Open—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Like to read in First Timothy chapter 6?
Something that has come home to my heart.
Very strongly in connection with the theme of our meetings, eternal life.
And we have had it very clearly that.
That eternal life is to know.
The only true God and his Son Jesus Christ. Incredible.
Wonderful privilege that belongs to us.
And the Lord Jesus. But this is the practical.
Reflection that comes home to my own heart. Paul's talking to Timothy.
A young man.
And notice what he says.
In verse we'll read from verse 11. But thou, O man of God.
Flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Here's the expression I want to focus on.
Lay hold on eternal life.
Where unto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession.
Among the four many witnesses now a little later on in this chapter.
Verse 17 charged them that are rich in this world.
That they do not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches.
But in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.
That they may do good. That they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come. Here it is again that they may lay hold on eternal life.
What does it mean to lay hold on eternal life?
Didn't Timothy have eternal life?
Why does Paul say?
In verse.
12 Lay hold on eternal life.
Why does he charge those that are rich in this world and.
You might say.
Who are those that are rich in this world?
You know, we always tend to look at another direction than ourselves and.
So it must be those that have a lot of wealth.
Remember it came up in a reading meeting one time and the question was who are the rich in this world?
The reference was given back to verse.
8 where it says having food and raiment.
LED us therewith be content.
And the explanation was simply given, If you have more than food and raiment than you, then will you qualify to be the rich of this world? And I think it pretty much includes everyone of us that are present. Brethren, what does it mean to lay hold on eternal life? Don't we have eternal life?
The way it has come home to my own soul, brethren, is yes.
The gift of God as eternal life. And so if you have believed in the Lord Jesus, you have that gift.
But in our culture, it does seem that we are so occupied.
With material things that oftentimes that dominates our life and we need to have this admonition lay hold of eternal life. You have it, live it.
And comes home so strong to my own soul, brethren, to live that eternal life we have been given.
And I'd like to go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 to a portion. I've spoken on this before, but I must say I do believe this kind of gives us what that means to lay hold on eternal life.
Chapter 4 and verse we will read from verse 6.
00:05:06
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure. What's the treasure?
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Treasure.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
Our bodies, our earthen vessels.
That the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Now wonderful.
And the illustration has often been given in this verse to get in.
And his men as they met the Midianites. Remember when Gideon blew the trumpet, 32,000 men followed him. The Lord says I can't give the victory to Israel. They'll say that it's because of their own.
Power that they have gained the victory can't do it. Tell all those that are afraid to go home. And so he did, and 22,000 went home.
That's reducing your army quite a bit. But there are still 10,000 left and the Lord said that's still too much, can't do it, can't give you the victory that way. And so he gave him a test to bring him down to the waters. And after the test there remained 400 men.
Oh, seems ridiculous. But brethren, we have to come to realize the Excellency of the power is not of us, it's of God. And that was the lesson He had to learn. And so they took out when they went out to the Midianites, two things. In one hand they had a trumpet.
In the other hand they had an earthen vessel with a lighted torch inside, and they stood around the camp of the Midianites, and at a given signal from Gideon they broke that earthen vessel, and the light shone, and he blew the trumpet, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, And the Lord gave them the victory, tremendous victory over.
Midian, the Excellency of the Power.
Is of God and not of us. What a tremendous lesson to learn in our lives.
And how does that apply to us now? Brethren? Here's our earth and vessels.
And they start to break. So many of us have real physical difficulties in one way or another.
And so God sees fit to break the earthen vessel. What's his purpose? Why does He allow the earthen vessel to break? It is that the light might shine out. And it's through that light shining that God gives the victory. It has been such a tremendous privilege of mine to see those who were severely afflicted.
In some physical difficulty.
And how the light shone out of their lives for blessing for others.
This is what we have, but notice how he goes on here. We are troubled on every side.
Anybody here like to be troubled?
Yet not distressed. We are perplexed. You like to be perplexed.
But not in despair. Persecuted. We don't know much about persecution.
Like they do in other countries, but not forsaken cast down.
Anybody here cast down? You ever have that experience? Yeah, I think we all can say there's moments when we feel cast down.
But not destroyed.
Then notice verses 10 and 11 to me are the key to what it means to lay hold on eternal life always.
Verse 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest.
In our body.
That's something that should be the norm of the Christian life always.
00:10:06
Brethren, is it so?
I have to confess, yes, it should be, but oftentimes it's not the norm.
So the Lord has another way He works. Notice verse 11.
