Lorneville Conference: 2016
Table of Contents
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Resides in Jesus, our head.
The number was that brother 267.
Humbly.
The First Epistle of Thessalonians.
I think there have been references made already to.
To the Lord's coming and.
Our spiritual state.
If it's the mind of the brethren, could we read the 1St chapter of the Thessalonians and or gone further the Lord leads.
What do you think, Robert?
I think it would be very profitable. It's really ministry that concerns those that are newly saved, brought into the truth of Christ and as the last verse really brings before us or the last couple of verses that how you turn to God from idols.
Us from the rocks to come.
So we need to have a sense of our deliverance and the sense of how he has turned us from idolatry.
To look for his son, to wait for him. Maybe we could read the 1St chapter today and then.
00:05:07
Look to the Lord for guidance the remainder of the reading meetings. Some brother would read it.
Chapter One.
Holland, Savannah, under the Church of Thessalonians.
God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you and her prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father. Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God for our gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and it must assurance.
Men, we were among you for your sake, and He became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that he were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia, and I can't. For from you sounded up the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and IKEA, but also in every place. Your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything.
For they themselves know about what matter of entering in we had unto you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
And to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised, Prince of the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Maybe a few words in the background of the epistle might be in order.
We know this was the first epistle that was written by the apostle, the earliest one.
Dates are given around 52 AD.
And.
The apostle was only a short time in Thessalonica. He was driven out by persecution.
Hugely thought that he was only there 3 Lords days.
You go back to Acts 17.
To get the historical background, when they had passed through Anthropolis and Apollonius, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews and Paul, as his manner was.
Went in onto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleghing, that Christ must needs have suffered, and then and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preached unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, of great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few.
But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, and took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the House of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, and so on. So there was bitter persecution in this place.
Against those who had made a confession of Christ.
Remember that many of them were steeped in idolatry. This was their manner of life. Now some of the Jews were saved, but I would think the majority of those in Thessalonica were Gentiles and they had been involved in in idolatry for years. But the gospel came in mighty power through the Apostle Paul.
And he had to leave for his life and.
I think he went from here on to Berea and then to Athens, but he had no rest in his spirit, because he was burdened with the this little assembly of babes or new converts, like sheep without a shepherd, and he was very concerned about their condition and their state after the Gospel had been presented to them.
00:10:28
Lest Satan should come and and destroy the work. So he sent Timothy back to Thessalonians.
And Paul went on to Corinth, and he waited in Corinth for the report of the condition of the assembly.
When he was in Corinth and when the news came through, Timothy, when Timothy left Thessalonica, came to Corinth with the report of how the Thessalonians were prospering. Paul was really encouraged and that led to the writing of this epistle.
Seeing the third chapter.
Verse 10 Night and day, praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.
So I don't know whether the Apostle ever got back to Thessalonica. Not at this time anyway, because the persecution was severe, however.
He desired that they would be established in the faith.
But they were new converts, they were babes in Christ. And yet in the no other epistles do you have the Lord's coming so prominent. It comes out in every chapter. You don't get a lot of doctrinal truth in the in this epistle, but you do have the establishing of the young converts.
There were several areas that the apostle was much exercised about how they were going to.
Meet the awful persecution they were suffering #2 which is very important. The moral condition of the assembly. The apostle deals with that in a number of chapters. The moral condition of these people before he presents doctrinal matters to them.
He doesn't develop the mystery of the church. He does not develop any.
Really. Doctrinal truth. He wanted them to have a moral condition that was in keeping with the holiness of God. This comes out in the third chapter and in various parts of the epistles.
And then the third thing was that he wanted them to know about the coming of the Lord.
You say there were babes that knew very little.
Had very little knowledge, say 3 weeks, and yet they were told about the return of the Lord and they were looking for the return of the Lord. They were anxiously waiting. Now they were not well informed, you might say, because.
They didn't know what would happen to those that had died. And the apostle brings out that marvelous truth of the rapture, and no other epistle is it developed to the extent that we have it here. So Paul had to teach them these things. But the coming of the Lord is prominent in these two epistles. Sometimes it is the rapture, sometimes it is the appearing.
Or the revelation. You have to distinguish between those two things, but the coming of the Lord is a prominent theme of these two epistles.
But you allude to there's the coming of the Lord Jesus for his Saints, that's the rapture. And then there's the coming with his Saints, that's the appearing. It's interesting too, to see in chapter 18 of the book of the Acts, just as introductory, how the apostle Paul was used of God to establish the Saints and establish assemblies during the time that he was doing his work and so.
In Acts chapter 18 it says in verse one after these things called departed from Athens and came to Corinth. Now he found some that were believers. And it says in verse three, because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought for their occupation. By their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded, persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And then a little bit further on he says in verse 11, he continued there a year and six months teaching.
00:15:30
The word of God among them. And so there was the space of time that was required, not only evangelical work, but really in connection with the teaching of the truth of God that was necessary that they might be established. And both are necessary. Evangelism is necessary, but then that teaching is necessary as well. We have the principle brought out in Acts Chapter 11, and I'll just mention it very quickly.
So that we have an understanding of what Paul is doing and is teaching in the his epistle to the Thessalonians. He was really seeking to comfort their hearts and to point them to Christ and to clarify those issues that he couldn't clarify because he wasn't there. So in Acts Chapter 11, it speaks there of the preaching of the word of God. That is really evangelical work, verse 19.
They which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Funici and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the Word to none, but under the Jews only. And some of them that were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake under the Grecians, preaching the Word, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Well, there you have the work of the evangelism.
Of evangelism. And so that's really largely a work outside the assembly. And there was an assembly form in Antioch. And then it says that the brethren found out in Jerusalem in verse 22, the tidings of these things came under the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave under the Lord's. So here Barnabas was a pastor and a shepherd.
He longed to see the Saints of God to go on and he instructed him in such a way and encouraged their hearts that way. But then you know he he needed he knew that they needed some teaching and Paul or Saul at that time he called for Saul. It says in verse 24. He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek salt.
And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and talked much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. So there was real fruit for God. And there was there at that time of the year of establishing the Saints and ministering the truth of God in that assembly in Antioch. And he might say that that became Paul's home assembly. And then in verse 27 it says in these days.
Prophets from Jerusalem, Antioch. So each one had their work. And so in this passage of Scripture you have the four main gifts that are given to the assembly, to the Church of God, and the day that we live in, the evangelists. And then you have the pastor and shepherd, you have the 1-2 who is a teacher, and then you have those that are prophets. Now, a prophet in the New Testament sense is one that delivers the message from the heart of God for the people of God at a particular time.
And so he's spoken of in different passages in Scripture. It's just necessary for us, as we take up this epistle of First Thessalonians, to understand that what Paul was doing was teaching them and encouraging them. He had a pastoral work with them, but he was teaching them those things that were necessary as young converts to know and to lay hold of. And so the ministry is rather simple, if you might put it that way, but.
It is for the heart, it is for the conscience as well, but it's mostly for the heart.
And that cooperates what I mentioned, Robert, that there needs to be a spiritual condition before there's the the the reception of the truth and.
00:20:02
The passage that you cited in Acts 11.
Emphasizes that first of all, Barnabas, who was particularly a pastor with a real desire for the encouragement of the Young Young assembly there he ministered.
And he comforted in, he exhorted to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart.
But he wasn't a great teacher.
And that's why he sought Paul to come and establish them in the truth. And it's so in the the epistle that we're looking at, Paul is more a nurse and a pastor here, at least the beginning of the epistle, than he is as a teacher, because they need it to be.
Established.
They needed to have a moral condition. You know, there was a terrible amount of that.
Of immorality in these in these Gentile cities. Thessalonica was a large city, but the practices they were going on with were contrary to the holiness of God. Looking in chapter he deals with that very matter in chapter 4.
In some detail.
And what we had this morning in our hymn.
That body, soul, and spirit might be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul emphasizes holiness very much in this epistle.
So if you've mentioned, brother, it's not really an epistle that we have a lot of doctrine given to us, although the doctrine, a part of Paul's doctrine that is key to the ministry that he had among the Saints of God was in connection with the coming of the Lord. And Paul is used with God to give us the truth as to the details of the rapture, how it would take place.
The sequence of events. And he tells us too about the change of our bodies and how our bodies will be glorified. He goes through that in First Corinthians chapter 15. But in First Corinthians it's really a corrective epistle. But here in this epistle, it's really a pastoral epistle, you might say. And how how he long that these Saints that were saved out of the idolatry would have their hearts comforted. And so we don't find him upbraiding them for their.
Past practice of idolatry or upgrading them for their unholiness and so on, But he encourages them positively in a right way to go on in a righteous way before God, to live a holy life. And so he begins the epistle and he presents this.
Credentials. I still I suppose he says that it's from Paul and Sylvanus and Timotheus under the Church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and the Lord in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he had those that were companions in the path of faith and those that were fellow workers, those that had, you might say, the credibility to be a witness with him, that this letter was coming from him. And it was something that they could take. As modified, we could just turn to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2.
And just see that there were others that had written, perhaps not exactly at this time, but at some time some point they had written letters and signed Pauls name to those letters apparently. And so on. 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. It says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter.
As from us as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means. And so these the Lord allowed that Paul wrote this epistle, his first epistle that he wrote to the assemblies and he uses these two witnesses. And it would be wonderful, wouldn't it be, to be in that day. I have often thought of these two individuals so heinous or Silas and Timothy Timotheus here Timotheus was a younger man, perhaps.
00:25:20
But he was faithful, faithful young man and Silas, it says he's called in at first Peter chapter 5. He's called the faithful brother in let's just look at that. I, I don't want to misquote it. It's in Mr. Darby's translation.
He labored with Peter.
After he labored with the apostle, verse 12, first Peter chapter 5, verse 12, Sylvanus a faithful brother, or it says, as I say in Mr. Darby's translation, Sylvanus the faithful brother.
He was one that was noted for devotedness to Christ and suited to be included in the address addressing these words to this assembly.
I might just mention.
In way of passing that Sylvanus, that portion that we just read in First Peter chapter 5, his name is given to us something like 17 times in the New Testament. And that's the very last time that his name is presented to us in First Peter chapter 5. And the Spirit of God sums up the sum total of his life, gives us a snapshot of his life. He says Sylvanus, the faithful brother.
It's all he says.
The faithful brother, 3 words and he sums up his life. And so your life and mine is being lived. And we're going to every day that we live, we're going it's going to be reviewed at the judgment seat of Christ. His whole sum total of his life as it were. The Spirit of God records in the Word of God that Sylvanus was the faithful brother. There are some others that are called faithful as well.
They had the knowledge of God as their Father. Though they were babes in Christ, they had that knowledge that God was their father. What a wonderful relationship that is for us to enjoy. Not only God is their father, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Bringing out the the Lordship of Christ. One thing to know Christ as our Savior.
Perhaps most of those present here do know, but do we acknowledge the the Lordship of Christ in our lives? That's a practical thought. Do we submit everything in our lives to His authority and allow Him to direct us in our daily?
Activities or whatever. Do we acknowledge that we are under His control, that no longer we are to live for ourselves?
But to acknowledge him as our Lord, and his remarkable that Paul with all his.
Extensive travels and laborers and.
Sufferings and privations in the work of the Lord, that he remembered these Thessalonians in his prayers.
Remarkably, that he had time not only the Thessalonians, but I think every church, a number of which he had established.
Were remembered at the throne of grace, and that's a good example for us.
The expression found in the first verse of our chapter.
Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We find that in almost every one of the epistles of the Apostle Paul where he and Peter as well where he says grace and peace.
A brother made this comment one time. He said the more that I understand the grace of God, the more I will enjoy the peace of God.
00:30:00
And what is it? The grace of God, for ye know the grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. I think what it does, brethren, is it takes us outside of ourselves.
And occupies it with him. Because the more I know the grace of God, the more I see the nothingness that I am.
And in that position it brings me peace, because I know that all was settled. So you look back at John chapter 20, after the Lord goes to Calvary, and he meets with his own in the upper room, and what does he say? Peace be unto you? And when he had so shed said, he showed them his hands.
And his side so.
It's nice to notice it just in our readings when we go through the various epistles. Romans.
My mind goes particularly through Ephesians and Colossians and also first Peter. It mentions grace and peace.
He really brings the deity before them here as well and the deity of Christ and he he speaks of the Trinity. So you have the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then a little bit further on in verse five, you have the Holy Ghost and that really brings before us eternal life, doesn't it? They he doesn't use the term really in this first chapter, but in John's Gospel we have this little expression that's used.
In verse nine he says umm just in the last part of verse 9.
Or verse 10 I should say John 10, verse 10. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly, or that they might have it abundantly, that is to have eternal life.
And so that what is eternal life, it's to have a relationship with the Father, to know God as our Father.
And it's also to know the Lord Jesus as Lord, as Savior. It's to know to be indwelled with the Spirit of God. And it's also as a beginning really, to have put our trust and faith in the Lord Jesus, to know him, to trust him. I'll just point this out and ask John's gospel a little bit further on in chapter 16.
It speaks there of.
Eternal life.
I'm sorry, I'm looking at chapter 15.
Yeah, I was looking at a chapter. I was looking for chapter 17, verse 3.
This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
And so we have.
The Father presented here.
The Lord Jesus Christ and he presents. He really focuses upon the Lordship of Christ in this epistle, doesn't he? Because that is what will really help.
Help and recognizing the authority of the Lord Jesus in our lives will release us from the serving of self.
There's many evidences that that's the perhaps the burden of the first chapter is the evidences of this new life in the Thessalonians.
There was really the practice the report had spread abroad all over the region.
They were energetic in getting the gospel out, but their lives were a was a clear proof that they were elected of God so.
The Apostle.
He wants to gain their confidence.
And he expresses repeatedly his love for these Saints.
00:35:01
And his self denying labor in Thessalonica, he didn't come there to receive money, he came there to preach the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. Much assurance, but he labored with his own hands. And when the Thessalonians saw this self denying sacrificial life of the apostle.
They saw love in practice and that's something that we can be exercised about. Some of us do a lot of talking, but really it's our lives that count. And the apostle was a demonstration of of the gospel in his own life here.
It speaks there of them laboring night and day, that he might not be chargeable to them. No, he didn't receive money from them, and they saw the evidence of a man of God among them. And it says it's a little remarkable in our chapter. He became followers of us, but remember that they were.
Immersed in idolatry and they didn't know anything about God.
They were completely ignorant.
But when they saw the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in the apostle Paul and those with him.
They became followers of them really they were following the Lord, but it's remarkable. It says she became followers of us that should speak to us that our lives. Someone has said, and we've often heard the expression what you are speak so loudly that I can't hear what you say.
The way that the apostle dresses the Thessalonians.
Because they like ourselves. They had a, they had a character.
We all have a certain character and Paul and his shepherding care. He he addresses different characters in different ways and has has has been brought out when he wrote to the Corinthians.
He addressed them in a much different way than he did to Thessalonians, but why they had a different character?
Maybe we could go back to the book of the Acts to see part of this character.
That he seeks to address here.
In.
In Acts 17.
In Acts 17, in the 10th verse, it says the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews, and these were more noble than those of Thessalonica.
In that they received the word with all readiness of mind and search the Scriptures daily whether those things were so and so. Here we find that the Thessalonians had a certain character. It was different than the Brians. They heard things and they perhaps didn't bother checking to see if those things were so. Or maybe when they heard a message, they didn't go home and ruminate over it and, and, and, and look in the Scriptures as what was being said. They perhaps just received it just simply. And on they went. And the apostles saw that.
As a deficiency. And so as John brought before in the third chapter, there were those things that were lacking in their faith. In the 5th chapter, he uses a little statement to the Thessalonians. He says prove all things. Now, the reason he says that is because that didn't characterize them. So it's interesting to see how in this first chapter, the way he addresses the Thessalonians is the way that, you know, some people need to be addressed. Some people just need a little extra TLC when you're speaking to them.
Other people, they need to be told the way it is, just the way it is, because that's the way their character is. And so all of us have a different character, but it's good for us when we're speaking with people to recognize their character and to adjust our way of addressing them because of that character. And so here you go through this first chapter and you know, he, he commends so many things just like he's got his arms around them and he's so afraid of saying something that that's going to offend them. He does address that in the epistle.
00:40:00
But he does it very, very softly, if I could put it that way. He knows that they need to be encouraged. He knows that they're they're full of energy.
Their, their, their, their love is expressed, their labor is expressed, and both things. And he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to disturb those things. And so he addresses them in a way that he commends so many things here and then later on they Thistle. He just gently addresses little things with them that need to be addressed. Much different. Perhaps as I said, that he addresses the Corinthians.
And so I think in, in, in any of us seeking to exercise shepherding care, that's very necessary in our addressing people to recognize the character that people have. I've got some children.
When I discipline them, I've got two that before the discipline even started, they were bawling their eyes and they were saying they're sorry and and that was their that's their character. They got two others.
