Address—Bill Prost
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We sing together #312.
312 Lead on Almighty Lord, lead on to victory. Encouraged by thy blessed word. With joy we follow thee.
312.
I have to say at the beginning of this meeting that.
Maybe others have this experience that whenever I am asked to take a responsibility like this, right up until the last minute, I guess I am much before the Lord as to whether what I have on my heart is directly the Lord's mind.
And I want to say how much I was encouraged by the two of hymns given out at the prayer meeting #134 and #8.
Both of which bore very strongly on what I have before me. I trust it is of the Lord. I'd like to speak this afternoon on the Lordship of Christ.
The Lordship of Christ.
And to begin, I would like to turn to a verse in the second chapter of Acts.
2nd chapter of Acts.
Verse 36.
AX2 and verse 36.
Therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly.
That God hath made that same Jesus.
Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
We all know, and I'm speaking mainly to Christians this afternoon.
And I might make another comment here, the brother of the local brother here that had the responsibility of asking me to have this meeting reminded me, he said. Bill, remember there are going to be 100 plus young people there.
I was glad to hear that, Very glad to hear that.
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And it really encourages our hearts, those of us that are a little older, to see you young people making the effort, spending the money, taking the time off work or school to come to meetings like this.
I say again, we're speaking mainly to believers, and we know that this world gathered together when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, instigated first of all by the nation of Israel. And then we know, sad to say, the Gentiles joined in to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we have Peter's testimony on the day of Pentecost resounding over and above all of that rejection and saying.
Let the House of Israel, all the House of Israel, know assuredly that God hath made that in Jesus.
Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
I know that each one here who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior would gladly join with me in saying yes. I am so thankful to know that the Lord Jesus.
Is my personal savior. You acknowledged him as Lord.
And you know you can't do that unless you are truly saved. You cannot acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Lord except in the power of the Spirit of God. Excuse me?
No man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God. And so if you call the Lord Jesus Lord, if you have acknowledged him as Lord, it is evidence that you are a true believer. And there have been many occasions, some of us here have experienced it, where someone has claimed to be a Christian and we have said to them, can you acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father?
Can you say Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior? And you know, you would think, humanly speaking, that it would be relatively easy to frame those words.
They can't do it. They cannot do it, They cannot will not. There is something in the natural man that will not frame those words except by the power of the Spirit of God.
But I say to you, each one of you who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I say it to my own soul, if we have owned Jesus as Lord for our salvation.
Have we owned Him as Lord in our lives? And I don't mean merely in an outward way. I don't mean merely in saying the words. But what I mean is.
Is the Lord Jesus practically the Lord of your life and mine as we enter upon our day-to-day activities? Is He the Lord of my life as I worship?
Do I recognize him as Lord when it comes to where I would go?
To worship? Do I recognize Him as Lord in the decision making of my life? Do I recognize Him as Lord when there is a difficult choice to make in my life?
We won't turn to it.
But you can read it in the 12Th chapter of John, how that the Lord Jesus Christ faced, I suppose, if I could use these words, the most awful dilemma in the history of the universe when He was on the way to the cross.
And on the one hand, he said, Father, save me from this hour.
And on the other hand, he said, but for this cause came I under this hour.
And you and I can only bow and humble adoration and praise as we see the way that Blessed One settled that issue.
What settled it? 4 words. Father, glorify thy name.
Father, glorify thy name. Oh, how simple the decision was. Yes, Lacrosse lay before him, but if the Father's name was to be glorified, he must go through with that awful cross and everything that went with it.
But how wonderful. But at that very moment it says, Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
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And we know that as a result of that work on the cross, we read this verse in Acts 2, that God hath made that same Jesus, both Lord and Christ. And you know what a wonderful thing it is to acknowledge Him as Lord in our lives.
We don't have time to go into all of the ramifications of that, but I want to say this one thing.
In a very practical way.
And you will forgive me if I tread on a toe or two when I say this, because I don't mean to, but I say it from the bottom of my heart. There have been occasions, and they have been particularly more numerous in the last few years, when I have talked to dear believers, some of them whom I knew very well, some of them who were at least at one time gathered to the Lord's name. And I have talked to many dear believers who are not gathered to the Lord's name.
