to say.
This was Paul and his company.
Do we ever read the Lord Jesus who did everything in the power and with the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit?
Having to be prevented from going to an area that he wanted to go to do something.
No, no, there was only one perfect servant who always acted in absolute perfection.
In perfect absolute discernment of the Spirit of God or through the Spirit of God, even the great apostle Paul tried to go this way, tried to go that way, and the Spirit had to say no, Paul, not that way, not this way. Then what happens verse nine or verse 8 And they passing by, Monsieur, came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying.
Come over unto Macedonia and help us. After he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia.
Assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel. London.
There was a man in Macedonia, took a little while to find him, didn't it? They didn't see him right away. They met some women and Paul had to go through a very difficult experience, he and Silas.
Because the man that the Lord was sending them to was the Philippian jailer.
But the Lord says, I'll show you which way you need to go. We need to be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit and if we want to go this way or that way.
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Let's not push against what the Lord is wanting us to do. He will lead and guide if we will follow His lead.
OK, Chapter 18.
Chapter 18.
Has ruled along. There has been a good deal of blessing.
Now what happens?
Verse one.
After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to corn.
What happens in verse 6? And when they that they, that is, the Jews, oppose themselves? And blasphemy shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean, and henceforth I will go under the Gentiles.
Verse 9. Here it is. Then speak the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace.
For I am with thee into no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, or I have much people in this city.
And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among.
Sometimes we need to recognize.
That circumstances are not to guide us.
I speak for myself. It's all too easy to be guided by circumstances, isn't it? It's all too easy to look at the difficulties and problems and say, whoops, I guess the Lord wants me to go a different way.
But when we have a sense of the mind of the Lord, then we can go forward, and the difficulties are only an opportunity to see how the Lord can remove those difficulties, and what a wonderful thing it is to see the Lord work in a removal of difficulty so that we can go ahead.
We find out from Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, the First Epistle.
That when he went there, it was with fear and trembling. Not because he had any doubt about the gospel, not because he was afraid that somehow the gospel wouldn't have its power. He was afraid for himself. There was a wealthy city, an intelligent city, and he was afraid that he might be tempted to resort to human means.
In order to try and attract those people to Christ.
And the Lord had to show him that it was to go in simplicity. And as he says himself, he sought to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he didn't use a lot of words of man's wisdom, but he says in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And the Lord reassured him, Paul, don't be afraid.
I'll look after you. I have a lot of people in this city.
Don't you worry about it.
All had to be reassured, because just a short while before, in the previous chapter, he'd been to places like Thessalonica. He'd been to places like.
Berea. And prior to that he'd been in a place called Lystra, where the people were so fickle that one moment they were going to offer him and Barnabas sacrifices, thinking they were gods, and then all of a sudden when they.
The tide turned against them. It says they stoned Paul and left him for dead. So Paul had every reason to wonder how. How were things going to go?
I had been stoned and left for dead. I can think, just as a natural man, that I might walk a little carefully when I went to the next city and wonder what's it going to be like here and what kind of a reception am I going to get. I've never had that happen to me.
Closest I ever came to have anything happen was a man that reached out his first or lifted his first and intended to give me a good blow and instead he just struck my Bible and knocked it to the ground.
I'm afraid I felt sorry for that man.
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I thought, how awful he doesn't come to Christ. What an awful thing you'll have to bear standing before the great white Throne and be reminded that at one time in his life he took his first and smashed it into the word of God, knocking it to the ground. But the point is.
The Lord reassures him, and I believe that there are times in your life and mine.
When the Lord wants to reassure us in the pathway of faith, in the pathway where we may be called upon to serve Him in whatever service He gives us, go forward. Everything's going to be all right. No, don't worry about it. I am with you. No, it didn't mean there were no difficulties. There were some problems. The Jews tried to cause trouble.
But it all just came to nothing because the Lord was working.
Well, let's go on from here. What happens?
Just to fill in the blanks.
As we read in the 22nd chapter, we find that dear Paul.
Wants to go back to Jerusalem again.
And all the way.
On that route to Jerusalem.