That the closest they'll ever come to saying they're wrong was would be, you know, I'm not really proud of what I did. It's a very different character. Both is a work of God, but both has to be addressed differently. And so the apostle in his seeking to address the Thessalonians Saints, he addresses a character here that's very necessary and brings these things out of his first with his first chapter that is very tender before he starts.
Later on to address the things that are necessary.
That's chapter 2 and verse 11. Would you think it's that ye or as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father dot his children. And so it was with intelligence and really by the power of the Spirit that he addressed them in very softly, very tenderly and his children. And so you don't deal with a teenager the same way as you would do deal with a child and one who is an adult would be treated a little bit differently. While the Corinthians were more responsible they had.
More depth of knowledge of the truth of God than Paul had spent a year and a half there. He speaks to them quite differently. They were more responsible. So it's nice to see the tenderness. And the Lord deals with us according to our state of soul and the depth of knowledge that we have. The truth of God, our responsibility is according to what He has brought before us. And so he speaks to us by his Spirit accordingly. It's wonderful.
They may have been.
In the idol temple.
But the first verse we have now they're in the church.
The red says the red blood.
Which is in God church.
The Father and then the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whole new position altogether they found themselves in.
And.
The new position that they found themselves in brought new desires to their heart.
And so they had a work of faith that was there.
Before perhaps we just their own desires and energies that throw them along. And so it is with us when we get.
The Lord works the work in our hearts.
Were brought out of one whole set of conditions that we were in into a brand new place.
Looking in Galatians chapter 5.
And verse six says therefore in Christ Jesus neither circumcision available anything.
Nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love didn't matter whether they were a Gentile. It didn't matter where they if they hadn't been Jewish before this happened, they were now separated from all of that, and they were in the Church of God.
A whole new position and what mattered there, as it does with us.
It's when we're in the church, it's a thing that we have which worketh by love. So we see the energy that's behind our faith that works is love. That is the energy and of course the power.
00:45:00
That works. It's not the flesh anymore, which it was with these ones that were serving idols and now they were in Christ. But as the Holy Spirit is the power behind our lives and so we have a whole new position that we're brought into, whole new set of desires, a whole new walk and the Lord.
Father was so pleased in the Lord. Jesus was so pleased.
So without the burst of praise from the vote for these young believers.
So nice to see you.
Galatians chapter 5. Those verses have first five essentially.
Hope, faith and the versions we have loved and in the verse we just dropped before we.
Verse four he remembers those ceasing their work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God, our honorable and we have the same things help.
To see too, but at the end of that third verse, but it says patients of hope and I'm thinking of the next expression in our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is made man, that he must have an object.
And we know that the only way that the object can be the heart can be filled and satisfied is through Christ. And so in the world today, why there's all kinds of motivation that is presented to mankind to stir them up to drive man on from children and being taught in school to be something and and.
And.
So it is through life that the advertising the whole world is set into try to make man comfortable in a world without God. But here these Thessalonians.
Were in this state of idolatry and what happens? God steps into their lives.
And they find out about him and where where they are in relation to him. And they turn to God from idols.
And and so the object before them, it affects their whole being. And what they do, they turn first of all, to God. That's the work of faith, I take it, the labor of love, to serve him and to wait for him. And that should be what characterizes, should it not, the lives of those of us who are believers in this world, passing through a world.
That has rejected the Savior, and we see it getting worse and worse.
And so the motivation for moving on in life should be Christ himself, and it'll affect every part of our lives.
Before them, the sovereignty of God and verse 4 knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. Now election is always individual. It's the same word as being chosen. And we might look at that in Ephesians chapter one.
And.
Let's read from.
Verse three, blessed be the God and Father Ephesians chapter one, verse three of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And so the reason these Thessalonians were saved and the reason why you're saved is the election of God, the sovereignty of God.
00:50:05
Now, when the gospel goes forth, you're responsible to hear it and to believe it, to receive it. But really in a sense, in the truth of the matter is that nothing would happen. There would be no fruit for God in this world apart from the sovereignty of God. Mr. Kelly made that comment. He makes it several times in his writings. The soul enjoyed it. It's a help as you read the Scriptures to understand that nothing would ever, there would be no fruit for God in this world.
At all apart from the sovereignty of God. And so he speaks to them this way, and he says, Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. And so they had a sense of the sovereignty of God, having called them out of idolatry, and have placed before their souls that prospect of being with Christ and like Christ.
Well, that was evident by their works, by the way in which they acted, that the apostle concluded that they were elect. We don't have any access to the eternal councils of God.
We present the gospel to man as a responsible being. We don't know the decrees of God.
Or who is going to be saved. But we know that the invitation is to whosoever. I was thinking going back to verse 3.
The patience of hope.
The labor of love and the work of faith. As has often been mentioned in the book of the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2. There was work, there was labor, there was patience. But these the qualities of faith, love and patience.
And hope are missing there. So outwardly in the Church of Ephesus, everything seemed to be in order. It was energy put forth, but the motive spring.
That should have been the impetus was missing there.
I've enjoyed in the book of Second Samuel that we have an illustration of these three qualities.
Faith, love and hope. It's a very interesting study in the case of Jonathan.
Definitely that was a work of faith. He had faith in David. He saw the marvelous victory over the enemy there. He had full faith in David.
It I the get tight, which is I think second Samuel 15 probably won't turn to it now, but he demonstrated wonderful love for David when he was fleeing from his son Absalom, who had usurped the throne and David was in rejection and.
Disowned as though the rightful king it, I showed a wonderful love to David.
Very interesting study. Then you come to Mephibosheth, who was left in the city of Jerusalem and he wasn't able to follow David because he was lame on both his feet.
But he was loyal and true to David in spite of all the opposition. He didn't have anything to do with the merriment in the the.
Whole state of things in Jerusalem, glorying in Absalom, who was a usurper of the throne. He had no part in what was going on in Jerusalem. He was a stranger there.
And he was loyal and true to David. There you have the patience of hope.
And this was manifest in the in the case of the Thessalonians, the Lord is now a man of patience.
He's waited 2000 years and he's still waiting to have his church with him and we are waiting down here.
For his return, which is brought out so clearly here in the case of the Thessalonians, waiting for God's Son from heaven. It was the present hope. It was something that practically influenced their lives. You know, sometimes people talk about the coming of the Lord and there's so much error in Christendom today about this, about this whole subject, that you become a dreamer and you're not practical. Certainly wasn't the case with the Thessalonians.
00:55:18
It affected their whole manner of life, and it wasn't turning from idols to God, it was turning to God from idols. They had an object before them that filled their hearts. What it's like Ephraim, what have I to do in Hosea? What have I to do with idols? I have heard him, I have seen him. They had God in the Thessalonians, had God before their vision, filling their souls. They didn't want anything more to do with the idols.
You know, there's some boys and girls, you know, I guess they're not here this morning, but.
The threadbare illustration. But I had a dog when I was young and he was a very nice disposition. Nice dog, but boy if you got a hold of a bone.
You couldn't get it from him. Yank him, hit him.
Do anything. You couldn't get that bone out of his mouth.
But if you dangled a piece of juicy meat in front of him?
Immediately he would drop the ball.
Why? Because he had something much better. And this is the case with the Thessalonians. They had God now as their object and it it fell off like autumn leaves, the whole system of idolatry and all their their objects there.
Of an ungodly wicked world.
They let it drop. They had something infinitely better. So do we.
That has been brought before us.
Revelation Chapter.
Chapter 2.
Just in future relation with the third verse of our chapter in Revelation chapter 2.
The.
Also John addresses.
Build an oversight in Ephesus and he says in verse two, I know thy works by labor. Thy patience has been quoted to us and how that can stop fair than what you're evil and has tried them which say they are apostles that are not and must found them liars as born and as patients for my namesake as labored was not fainted. Nevertheless they have someone against thee because thou hast sometimes it's quoted this White House forgotten my first love, but that's not what it says.
It says that it's left by first love, you know, just to be practical. We, we, we all, we all enjoy weddings. We have one in our home in our assembly just a couple weeks ago. And just the, the, the freshness of, of the couple in their first love and the joy that they enjoy.
We, we really appreciate, you know, but it's sad when we see someone that have been on the pathway for maybe 10 or 15 years and you look at them and think why? I wonder if that's the way they were in their wedding day. And I don't think so. Or maybe it's maybe it's 40 years later or whatever.
We see a difference that perhaps we see in the wedding picture when we look at them. Well, you know, the Thessalonians, they were in the enjoyment of their first love. That's where they were.
But with them as well as us, there can be the tendency to leave that. And if it's left, what you have is what you have in Revelation.
You have do you have work? Do you have patience?
You know, you have labor, but it's mechanical. It's absolutely mechanical. And why? Because that freshness of first love is not there. Now the apostle, he's writing the Thessalonians because they're in the enjoyment of first love. And it's beautiful to see. But what a sad thing in our own lives.
When we leave that and we're left with a mechanical Christianity.
Instead of.
Response from the ravishing of the Lord's love to our hearts.
01:00:07
Could be translated the best love. It's a really remarkable that the Lord uses that language in connection with the prodigal son. He gave them the best robe. You and I have been given the very best that God always gives the best and he has given his son. Could we have any better? You and I have a life to live through this scene as we imitate Paul and his life, but we can imitate Christ, we can follow him.
And I've just mentioned that in First Corinthians Chapter 11, Paul many times in his ministry says to follow him in verse one, the followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. And so we ought to remember the Lord gave the very best, God gave the best of heaven, and the Lord Jesus gave us the very best, and He's provided the very best. Now for us to set it aside.
And to be taken up with a prosperous life or whatever it might be.
Is really setting our hearts affections aside. And what he really wants is the heart and the heart's affections. And if he doesn't have the heart's affections, if he doesn't have your heart's affections, he doesn't have what he wants. He doesn't want the wealth, he doesn't want the gifts. He doesn't, he wants the heart.
And so Paul is appealing to the hearts of these Saints, isn't he?
Now they had only seen him for probably 3 weeks as has been previously mentioned. And apparently we really only learn, we learn most of what we learn by observation. And we have some school teachers in the room and or former school teachers and they would probably attest to this, that you can give instruction, verbal instruction to children. You can tell them all you want, but really most of what we assimilate is by observation.
Maybe perhaps I've heard the figure of 85% of what we learned, we learned by observation. So we have a procedure to do to fix a part on a car or whatever, and you look on the Internet to see if you can find a video, and that tells you exactly how to do this. And you learn by observation. You can read the instruction sheet and you can get all the instructions right. But really you're missing that key element of being able to see. And so they had observed Paul's life.
They have observed that in verse five, that God had intervened in their lives and in power. The gospel came to them. They didn't go to the gospel. The gospel came to them unto you, in a word, not in Word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men. We were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us, and so they.
Saw something of the life of the Apostle Paul and his devotion to Christ and his love.
They saw something of his faith, of his love, and of his hope.
And they said we want to be just like Paul and follow the Lord, just like Paul following the Lord. That's essentially what they said. And so we have examples as well in the day that we live in, and we might just turn to it. In Hebrews chapter 13, it says.
In verse 7, Hebrews 13 and verse seven, remember them which have the rule over you, those that have gone on before, really who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Whose faith follower imitates, considering the end of their conversation. And so we might want to just follow the Lord, like some of our older brethren have followed and are still following the Lord. No, Brother Gordon Hill used to often remind us, and some of us remember him well. He would say, you know, young people, it's a wonderful thing to have a good beginning. And he'd say, you know, I'm so encouraged to see you taking some notes as young people and just wanting to be at the meetings and everything.
He say it's a good thing to have a good beginning, but make sure you have a good ending. A good ending is better than a good beginning. And so here the apostle is really pleading in this sense with these Thessalonians that they would have a good ending and that they would continue on until the Lord came.
01:05:09
I think what Dave brought out was a very, very good that the exhortation of the epistle doesn't come until chapter four and five.
And the the apostle is very sensitive to the way in which he addresses them, and as mentioned, he doesn't scold them.
But He wanted them to be established. And the expectations do come in the end of the Epistle. It's the same Ephesians, isn't it? First of all, the Lord gives us all the blessings that we have in Christ, our position, our eternal portion, all that is presented to our hearts, first of all. And then the apostle deals.
About speaks to our state.
In the last part of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where we have the exhortation in chapter 4-5 and six, but not at the beginning of the book.
Shall we sing 200 and 87287?
Is not for.
Fear.
When Christ will.
Play Hillsong.
With sunshine.
Here thy voice.
Of heart.
Whoever can stop shall come.
God.
No.
We Don't Have to Give Up and Give In
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Far away.
And joy of.
Division.
Lord.
Of the great.
Bullet with Thessalonians. I was thinking that.
We have not exhausted the 1St chapter at all.
Sort of commented on different parts of it, but.
Would it be in order to read part of the first chapter into the second, say from?
The fifth verse of the first chapter.
And on to the second chapter.
00:05:02
No, I would think.
We read down to 12.
Thessalonians chapter one and verse 5.
For a gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us and of Lord, having received the Word with much affliction, with joy into gold, so that you were examples of all that believe in Macedonia and the chaos. For from you sounded up the word of the Lord.
Not only in the Macedonia and Macao, but also in every place where faith is awkward is spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show us what manner of entering in He had under you, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He rains from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come.
For yourself, brethren, know our angels in unto you.
That it was not in the veins, but even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully treated, as you know, and vilified. We were born in our God, to speak unto you to the gospel of God, in much contention. For our expectation was not of deceit, nor of I cleanness, nor in God. And as we were allowed at the law to be put in trust with the Gospel, Even so we speak.
Not as easy mess, but God, which tribe our hearts for neither at any time used to be flattering words, as you know, or a cloak of covetousness. God is a witness nor of men sought me glory neither of you, nor yet of others. When we might have been emergency as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse chairs of her children. So being effectively desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted not to you.
Not the gospel brought over, but also our own souls, because you were here unto us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day, because we would not be charitable to any of you. We preached unto you the Gospel of God. Ye are witnesses. And God also. How holy and justly and unplannedly we behaved ourselves among you, that as you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father of his children.
That you would walk worthy of God, who have called you unto his Kingdom and glory.
Preached in such a way by the Apostle and perhaps others with him. It wasn't just.
Eloquence. It was in the power of the Holy Ghost.
And it brought.
Much assurance, afraid that to some of the gospel preaching today does not have that character.
Well, for one thing, often repentance is not is not emphasized.
And they want numbers. I'm not being critical. We're glad that the gospel goes out at all. But.
Does it bring that assurance of salvation?
Through the finished work of Christ. Is it a complete gospel, or was when the apostle proclaimed it here and.
And his life was the.
The proof of.
The message You know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
It was.
Delivered in power, and it brought forth fruit.
And there was no question that these Thessalonians were true believers.
And there is that danger of people making a profession today of being saved and there is not a change in their lives. They go on with the.
00:10:03
Worldly ways that they had before.
Perhaps even some sins. This was not the case with the Thessalonians. There was a.
A complete break with the godless world that they had been connected with in the.
More refined and sophisticated.
But if a person makes a profession of salvation and yet doesn't give up the world and there's no change in his life.
We can question whether there's been a genuine work of the Spirit of God in him. Not so with the Thessalonians. It was much assurance. We hope that everyone here has the assurance of salvation.
Knowing that our sins are forgiven, that we belong to Christ.
Well, it looks like almost a paradox in verse six. Much affliction. They really suffered persecution from perhaps their families, from their fellow workers. They were in an idolatrous environment.
And they had affliction, persecution. Paul had to leave.
But look at Joy of the Holy Ghost.
So there was really obedience to the Scriptures in these Thessalonians. And something goes along with obedience. It's happiness. You cannot have be happy in your Christian life if you are disobedient. But there was real joy here in spite of the afflictions they suffered. And it was a testimony, a real, right, powerful testimony.
Not only in Thessalonica, but all over the region, Macedonia.
No radios or Internet. I don't know how they got the word out, but they were energetic. They became preachers themselves, and they sounded forth the word.
All over that area. So Paul didn't need to say anything. They their lives showed that they were saved.
They became sole winners. Well, that's a word for us.
Says in the book of the Acts that.
Paul was accused of turning the world upside down. That was a commendation.
I wonder if we are that energetic and getting the gospel out like the apostle was and and the Thessalonians.
I must say this.
There have been time there, I've stood up to reach a gospel and it was just words that went out.
And it reminds me of that person in First Corinthians 13 about not having charity or love. And there's just a what is it a tinkling tinkling symbol or a sounding brass?
Because in my life there were things that were dishonouring to the Lord.
And if you looked at my life, you couldn't see that it was real with me.
And I wasn't walking in the spirit. And perhaps that was that's what he meant here when he said in the Holy Ghost. And there certainly wasn't much power in the words that.
Or feebly used.
I think there can be a lot more blessing if we would.
Take what the gospel is for ourselves and apply it here 1St and then in our life there will be a.
A display to others around what we have within us. And when you're coming from that standpoint, when you open the Word of God and you present it, it's real to yourself and it can be made real to others.