And not infrequently, I hear.
When God is referred to, he is referred to as God.
I remember speaking to one young man.
Quite some time ago and he was living in a place and I said to him, how long are you going to be there? Do you have any idea? Oh, I guess I'll be here until God tells me to leave.
What's wrong with that? Another young man whom I was speaking to.
And he made reference many times in his conversation to how important God was to him and how important God was to his family.
We don't wanna be critical. We don't wanna make a man an offender for a word either.
We won't turn to it again because time does not permit.
But if you read the Book of Revelation, you will find that there are those who in no way bow before God in the right way. But what do they do when they feel the awful effects of the plagues that God is going to allow on this world? It says they blasphemy the God of heaven.
Why that expression? All because that is at work, keeps God at a distance. He is the God of heaven.
Yes, we know that this is His hand. We recognize the power in these things that He is allowing, but they call him the God of heaven.
There is no recognition of Him as the Lord of all the earth. There is no calling upon Him as Lord.
And I say to you and to me.
And again, I hope this does not tread on any toes. It is not intended to, but I wonder sometimes if.
In referring to God as God.
We perhaps even unconsciously, get away in our own souls from the recognition of Him as Lord.
When we read through the writings in the New Testament of the Apostles, particularly the Apostle Paul, we do find him referring to God as God when God's nature or power are in question or being referred to.
But whenever Paul talked about things in his own life, whenever he talked about things relative to his own pathway, it seems to me that the vast majority of times he addressed the Lord as Lord. Isn't that wonderful? And I say to you and to me, while our words are not necessarily always a reflection of what is inside.
Yet nevertheless.
The words we use very often do reflect our internal attitude, and sometimes using the right words helps to frame a proper attitude.
It's nice to recognize Jesus Christ as Lord.
I said earlier that we don't have time to talk about all the ramifications of the Lordship of Christ.
But I would like to talk about something very practical this afternoon.
Something that has been brought home to my soul lately, and I don't suppose it's anything new to many here, but I would like to talk about the Lordship of Christ in three areas.
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And it is in three areas that, so far as I can see, are mentioned only once in the Word of God.
Now that's significant, isn't it?
I've said this before and you'll pardon the personal reference, but when I was going to medical school a few years ago now, some of us were pretty overwhelmed with the volume of work that they were throwing at us, and I will remember some of us taking great deal of comfort. Excuse me?
From one professor who said remember anything that is really important.
You are going to hear it over and over and over again. And that was true. We found that to be the case.
But on the other hand, we find in the Word of God that there are things that God does repeat over and over again, but there are also things that God says only once.
They are significant because of that, and these three references to the Lordship of Christ at first glance tend to have somewhat of a negative connotation, and the references are, by our standards, a little bit.
Shall I say unusual?
The three things I want to speak about this afternoon are the Lord's Table, the Lord's Supper, and the Lord's Day. Let's turn first of all to the passage that speaks of the Lord's Table in First Corinthians chapter 10.
First Corinthians, chapter 10.
10 verse 15.
I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. A cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? That word communion could read fellowship. It's the same word in the original language. For we being many are one bread or one loaf and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread.
Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then, that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrificed idols is anything?
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrificed to demons or devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils or demons.
Now here's the expression. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
Time again does not permit us to go into a lengthy discussion of what the Lord's Table entails. I suppose that.
There has scarcely been an expression in the last 100 years or 150 years that has caused more controversy and more bad feeling among believers than this expression.
And yet, I don't believe we should shy away from the expression because Scripture uses.
Lords Table.
Oh, what a wealth of thought that brings before us, the thing that when you and I come together on Lord's Day morning.
Where there is a loaf in the cup on the table.
You and I as believers, have the privilege of partaking at the Lord's Table.
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We're in the United States of America, and I am sure that anyone sitting here would counter the great honor to receive an invitation.
To have dinner at the White House.