His brethren warned him. Don't do it, Paul. No. They're going to put you in prison. They're going to bind you. You're going to get into trouble. It's not going to work. Don't go there.
And Paul was determined, and he had the best of motives.
He wanted to reach his own nation.
I can sympathize a little bit with Paul because there have been times in my life, no credit to me, that I have had a real anxiety, a real concern.
To reach someone with the gospel and haven't really been able to, or haven't really been even able to get to them.
Whether the Lord had someone else in mind to speak to them or what it was, I don't know. But dear Paul, he thought of all those dear Jews and his heart yearned over them. I am a Jew. I'm one of them. This is my nation. They're on the road to a lost eternity. They've rejected the gospel.
I need to get through to them. The Lord had provided for that. He provided a Peter as the apostle to the Gentiles, and there was ample opportunity for the gospel to be preached there. But Paul goes up to Jerusalem and sure enough, just as his brethren had predicted, he gets into trouble.
Big trouble. He's arrested, he's put in prison and.
Everything is going the wrong way.
What happens here?
Verse 11.
And the night following, the Lord stood. This is chapter 23. I beg your pardon? I didn't say that. Chapter 23. I'm sorry.
Chapter 23.
Verse 11 and the night following, the Lord stood by him. Isn't that beautiful?
Paul was all by himself there in prison, Jews hollering and shouting that he ought not to live.
And said, Be of good cheer, Paul, For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also.
Roll.
All had wanted to go to Rome.
Previous to this.
He got there not the way he expected.
He'd wanted to go to Rome, he said in the book of Romans. I will. After that I will see Rome.
He got there.
Sometimes we get ourselves into difficulty through missing the mind of the Lord, and sometimes it may be with the best of motives, as was the case with Paul.
Sometimes it's true self will and dear Paul had missed the mind of the Lord. Now I say again, who are we to criticize Paul, that great servant of the Lord?
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These things are written for our learning.
All goes up there, gets into trouble, and no doubt he might have thought within himself.
I may be permitted to use modern terminology. I blew it.
I did it, my brethren warned me. I guess I'm finished.
The Lord was gracious. We see the same thing in the Old Testament, incidentally, in a little different way. Elijah, after he had won that signal victory with the sacrifice at Mount Carmel.
And rain had come, and he had destroyed all the prophets of Baal, Jezebel said. Elijah sent a message to him. By tomorrow, about this time, you're going to be like one of those false prophets. I'm going to get you killed too. And poor Elijah runs for his life, and worse still, he intercedes against the people of God instead of forth.
And the Lord said in so many words, Elijah, I can't use you in that state of soul anymore.
You go and anoint Elisha to be prophet in your place, and you go and anoint Hazel to be king over Syria.
And you anoint Gu to be king over Israel and so on.
And the scripture doesn't go into detail, but I believe it broke his heart.
He thought I'm finished and he goes out and he throws his mantle on Elijah.
What happens?
Oh, wonderful.
Elijah says give me a few minutes, give me a bit of time, and I'll come after you.
Elijah says, What have I done to thee? What are you coming after me for? I'm finished. Was he finished?
God gave him 10 more years approximately.
To teach Elijah something. Oh, when there was real repentance, God gave him a reprieve. The same happens to Paul here. I have no doubt, although it doesn't say so, that Paul realized his mistake.
The Lord, says Paul, be a good cheer. Don't go in despair. You're going to witness that role.
What an encouragement. And sometimes when we failed, the devil whispers in our ears, You blew it, You made such a mess. You can never do anything for the Lord again.
The Lord will whisper in the other ear, cheer. There's restoration for you.
Let's go on.
Chapter 28.
Or 27. I beg your pardon, this is #7 chapter 27.
Holes on the waiter roll.
Their ownership.
Everything that's, as we say, sometimes it seemed that on that voyage, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
All kinds of trouble.
Problem after problem.
But what is the wonderful thing about it?
Year on that ship was a man that was morally superior to it all.
How could he be that way?