I think that's why it's worded this way. We don't read here The gospel came not and you in Word only doesn't say, but also in the power of the Holy Ghost. That's not the way it reads.
There's two separate things.
It's in power.
And in the Holy Ghost.
And.
Just what you bring the forest, Tim, is a searching thing that.
00:15:02
The power that comes from.
From speaking as someone speaks as the oracles of God comes from a close walk with the Lord and a relationship with the Lord that is such that that gives that power it's moral power. Yes, there is you know, we read a scripture that says not by might nor by power, but my spirit saith the Lord. That's a little different thing. But here we have that the word was spoken, but there was moral power behind it because of the life that was lived and then of course the Holy Ghost is the one that.
Brings the increase and and brings the.
Brings the fruit.
And Paul wasn't boasting here, was he? It really was the work of the Spirit of God to have him write those things. He wrote in truth, it says in Acts chapter 19 and verse 10.
Well, let's read verse 9, Acts 19, verse nine, when divers were hardened, believe not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of Juan Tyranis. And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus.
The word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks and God rocked special miracles by the hands of Paul.
So here was a life lived in communion with God and he was preaching the gospel of the grace of God. But we know too that he was preaching his gospel, what he calls my gospel, and those things that have to do with what we have in Christ. And so here he was diligent. He was all out. It was not half hearted Christian testimony in connection with Paul. He didn't have 1/2 hearted approach.
And so the Thessalonians saw this. They saw his devotion to Christ.
He had had a vision of Christ in the glory, and he laid aside every weight, every sin that the so easily beside us, and he set Christ before him as the prize. He never ever took that eye off. We know that he was He failed in several different accounts that were given, but there was a purpose that he had a purpose of life, and so he presented the word to them.
And the Spirit of God could use that word in power in the Holy Ghost and much assurance. So it's not good enough, if we could put it this way, to give the gospel of the grace of God. But when somebody does accept Christ as Savior and professes to know Christ as Savior, it's our responsibility to assure them of their salvation, to make sure that they understand and that they lay hold of that finished work of Christ. They don't have to have the right feelings or the right.
The right to emotional experience. They lay hold of the finished work of crisis. Christ that they have before them, not you or me.
Or anyone else, but they have Christ, and they'll get assurance, because they say his blood has washed me from my sins, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. They lay hold of Christ in his finished work. And so Paul was effective in this way because he was walking in communion with the Lord.
The importance of the word, can we? It says here in verse five that the gospel came not unto you in Word only. And then he speaks in verse 6, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. So it's the word that we need to present and to enjoy for ourselves. Little Nuggets of the passages of Scripture and a wonderful just to be able to have a reading in the morning.
And just get a little nugget, just something that you can carry with you all day. Sometimes you can carry it all week, sometimes longer, perhaps for a lifetime, those little Nuggets. But it's the word. And so Paul says a little later on in the epistles, he says, preach the word.
And that's what has effect, that has power, and that's the Word that gives life. And so the word in connection with the believer is not only necessary in producing life. The Lord Jesus is presented as the word in John's Gospel chapter one the Word was made made. Let me just read it.
00:20:26
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. So He is the communication of life itself, the communication of God. And in the person of the Son we see evidence of God Himself. And so he fully displayed who God is, and He fully communicated the heart of the Father. But we need the Word, and it's what gives life, but it's also what sustains life.
So the word is necessary for a believer to sustain life. It's vital. We need the Word of God.
They were in the freshness of first love here and death.
Might say it was almost spontaneous.
They weren't sent out by a mission board.
To preach the gospel.
They weren't ordained by any.
Group of the Christians, they went out with the message that had touched their hearts and.
They just spoke of what the Lord had done for them and there was a real testimony.
So.
So it is with the believer. Now we're not only holy priests, but we are royal priests and ambassadors for Christ.
And it also doesn't say that they have to go to a seminary or a college before they could preach.
They simply told out what the Lord had done for them.
Man cannot.
Give a gift to a person.
The gifts are given by an ascended Christ in the glory.
They don't depend upon man. If you have a gift, whether it be an evangelist or whatever, that's your warrant to use it. And ministry is simply the exercise of the gift that the Lord has given you.
So.
Perhaps we are not all evangelists on the platform.
But we can all do the work of an evangelist.
As the Thessalonians were here, they were very young in the face, three weeks or so.
But they were a bright testimony.
And.
So Paul exhorted Timothy to do that work, and each one of us.
Can do the work of an evangelist sisters as well.
And we are all servants of the Lord. We all have a gift. Maybe not in a public sphere. Certainly the sisters do not have such such a gift. But we all have a place to fill in the body of Christ, burden to bear, and a work to do. And we can all share the gospel.
Sisters and brothers in a quiet way, perhaps 1:00 to 1:00.
But if we're healthy, we will want to see the gospel go out to others. Certainly the Thessalonians did hear.
You speak, John, about the inexperienced relative inexperienced with the the.
New life that was in them that these believers had they were just a few weeks, as you say, saved and not necessarily all young people, but young in the faith and and they what did they have for the word of God? Well, they had the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures and they had the word of the apostles and that was it and they had the.
The testimony to the words of the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus.
When he was here and so that comprised the word of God. So we can we can say that they had a limited a pretty limited awareness of the scope of what they had draft in the leading of the Lord Jesus and and yet that they were exceedingly active by the spirits work. So it emphasizes the value and the activity of the Spirit of God.
00:25:25
Molding Christians from the very beginning and it also.
Is an encouragement, I believe, to those who are young in the faith, whether age or otherwise, in age or otherwise. And what you know, what these people knew, they testified to. So what you know of what the Lord has done for you, you are equipped to testify to it. And the strength to do so comes from the Spirit of God.
What I just said, we've all perhaps heard that somebody preached the gospel from using only the text from the Isaiah 55 It's often called the the gospel in the Old Testament. And and that is now it's become very clear that that is speaking about so many truths that are fundamental to the message that we have to proclaim. 53 You mean 53? Yeah.
That's right and.
And so there's a.
There's there's value, there's endless resources through the whole screen. We have this whole thick book to draw on, and you can draw on any part of it, as our brother Porter has done earlier today in drawing lessons from Joseph. And so there are, there are lessons for our life and for gospel testimony right through the Old Testament because we can't interpret it now by the Spirit.
As to what God's intent was in the first place.
It's interesting to notice that the throughout the book of the Acts that the Spirit of God was really directing the movements of the apostle Paul in connection with the gospel and he says in chapter 16.
In verse seven it says after they were come to miss you, they assayed to go to Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not, and they passing by, Monsieur came down to troll us, and a vision appeared to Paul. In a night there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying.
Come over into Macedonia and help us what we have in this chapter. Then the gospel preached in that city of Philippi, the first city in Europe to receive the gospel of the grace of God. But then these dear souls here in Thessalonians, the assembly in Thessalonians were given a little work to do and it says that they were in samples and they to all that believe in Macedonia and Akaya were from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and IKEA, but also in every place.
Your faith to God where it is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. And so the apostle Paul commends them highly for their gospel activity and for their.
Diligence in doing the work that was set before them. I think we need to remember that the work of the gospel is given to those that were once lost sinners but are now Saints. You and I are Saints of God. We're not seen as sinners, not even seen really as save sinners. We're seen as those that are Saints of God. And we're fit for heaven right now apart from the flesh that's in us. And we know that our bodies are going to be glorified, but the gospel of the grace of God is delivered to those that were once lost.
00:30:12
And now can give.
A first hand experience, so to speak to another Sinner and tell them how it is to be saved, and what it is, and how the word can be used and how the work of Christ can apply to them. And so the work isn't given to angels, it's given to men, and it's given to those that were once lost to give a first hand.
Account. And so there was fruit, and there was their faith. Godward.
Was spread abroad. There's evidence that there's a work of the Spirit of God because of the faithfulness of discharging the responsibility that they had in the very place where they were.
Well, there's two parts to the Christian life that is brought before us here.
Turn to God for my goals.
To serve the living and true God. That's the first thing.
The second is to wait for his Son from heaven.
I don't think.
The Thessalonians could have given any dissertation on prophecy.
They were very young in the truth. They did not understand much about prophecy.
But they were waiting for God's Son from heaven.
It did not take place, but this was the hope that motivated them.
The hope of the Lords immediate return.
Now error came in later on, and Satan tried to dim that hope by false doctrines coming in here. That's why Paul wrote this epistle for one reason, and it's the clearest exposition of the rapture I think we have in the scriptures in chapter 4 explaining to them.
They thought that when the Lord came, the Kingdom would be established.
But they were wrong there, they said. What about those who have passed through the article of death? Are they going to miss the Kingdom?
And Paul explains to them clearly that no, they will have part in the heavenly Kingdom.
They're not going to be part of the earthly Kingdom.
And so.
The The hope of the Lord's coming really motivated them.
And.
It gave them. It gave them.
The strength to to testify they were they had given up the world. They were no longer going on. It costs they they counted the cost.
Of what it meant to accept Christ and to separate from all the worldly associations. And they weren't occupied with the prosperity of the world.
They had an object before that, the coming of the Lord and mean time to serve the living and true God. Well, every one of us had that privilege to serve the living and true God. We don't have idols of wood and stone as I said, but anything that comes between our hearts and the Lord and displaces Him is an idol.
And we may know those things in our lives that are.
We don't like to admit it, but they have crowded out the things of the Lord in our lives.
The world.
Or the attractions.
Umm, in education or?
Sports or whatever it might be.
They can become an idol in our lives and displace Christ. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
With regards to our presentation of the Gospel.
It's in connection with what what happened here when it's you just quoted you just quoted this first young how these turn to God from idols to serve them living in the true God. So what happened is if we go to the book of the Acts for a moment just to see what takes place here.
00:35:12
In Act 17.
Acts 17 and verse one, it says, and we've already had this before, but I'm going to make a specific point. And when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where it was a synagogue of the Jews. So they go to the synagogue. That's where they that's where they're going. That's where they're going to take up with the Scriptures on these three Sabbath days. Now who's there? It says in the third verse opening alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them have believed and consorted with Paul and silent.
Of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
OK, so so here in the synagogue, obviously there's Jews, but there's also Greeks. Now, these Greeks have already turned from idols.
This has already taken place. They've already turned from idols and they're now in the synagogue and they're now listening to what's being taught. And so when Paul mentions here that these ones that turn from idols, that wasn't as a result of his preaching, that had already happened.
That had already taken place and they had turned to they turned from islands to serve the living God. Now in our presentation of the gospel.
Sometimes we don't see results, but what we don't realize is that in our presentation of the gospel there are various links in the chain.
And these Greeks had already had a partial work in their soul to turn from idols. They didn't know about the Lord. They hadn't turned to the Lord, but they had linked up with the Jewish manner of worship, thinking that these idols are worthless and let's try this Jewish end of things. And that's why they're there so often in, in, in souls coming to the Lord, there are various stages. And, you know, we might present the word and we might not see anything, but it it's, there's something in their heart and maybe it's a link towards bringing them to the Lord. I think it's going to be wonderful when we get to the glory.
To see those that came to the Lord and we see that maybe something we said was part of the link that we didn't think was of any use at all. And that's the way the gospel is presented. And so we we, we as has been brought before us. We need to do the work of an evangelist not knowing.
You know which link it's going to be that that we present and the Lord takes that up and something else follows. So these ones that were Greeks, they'd already turned from idols, they'd already been that work.
And they find themselves in the synagogue, and along comes Paul, and he preaches, and the work is further.
You have an evidence if you look at the if you look at Mr. Darby's note in in the 17th chapter and the third chapter, it expresses that a little better.
You have an evidence of that in Acts chapter 10, don't you, in connection with Cornelius? He was a quickened soul. He had turned from the idolatry of what it was characteristic of the Roman Empire, and he it says that he feared God. Acts chapter 10, verse 2A. Devout man or a pious man, one that feared God. Here's a Gentile, a Gentile, a Roman, He's a centurion. He fears God and with all his health.
Which gave much alms to the people. There was a little evidence of life, divine life. He prayed to God only.
Well, God had quickened him, He had life, but he wasn't sealed with the Spirit. He hadn't really come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus having died on the cross, and that the work of salvation, the work of redemption was available for him. And I think that that's what you're expressing here in connection with the Thessalonians. They went to where the Word of God was read habitually. And so the synagogue was that place.
They went to where the Word of God was read and it wasn't read with intelligence. It wasn't expounded with intelligence. But when he came, he could expound it with intelligence. And so he spoke and they believed. And as you say in Acts chapter 17, the Spirit of God records really perhaps that most of those that were there in that assembly in Thessalonica were Gentiles. What grace. But there were Jews too. It says in verse five, but the Jews which believe not.
There were some Jews that did believe.
And so God was working and we find that in connection with Tornillos have just finished the thought in chapter 10 that.
00:40:09
Peter went and he went, what did he go with? He went with the word of God and so they needed to hear it says that in verse 42.
He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be judge of the quick and dead to him. Give all the prophets witness that through His name.
Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell.
On all them which heard the word. But isn't it wonderful that you know, our responsibility is to present the Word and we can't tell whether a soul has been quickened or not. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can. There's a desire to hear the word and a desire, a thirst for righteousness, a thirst to understand the things of God. And but if we present Christ as having done that finished work, completed that finished work.
A soul oftentimes just needs to hear that the salvation is for you, the work that was done on the cross of Calgary was done for you and just accept it. And so they turned to God. They had already turned, as you say, from idols, but now they had the ability to serve the living and the true God and to wait. I sometimes connected the verse three with this verse and in this way it says in verse 3.
The work of faith, labor of love, patience of hope. Then it's there's a turning. In verse nine, he turned to God.
Wait or serve.
And then wait for his Son from heaven.
That's a wonderful thing to see, a soul that was once enslaved by Satan, enslaved by bad habits, enslaved by sin, set free, and now to serve a new master. And did they ever serve?
Came to office because this man was destructive in the way of the Lord.
The fervent spirits shaken thought delicately the faith of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. We preach that what she knew talked about what she knew, and it was full of Wasilla. The next verse that had heard him the Coca-Cola under them, and founded them to him the way of God more perfectly than we see the result of this industry at at the end of the chapter.
Sometimes the conversions.
Are more dramatic, if I can put it that way, in some people than in others. I think we've seen cases like that. I think of a man that many here will perhaps remember her name, Dave McKay, who is from McAdam, NB.
How the goes back to the boat into the 50s, I guess nineteen 57860 that area and how he was a rough, rough man and.
God went to work in his life and converted and he put Bible verses on his on his house after that.
A dramatic conversion Gave up drink, gave up smoking in a dramatic way without getting.
Too much into detail about it, and then another kind of conversion, if I can put it that way, of the.
I was thinking of the three things that are here in these verses that we've had before us here, that they received the word in verse 6, having received the word, and then verse seven in samples to all but believe, and then in verse 8 sounded out the word.
And.
I think about a man that I know in some.
Some here will remember him. His name was Mike Acheson, and it's about 40 years ago when Mike was saved and he was in a gospel meeting.
00:45:02
In Pine Grove and the brother spoke that night on the Prodigal son.
And Mike receives the Lord as a savior.
And the next morning he had to go work and he, Mike, is a kind of a timid nature and he didn't know how he was going to get along with the other employees that were there. And he wasn't the kind of person that would announce that he had been converted so.
He went to work and then coffee break time came and.
So all the fellows sat around to have coffee together and.
Mike was there and didn't say anything, and so one of the fellows said to him, well, what got into you?
Well.
Right away they realize that something had happened to him. There was a funny man being Christ. He's a new creation.
And there may be some here that are converted and they find it more difficult to take and give out the word to others. And there may be southerners there a little more bold. The Lord has his own way of taking and spreading the word. Nice to see here that it was received and then it became examples.
And examples can come in a way of letting our light shine.
Often been mentioned.
When a light shine, it doesn't make any noise. And so in a testimony, a quiet testimony to the Lord can have a great effect on those around, can it? And then there is the the sounding out of the word.
So we need to be encouraged and encouraged others to just.
Be examples in the same way the Thessalonians work.
Spend a little bit of time with my agency.
That's forty years later since he was saved. Mike now has a very bad form of cancer and.
He continues on for the board, just sleeping very quietly, people in their need and so the Lord has used him to be able to meet a lot of people have found themselves in the same situation where at the end of their lives that have no hope.
It's nice for each one of us to be encouraged that whatever way we can spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus, whether we're.
Perhaps, given that gift of an evangelist, you.
Do it on a regular basis, publicly, but it may be just quiet one at a time to show them the way.
There's a nice example. I think we have two in the Word. In the fourth of John, we know the story of how the Lord went to Samaria and says he must need to go through Samaria.
And you know the story of how he wanted to meet that woman as well. And we all know what happened.
Tremendous. Can I say conversion that took place at that time.
Since your life is so filled up with it, she goes and tells the men come and see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ that was her testimony? And then you turn over to the 8th chapter of Acts and you find that Philip goes down there and it says that. If I recall it says something about the whole city turned upside down or something along that.