You would consider it a great honor to go there and have dinner with the President of the United States. Those of us that are Canadians would consider it equally a great honor, whether it were the President of the United States or the Prime Minister of Canada.
But here we have the Lord's Table.
What gives us title to be there? Oh, it's so beautiful. And this is not going over anything that is new to most. Here we notice that in verse 16 the cup is mentioned 1St and then the loaf. Why is that?
Because the cup speaks of the blood of Christ, and you and I have to be under the shelter of the blood of Christ before we can be members of the body of Christ.
Which is what the one loaf speaks of. And so the cup is mentioned first, because that is the order in which you and I come to the table. That is the means by which you and I have, shall we say it, the privilege of being at the Lord's table, the blood of Christ applied to wash away our sins, and then when we are truly saved.
Well, you're indwelt by the Spirit of God and by that same spirit.
We are baptized, made members of a baptized body, because the baptism occurred only once on the day of Pentecost. But you and I partake of that baptized body. The Spirit of God indwelling us makes us members of the body of Christ, and we are represented in that one law. Isn't that precious?
All I say to each one here, every true believer has a place at the Lord's table. And I say to each one here, beloved brethren, let our hearts be as broad as the heart of Christ.
To include every true member of the body of Christ.
It is his table, not ours.
On the other hand, there is an expression here connected with the Lord's Table that speaks to each one of us, doesn't it?
Because when the Lord's Table is mentioned, it is mentioned in contrast with tables of demons. Oh, what was happening? Some of those dear believers in Corinth were going into places of idolatry and perhaps not even realizing what they were doing. They were eating food that had been offered to idols and was connected with the idolatry that was so rampant in that day.
And in that way they were on the one hand eating at tables of demons, and on the other hand, on Lord's Day they would come to eat at the Lord's table. And Paul says you can't connect the Lord's table with tables of demons. Are we going to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Oh, what an awful thought.
What does that mean for you and me today?
The principle is very clear in verse 18. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?
You will remember back in Israel when the 10 tribes separated from the two tribes, the Jeroboam.
Fearing lest the people in worshipping at Jerusalem would eventually end up honoring the king there, the descendant of David, and falling away from him, he set up two false centers of worship in Dan and Bethel. He set up altars there with golden calves and instituted sacrifices and made priests of the ordinary people and so on, and set up his own worship.
And you will remember that later on, God sent a faithful prophet from Judah to cry against what he didn't cry against the golden calves.
He didn't cry against those false priests.
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Those that ate of that altar identified with the idolatry that was going on there, and the principle holds true today that whenever we eat at a table, we identify with what is connected with that table.
And so I say to you and me all, every true believer, and this truth, I am sorry to say.
It's being challenged on every hand today, on the one hand, from God's side, and I thank God for it. Oh, I thank God for it, that there is a place for every true believer at the Lord's table. Thank God for that.
On the other hand, we are not living in Apostolic days when there were basically a Lord's Table and tables of demons. That's all there was in those days. But things are not like that today. There have been many tables set up, many connected with wrong teaching.
Many connected with.
Shall I say it, the failure to recognize the authority of the Lord in the midst of His own?
And we say, without fear of contradiction, that we never read of more than one Lord's Table.
Oh, someone has said, Do you think you own the Lord's Table?
Absolutely not. It's the Lord's Table. But there is one Lords Table, and by his grace, may you and I want to be at the Lords Table.
Some of us here are old enough to remember, and I quoted him before our brother Harry Hajo.
And someone asked him one time.
If a company of believers is to be recognized as being scripturally gathered, what criteria would you apply?
And he answered very simply. But you think about this for a moment. We don't have time to develop it, He said. The Lord must have set it up.
And the Lordship of Christ must be owned.
Doesn't take long, does it?
The Lord must have set it up.
And the lordship of Christ must be old. Very simple, but if I can say it without trying to be flippant or irreverent, that expression covers all the bases.
Covers all the bases.
And if you and I seek by grace to be at the Lord's Table.
It's going to be a matter of faith. It's not going to be, if I could say it, a matter of a fact that could never be disputed or challenged. No, it's a matter of faith in these last days.