We which live are always delivered unto death. Here is a circumstance outside of our control. We're delivered to it.
Why that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest?
And here it says, in our mortal flesh.
Is this flesh of mine mortal? Yes, it is.
And sometimes that's what happens. Doesn't necessarily mean that you might lose your life.
But oh, brethren.
It says in verse 12 Paul to the Corinthians, so that death worketh in us, but life in you.
You know, in life, here, in this world, we live and at the end we die.
But if you'll notice carefully in verses 10 and 11.
Death comes first and life afterwards, because the life we have in the Lord Jesus, that eternal life, begins with resurrection.
Death precedes it.
We have died with Christ. We are raised together with Him.
And so it exhorts us in Colossians chapter 3 and verse one.
If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
So the center of direction in resurrection is not in things down here. Yes, we all have to have a job, perhaps to support our families. Scripture is pretty clear about that. If you don't provide for your own, you're worse than an infidel and denied the faith. So we we need to attend to that.
That's not the objective. That's not the priority.
How important it is to know?
Know our priorities.
Rather than I do believe that these times that we've passed through the covet and all that has tested our priorities, what's number one important thing in our lives.
Is it our health?
Is it our own well-being? I don't mean that we shouldn't take care. We shouldn't take precautions. Yes, we should, but that's not number one priority. There's something beyond that and it's the life of Jesus shining out of these vessels. And if we don't let them shine out.
Of these bodies, then, we may be delivered to something, so that the life will shine out when the vessel is broken.
I have to say brother and I have been challenged in my own life.
By those that have been a tremendous.
Blessing to me. I've mentioned before dear brother Eric Smith with some of you knew there are others too.
And men who laid down their lives.
Or the gospel.
I've mentioned thou Eric Smith when he decided to go.
To Bolivia as a missionary. His father was not a believer.
And he wanted all his boys, he had a number of boys to get a good education in New Zealand and make good in this world. Come on, you got to get up, you got to get going and prosper.
When Eric Smith told his father, I've decided to go to Bolivia to preach the gospel.
He told him. He says if that's your decision, son, get out of my house. You have no more place here in this house.
And he had to get out and make his own way.
00:15:02
Well, I didn't know Eric Smith until later in his life.
I must say rather than on time with their with.
Glenn Buchanan and Doug Buchanan and Ramon Alarcon. We were going from Potosi in a truck.
Ramon Alarcon and Eric Smith were sitting up in the cab up front with the with the driver.
And Buchanan and Doug and I were out in the back with a bunch of other brethren. It was an all day trip and was a little bit exhausting, but that's all right. When we got there, we found a group of brethren standing around in a semi circle waiting to receive us some of the fruit of Eric Smith's work. And.
They were singing hymns and so the brother, as he drove up there, he just turned off the engine and rolled to a stop.
And I looked through the little window into the cab where Eric Smith was sitting. His head was down. The tears are streaming down his face. He saw the fruit of his laborers. Was it in vain that he gave up the opportunities he could have had in New Zealand?
I got to see Eric Smith shortly before.
You want to be with the Lord in Montreal. He was in a nursing home.
He died two days short of being 103 years old.
And I went in and he could no longer speak, he sitting in his wheelchair. His little black eyes looked at me penetratingly, and I greeted him in Quechua Indian language. He had learned to give the gospel to the.
Bolivian Indians there, you might not response was a little nod of the head. He understood what I said, but he didn't say anything. Wasn't too long after he left this world.
I just thought about the tremendous joy of going into the presence of the Lord.
And all those that will be waiting for him there that have learned the gospel through his sacrifice.
I said, brethren, I said to the Lord, Please, Lord, please help me down to get under the influence of present material things and lose sight of what I'm really called to that eternal life. Let me lay hold of it.
And that's my challenge to each one of you, especially those who are younger, but each one of us, to know what it means to lay hold on that life that will last forever.
And I think of those who prosper in this world, and they're not saying that it's wrong, but there are those who prosper in this world, but they give their life completely to it.
Brethren, we're not called to that.
We are called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord, and so that there might be blessing for those Corinthian believers, death had to work in the apostles. You like to die.
No, that's not naturally what we like.
But if there's going to be life, there has to be death first.
Lord Jesus said in John chapter 12. Perhaps we can just read it.
So you can get it right there because there's where there were some Greeks that came up to the feast and they wanted to see Jesus.
Never says if they did get to see Jesus or not. I would guess that he did. They did.
But the Lord Jesus responds in a way that's interesting.