Well, here the seed was planted. The Lord went there first of all, and.
Gave the word to the woman at the well, and then others were affected and then the whole city was effectively.
One of the things that you need to Christianity is the teaching of resurrection, isn't it? And so he was going to bring truth out in connection with that a little bit later on in this book that it says in verse 10 that his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. So we're not only delivered from the future judgment, our sins have been judged. They were judged at the cross. God dealt with them. They're gone.
00:50:20
In the coming day at the judgment seat of Christ, God the Son, as you have your private review with Him, will never mention one sin.
He will reward what was done for His own glory, for His honor in obedience to His Word, and an affection for Him. But He will never charge you with any sin and never remind you of a sin that He still hasn't forgotten, so to speak. He chooses not to remember those sins, and those sins are being dealt with, Judge, and so here He reminds them of the resurrection.
Of the Lord Jesus and that there's a glorified man on high and that's their object. It was a man in the glory who was once here in this scene, went to the cross, bore the judgment for their sins, and now is seated on high. He doesn't go into all those details, but he reminded them that the Lord Jesus was raised and then it says delivered us from the wrath to come. So there's it's a little clearer in Mr. Darby's translation. If you permit me, I'll just read it there, it says.
Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath.
So they didn't have Ross to look forward to. They didn't have judgment to look forward to. They had the peace of God in connection with that finished work of Christ and the judgment was gone, was passed. Death and judgment are behind us. Grace and glory are before.
Judgment. The Roth spoken of here is the Tribulation.
It's the judgment of the living that is referred to by the apostle here.
We might we might make a few remarks to hear on.
On the whole subject of the Lord's return, because there's so much confusion out there and Christendom today with the so-called Reformed theology.
Covenant theology they have.
They don't distinguish between the two comings of the Lord at all, that there is the coming of the Lord.
For for his Saints and there is the coming of the Lord with his Saints. I think we hear all understand that, but they are definitely different. There's a period of at least seven years between them.
I think this here refers to the rapture, but the other references.
At certain times, like at the end of chapter 3 to the end, He may establish your hearts unblameable in holding us before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His Saints. Second Epistle of Thessalonians, chapter one, verse seven. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God.
This is the wrath of God, that.
I believe the apostle was looking to that awful judgment that is going to be poured out on this, on Christendom at the end of the Tribulation period. These are two distinct aspects of the Lord's coming first.
There is, there is the Rapture, and then there is the appearing or the Revelation.
Which is at the end of the tribulation period, when we will come with the Lord. It will at that time.
It will be a different sequence. When the Lord comes, we will be taken out from this world and the unsaved will be left behind.
But when the Lord appears.
The unsaved will be taken in judgment.
The harvest judgments there, those who have believed the gospel of the Kingdom, will remain here.
And they will go into earthly blessing. So the sequences are entirely different in those two aspects.
00:55:01
And that's what I I'm trying to to bring before us, that there is a definite difference in the coming of the Lord for his Saints.
The Bride. Bride meeting the Bridegroom. The Church of God.
Taken out of this world entirely. We're a heavenly people. We don't belong to the world. We're going to be raptured, snatched away in a moment, twinkling of an eye. Nothing has to be fulfilled before that takes place. What? What aspects of prophecy had been fulfilled here?
The And yet they were told to wait for the Lord's coming.
But at the rapture, at the appearing of the Lord, there will be judgment. The Lord will deal with the nation of Israel and the the indignation judgments there, the Western nations and the King of the north, and so on. This will be a pouring out of the wrath of God.
You have some Christians that have the church going through the tribulation. They don't understand that the Church is a heavenly company waiting for the Lord to lift us out of this world into the glory at any moment tonight.
But for the world, it is the wrath of God which will be poured out.
Unlimited when the Lord appears with his Saints.
This is one of the passages of Scripture that we can use to teach and to reinforce the fact that the church will not go through the tribulation period. This is one of these verses. And Paul is part of Paul's doctrine. And I just mentioned too, in connection with what you've said, Brother John is in Zachariah chapter 14, just as an example, in verse five, it says just the last part of verse 5, Zechariah 14.
Verse five, The Lord my God shall come in all the Saints with thee. That's the appearing. Now in the Old Testament prophetic scriptures, they knew about the appearing because it has to do with Israel. They did not know about the rapture. That's a part of Christian teaching. It's Christian doctrine. It has to do with the heavenly company. So what? What has to do with the earth and with Israel's place on the earth?
Is in connection with what is given in the prophetic scriptures in the Old Testament. But it does say that all the Saints will come with him, not one will be missing.
And so all those from Adam right down to the time just after the just at the point that the tribulation is ending, they'll all come with the Lord Jesus. Not one will be missing. And so we have the Revelation chapter 20 that gives us that, doesn't it? It says there that in in Revelation chapter 20 that.
I'll just read the last part of verse four to get the connection. They lived and reigned with Christ.
1000 years, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.
You know what? I think it's a wonderful thing in connection with the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of the Lord for his own.
All those in faith that have died in faith, and those that will be alive on the face of the earth at the time that the Lord Jesus comes, and those that have died and those that have gone through the tribulation be murdered. They're going to be raised at the end of the Tribulation period. And so when the Lord Jesus comes, it is appearing, all the Saints will be with him. Not one will be missing.
And so it didn't matter what age, what time, in the prophetic timetable, you might say that souls have had faith in the Lord and being born of God, they'll all be with him. What a prospect. And Paul just really reinforces this through these dear Saints.
Isn't it good for us to see here at the expression and to wait for his Son from heaven? And it reminds us in the 4th chapter of how the the apostle Paul said.
We which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord.
01:00:06
The The hope of the church is a present hope the way it is presented in Scripture, isn't it?
And I think that we find.
It necessary to be reminded of it in that way. Recently my wife and I went to a Funeral Home and knew a brother and a sister who.
Deeply loved the Lord and the wife died. There was her body in the casket and there's a husband who's standing beside him. We went up and said hello and and sorry to hear and so on and he said.
I told her at the end, he said. I'll see you on the other side of the river.
And I know what he meant, and in connection River Speaking of death, and then he was referring to his own death, that he would die and the coming of the Lord as the present hope is not something.
Enjoyed at large among believers, it seems to me. And I think that we need to remind ourselves and.
To anticipate that it could be today, perhaps today, that the Lord is coming because it'll affect the decisions that we make in our lives if we, if we hold it in reality, in our lives as the present hope.
Brother Bill Herman, would you agree with that?
Very serious thing.
And so I just want to ask a question about first John and chapter 2 and.
Every day.
The guy always hopes that I'm not thinking something wrong or doing something that's simple or whatever, or saying something is simple or just.
Some of them be caught up in heaven and.
You know this thought should be your everyday thought.
I would think that refers Bill to the time when.
Our lives will be manifest.
Just to get the sequence of events, the Lord came tonight. We would be taken into the Father's house and welcomed.
And during that seven-year period, the judgment seat of Christ will take place in heaven.
And our lives will be reviewed, not only since we have been saved, but since we were in the body.
So although nothing that we have done before we were saved will be brought up to condemn us, it will be revealed. We will know then, in deeper and fuller measure, what it how much we have been forgiven.
01:05:05
God will remove that from his memory.
But after the judgment seat of Christ, there will be the rewards apportioned and given according to our walk down here. Your place in the Kingdom, your reward, will be according as you have walked down here.
What you have lived for in this life, it will be whatever has been done for Christ, however small it might be.
Cup of cold water given in his name will not lose its reward. Then the crowns, which of course we will cast at his feet, but they will be given to us and then at the appearing we will come back with Christ, but then we'll be manifest. I believe our rewards how we have walked. So I think that this verse refers to to that time, but I'm I'm not positive.
The.
If we may have confidence and not be ashamed to be for him that is coming, Well, there is such a thing as a saved soul and a lost life. 1St Corinthians 3 is clear. He shall be saved so as by fire. That can happen to a believer. What I'm afraid.
Will be ashamed that is coming, because he lived for the world and the things of this life occupied in present advantage. And he, he, he'll be there in the glory, but there's going to be a loss in his life and there can be in our lives too. So I would think it refers to the time when we will.
Appear with the Lord in our.
Our rewards will be manifested and some other brother have a thought on that.
I endorsed my Second Timothy chapter 4. It says there in verse 8 Paul is speaking. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crowd of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearance. It seems to be a similar thought there that.
The appearance seems to be connected with the responsibility of believers.
In that verse, and also the one in first John, I wonder if we could just close by sending 286.
286.
So.
Our Lord.
We play a dream.
Shake Shipping.
Gospel 1
Gospel—John Kemp
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.
Give you.
Some are having a problem to hear me, I'm afraid, so I'll raise my voice here a little, all right?
Can you hear me at the back over here? All right.
You can hear all right, hey.
Well, thank you. I'll try to make it clear.
All right.
That's a good idea.
All right, dear friends, you'll just give your attention here for a few moments, please, because you remember that you said on the invitation that we are having a short Bible message and that is the important part of this occasion.
I would appreciate if you're just listening for a few minutes as we present the good news of salvation because this is really the purpose of our brethren and bringing you here. We're not going to force anything on you, but we want you to hear a few words from the precious gospel message from the Word of God.
I come from the capital city, Oregon and I'm I'm a retired teacher.
And now I travel around the world with the gospel. I would just, I just came back from Brazil and there I visited the Amazon River. You may have heard of that great mighty flow of water. I went across the Amazon River and I saw something that you have never seen.
I saw a big Python snake.
Voted the width of this room I think and I put it. It was put over my shoulders. This big Python snake right over my shoulders. It was. I have a picture of it but I forgot it now.
You know, it reminds me of some people who are bound by the cords of their sins and they can't get rid of them.
They hope and they can't get away. Now. Dear friends, I was thinking tonight of another supper that God has has spread for you and that God wants you to be present at.
It tells us in the book of Luke of the parable of a great supper, that a man prepared and sent out the invitation to everyone in the community and he was greatly disappointed because no one came. The invitation went out, not like tonight. We've had a good turn out and we're thankful for it. But this man?
The invitation was refused.
They made excuses. I've got I've got to see my property. I've got to see my animals. I've married a wife and I cannot come. Could have brought his wife with him. They did not want to come. And the host, the man who prepared this supper at great cost to himself.
He was disappointed. Is there going to be no guests at the supper? Supposing here our brethren didn't have anyone come tonight, they would be greatly disappointed. But remember, he said my house is going to be built. The seats are empty. But he said to his servants, you go out into the streets and the lanes of the city and call them in the lane to blind.
The the poor bring them in because I want to have my supper filled.
Dear friends, tonight I want to tell you that God is inviting you to come to Christ. We have spread the Supper. Forgiveness of sins, eternal life, salvation from coming judgment is offered to you tonight if only you will come.
You weren't forced to come here tonight. You were invited and you accepted the invitation and we're thankful for it. But have you accepted God's invitation that He is making to you tonight, calling you by name to come to the great supper that He has spread? His house will be filled, He said in that parable that I'm Speaking of. Come for all things are now ready.
00:05:13
And so, dear friends, tonight salvation is offered to you. The work of the Lord Jesus on the cross is finished. You don't have to pay 1 Penny. You don't have to turn over a new lease and try to live a better life. You don't have to talk about good works. I was distributing practice at the Highland Games one week ago today.
I met a man and he said I don't need that message.
Because I'm about the best person you would ever meet in the world, in the planet. And he began to tell me all the good works that he had done. Well, I said, Sir.
You're probably telling the truth. I, I, I'm not denying you denying that what I said. Remember, you cannot get to heaven by those good works that you have done. You are a Sinner. Oh no, I'm not a Sinner.
But you have committed those things that are contrary to the Word of God, and you are in God's sight, lost. He didn't believe that. He didn't want to submit to that, and he would not come to the supper that was spread for him. With your friends tonight, I'm going to speak long, but remember that the door of salvation for you is open tonight.
Just as this door was opened, God has.
Throwing his arms out.
Just like the prodigal son who had wasted all of his father's money in the far country, and he was perishing with hunger. And he said, I will return to my father and surely he will have mercy upon me. I'm perishing with hunger out here by the pigs. I'll go home and be a servant.
But that young man, the prodigal son, you've heard the message.
He turned, he repented, he turned from his evil ways.
And all the company that he had there, he was bankrupt. He didn't have one beauty in his pockets, and he was in rags, without shoes, without money. Must have been a long time to get home. But he did get home finally. And well, he didn't know that he would be received so wonderfully.
Was watching for him down the road and it says that he ran when he saw his son coming up. The son who had disgraced his father's name and wasted his money and riotous living with women and whatever.
The son received the most wonderful welcome that is possible to imagine. The father put his arms around him and covered him with kisses. Said Come in, we have a feast ready for you, right? Oh no, the best robe of the house, shoes for your feet, a ring for your hand, the sign of love. Come and partake of the bounty.
Dear friends, that's what God is doing for you tonight.
He is inviting you to return to the Lord. You will receive a welcome just like the prodigal son did. God's house is filling fast. I want to tell you this before I stop. Yet there is room. The door of grace is not closed yet.
God is remains left it open. Another night, another day, maybe another month. We do not know. The Lord's coming is very near. Let me ask you a question.
Are you ready to meet the Lord if he came tonight? Yes, God's thank you. God's house is drilling fast, yet there is room. The door is not closed. The alarms of the Lord are outstretched. Those hands that were nailed to the cross of Calvary. Those hands that have the print of the nails in this side, the mark of the spear that was.
Hurled at the Lord, and out came blood and water, that precious blood that can wash every sin away that you have committed.
That you will only goes in with God's offer of mercy. Come to the Gospel supper. Don't stay away for any reason. No excuse. God will accept when you stand before Him. Now is the day of salvation. Plenty of time. We don't know. Don't make that mistake. Plenty of time. I just heard on the news in Ottawa a lady was on the way to work.
00:10:19
On her bicycle. I know, right? The corner in downtown Ottawa. I passed that corner many times.
He was turning the corner. Something happened, I don't know the details. And the car, the truck.
Pinned her underneath.
And.
Or lighthouse taken in a moment he was ushered into eternity. That young lady thought she would get to work. You probably heard of what happened in Ottawa. I often tell the story of the bus that was going about two, two or three years ago with a filled with people, a double Decker bus and students and all. I often tell this story and bring forward to it.
And that but you self South of Ottawa.
What reason? We don't know. It smashed into a train and you wouldn't need to identify it as a bus. It was a complete wreck. But six people were ushered into eternity and never got to school, never got to work. They expected to be there their in eternity. I don't know who they were. Many people were injured, but six people were taken.
In that sudden accident, one thing more.
We're going to be finished. I told you about Earth and its madness and its madness.
No time for the Lord. I've told you about heaven in its gladness, because all heaven will rejoice. If you will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus tonight and accept Him and trust Him as your Savior. All heaven will rejoice, just like the prodigal son brought joy into that household. One thing more the next chapter tells us.
Of hell in its sadness. The rich man, he had everything that heart could wish.
He had the best feast every day for beggar at his gate, filled with sores, no friends except the dogs to lick his doors. The rich man would drop a few crumbs and scraps from the table as he passed by to this poor beggar, That's all. He didn't think about him. The time came when the rich man died. I suppose he had a beautiful tomb. He had a great funeral.
Everyone was talking about it.
And the poor man died also, and the angels knew where he was. There he was at the gate filled with sores and rags. No one thought about him. The angels came down from the glory, and they lifted that man up in their arms, and they carried him up into heaven, into the very bosom of Abraham. But the rich man died also. But where did he go?
Some people say when you die, your soul just sleeps, that's all. You're not conscious of anything. That's not the truth, dear friends. God, the Lord Jesus told this story. And that man, that rich man who didn't have any time for God, didn't have any time for the word of God. He lived for himself in the pleasures of sin. He was an eternity now.
And he woke up and he saw the poor beggar. It was the rich man that was the beggar now.
And he said, Father Abraham, send Lazarus that he may just dip his finger in water and just put on my tongue one drop of water.
Please, Father Abraham, do this No.
Like no mercy in hell, no escape from that children, not one.
Not one act of mercy there, but he said Father Abraham.
Send someone to tell my family.
The gospel so they don't come to this place. No, Abraham said. Son, remember, remember you had your good things in life.
Those evil things, now he is comforted and now I fermented. Now the rich man was not unhealthy because he was rich. He was in hell because he refused the word of God. And he left the Lord out of his life entirely and lived only for this world and woke up in a lost eternity. Father Abraham send.
00:15:07
Someone to tell them?
To warn them, lest they come to this place of warning. No, Abraham said his son, it's too. It's too late.
They have the Word of God. If they don't listen to the word of God, even if someone rose from the dead, they wouldn't change. So, dear friends, tonight the Word of God is what you need. It's speaking to you. God is inviting you, beseeching you, entreating you to come to Christ as a Sinner tonight and trust Him and believe in His death and his sacrifice.
And his precious blood, His love, is reaching out to you.