Someone said to me some time ago, you think you own the Lord's Table. I said absolutely not. They said if I didn't think I was at the Lord's Table, I wouldn't be there. And I never read of multiple expressions of the Lord's Table any more than I read of the body of Christ being divided in the eye of God and the Lord's tables connected with the unity of the body, not with division. How wonderful.
Is it going to be a difficult path for you and for me? Yes it is.
Because there is a ditch on each side of the road.
There is the ditch that says.
Well, things are in such a mess of that. There's no place. The Lord's Table is nowhere. It's gone.
You just have to go wherever you feel like it. And there's the other ditch on the other side of the road that says the Lord's Tables anywhere where Christians gather. It doesn't matter even to the point of saying that the Mass and the Roman Catholic Church is the Lord's Table. I've heard people say that. Well, I will say this, that if there were a simple Roman Catholic who didn't know any better and thought it was the Lord's Table, I trust that I wouldn't try and take it away from, but I would hope that he would learn better.
But I say from.
The side of what God approves of. We cannot connect the name of the Lord with that which is not according to His Word and to the Lordship of Christ.
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And you and I are being called in these last days to walk a very narrow path.
And it's difficult.
Because there are those on the one hand who would say.
I'm going to have a broad heart and I wish to God we all had a broad heart. I hope we do, but a broad heart that includes the whole body of Christ. They would some take take that to an extreme that says that's going to mean a broad path where I won't worry too much about what honors the Lord.
The other extreme is that if I walk a narrow path, I end up with a narrow mind that basically says that anyone that isn't, in my judgment, connected with the Lord's Table, for all practical purposes doesn't exist.
If you walk a broad path.
With a broad heart you will get bricks thrown at you from those who have a narrow view of things.
If you walk the narrow path with a narrow view of things, you will get bricks thrown at you from the other side from those that walk the broad path.
But as our late brother Norman Barry told me once, he said if you walk that pathway, a narrow path.
With a broad heart.
You will get the bricks from both sides.
And that makes the pathway difficult.
Some of you young people are being hit hard by some of this.
I say to you, on the authority of God's Word, God wouldn't speak of the Lord's table if there weren't such a place.
I'm not going to tell you where it is, but I say, but if you want to be there, the Lord will show you where it is.
Chapter 11.
1St Corinthians 11.
Here we have the Lord's Supper, and we'll read from verse 20.
When you come together, therefore, no one place this is not to eat.
The Lord's Supper for an eating everyone taketh before others own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat, and to drink in, or despise ye the Church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise You not, For I received the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread twain. He had given thanks, He'd break it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken or given for you. Let's do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had sucked say.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as OFT as ye drink it in remembrance of me.
For as ofti, as she eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.
Oh, I say to your heart and mind what precious scriptures these are.
The Lord's Supper.
The word supper has a special connotation, doesn't it? Sometimes there are arguments between cultures as to what to call the evening meal. Is it dinner or is it supper? And there can be different points of view. But no one, I don't think, has ever yet tried to say they were having supper at noon. Some people say they're having dinner at noon, but not supper, the Lord's Supper. It's usually the last meal of the day.
The day when the I should say the time of day when the cares of the day are laid aside.
When we hope the family gathers together and sad to stay in modern North America, it's becoming increasingly less common.
Where the family would get together, eat together, share together, enjoy one another's fellowship, company food.
Supper wonderful term.
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And here we have the Lord's Supper.
And I say to each one here what a tremendous privilege it is to eat of the Lord's Supper.
We aren't going to go into it in detail, but there's a little difference in thought between the Lord's Table and the Lord's Supper.
In Chapter 10, the emphasis is rather on who is at the table.
In Chapter 11, in connection with the Lord's Supper, it brings before us what is on the table.
In the chapter 10 it's more responsibility. In Chapter 11 it's more relationship.
And God brings these things together in His Word, one chapter right next to the other, to show these two wonderful truths.
What a privilege it is to come together in that way.
I say to your heart and mine, have we responded to the Lord's request? As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
Excuse me, I read.
A statement the other day.
That really hurt.
It really hurt.
It was written by a man.