Verse 23 Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come when the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die to bite it alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
So he is the corn of wheat.
And if I have a corn of wheat up here on this podium, I'm going to say I'm going to keep this really nice and safe. Don't let anything attack it. Don't let anything corrupt it.
00:20:09
How much fruit is there going to be? You know, no fruit at all.
What I'm going to do at this corner, wheat, grain of wheat, I'm going to put it into the ground.
There the moisture will make it swell, and the microorganisms in the soil will attack it and will make it die. But in its death it gives place to a plant, and there will be much.
Fruit. Very interesting.
Notice what the Lord says the next verse.
He that loveth his life shall lose it.
He that hateth his light in this world shall keep it until life eternal.
You love your life.
Or you hate it.
This is a difficult verse, perhaps, to think about.
It's repeated in the four gospels in varying ways. There's a different a little difference in wording 6 times. It's twice in Matthew's Gospel, once in Mark, twice in Luke, and here it is in John's Gospel.
He that hateth, he that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Oh, this is such a challenge to me because it is exactly the opposite of the American dream that teaches us to prosper, to push yourself forward, to go for it.
The Lord help us, brethren.
I have to say.
And I've mentioned this before, but I really am challenged by it as I've been traveling to Latin America.
A lot in my years in South America since 1967. My first visit to South America.
Then and I stopped to think, Why is it that it seems like the Christian testimony is diminishing in the United States?
And in Latin America it is dramatically increasing.
First time I went to South America there were assemblies in Peru and Bolivia.
Now there are assemblies in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela.
What? What is? Why? Why is that happening?
Why is it diminishing here?
I have to come to the conclusion, this is the conclusion I've come to brother, and I hope you don't take it as any condemnation of anybody because I feel that I'm affected by this. We have succumbed to the principle of self pleasing. This is killing us. It's killing our testimony. Please yourself. That is not Christianity. The Lord Jesus said if any man will come after me, let him.
Himself take up his cross and follow me.
Rather, it's a strong current in the American way of life. Please yourself. You've got rights. Come on, stand up for yourself. Push yourself forward.
That is not Christianity.
And that is killing our Christian testimony.
If you don't die, you can't know what resurrection life is, because resurrection comes after death. And so those two verses.
Just before we go back there, just let me read verse 26 here in this 12Th chapter of John. Excuse me, any man, serve me, let him follow me.
Where I am, there shall also my servant be any man serve me.
Him will my father honor.
What a privilege to serve the Lord in any measure. And I lookout over you, dear brethren, and I say we're all servants of the Lord. Don't go putting your finger at certain brethren who travel around and say they're the servants of the Lord. We're all servants of the Lord. Paul even addresses those that were slaves in Colossians chapter 3. You know what he says to them? He serve the Lord Christ. They were servants of the Lord even though they didn't have liberty to do anything.
00:25:23
On their own time. And so, brethren, we are all servants of the Lord.
And so to serve him, what a privilege in any measure to do what you do.
Where you are, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men.
But it is in connection with this verse 25 he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Like I say, it's a strong current of self pleasing in this country. Everything is kind of related to it. And I as I reflect, I have to say brethren, I'm as guilty as anybody.
Have been under the influence of the current of self pleasing.
In our culture.
Lord, help us to judge it, to recognize it, to confess it to the Lord and let him deal with it. Remember.
That verse we took up yesterday in the morning.
John 19 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You can't do the cleansing. It's He that does it when you confess it to the Lord. And that's what I found in my own life, that I can't do the clean up job. Just recognize the problem.
Confess it to the Lord, and the Lord will do His operation as He sees fit in each one of us.
How important these things are. But just to go back now to Second Corinthians.
Chapter 4 and I want to.
End with this to me it is so amazingly wonderful always verse 10 bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. The life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body.
Always.
If I do this, brethren, if I say no to my own desires.
And focus on His desires for me. Then people will see the life of Jesus in this body. But if I give place to my desires, do what I want to do. Brethren, you should respect me. I have my rights.
You're not going to see the life of Jesus in me.
Oh, brethren, it comes to this, and sometimes we don't do it.
Like it says always. And so the Lord in his wisdom comes in and he delivers us to death for Jesus sake, because that treasure that God has put in your heart is far too worthwhile to let it just molt there inside without shining out. And so God delivers us to circumstances sometimes that are.
Difficult. Why does he do that?
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Dear brethren.
You're young people, older ones too.
Here's the challenge.
Lay hold on eternal life.