Pull back the window, the shades, and let the love of God pour into your soul tonight. God wants you in heaven. He wants his house filled and it's going to be filled. Are you going to be one of the guests? I will by the grace of God, and I'm not here to say that I'm better than you. In no way. I'm only a Sinner, a deep dive Sinner, saved by the grace of God.
And those who invited you to come here tonight within the same class, sinners saved by the grace of God.
With a love that you might enjoy that wonderful, those wonderful good things that God is offering to you tonight. May you reach out the hand by faith and believe the message and come to Christ's. I guess maybe we'll stop here now. I was asked to tell you that there is a gospel meeting, another gospel meeting.
Tonight in the gymnasium.
You are invited if you would like to stay, you're more than welcome with another gospel meeting tomorrow night at. It's 7:00 tonight and tomorrow night at Six 3630 and all are welcome to both of us. Yeah, you're all welcome to.
Be up all down to possible No, no, no, it's amazing. It's amazing. There's nothing there. I mean, it's going to put.
All right. I think they have something to give you here as a little.
Five before you go, is that right?
What about one song here before we can do that? I don't know. Does anyone have a a song, a gospel song that they want to sing together? Everybody knows Jesus loves me good.
I know.
Bible tells me so.
They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
I think of that might be Amazon River that I passed over just about a month ago. It's a marvelous waterway to behold. I've never seen anything with such power and force. Amazon River, longest river in the world, you know, And it has such power that it the water goes right out of the Atlantic Ocean, 100 miles.
It's still fresh water out in the Atlantic Ocean, 100 miles.
Once a shift going along and they were running out of water. You can't drink sea water. No. And they were in a dilemma. What can we do? The water tanks are are empty and we're out here in the ocean and how are we going to get water? We're not going to survive.
And they called a ship nearby and they said, have you got some water for us?
And the captain called back. He shouted out let down your bucket, you're in the water now Let down your bucket and take the fresh water that is all around you. You don't need to worry. Just take the living water. And so do your friends tonight who's whoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again release. Whoever dreams of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst and the.
00:20:01
Invitation of the Bible, the last before God closed his word. He had to give one more invitation. Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life freely. One story and I'm finished. There was a young man in Ottawa.
And he was in the war.
This is a true story. He was in the last World War.
And someone had given him a New Testament.
To read what? He never read it, but he put it into his pocket like this.
And he went into the battle. He was on the front lines and the bullets were flying and a bullet hit him.
Right here where the wide where the New Testament was.
And the bullet went right through the New Testament and stopped.
A few millimeters from his heart.
And he took out that New Testament.
Life was spared and he brought that back to Canada and he showed it to my friend who he was visiting. He said here, this saved my life.
And he opened it up.
Where did the bullet stop?
Look, it's starting right at that verse that I quoted. You. Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life, really. But the sad thing of that story is that that man, as far as I know, has not taken the water of life yet. I don't know if he did before he passed away. But there was the Bible with the bullet, the last invitation. Dear friends, that's God's invitation to you tonight.
May the Lord bless His word to us. Shall we pray? Loving God and Father, how thankful we are for Thy wonderful love to us, and giving me the dearest object of thy heart, Lord Jesus, Thy eternal begotten Son.
What, my well beloved, to come to this Dark World, to suffer the rejection of man, to be spit upon, to be crowned with thorns.
We nailed to that cross.
There to dawn.
The holy victim, the Savior suffering for our sin and our guilt, if we accept thee as Savior, so that we might be forever at that, suffer the marriage supper of the land in the glory. So bless Thy word to each one who is present here tonight. We thank Thee that they have accepted the invitation of our brethren. We pray they may accept God's invitation. We pray for each family.
We pray for each individual.
And commit them all into thy love and care, as we thank Thee, and ask it all in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm probably our.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Mike Campbell
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.
Want to sing #16 Whosoever cometh must not delay Now the door is open. Enter while you may #16 Whosoever here is shall shout to sound. Send the blessed hiding all the world around.
The joyful news, wherever man is found, will make.
Come whatsoever man, whatsoever well, send the proclamation over there, and hill tis the loving Father calls the wander home.
Who celebrated?
Who's?
Whosoever will make God, whosoever will, whosoever will stand the proclamation over hill and hill.
It's a loving father.
If you'll take your Bible, turn to the Book of Exodus. Book of Exodus, chapter 14.
Exodus chapter 14.
The thought that's kind of on my mind is basically the very last phrase that you find in verse 13 but forsake of connection and context. Will read starting at verse one down to verse 13.
Verse one And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn, and they can't before high, high Roth between migdo and the sea over against fails upon before ye shall encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness have shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, And I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his.
That the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt, that the people fled in the heart of favor, and of his servants was turned against the people. And they said, Why have we done this? That we have let Israel go from serving us. And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him. And he took 600 chosen Chariots, all the Chariots of Egypt.
And the captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and.
Pursued after the children of Israel. And the children of Israel went out with a high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his armies, and overtook them. And camping by the scene beside Pahai al Roth before Belsephan, when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them.
And they were so afraid, and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.
And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in this wilderness? Wherefore Hazel dealt us with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt. It's not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians, who have been better for us to serve the Egyptians, that then that we should die in the wilderness.
And Moses said unto the people, Fear not.
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he shall show you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. And that last little phrase is kind of what's on my mind this evening.
You shall see them again, no more forever. But before we look at the scripture list, mountain word, prayer, our Father we acknowledge.
Each time we come to present the gospel.
Our great weakness, our great inability to through any kind of human persuasion techniques or storytelling or eloquence, to cause one soul to.
Receive Christ. We know it solely in only of thee, that salvation belongeth unto the Lord.
00:05:04
And so we acknowledge our weakness and we pray and ask that the Spirit of God would do that work which he alone can do. And that is to convict the hearts of men and women, show them their that my tongue doesn't race ahead of my brain and my tongues get my tongue get tangled.
But most importantly, that in all things, that precious one who died for my salvation, that he would receive all the honor and glory and praise, for only the Lord Jesus is worthy of such, and we pray this in his precious name, Amen.
Many years ago in the days of the railroads, when cars started to intersect the railway lines, they realized there was a problem because at night time it was difficult to see the train. And So what they first did is they would in certain intersections they knew were busy and difficult that they would build these little shacks and there would be a little, you know, lever that they would raise and lower to as a barricade. And there would be a man and his job was.
To listen for the train and when the train would come, he would come out, lower the barricade and wave his lamp.
You wave this lamp. Well, one day a gentleman named Sandy, who was his job to do this, he kind of got a little dozy. You know, he sort of like that. Just he didn't fall quite asleep, but he just kept drowsing off. And all of a sudden he heard the train and that drowsy state. So it clicked on up, grabbed his lamp and he got out and he was waving his lamp and he could see the car keep coming and coming. And he starts to wave his lamp in larger, more exaggerated motions.
And the car keeps coming and coming, so finally Sandy has to jump out of the way of the car.
And the car crashes to the barricade and hits the uncommon train. Well, of course, in order to understand what happened, they took Sandy to court and they put him on the witness stand. And they said, Sandy, did you get your Lantern and wave it? And he said, yes, your honor, I did. I waved it and waved it, waved it. But the train, the car kept coming. And by that time I had to jump all the way. It was too late. Well, they awarded that it was probably driver negligence. Maybe they were sleepy or whatever, or didn't.
See him. And so they let Sandy go.
But afterwards, a friend said he saw he was visibly shaken. He said, why are you shaking? It's all over. They declared that you weren't at fault, so you should be okay. And he said, well, he said, I was shaking all through the trial because I was hoping they wouldn't ask me one question. And he said, what was that question? He said, I hope they didn't ask me if the Lantern was lit. You see, Sandy and his drowsiness in his hurry never lit the Lantern. So it really was his fault that the car didn't stop, because there was.
Nothing for them to see, just a dark Lantern on a dark road and a guy standing there waving it that they couldn't see it till it was too late. You know, today we have a lot of that in kind of a similar way going on. We see men waving these dark lanterns of their good works that supposedly tell you it's OK, go your way, do what you're doing right now. It'll be all well. But all that at all that time men are heading to destruction. They're heading to an uncommon, you know, uncommon train.
But they waved the lanterns are good works or they waved the Lantern their religion to say hey come on, just come to church or do these things that we do and all will be right. And all the time men are heading towards that train leading to their destruction. You see the only thing that has light, the only true light that will lead men to the truth, to the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus himself said I am the light of the world.
If any man fall after me, he shall not be a darkness, but shall have the light of life.
And yet we know that men like to wave their religion. They like to wave their good works. They like to waive all kinds of things as a substitute for the true light. Well, today we see in this text a group of people who are facing their final day. They didn't know it at the time when they traveled after the Egyptians. They didn't realize that this was going to be the last day that they would live. But Moses declares to the children of Israel, who are kind of concerned.
At this point that here's this great army, the soup, who's behind him to say these Egyptians you see today, you'll see them again, no more forever.
So we want to look at why is it he can say that? Why is he so confident saying that you're not going to see these people? And I want to know this eight things that I think that we see in this passage. And this will be the we will look at the Bible verses, but you might want to keep the finger there. So we'll be coming back all the time to this passage here.
00:10:03
And I think there's eight lessons this passage teaches us that, not only about the Egyptians here and about their last day upon earth, but also about you and about me and things that are representative, important to us as we consider the gospel truth, the true life that men need to see. And so the first lesson that I would consider is that today could be your last.
Now think about the moment within the Egyptians woke up. Did they say Hallelujah, I'm going to die today?
It's a great day, can't wait to the final death blow comes or whatever. They'll even stay. They didn't get up and do that.
They thought it was just going to be another day. You know, maybe they would go on maneuvers or do whatever they do. You know, maybe they'll have time to be with their loved ones. Maybe they'll have time to have a good meal. They just another day. Oh, got to go. Farrell tells us that we got to go on maneuver, so here we go. But they didn't think of it as any big thing because, as I said, Egypt was the superpower of their day. I mean, they had the better army. They looked as the at the.
Of Israel as weak, ineffectual upstarts, that it would be an easy job for them to go in and just kill them all.
They didn't realize that, as Moses says, that you shall see them again no more forever. They thought, piece of cake, you know, easiest thing that we ever did is to go wipe out these Israelites. But they found out.
That what's their last day? So what about you, dear friend? Do you realize that today could be your last day upon this planet, your last day of life, and that you would go off into your eternal destiny, whatever that might be? The Bible's pretty clear about that. Both not thyself and tomorrow. For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, as James said to those men that said that we are going to go to such and such a city and we're going to continue for a year. We're going to.
Cell and get gained, James said to them. Where as you know not what is on the Morrow, for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. You see, people think they got their life all planned out, all thought out, but there's one thing they often forget, and that's God, the one who's really in control of all of our lives.
And those people in the book of James, they plant without God. They had it all figured out, what they were going to do. But James said you forgot a very important part in your figuring, and that's the Lord.
In the course of Scripture is replete with all kinds of examples of the shortness of human existence.
None of us here knows if we'll wake up in the morning, knows if we'll draw another breath, knows if we'll see another sunset, knows if we'll enjoy another fellowship with with other people. We don't know that.
And that's why the Bible is clear that behold now, Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
David said there's what, a step between me and death. Dear friend, Do you realize this evening that there's a step between you and Dad? You realize that this could be the last moment. We don't like to think of that because we want to think that we have these long lives and they can go on forever. Especially, you know, when you're young, you think, oh, I don't have to worry about eternity because I got years.
God says.
Whereas you don't know what will be on tomorrow or what is your life. It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then it finishes away. These men got up and they didn't realize that this was the last day that they would ever hold your children. It was the last day that they would enjoy good meal. It was the last day for them.
But friends, we don't like to think of that, but we need to get that mindset to realize that today could be the last day. You know, the sad thing is people do all kinds of foolish stuff to try to extend their life instead of following what the Scriptures tells us. This is a certain way that we can have everlasting life. I mean, John 316 says that whosoever believeth in him shall have everlasting life.
That's simple, that's direct, that's the promise of God, and yet men will try every other technique.
Than to believe what the scripture said you know the latest thing that's out there is a man named Doctor Ray Kurzweil who works for Google he's a big scientist he has all kinds of patents and things he preaches something called the singularity and someone asked him one time do you believe in God and he was his response was not yet because Ray Kurzweil believes that he will be God one day he believes humanity is become God because.
00:15:11
Similarity is supposed to be this melting of man and human consciousness in the machines and therefore we can live forever. And that might sound good to the ordinary human, but the problem is they forgot one thing where what's the point in the man wants to die, but after this the judgment.
That God has declared that because of sin there is death and you can do all kinds of fancy things to try to extend your life, but it's God that has control as to the day your eternity begins and not you.
But people think that that's going to be the latest craze. Men will become immortal. In fact, in 2011, Time magazine published 2045, the year man becomes immortal. Of course, now they say because of technology, it's probably going to be 20-30 something that may will be coming more. But once again, all that they're hoping on this technology, they're hoping on these things when the Bible tells us the simple and clear us and most certain way to eternal life.
If you'll just receive God's blessed Son who died on the cross for you, that He took your place, He bared the price that you deserve, He bared the punishment that you deserved upon himself, that you would just realize that it wasn't just for the sins of the world that Jesus thought it was because of your sin.
Because of my sin that he died there in the tree.
But men want to chase all these fantasies in vain hopes for their everlasting life, not realizing that today could be their last. Now I heard the tale of a young soldier who is on furlough.
And the young soldier had to head back to the train to get, you know, on the train. So he would go to his deployment. And he was walking down the street. It was snowing. He was carrying his duffel, you know, walking down the street. He had several miles to walk to get to the range of the train station. He had no drive. And so he's walking, and all of a sudden, this man pulls up to him, a businessman who was visiting in the area, who owned business interest in the area which this young soldier lived in.
And so.
This man stops, has the window rolled down, says hey, son to you need a ride somewhere. You know, I see it's snowing out and you got that heavy duffel on your shoulder. And he said, well.
I need to go up to the train station, which is a few miles down the road. I would love a ride if that's OK. And so, so the man said, sure, come on in. He says, no sense you walking out in the snow like that. So he put his duffel bag in the back seat, sat in the front and they rode for a little way. They started to have conversation, you know, just chit chatting about things. And finally, the young man said to the older businessman, He said, Sir, He said before the drive ends and the train station's coming close.
Another mile or so, he said. There is something I have to tell you.
He said, I'm a Christian and he said, I want to share with you Jesus Christ. And at that moment, the older man, the businessman, became limited. He said shut up. He said, my wife all the time is bugging me to get saved. She's always saying, saying these gospel things to me and I don't want to hear from you.
And the soldier said, well, sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you, but he said I love Christ and I just wanted to share with you.
While he drove for silence the rest of the way, the train station and the businessman realized, well, hey, this young man's probably going off to die somewhere and I treated him like Dirk. So when they pulled up, the older businessman said, wait a minute. He said, I need to apologize to you. He said, I just been bothered because my wife all the time is telling the gospel to me and.
I just don't want to hear it. And he said, I'm sorry for yelling at you. I know that you're putting your life on the line for your country and you might die in some battle, he said. I won't leave it like this.
Well, the soldier said, well, thank you. He said, that's great. He said, son, is there anything I can do for you before you go? And he said, well, I don't really need anything, but I would love to have an opportunity to share the gospel with you. Well, the older man relented and he said, OK, go ahead.
So that young soldier got his spot, a lot of stuff, a bag and shared the gospel with that old man. And the man came to Christ and the man was so excited. He said, I can't wait to get home to tell my wife that I'm saved. She's been after me all these years. Tell me I need to hear the gospel, get saved. And now I can tell her. You see, was so excited. And he gave the soldier his card, his business card, and he said, when you get back from your deployment, say I want you to look me up.
And the soldier promised he would and he said, I'll be praying for you and and they parted ways. Soldier got on this train, went to his deployment and.
You know, two years later he came back to town. He lived in that area.
00:20:03
So he walked to the door.
Knocked on it. That was the address in the card. And the lady came out, older lady, and she said, can I help you? And he said yes. He said, I met this man a few years ago and he pulled the car out of his box and he said he gave me this car you see here. I'd love to see him and talk to him. And at that point the older lady started to cry and he said, well, sorry man, I didn't mean to stress you. And she was crying because.
That man was her husband.
And she said, all I know is that two years ago he dropped somebody off at a train station and on his way home from the train station, he slid and went over a bank into his dad. And she said, young man, she said, I'm a believer in Christ. And she said, all these years I've wept because my husband's lost.
He's on his way to hell.
He said, ma'am, he said, if you let me in, he said I have a wonderful story to share with you that your husband's not lost, that he's been saved. And of course he had the opportunity to share that story. But you see, that man was fortunate he got it right before he died because that same evening he went off into eternity. Dear friend, what if you go off until eternity tonight? Have you made it right with God?
Have you made a decision to receive crimes? This could be your last day. You don't know. I don't know.
So we have to be careful when we think that we can just another day of a long stretch of countless years.