Who was far, who, as far as I know, was not ever gathered to the Lord's name, but who knew much of the truth of the assembly, if I could use that expression? And he had given much of it up. And one thing that he had, among other things given up was the importance of partaking of the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day as.
Shall we say the foremost meeting of the day?
And his reason for giving it up was this, He said it is not a very conducive meeting to have that first. And well, let me rephrase that. It is not a meeting which, when it is first and foremost, is very conducive to having strangers and other people come into your place of worship.
And so in order to facilitate, to encourage people to come in.
Oh, I say, dear brethren, if I may be so bold, let us never fall into that kind of thinking. Let us never put what is man word before what is due to the Lord Himself. That's why it calls it the Lord's Supper.
My wife and I don't make a habit of watching videos or movies.
But once in a while, it's interesting to watch a documentary.
The other day we watched one that I found very, very moving.
Maybe some of you have seen it.
But it detailed what happens to an American serviceman.
If he is killed in action, especially overseas.
And it followed, and this was based on a true story that followed the body of a young man who was killed in action near Baghdad and Iraq from the time that the encounter occurred in which he was killed until the time that he was buried with military honors.
In his hometown in Wyoming.
I was very impressed.
Very impressed with the dignity, the honor, the respect that was shown.
To that body at every point.
Way over there in Iraq, it was taken to a special facility where loving hands.
Cleanse that body of everything that naturally came about when a person was killed with gunfire.
And then that body was carefully put in a flag draped coffin, put on a cargo plane, flown over to, I think it was Dover in the state of Delaware.
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Lovingly cared for.
And a special escort took it on a plane.
Way across the country, military honors at every point, every time that vehicle, that Hearst that carried the body was there, everybody was called out to stand at attention and pay honor.
We won't go into all the details right down, of course, to the final volley of gunfire over the grave and then the flag carefully folded up and given to the family.
I didn't see anyone. Can I be practical?
I didn't see anyone sitting in the audience at that funeral.
Texting their buddies across the room.
I didn't see anybody at that funeral.
Chitter chattering to someone in the back row.
I didn't see people.
It was serious.
And even on the plane on which that body was flowing across the country.
There were people who initially were enjoying themselves, but when it was made known over the PA system that in the cargo hold of that plane there was a body of a fallen American serviceman, and that on that plane was sitting his escort, everybody's eyes turned to that man in uniform who was the escort. Everybody sat quietly in their seats, didn't move. You know what happens when the plane pulls up to the.
Skywalk. Everybody jumps out of their seat to grab their stuff from the overhead bins. You you've all seen it. Nobody moved a muscle.
Well, that man with dignity walked off the plane and so on.
All the honor that was due, and I wouldn't take away from that for a moment, I say to you and to me, what a privilege to remember the Lord. What a privilege to give him the honor that is due to him.
What a privilege.
To remember the Lord in the world that continues to reject him, that continues to use his name.
In swearing.
Can we eat and drink unworthily as it says here in verse 27? Yes, we can. We can do it in an unworthy manner. Oh, I say to your heart and mind.
When we come together to remember the Lord.
Again, you'll forgive this comment.
But it is perhaps the most sensitive.
Pulse.
Of where we are as an assembly or as a gathering like this, as to what happens at the remembrance of the Lord.
Is there that true?
Bowing of our heads, sitting in quietness before the Lord, and then?
That praise welling up.
From hearts. I don't mean there shouldn't be joy there, you know, I don't mean that. I don't mean that we shouldn't at some point raise our voices in joy and Thanksgiving for all that the Lord is and for his resurrection and his glory. But at the same time, let's remember that it's ye do show the Lord's death till he come. How precious that is.
Let us remember that. Let us remember that what is God Word must always take precedence over what is man word. Let us never fall into the trap of thinking, but we have to reach this world with the gospel. All beloved brethren, we do.
And I may say this in this connection, lest I be misunderstood.
The Scripture presents the gospel primarily as an individual exercise.
Now, it doesn't mean there can't be a group of individuals, but it's an individual exercise. It's not presented as an assembly responsibility.