Because the Lord had already said, Paul, you're going to bear witness at Rome. Was that ship going to go down with everybody on it? No. Paul knew that ahead of time. He knew it before he ever got on the ship that he'd get to Rome. He didn't know all the details. God revealed them as time went on. Here was a man that was morally superior.
Let me tell you as a book that you and I as believers, we may look at ourselves. I can honestly say I do this miserable failure, considering all that we have been that has been committed to us.
But every believer, even A1 who's a failure, is a moral superior when he realizes what he is and who he is.
In Christ, and here all on this voyage, is the moral superior.
And eventually is the one who says, do this, do that. And at first they don't listen to him. Then they begin to realize this man knows what he's talking about.
And what happens here?
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Verse 21 of Acts 27 But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Creek, and to have gained this harm and loss, and now.
Listen to this. I exhort you to be of good cheer. Isn't that beautiful? Lord? Says Paul. Be of good cheer.
Then as a result of that, he's able to say to these men on the ship be of good cheer.
The Lord, the believer who listens to the Lord, will be able to hear those words, be of good cheer, but then the Lord uses that kind of a believer.
To encourage others. Oh, it's a day when we need encouragement.
Is it a day to be humbled as we had yesterday? It is. Is it a day, perhaps, to shed tears about the condition of things among believers, including ourselves? It is. Is it a day to be burdened about some of the difficulties and problems among the people of God? It is. But is it a day to be discouraged? It is not.
Oh no, we should be able to save one another. Be of good cheer.
Verse 22. In the middle of the verse. For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. Or there stood by me this night, the Angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, You're not all. Thou must be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, he repeats it, Be of good cheer.
For I believe God.
That it shall be even as it was told.
Oh, there was the key to Paul's ability to say be of good cheer. I believe God, Do you and I really believe what God has said in His Word? Do we really believe it to be true? Do we really believe what the Lord says when He makes His promises to us and when He gives us encouragement in His Word? Yes. If we look at the circumstances around us, we will be discouraged.
If we look at the Lord himself, we'll be able to say twice over as Paul did, be of good cheer. Why? Because everything is looking bright? No, because I will leave God.
Our time is gone.
Those are seven I believe. I think we covered 7, didn't we?
There's one more which I have enjoyed.
I'll merely mention it, but we can turn to it for a minute. 2nd Corinthians 12.
2nd Corinthians 12.
Verse 2.
I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago.
Whether in the body cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell God. No one such in one caught up to the 3rd heaven and I knew such a man. Whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God no how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words.
Which it is not love for a man to honor.
I suggest this one as one final one.
And I would call it #8.
Numbers.
Generally speaking, have significance in Scripture.
And the number seven speaks of divine perfection.
With the number 8.
Speaks of new creation. New creation.
And it is Paul that brings before us that new creation in his ministry.
Now some of the details of it are given more in the revelation in John's ministry, but basically it's Paul who tells us that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, Old things are passed away and so on. And he brings before us how that you and I are part of that new creation, and it is Paul.
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Who gives us the precious truth of all the councils of God going right on into a coming eternity?
When everything will be perfectly conformed to Christ and when in the words of hymn #48 in our hymn book.
All taint of sin shall be removed, all evil done away.
The Lord says, as it were, Paul, I'm going to give you a sneak preview. I'm going to give you a little preview. And he catches him up to paradise. He catches him up there to give him a little preview of what is ahead. Now, Paul. Paul didn't experience it in perfection because he didn't.
I believe have a glorified body, in fact, he says. I don't know whether I even had a body or not. The Lord knows I wasn't conscious one way or the other.
But he says I heard unspeakable words which are not lawful for Amanda Otter.
You and I belong to new creation. We belong to that which.
Is part of that new creation that is going to be fully revealed? Not right away. When the Lord comes, we'll get the full blessing of it. When the Lord comes, it won't be until after the Millennium and the eternal state comes in.
That the full blessing of new creation will be brought in and that's why in describing.
The eternal state, if we could call it that. In Revelation chapter 21, the apostle John uses those wonderful words. Behold, I make all things new.
All things, all things are not new. Until that time, you and I are new already.
That's great.
Ephesians 5:5:15
Ephesians 6:16-24