Because today could be your last. Well, I better move on. Let's look at #2 Second thing I suggest is that opportunities will vanish.
Now consider for a moment what these Egyptians saw.
These men in this army saw what God did through Moses. They saw the rivers turning into blood and the infestment of frogs and the hail that came down and killed all the cattle out in the fields. They saw that they heard about this man Moses, telling Pharaoh, you need to let my people go, that there is one true God and he is saying that you need to let them go. They saw all these things. They saw literally miracles happen.
And yet.
Didn't delete, Of course. It's not miracles that people need to see anyway. It's the word of God. That's what you know, Abraham told the rich man. The rich man said, well, Abraham, can't you just send Lazarus to my brothers? And if they saw that miracle, they'd get saved. And Abraham still knows they have the word of God, and that's sufficient. That's what they need.
So they had opportunities to to see the truth and to understand that there was one true God. In fact, the Lord says in verse four, And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them, and I will be honored upon Pharaoh and noticing upon all his host that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.
So God hadn't listened for them, and yet they did not heed it. They didn't listen.
In fact, in the story about the hail that came down, it said that he that feared the Lord among the servants took their cattle in, that he that regarded not the word of the Lord kept their cattle and and themselves out in the fields and so forth, and they paid the price. They understood that God had a message for their soul, but they went blindly.
And blithely until their eternal destiny.
Dear friend, tonight God has a message for your soul.
It's a message of judgment to come. It's also a message of love and grace and mercy. The message of judgment is to come is that God wants you to escape it. He doesn't want to bring His wrath down upon any person in this room. It says that God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's great love was to send His Son to make it possible that he could forgive sin.
Because without that sacrifice, sin could not have been forgiven.
Sin could not have been wiped away, but it was only because of Jesus Christ and his shed blood that God can offer to you, and He offered to me a glorious forgiveness and a wonderful redemption.
That's the message, that's why we're here to preach it. That's the message that people don't want to hear because either A, they love their pleasures too much or B, they are deceived by false teachers because it says Satan likes to blind the minds of men unless the glorious light of the gospel should shine unto them. Sometimes the reasons why people reject, but the question is if today could be your last and your opportunity to accept Christ could end tonight.
00:25:05
And as we'll see later.
There's memory in hell, and you may remember this moment.
When somebody got up and told you there was a God that loved you and he sent his Son to die for you, and you could have escaped the judgment if you would just trust him. But you sat in the audience and you said no.
How sad that would be.
Kind of like an old woman who lived in a cottage not far from Balmoral Castle, where Queen Victoria was vacation. And if so, woman was on in the outs with her neighbors. They had gossip about her, she was angry about it, and she was just kind of mad at the whole world. Well, one day she hears knock at the door and the old woman ignores it.
And then the person keeps knocking. She says probably my stupid neighbors have been gossip about me wanting to come in to, you know, try to get something from me, maybe tea or maybe sugar, whatever. Not going to let him in person kept knocking and she finally yelled at knock away until doomsday. I'm not letting you in.
Well then I can start.
And she was quite pleased with herself that she shield away one of her neighbors until she found out the next day. It was Queen Victoria who had a habit of visiting people in the area and the Queen was outside of her door knocking to get in and she refused entrance.
Christ is standing tonight offering you His precious love and salvation. Will you refuse Him? Will you just go your own way, do your own thing, Go off into eternity thinking?
Everything's fine.
You know the dark Lantern of your good works. Everything's fine, All's well so far.
You find out it's eternally too late.
Well, I have to kind of keep going here because I'm only part three and I have eight points. So all right, so we looked at so far today could be your last and then opportunities will vanish. The next thing I want us to notice is that self-confidence leads to ruin. Look, if you will, at Exodus 14 and verse 9.
Excess 14, verse nine it says. But the Egyptians pursued after them all the horses and the Chariots of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his armies, and overtook them in camping by the sea beside Pie, High, high Roth, and before Beelzebub.
So all these men, great warriors.
Rushing to their death.
God says you shall see them again, no more forever.
And as I said, they men don't go into battle thinking, oh boy, we're going to lose this one. It's not going to be good. We're probably all going to die. Men go into battle thinking that they have a chance to win. And certainly they thought they had a chance to win because they were the best army of their day.
They were probably pretty certain this was going to be the easiest battle they ever fought against these Israelites. No contest. They weren't going in there thinking, hey, we're going to lose and you know, we're all going to be wiped out. If they thought that, they would have turned tail and went back home.
But God says to them, you shall see them again, no more forever.
Self-confidence leads to ruin.
You know, the, the Eddystone Lighthouse is an interesting structure in England. It's off the coast and at certain times of the day, you basically only see the, the lighthouse. It's covered by water. You know, the, the, the water comes up to the base and basically if you step down the door lighthouse right into the water. And then other times when the tide is low, you see more of the land surrounding the lighthouse. And the first builder of the Eddystone Lighthouse. There have been four such erections of this edifice.
The first builder said that there was number safer place in the storm than the Eddystone Lighthouse.
Guess what collapse in the storm? The Eddystone Lighthouse kind of reminds you of that boat called the Titanic. Even God couldn't sink her. The first thing she did was sink. You see, men like to think that they have all their security and safety all bound up. They have planned for every eventuality.
But God is all knowing and you can't outplan God.
God said to these men who thought they were confident, You shall see them again no more forever.
But how many people are competent today in their good works? They're confident that they just are missing some piece of the puzzle, maybe knowledge based, or maybe there's, you know, some New Age doctrine or something like that that they need to come into in order to have the final piece. And they'll be like God themselves and they'll do all these things.
00:30:12
Because men are always searching for that latest new fad that will lead them to God, that latest thing that will be to their benefit. You know, people say, well, you know, if you just, you know, or think positive, you'll have this. Or you got those false teachers that say, well, God promised you a long life and prosperity and all these things, which is not really promised in the Bible because they twist the scripture. But they they do all these things because it's all man based. It's all.
Centered, it's all How can I lift myself up? How can I get to heaven on my own terms so I can pat myself in the back and say, hey God, I deserve to be here?
But friends, you don't deserve to be in heaven and need to do.
The Bible's clear. There's none good. No, not one. Guess what? No, not one includes you and included many.
You're looking for a loophole, The Bible says Be sure your sin will find you out. No loopholes.
There's no escape. It's important. The man wants to die, but after this, what the judgment?
And so if you think you're going to get away with it, you're going to find out that your self-confidence will need to ruin it always does. Look what happened to Satan. I will send to the heights. I will be like the Most High. Look what happened to him.
He fell because of his eye wills.
George Whitfield one time was preaching and at one point in his message he said the Lord will accept all of the devil's castaways. And there were two ladies, ladies of the evening and the audience in the back and one turned the other. Did you hear that? There's hope for us. We're the devil's castaways and if God will accept them, there's hope for us. Well, the next day George Whitfield was and he didn't know their conversation and what they were thinking and he was meeting with.
Lady Huntington, who was a Christian lady and who often gave money to because she was a rich widow and she all gave money to Christian organizations. She was a big financer of Whitfield and of Wesley too, later on. And she said, George, don't you think you kind of said something wrong yesterday?
And he said, what do you mean?
Well, you said that the Lord will take all the devil's castaways. Don't you think you overstated that? And Whitfield said no. And just at that point, a knock came on the door and the servant went to get it. There was a note there that was for Whitfield. And so they gave the note to Whitfield. While they're having this conversation, did Whitfield overstate that the Lord will accept all the devil's castaways?
And it turned out it was a note from those two women telling Whitfield that they got saved because they realized that if the Lord would accept all the devil's castaways, he would accept them. And Whip Hill said, well, if you think I'll overstay the case, read this note. And so the Lord will accept you, dear friend, but you have to realize that you're a Sinner and you're lost, and there is no way in the no universe that you can never save yourself.
And you're fooling yourself if you think that you can do something good that you can, you know, perform something that you can genuflect or bow or fall some religion.
You're fooling yourself if you think that's going to get you to heaven.
Just as they were fooling themselves thinking, oh, cake run, just the Israelites, we can take care of them.
So self we looked at today could be your last. Opportunities will vanish and then self-confidence leads to ruin. Here's #4 and that is the doom of the Sinner. Sure.
The doom of the Sinner is sure. Notice what Moses said with certainty. Ye shall see them again, no more forever.
He didn't say, well, if all goes right, you won't see it, you won't have any trouble anymore. He didn't say, well, we're hoping and praying that everything will turn out. He said, no, they're going to be a distant memory after today. You're not going to ever see or hear from this army gone.
Moses spoke with certainty because it wasn't Moses words. He wasn't given anybody the latest human philosophy of how to go rich or how to be spiritual or anything like that. He was telling them what God told him to tell.
And so if you stand on the authority of God's Word, you're on the solid ground. But if you're standing on the authority of men's word, you're in the sinking sand. And Moses could say you'll see them again, no more forever. Why? Because he wasn't telling them men's ideas, but God's Word.
00:35:07
And you see, friends, the Scriptures clear. If you reject God's blessed Son and the wonderful salvation that He provided for you, you're doing certain.
That's not a pleasant subject to talk about, but it's the reality Scripture, and I would be negligent as a gospel creature if I didn't tell you about it, because that is the reality. Hebrews 927 says, And as is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, Jesus said in Luke 13, Three, I tell you, Nay, but except ye repent, ye will all likewise perish.
John 336 says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
But notice the rest of the verbs. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You know, there was a clock in Europe and the figure would come out, it was on this kind of runner and it would come out and there being a bell there and it would come down, hit the bell once every hour.
And one of the workmen made a mistake that would have been costly, and in anger, the architect, the designer of the clock, killed the Workman. And of course he sought to.
You know, hide it and get rid of the body and everything so no one found out. But what he didn't know was a piece of that person's skull accidentally gone into the clockwork. So the next time the clock was scheduled to come out on this rails and hit, they only got so far inside. It was the working skull that was preventing going his father. So they sent the architect up, the designer up to figure it out.
And as he was figuring out, he unleashes the thing and the figure advances a little bit more and kills him, just like he killed the other guy.
You sure your sin will find you out, dear friend?
You can take it to the bank, dear friend, that if you reject Christ, you're doing certain.
In fact, let me give you God's guarantee. Turn to Acts chapter 17.
Acts Chapter 17.
God's given you a guarantee that you're going to face judgment, dear friend.
Acts 17 and verse 31.
Because he hath appointed a day into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.
Whereof He's given a sure and son to all men. That word assurance means a warranty guarantee. God is guaranteed to you that you will face His judgment.
And that he raised him, Speaking of Jesus from the dead. Now the only way you can escape facing that judgment is you have to be in the one Jesus who bore your punishment on himself. You have to be where the fire has already fallen in Jesus Christ. But if you don't, your judgment is guaranteed by God. And it's not a pleasant one.
And it's not one that you're going to enjoy.
Well, the flip side of the fact that our doom is certain is the reality that the salvation of the believer is sure.
You go, if you look at verse 13, notice how he begins the verse in Exodus 14, verse 13, it says that Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and what? And see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. So just like the Duma, the Sinner is certain.
The surety and safety of the of the believers also. That's the wonderful flip side. Yes, there's a guarantee.
That men will face the judgment in their sins if they don't receive Jesus Christ. But there's also wonderful guarantee that God will save every person that is willing to accept His Son. In fact, let's turn to Hebrews Chapter 7.
And verse 25. He was seven. Verse 25.
Hebrews Chapter 7, verse 25. Here's God's guarantee that He will save every person.
That comes to him by faith and truly acknowledges that he cannot save himself, but trusting in the Son, verse 25 says, Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he liveth to make intercession for them. Dear friend, God is able to save to the uttermost, and someone said to the gutter most.
00:40:04
There's no Sinner that's too great that God cannot say. There's no thing that you've done in your life that you can say, well, my sin is so great, God can't do anything. No, his fresh is good cleanses from sin.
And he is able to save you tonight, dear friend.
One day, Richard Oglesby, the governor of Illinois, wrote to Abraham Lincoln, or.
Telegraphed him a discouraging note and Lincoln wrote back these words. He said Dear **** fearing not stand still. Exodus 1413. Abraham Lincoln.
We need to just trust in that one who's done the work. We need to realize that there is nothing I could do, there is nothing I could ever do to save myself, but that he did it all. And all I have to do is come and trust him that he finished the work, that he hasn't done it.
And my salvation is short, and heaven can be assured for you tonight as if you were already there, if you just come and trust God's precious Son.
That brings us to number six. So we looked at today could be your last. We looked at opportunities could vanish. We looked at self-confidence leads to ruin at the doom of the center assure and the salvation of the believers. Sure. Number six is salvation is of the Lord. Notice that he said in verse 13, see the salvation of the Lord. He didn't say, OK, now you guys got to arm yourselves and be ready. And when God says OK, you're going to go into the battle didn't say that. He just said stand still.
And see the salvation Lord, He didn't say, OK, well, we've got to do this and get ready just in case the enemy escapes and we'll take off the leftovers. No, he said, stand still. There was nothing for them to do but to watch and to trust in God because God was going to do it all. It was by his power. He was the one that was going to finish that work. He was the one that was going to save them.
It wasn't something they had to do. And that's the big thing we need to get out of the human consciousness is that we can do something to get ourselves to heaven 'cause you can't.
It's already been done. God's Son did. You just need to trust Him. You just need to stand still, realize.
The work is finished by him and all I have to do is trust.
And then #7 not only is salvation of the Lord, but they had to trust to see God's salvation. Notice they had to stand still and see they didn't have to work and see they didn't have to do some religious ceremony and see they just had to stand there and watch God do it.
So they had to trust that God was going to do his end of it, because if they had to do something, they would be sunk, because in their human ability they were facing the greatest army of their day, the Egyptian army, and there was nothing, no way they could beat them in their own capabilities.
With the things that they had at their, at their, you know, for their usage, there was no way that they could win naturally.
So they had to trust. They had to realize.
There's nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to thy cross I clean.
Nothing man can do, nothing you can do will ever save your soul.
Because Jesus has done it all.
You know, there was a man who was.
A soldier in Napoleon's army and he lay dying and he asked for Napoleon because he had such confidence in Napoleon and he's there getting operated on. He said please bring Napoleon here. I know he can help me.
And so Napoleon comes in and he says, Napoleon, save me.
But Napoleon had to turn his head in tears because he knew there was nothing he could do. And that's the way men are. They're always trusting in something that can't save them. Dear friends, Jesus Christ can save you to the uttermost. There's no situation, there's life. There's no sin that you committed that his blood cannot cleanse you from.
Stop trusting in those things that can't say. Do trust in the one who can say the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the last thing that I wanted to notice we looked at today could be your last opportunities will vanish. self-confidence leads to ruin the doom of the Sinner share the doom of the Saint or the salvation of the Saint is sure salvations of the Lord and they had to trust to see God's salvation. The last thing is you'll be somewhere forever.
Notice how Exodus 1413 ends. I'm going to read the whole verse, but look at the very last two words. And Moses said of the people, Fear ye not stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom he have seen today. Ye shall see them again, no more what forever.
00:45:19
Forever.
Eternity. Eternity. Where will you spend eternity? This question comes to you and me. Where were you spending eternity? You're going to be someplace forever.
Whether you like it or not, you're going to be someplace forever because the Bible is clear. There are two destinies for men. There is heaven, the place of God's abode where those who have trusted in Christ will go, and there is a place called hell.
A terrible, terrible place.
Where sinners will endure torment for all eternity.
I just want to take a moment.
You know, sometimes when you preach the gospel, you wonder, how can you make hell real to people? How can you make them see how terrible and how awful that place is? I'm going to try. I probably won't succeed, but with God's help, I'm going to try. I just want to give you tonight, real quickly, the ABC's of hell.
And these are three things that if you find yourself apart from Christ and you're dead, this is what you will face. So I'm trying to warn you, trying to get you to understand what your eternity is going to be like if you walk out these doors and reject Jesus Christ.
The first thing I call is Awful Flames turn if you go to Mark Chapter 9.
Mark Chapter 9.
And I really got to move along.
Of course, they'll tell you in Palmyra that I tend to go over, so please don't hold it against me.
Mark Chapter 9.
These are the words of Jesus starting. I'm going to start reading at verse 43, and then I'm at verse 44. Then I'm going to skip down to verse 46 and verse 48, verse 43. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off, where it is better for thee to enter into life, Maine, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched.
Where their warm dyeth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Verse 46 where their worm dieth non and the fires not quench. Verse 48 where their worm dies not in the fire is not quenched. You see friends, people will try to tell you that Jesus, you know that the things he said about how were just kind of symbolic or whatever, but no, Jesus taught there was literal fire in hell.
You can't deny that it's playing, Jesus said, where the worm dies not and the fire's not quenched when he told the true account of the rich man in Lazarus.
He said the rich man woke up in hell, being in torment, being in flames. Jesus taught there was fire and hell. I heard this account of a young man who told about how his father died.
And it kind of illustrates this idea. There's fire now.
Young man was in the hospital, his dad was just wasting away. He was basically a skeleton of a man and for the large part of the day, his last day, he was in a coma.