No, that doesn't mean that an assembly can't be involved in it, and I'm very thankful if they are, but it's an individual responsibility. Excuse me.
But, and this is important.
If an assembly is merely.
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What we might call a delivered body, delivered from all of the effects of sin through the blood of Christ. But if it ceases to be a delivering body with an outreach to souls.
It will tend to wither and die.
I'm not pointing the finger anywhere, but right here at my own failure.
God does not intend believers to be in this world enjoying all their blessings and having nothing to say to a lost world.
The Ways and Means may vary from place to place, from culture to culture, depending on the part of the world you're in.
But God will always have you and me to have hearts that have an outreach before them. Yes, let's never forget that.
But equally true, the heart that has the biggest outreach, the heart that is filled with Christ, will be the one that has sat and partaken of the Lord's Supper and given the Lord his rightful place.
The Lords supper remember that the Lord is there. Don't disconnect 1St Corinthians 10 or 11 from Matthew 18 and 20. They are connected. It's interesting that the Lord's Table is only mentioned once. The Lord's Supper is only mentioned once, and so far as I can recall, the presence of the Lord in the midst of his own is only mentioned once.
But for a heart that beats.
According to what Christ is for a heart that really cares for him, if he says something once, that's enough.
And that brings us to the last one.
Revelation chapter one.
Now I know this is all seeking to be extremely practical.
When I was young, I always liked it if somebody was really practical, even though occasionally I went away from a meeting saying Ouch.
But sometimes that's a good thing.
There was a girl at our Sunday school back home.
Few weeks ago.
And all the children in our Sunday school, without any exceptions, come from ungodly homes.
And this girl likes to cut up.
She's a big girl, she's about 13 and she's every bit as tall as I am, but she likes to cut up.
She did it once too often.
And I got her in a corner.
And gave her about a two-minute lecture that she was big enough to learn to behave herself. She went upstairs saying Ouch.
My wife thought I'd pinched her or something, but I assured her that such was not the case. The rebuke was totally verbal, but she got the point. She knows we care for her. There's been a big change in her behavior since then. She's been up to our home since then. She knows we love her.
So it doesn't hurt sometimes. It never hurt me when I was young to walk away from a meeting and say Ouch.
Revelation chapter one.
Verse nine I John, who also am your brother.
And companion in tribulation, and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.
Within the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Let me read that as it is in the Darby translation. This may not be dead on, but it's roughly the way it is.
I, John, who also am your brother and companion in the tribulation.
And Kingdom and patience of Jesus leave out Christ.
Was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
And heard behind me a great voices of a trumpet saying I'm Alpha and Omega, the 1St and the last and so on verse 12. And I turn to see the voice that speak with me.
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The Lord's Day.
What a precious privilege that is to hear those words of the Lord's Day.
Again, it is only mentioned once in the Word of God.
And here in most, shall we say, interesting and instructive connections.
Where was John when he wrote this on the Isle of Patmos? And so far as we know, he was banished there to a place where, again, as far as we know, there were no other believers.
He was all alone, and I can only imagine how lonely the heart of dear John must have become.
As time went on and he had no Christian fellowship.
Privilege, not an individual one. And here was dear John.
But you know, not only did he keep track of the days.
He mentions that on that day, which was the first day of the week.
He mentions that not only was it the Lord's Day, but he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
I've asked myself a number of times, why is it that that expression occurs only in this passage and in the connection in which it is here?
I make a few suggestions.
Number one, God was first of all going to pick out a man who was being deprived of almost every Christian privilege that you could think of, except of course, communion with the Lord himself. Everything that he would normally have enjoyed, he was being deprived of.
Secondly.
It was not by choice he was being forced into this position.
God takes that man and says.
Excuse me?
Here is a man.
Who calls it the Lords Day?
And who is in the Spirit?
But it's no accident.
That verse 10 follows verse 9.
John says I am your brother and your companion in three things.
The Tribulation, the Kingdom and the patience of Jesus.
And at the end, it's the testimony of Jesus.
Why Jesus All because for the moment his Lordship is not mentioned, and for the moment his title is Christ, which means the anointed one is not mentioned, simply his name of Jesus.
Relationship is brought in here.
Because the Church has failed in every aspect of this relationship. It has failed in recognizing that the Christian pathway is a pathway of tribulation. It has failed in recognizing that the Kingdom.
There's a future one and that we follow one who has the rightful king has been rejected. We are part of his Kingdom, but it's a Kingdom in mystery because the rightful king is disowned. And thirdly, it's connected with patience. It's connected with walking in the truth and the pathway that he is marked out.
In his patience as much as in our own, the Church has failed in every aspect of that. And may I suggest that in one in all of those areas because of our failure.
We can tend to fail in connection with the Lords day.
People who grew up in my generation can remember when stores were never opened on Lords Day. You could scarcely buy a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread.
But it hits even closer to home.
Again, can I be a bit practical?
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And in starting out I want to make it clear that in no way do I put us under law. That is not the point. But if I recognize the Lordship of Christ, then the expression the Lord's Day has a meaning.
Some years ago now, I had lunch with a young couple that weren't gathered, but they were interested very much in the truth and they wanted to talk about it. And we had a very nice time together. And I can't even remember how the conversation drifted around this way, but one of them said something about the Lord's Day. And how did I usually spend the Lord's Day? And what did I do when I was studying?
And I hesitate to mention this, but I think it's all right.
Well, I said, you know, in my generation at least, anybody that I knew that was gathered to the Lord's name didn't study on Lord's Day and their eyes got big.
Really. I said. Yes, really.
I said nobody did. It was a given. Nobody had to argue about it. It was just you didn't study on Lord's Day.
He stayed up late Saturday night if you had to. You got up early Monday morning if you had to, But the Lord's Day was the Lord's Day.
My late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, told the story and he told this publicly so I can repeat it.
How that when he was a little boy, how long ago would that be, 1920s maybe? He was coloring a picture on the Lord's Day and his father came to him and said, Albert, what are you doing on Lord's Day?
And Albert said I'm not finished yet. And he wrote the words God is love across the top of the picture and that satisfied his father. Was that going a little overboard? Well, I just say that.
We're not under law, but I do say.
That if you and I are willing to honor the Lord on His day.
The Lord will, I believe, honor you and you young people, you're having a tough time these days. And if you're going to school, courses are difficult and university is hard and things are very, very demanding. And it's very, very easy for me to go and remember the Lord and then to say, well, I did my duty.
And the devil is persuaded, if I can say it, many dear believers, that that's all they have to do. You have to go do quote church on Sunday, and then you've done your duty and you can go and spend the day.
However you wish.
But you know what happened to John here? On the one hand, he recognized that he was following a rejected Christ and people were watching him. What does this Christian do? Because I don't believe that he was all alone on that island. And I believe that when he was there, he bore a testimony. And when the Lord's Day came, people knew that he treated that day differently. What happened as a result? He got the most wonderful revelation.
And it started on the Lord's Day. And I say to you, and I say to my own heart, if you and I are willing to devote the Lord's Day to the Lord, we will find.
In the words of one of our dear brethren who is now with the Lord, that the Spirit of God works in a special way on the Lord's day, and I don't say that he doesn't work other days.
But the Lord works in a special way.
Does that mean that children can never have any fun on the Lords day? I don't think so.
An older brother long since with the Lord said.
I would like to make children as happy as possible on the Lord's Day. Let it be a most happy day.
But let it be a happy day in the things of the Lord, not in idle pleasures.
Again, we're not going to make a man an offender for a word. You know that, and we're not putting anyone under law. I just say to you and me. But there is a danger in these last days of these things being neglected, and I merely call your attention to that expression the Lords day, without pretending to define.
All the Ways and Means of honoring the Lord on his day.
I know our time is gone, but I'd like to sing one verse of one last hymn.
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#150.
Just the last verse.
Of the vast universe of bliss, the center, thou and sun.
The eternal theme of praise is this to Heaven's beloved 1.
Worthy, O Lamb of God, art thou that every need that thee should bow #150 verse six. And I don't think we can sing this him sitting down.