And then, for whatever reason, his father.
Became lucid and all he said was he yelled out. He said, son, there's fire in hell.
And he just kept yelling it out. So the young man ran and got the nurses. It took four nurses and a doctor to try to restrain this skinny little guy who was emaciated. Asked for 5 minutes. He kept yelling out, son, there's fire in hell, son, there's fire in hell.
And then he went out to eternity.
Dear friend, Jesus said there's fire in heaven.
There is fine.
Regardless of what the liberal preachers and others say Jesus said were the worm dieth not in the fire is not quite.
This fire now.
The next thing is found in the book of Jude chapter. Well, it's only one chapter, Jude, but Jude verses 11 Through 13.
The Book of Jew.
Notice Jude is talking about.
False teachers here and he says in verse 11 Walt to them, for they have gone the way of king and ran greedily after the Arab balaam for reward. And it perished in the game saying of core. These are spots in your feast of charity when they are feasted with you feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water carried about of wind.
00:50:21
Trees whose fruit Withers without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars. Notice the last part of verse 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Hell is a place of blackness.
Now you say, well, how can that be? There's fire. If there's fire, isn't there a little bit of light? Well, why do you think firemen have to have lights on their equipment when they go into burning house? Because the smoke and everything, it's difficult to see. They need to take lights with them. And so the person who dies outside of Christ will be in the blackness, still hear the screams of those around them, but they will barely be able to see anybody.
As they for all eternity.
By themselves in that blackness.
Are being tormented.
Jesus said in Matthew 22, he tells the story about those who were invited to the feast and they refused to come. And there's the man without the wedding garment. And the king says in that parable, take him into outer darkness. Why? Because that man without the wedding garments a picture of people that make professions of Christ, and they use the name of Jesus all around, but they don't really have him.
And the king said, Cast him into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping at nationality. Dear friend, how is the place of out of darkness?
Can you imagine?
The horror of being in darkness and being in plane. Think about this. A person, hell is always feeling the pain of the fire, but they're never consumed by it. They feel the agony that comes from the flames licking at themselves, but they're never consumed. They always exist. They'll exist forever.
In that horrible, horrible state.
The last thing of the ABC's of Hell that I'm.
Trying to get across to you dear friend is found in Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16 I alluded to earlier is the.
Parable. Well, not excuse me, I'm wrong. Not parable, but the account is an actual historical account. Because parables don't have people's names in them. Parables are generalities. Jesus is Speaking of specific people.
And so it's not a parable. I misspoke.
It's an actual count of two men who die and go to their eternal destiny.
Look at you world at.
22.
Well, excuse me in well I'll read the end of verse 22 where it speaks about the rich man says the rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus and his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.
Notice what Abraham says to him.
But Abraham said verse 25 Son, remember.
Son, remember that thou and thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, like lies, Lazarus, evil things. But now he is comforted and thou are tormented. I would suggest to you that.
The C and the ABC's of hell is comfortless memory. Just think about this man forever is going to remember. Anytime somebody told him about God, about Christ, think of it, a person hell is going to remember. That night I sat at the gospel meeting and the preacher tried to preach his heart out that there's a hell and there's flames and you could be there forever. And I just said forget about that. That's foolishness. And I walked on. You'll remember that.
Can help.
You remember that when you laughed at a Christian or mocked them because they trusted in Christ, You'll remember that.
Son, remember. I don't know what's worse to be honest, the flames, the darkness, or the fact that you'll remember.
00:55:00
There was a man in the same asylum.
And there was a doctor that was visiting this, what they call him Asam today, but this was years ago and he was in this asylum. And all this man would do is he would walk around like this, too late, too late, too late, too late. He would sit in his chair and he would rock back and forth too late, too late, too late.
And the doctor said, what's going on with that man? All he does. Too late, too late, too late.
And the other doctor said, well, it's a rather tragic story. This man was a man who tended the railway. And one day there was a train on the siding that was waiting for the express to go through. And the man's job was to go out and pull the switch, which would shunt the express around the train that was waiting on the side of him. But the man walked out one day, that day, fateful day, and he saw beautiful flowers. And he got engrossed in the beautiful flowers and all of a sudden, Choo, Choo.
He hears the siren. He's running desperately to get to the switch. But before he got there, the train went right into the train that was sitting on this song. And he saw the carnage and he saw the screams of the people. And he said ever since then, all he's ever said was too late. Too late, dear friend, just think people in hell are saying too late. I heard about Christ. I heard how he died for me. I heard how he loved me, but it's too late.
Dear friends, is it going to be too late for you because you rejected God's Son?
OK.
I don't know how else to get it across, my dear friend.
I don't know how to let you know the horribleness.
What you have before you, if you if you walk out of this place and go off and do you turn without God's Son?
I wish you could make it more real to you.
I wish you could realize that just like these individuals.
They ended up somewhere forever, and it wasn't the place they wanted to be forever, I guarantee you that.
And if you end up in this place that we just described in a short little way, it's not a place you're going to want to be forever either.
But the question is.
What will you do with God's Son?
I'll read you a little poem and then I'll close in the word of prayer and the meeting will be over.
Homes called the Valley Decision. Dear friend, each of us, if you're not saved, you're in the Valley of Decision right now. I stood at the crossroads amazed to see the few on the heaven bound way while the Broad Rd. thronged with the motley crowd who lived only for today.
For the future, it seemed they had never a thought or lay at the journey's end. And I heard, as it were, Wisdom's warning voice. Be wise, less to hell you descend.
Today thou livest, yet today turn thee to God.
For air tomorrow comes, thou mayest be with the dead.
Today's your decision day.
Try to lay the case before you that you're going to be somewhere forever. And like the song sung that we sung earlier, whosoever cometh must not delay. Now the doors open. Enter while you may. I'm going to close down the word of prayer and the meeting will be over.
We trust that God will use what was given to the salvation of some poor souls their Father. We thank you this evening.
For this opportunity that we have.
To share that wonderful message of a savior named Jesus.
His great love for the lost.
And his wondrous dying on the tree, and the glorious salvation that he provided.
And we pray, Father, if there's someone in this room this evening.
That hasn't decided for eternity.
May they enter without delay, may they decide tonight, may they understand the horrible danger that they're in and that today is the day that has been set before them to make that choice.
And may they come to Christ, and we just pray that whatever results it may be from this time that we've had together, that they would redound to the honor and growing praise of that precious one, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name that we pray, Amen.
Which One Life and Which One Brings Death?
Children—Danny Allan
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.
That is a very good song. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on, but let's sing #40.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little one to him belong.
They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus.
Loves me, he who died.
Heavens came to open wives. He will wash away my sins.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me the.
Keeps me safe from every harm.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible.
Tells me so.
Jesus loves me, loves me still when I very weak, and I'll from his shining place on high comes to watch me where I lie.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells 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.
I'm high.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me the Bible.
Tells me so.
That is the best news for every single little boy and girl and adult here today. Jesus loves me. And later on we're going to talk about this song a little bit more. But who else has the song they'd like to sing right here? What's your name? Caleb #44?
Into a tent where a gypsy boy lay. This one I liked a lot when I was a boy.
Into a tent where a gypsy boy lay dying alone at the close of the day.
News of salvation we carried, said he. Nobody ever has told it to me.
Tell it again. Tell it again.
Salvation story, repeat or end?
Till none can say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
00:05:03
Did he so love me? A poor little boy?
Send unto me the good tidings of joy. Need I not perish? My hand will behold nobody ever the story has told.
Tell it again. Tell it again.
Salvation story repeat horrendous till one can say of the children of men nobody ever has told me before.
Bending, we caught the last words of his breath.
Just as he entered the.
Then I am sure that he sent him for me.
Tell it again. Tell it again.
Salvation story repeated.
Till none can say of the children of men. Nobody ever has told me before.
Caleb, have you ever had something that you really wanted to tell someone else? Can you think of something?
Something really, really exciting.
Nothing that's not important to you anymore.
Does any boy or girl have something really exciting that happened to them in the past few weeks?
You have something exciting. What did you hear or what do you want to tell us?
You went on a big trip. Where did you go?
To the United States, that is a big trip. That's far away, isn't it?
Two planes. Wow, that is very exciting. And did you want to tell people?
Yeah, well, this story is about a little boy. He said tell me again. I want to hear this exciting story about the Lord Jesus dying for him. He was so excited to hear it and he said, tell me again, tell it again. All right, Who else is a song they like to sing? Jake Number L.
Let's sing the 1St.
And.
Third and last verse of #12.
Just as I am.
Without one place.
By blood thy blood flies for me.
And I thou be.
May come to.
The old Lamb of God I come.
I come.
Just.
As I am.
Porridge and blind.
Slavery.
Yay, all I need.
To find.
I've got, I come.
I come.
Just as I am.
Thy love I am.
Broken.
Every.
Year down.
Now to.
Be vinyl by the Lord.
Oh no, land of God, I come, I come.
00:10:06
One more song and then we're going to read the Bible. Someone that's not in my family.
Anybody else in the song? No.
Alec, what number?
#11.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? When the clouds unfold their wings of strife, when the strong tides lift and the cable strain, will your acres drift or burn remains?
We love Anchor the Anchor the kids for Soul stay.
Fast and short, while the billows roll, fasten to the rock which cannot move, Grounded for many deep in the Saviour's love.
Will your eyes behold through the morning light?
The City of Gold and the harbor bright.
Will you anchor safe by the heavenly shore? Land license are passed forevermore.
We have a curve.
Steadfast and sure while the bill was rolled, Passing to the rock which cannot move from, and deep in the Saviour's love.
All right, let's pray and ask for help and read the Bible.
My loving Father and our God, we thank thee that we have an anchor in the Lord Jesus and that he loves us and each boy and girl sitting in this front row and in this entire world that we can say that Jesus loves them. And that's an incredible thing. We pray that.
The message will be simple so that the youngest will understand that we pray that the Lord Jesus would be exalted and that we would it would make us all to think a little bit more about our Savior who keeps us safe in the storm. And we ask for thy help in the worthy and precious name of Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
I had some very exciting news 2 weeks ago. I asked someone here if he had any exciting news that he had and I had some very exciting news about this.
What's that?
Spoon. I brought that with me because I thought, you know, it's good when you bring things with you people, little boys and girls. Or at least I did. I like to see things. Now, why would a spoon be exciting? It doesn't look very exciting. It actually doesn't look clean. Would you eat from that?
It is a very old spoon. I went, I like to go scuba diving sometimes and I was scuba diving a couple weeks ago and down on the bottom of the ocean, it had been sitting there for 107 years, this spoon. And I found the spoon and I brought it back and guess what, the very first thing that I wanted to do when I found the spoon and brought it up.
What do you think, Caleb? I wanted to tell people about it because that's pretty exciting, right?
The last person who used that spoon.
Umm, well, it would have been a long time ago. They were on a ship and guess what? Their anchor did not hold.
For this particular shift, it was on the bottom of the ocean.
So I brought with me.
I brought two things with me right here. Who knows what those are?
Because we're going to talk this morning about things. Yes. What's your name?
They are air things. Yes, that is exactly what they are. They're air things. But I'm going to tell you something about these because this morning we're going to talk about two verses.
One of these, I'm not going to tell you which one, but one of these, if you breathe from it, it will give you lots of energy. It will give you life.
00:15:04
The other one, if you breathe from it, you would go unconscious in about 30 seconds and you probably fall down here on the floor. Now I'm going to, I'm not going to tell you which one is which, but who would like to come up and just pick one and breathe from it.
No, no one in my family. What's your name?
Would you like to just pick one and breathe from it? You are very, very brave.
I brought something so that you can breathe from it, but we're not going to do it right now.
And I'm going to all of you can come up afterwards and breathe from it. But I wanted to bring them because as a little boy or as a little girl, it's exciting to see things like this, right? And So what I want you to remember is that somebody told you that one of these would give you life. I'm not going to tell you which one. And one of them, if you kept breathing from it, you would die.
You would probably fall unconscious and so you wouldn't. It might fall out of your mouth and then hopefully get some air and you'd be OK. But one of them gives life and one of them gives death. Which one do you think I would like you to breathe from?
What do you think, Caleb? The one that gives life, right? All right. I who has a Bible here?
See lots of Bibles in the front row. Max, can you turn to a verse and read it for me? Could you do that? John chapter 3 and verse 16. Children have heard me speak about this before.
But this is the first verse I want to read and it has to do with these two tanks that you see here. Can you read me John chapter 3 and verse 16?
That's right.
Now, how many times have you read that verse before? Heard that verse before?
It's a bit more than once.
More than a million. We have heard that verse an awful lot. Has anybody here never heard the verse John 316 For God so loved the world.
I think everybody has heard that verse. Now what I want to talk about, we often read that verse in the gospel, but I want to talk about who?
Spoke that verse. You know everything in the Bible that we read where? Who inspired the word of God? Who can tell me what little boy or girl?
J Isaac Yes, God, the all scripture is given by inspiration of God. But you know, I enjoyed something recently in my family will have to forgive me because they've heard me say this before.
But the person who actually spoke those words, does your verse, does your Bible have the words the Lord Jesus in red? No, it doesn't. Some Bibles have the words of the Lord Jesus in red, and that verse was actually spoken by the Lord Jesus. And you know, when I thought about that, it changed the whole meaning of that verse for me a little bit.
Because of two things. The Lord Jesus came down into this world to tell us something. Just like I wanted to tell everybody about the spoon. I found the spoon.
You know, I get up on that dipole and I called Heidi, my wife and I just really exciting. I found a spoon. I wanted to tell her the Lord Jesus went down in this world. Was it early in his life or was it in later on that he want to tell everybody God so loved the world? Was it early in John or late in John?
Who can help me? Was it early in John? Is 3 near the beginning of John or the end of John?
Caleb picking on you, it's at the beginning. You know, if you turn back to John chapter one and John chapter 2, there's not a lot of verses in red. That was near the beginning of the Lord Jesus ministry on the on the earth. And he begins by saying something that he knew better than anybody else. He came down in this world and he was and I want to speak reverently. He was very excited to tell.
Us something.
And that was for God so loved the world, he said. I want to tell you something wonderful. And who knew the Father better than the Lord Jesus, you know?
00:20:11
What's your name? Sorry, Chase. Chase, who's your daddy?
Oh, Jason, sorry. Who's your father? What's your last name?
Is.
Thorn, does your dad love you?
I said your daddy loved you. Do you think people would think that I knew that better or you knew that better?
Yeah, because you are his son, right? And you know your Father better than I know your Father. And you know who knew God the Father better than anybody else?
Who do you think, Jason? The Lord Jesus, and he came down and he was so speaking, reverendly excited to say for God so loved the world. He was so excited to tell us that story. And those weren't just words that John wrote, although they would still be true. Everything in the Bible is true. Those were words from the Lord Jesus himself, he said, for God so loved the world.
And you know why? Because he wanted to give us.
Everlasting life.
Now and so that is the first thing that I wanted to, to make sure that you knew that the Lord Jesus, he knew the Father better than anyone else and he came down to tell you that God loves you and he wants to give you life. Now I want to give somebody here life. So I'm going to actually tell you which one of these tanks you should breathe from. Does anyone want to guess before I tell you?
Right here which?
Should breathe.
Which one will give us life?
I'm afraid that if you breathe from that one, it would be very bad.
You would fall down South. This is the one right here.
That you should breathe from the one that has green on it. This one will make you feel if you have lots of energy. How many children here have lots of energy?
That is good. I'm glad lots of children have lots of energy.
No energy. All right, well, because you told me you had no energy. I would like you to come and breathe from this because this will give you lots of energy.
Can you breathe in and out your mouth?
Do you feel air coming out of this?
Well, OK.
If you breathe from this, that would give you lots and lots of energy. And you know what? The Lord Jesus came down to tell us.
God loves you so much that he didn't want to give you just energy He wants to give you.
Everlasting life.
And you know who knew that better than anybody else?
Who was the Lord Jesus He came down, he said for God Southern loved the world and I like to think about that because that is what he was. It was the very first time that he had ever told people this. He he showed them before kind of in mysteries, but it was the first time and he had a exciting news for us for God so loved the world and he wants to give every boy and girl, whether you're sitting in the front row or the back row, ever lasting life.
Now there's a second thing that the Lord Jesus wanted to tell us as well.
And we've been reading about it and reading meetings. And sometimes, you know, when I was a little boy or when I was eight and nine years old, it was hard to listen and read to me. Do you find it hard to listen to reading meetings sometimes?
You know, when I was a little boy and girl, I see my boys doing it sometimes they turn to the back of their Bible and they look through maps and they look through the dictionary and it's hard to pay attention. But in reading meeting, we've been talking about something that was so exciting that the Lord Jesus came down and he told us himself or he told his disciples and he tells us this morning. And so that's the second thing that I want to read, not something that's written, even though that's true, but the.
Jesus himself, the very first time we're ever told about it, the Lord Jesus told us. And that is in John chapter 14. So I need someone else to read. May John chapter turn to John chapter 14.
Who can read me?
00:25:02
Not one of my boys.
Max or no, you read the last one right? Caleb? Can you read me John chapter 14 and verse 2?
And three.
In my father's house there are many mansions. If it were.
So I would have told you.
Place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you once myself that where I am.
All right, what is the Lord Jesus? What was he speaking about in John chapter 14? What place?
He said I'm going to go somewhere.
And I'm going to make something ready for you. What was he speaking about?
Ellie, he was speaking about heaven, and you know what? The Lord Jesus wants you to be in heaven.
He wants me to be in heaven. Is that exciting?
He doesn't want to just give us eternal life, wants us to be in heaven and you know, the very first person whoever told us about that.
The Lord Jesus.
He came down and he said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. He wants us to be with Him.
Now, if the if I read on the Internet that the Queen wanted you to go to the palace in England, who here would be excited about that? Would anybody be excited? That would be pretty exciting to go visit the Queen, right?
Now what if you got a letter in the mail? I know someone who got a letter saying, would you like to come to Buckingham Palace? Would that be exciting if you got a letter in the mail saying would you like to go to heaven?
Or to the palace, I should say, to Buckingham Palace. Yeah, that would be exciting. Well, what if in this door walked Prince William and he said, I have good news for you.
My grandmother wants you to come to the palace. Would that be exciting?
Yes, and that is how incredible it is now.
If you just heard that, would that be enough?
To go to the palace.
If he if you just heard him say that and you were very excited.
And you just ignored him. Would you be able to get in the palace? No. You have to believe. You have to do something. You know this tank.
What's your name again? Sorry.
Jackson Jackson could have believed that this would give him life, but he had to do something and you know what? He.
Believed me. Now why did you believe me? That's kind of a strange thing.
It's quite obvious it's green and black. That's very smart. You're right, green is usually auction.
But you didn't know I could have switched those around. But you believed me. And you know what? You had a 50% chance.
That I wasn't telling the truth.
But you know who came and told us?
That God loves us.
He wants to give us life and He wants us to be in heaven with him who told us that?
Who told us that?
The Lord Jesus and you know who the Lord Jesus was?
He was the Son of God, He was God. You're right. That is the right answer. And I can't think of any more exciting news than that. You know, we sang a song. Jesus loves me this I know. But you know what? He doesn't just love us. He came down to this world, thought he knew that his father loved us so much that he came down and he died and he said, I want you to have life and I want you to be heaven with me. You know, when I was a little boy, I used to.
It happened would be.
You do lots of fun things there. I didn't. I didn't know what you would do. I used to think you'd do lots of skateboarding and snowboarding and fun things like that.
But that's not what heaven is about. We're the reading. The reason I talked about the reading meeting is in reading, in reading meeting, we're talking about the people in Thessalonians who Paul was saying you are going to go to heaven. And every single one of us should be as excited as about that as we are about finding a spoon or playing games or whatever it is. The Lord Jesus wants us to know that. And I believe that because you know who told us?
00:30:18
Who was the Son of God?
Now Jackson believed me.
But you know, sometimes I make mistakes. Does the Son of God ever make any mistakes? No, no mistakes. And all you need to do is a little boy and girl is believe him that he loves you. He wants to give you eternal life, and he wants you to be in heaven with him. All right, let's sing one more song and then we'll close.
Who else has a song they would like to sing?
Oh, was that a hand or no?
OK, what song would you like to sing?
Number one, OK.
That's a good.
Song. I actually thought it was come, but let's sing #1 almost persuaded, OK?
Almost persuaded.
Now to believe.
Almost persuaded.
Christ to receive.
Save now some soul.
To say.
Goes here, it goes thy way.
Some more convenient day on the alcohol.
Almost persuaded.
Come, come today.
Almost persuaded.
Turn, not away.
Jesus invites you here. Bless you here.
So clear now.
Falling on my ear.
Come, wander, come. All right.
Our loving Father and our God, what a tremendous thing it is to think that God so loved the world that the Lord Jesus came to tell us these, this very precious thing with his very own mouth. And we thank thee that it is still true. And for every boy and girl here, we thank you that the door is still open. If they've not received the Lord Jesus, we just pray that.
They would not reject that call and that they would come to know that love and that they would know that the Lord Jesus wants to be with them for all eternity. We pray that it would cause our hearts of those of us that are older too, to warm at the thought of the Son of God speaking these words. And so we just thank Thee for the freedom we have to think a little bit on these things. And we pray for the boys and girls and the infinite value of their souls. We pray for.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.
God Desires the Assembly to Run Smoothly
Seventh From Adam - Both Lamech of Cain and Enoch and Seth
1 Thessalonians 2
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
All thy mercy.
God I rising soul surveys.
Transported.
Without you, I lost.
Him, wonder, love and friends.
From whom those come to his Lord?
Do everything.
All my life.
I couldn't.
Glory bright.
And bringing you.
Through Holy.
Jesus.
A joyful song.
I reigns, by the way.
It is destroyed.
To a girl.
Onions or.
Another process for the minor reading.
I think it's a very tender hearted how the apostle speaks, very tender heartedly that he speaks to these dear ones. And I think the message to the heart would be valuable to us as we take up how he speaks to them in second chapter, First Thessalonians.
Yeah, that's definitely the subject there. I was thinking that.
It might be.
Orderly to go on with the 2nd chapter 2.
So First Thessalonians 2.
First Thessalonians chapter 2 For yourself rather know our interest in unto you, that it was not in vain, but even after that we had suffered before we were shamefully entreated. As you know, at Philippi we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much content. For our expectation was not of deceit, nor of our cleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel.
Even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which try at their hearts, for neither at any time used to be flattering words, as you know Norfolk of covetousness God has witnessed nor of men sought. We glory neither of you nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostle of Christ, But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse chairs with her children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted other youth, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear under them.
But you remember, brother, in our labor and travail for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable under many of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God, year witnesses, and God also, how holy, and justly and unblamely, unblamely we behave ourselves among you that believe, as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged everyone as a father doubt his children, that he would walk worthy of God, who have called you into unto his Kingdom.
00:05:30
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of God, what she heard about you received it not as a word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectively worketh also in you. God believe. For ye brethren, became followers of the churches of God, which are in Judea, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and that persecuted us.
And they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved. So fill up their sin goals for the rafts come upon them to the uttermost. Believe, brother, be taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart. Endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desires. Wherefore we would have come unto you. Even I call once and again. But Satan hindered us. But what is our hope?
For yeast, for ye are glory and yours.
N.
Well, the apostle says here that his entrance, that is, is bringing up the gospel into the Thessalonians.
Is not in vain. It was not a failure that mission.
We look back on the historical aspect. You remember that?
He was shamefully and treated and Philip liked imprisoned and.
Suffered a persecution there from the.
Ungodly part of that city.
But it did not.
Dampen the.
Ardor of the apostle to go on with the gospel. He went down the highway to Thessalonica after greeting the brethren in Lydia's house. A little assembly.
Said the Gospel got into Philippi as a sacred concert.
There they were in the stocks, bleeding and.
And suffering there physically.
In the dungeon and they were praying and singing praises to the Lord, brought the house down and.
It was a marvelous work accomplished in Philippi through the grace of God and small assembly established. But now they went down.
The highway to Phillip to Thessalonica, and they were bowled in gauging. Even after that treatment they had received in Philippi, the fervency of the apostle was still very strong and manifest. Bold in our God, to speak unto you. The gospel of God with much contention. There was real opposition there in Thessaloniki.
In fact, the apostle had to leave that city prematurely. He usually spent quite a bit of time after the souls were saved to establish them, to teach them, and to lead them on in the truth. But this was not possible in Tesselmanica. He was really driven out, and he had a great love and concern for the.
Growth of this assembly.
As we mentioned yesterday, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica so that he would get a report of of the progress of the spiritual condition of the brethren. He feared that maybe Satan had come in and drawn them away. So you might say the tables are are turned, so to speak, in the second chapter. It is more the role model that is brought before us.
00:10:15
Chapter one, it's the Thessalonians who are the testimony, but chapter 2, if you can use the term, it's a vindication of the apostles ministry by his life, by his character, by his love and concern for these Saints as a role model for that.
There were two parts of his work, the five, He had a ministry given to him from the risen head in glory, and he speaks there in Romans 16 and 25. He says now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. So when he speaks of my gospel, it's really what he presents to us in the Epistle to the Romans.
What God has done for the blessing of man and all of the blessings that we have, spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, what we have in Christ is given to us. It was given to Paul. And so that was a part of the gospel, what he calls my gospel. And then he has the revelation of the mystery which has to do with Christ and the church. And really we might be able to say that.
He was given these two works. One was to present what God has done for the blessing of man, what He called my gospel. And then the second part of what He did, what he was given as a minister of God, an apostle of God and the Lord Jesus, was to present what God has done for his own pleasure. And so God has formed and is forming His church now, and it is for His pleasure.
But here we speak. He speaks of what was wrought according to the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God.
And that is, that their souls were saved. And he preached the gospel of the kindness of God, what God had done, that they might be blessed. And here in Philippi, he says that he was shamefully entreated. And they knew about this. And they were partakers of those kinds of sufferings, weren't they? Because now they identified with the Lord Jesus and they sought to be active in the gospel of the grace of God. And it says in verse fourteen of our chapter that ye brethren, became followers of the churches of God.
Which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they of the Jews. So there was opposition, and his brother John had mentioned that the enemy was seeking to shut down this work of God. There was a bright light of testimony in Thessalonica, and the truth of the Gospel of the grace of God shone brightly.
And the enemy was seeking to extinguish it. And so one of the ways that he would seek to extinguish it was to bring in those teachers and false teachers and those that would oppose Paul even in the doctrine that he taught. That was mostly from the unbelieving Jews. Yeah, they they dogged the apostle continually and followed him even to Maria after they basically had driven him out of Thessalonians.
They weren't content, they followed and stirred up trouble in other assemblies. So at Judaizing principle, I don't believe these were true believers at all. But.
As was mentioned here.
The suffering came from the.
The Jewish the Jewish people, as we have in verses 14 and 15.
But I think that there's another point that we should notice here, that we have to be careful where we receive our teaching from.
That's especially important for young Congress. There's a great deal of.
Christian.
Based dialogue on.
00:15:05
The various.
Means and mediums that we have in the world today, whether it be Internet or whatever, but we have to be careful the source of the doctrine that we receive.
Because there's a great deal of error in the Christian testimony today.
You've heard of this?
Covenant theology or reformed theology which is a complete.
Confused interpretation of the scriptures bringing making no difference in dispensations of the of the Israelites and the church and these teachings are.
Spread and dispersed all around the Christian world today. So the apostle wanted them to be clear about who they were receiving the teaching from. And that applies to us today and to the young people who are here among us, to everyone that we be careful what we read, what we listen to and what we accept because.
There's a lot of error and evil teaching even among the professed Christendom.
Systems around this.
So you turn over to Acts chapter.
17 we I think we made reference to it, but just to.
Look at that again for a moment. 17 of acts.
We have heard of the Bereans.
Verse 11.
These were no more noble than those in Thessalonica, that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily. Whether those things were so, therefore many of them believed, and of honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men not a few.
Now this is commonly taken in the sense that Paul preached there in Berea, but they were not sure that he was giving the truth, so they went to the Scriptures to prove it. I don't think that's the thought in the passage. I think they accepted.
From Paul, the teaching that he gave as a minister approved of God and bringing the pure unadulterated truth before them. And then they cooperated it by looking at the scriptures just to confirm to them that what they had heard, they knew the source. From the apostles directed of God, they knew the source of where the ministry was coming from.
And they searched the Scriptures just to give a confirmation that what they had heard was really the truth of God. So it's so important, brethren, what we, what we're subjected to because doctrine forms our walk. Doctrine is important. There's some groups of Christians that say it's not important that we're all one and we should all be together and.
It really doesn't matter what we believe.
As long as we get along together and all preach the gospel, well, that's good. But doctrine is very important and it's going to form the walk of your, of the believer. If you don't have correct doctrine, you're not going to have correct walk. Evil communications, corrupt good manners. The apostle was very careful about this, to bring the pure doctrine not of deceit as we have in our chapter here. No impure or ulterior motive.
Motivated the apostle. He loved them, but he also wanted the presentation of the truth to be clear and accurate and correct according to the Scriptures.
Gospel chapter 8 and verse 18 don't even turn to which is part of the first take he therefore have he here the Lord speaking to his own take he how you hear there's so much out there there Brother John has said that is contrary to sound doctrine and we can be moved by a religious doctor with another verse six. We need to take heed how we hear you know, and they believe the massive gospel may be written.
00:20:19
Taking what he hear.
Yes, that's Mark's gospel chapter 4, verse 24. So it says, he said unto them, take heed what ye hear. That's very important. And then as you read in Luke 18, it says, take heed therefore how ye hear. So the Bereans, they took these things seriously and their hearts were right and it exercised their conscience. But then the apostle Paul speaks to Timothy and he says in first second Timothy chapter 3.
He says.
There in verse 14 continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And so that's the point, isn't it? In First Thessalonians chapter 2, as we're reading, he wanted them to understand that what he had told them was the truth, and that he hadn't had ulterior motives and he hadn't used base means of presenting the truth.
To them. And so he goes through some of these things. I think it's really from verse verses 3 through 6. And he presents many different things that he didn't do that others were doing in their labor and they were seeking some profit, some gain for themselves. So we need not only to take heed what we hear, we need to take heed of how we hear. And we also need to be sure.
That we listen to those that we have learned the truth from and have been assured of, and to know of whom we have learned them.
Well, the truth is never going to be popular. The truth of separation from the camp.
Or the systems of men around us is never going to be popular.
We have in Brazil a great response to the truth of gathering now. It's remarkable the number who have.
Professedly.
Separated from systems, but I feel that there's going to be a testing time. It has happened. It is happening in Brazil and will happen in every assembly. The test will come.
Why we are gathered where we are?
Why we continue with this company? Is it because of some other motive, whatever it might be, a friendship or?
Or some other reason?
But the test will come. Are we gathered to the name of Christ? Is he the object before us?
Not the brethren.
Not to friendships, not activities. You can find more activities in the systems of men.
But is it according to the scriptures?
Gathered according to Divine Principle and I believe this is what is happening, what happened here in Thessalonica, and the test would come for them and would comes for every one of us.
I think it's we're into an era where, especially among the younger ones, much younger than me, the Internet is an indispensable tool and it's consulted every day and every hour practically. And so the questions become, how do you sort out the good from the bad there? And there are tests that you can apply, and some of them are pretty simple.
I remember John Kaiser when I was reviewing books for B&P advising me.
To read this one carefully because.
In this man's writings often quote the stings in the tail, UN quote, which means that the like a scorpion, he stings with his tail. And at the end of the book you'll find that there's there may be error about the Lord's coming.
00:25:04
Things like that. And so kind of consult the last chapter first if you like and see what you've got and and so there's that to watch for and there's also the the person of Christ is being supreme is another one to keep an eye out for. And there's also the the.
A matter of.
Of.
As we know the timing of the rapture or the tribulations on, there's an awful lot of teaching about going through the tribulation in these times where we're now. And, and so you sort that out because we know that the next thing on the prophetic calendar is coming to work for this week.
Well, that's an awesome muddled in the stuff we find on the Internet.
And some of the fact some of the stuff is the sheer volume of it is can be depressing, but it can be somebody writing on something that would want to hit the pages and you read through all that, you'll end up confused and.
Probably better not even start.
There's reliable ministry as on the table over here, for instance, and and there's kind of proven I want to learn there's a good place to begin, but the other the other thing is that the the Lord Jesus by his spirit can be our guide will is willing to be our guide and if we give you a depend upon and he'll help us sort out that truth and all and he always you always want to test against the pure word of God, not just take it as somebody.
Somebody rambling thoughts, but go back to the word and check it out as you as you've done the same but searching the scriptures to see whether these things are so. And there are probably many other simple tests that you could make that maybe other brothers can add to, but those are a few that just help us sort out.
Good from that in the in the masses of stuff that's around.
You know I.
Throwing on the roof.
So.
I asked him and said who is the woman and right away.
Going and.
10 years old and I haven't seen her since I was 10 years old.
Who are you? And I said, I didn't know your little Billy. Yeah. So I posted a scripture to her and she said to her daughter trying to get me the give me the Bible. So. So anyway.
As I talked to her.
I thought she was saying.
Potentially.
She's running a walk the next time I was there and it was like.
Grant, Jefferies and.
Should have gone you're going to read this and I was trying not to encourage anything ignorant and.
I said, well, look, I I got too much to read now and I'm trying to keep up with what I'm reading and I'm slow readers and she says.
And then I say.
The signature of God is the word God and.
What's that man is doing? And.
Stuff like this. And so just because I wouldn't take that book from her.
00:30:01
Well, she disowned me right away and never ever called me back to give you something, but that didn't matter. The fact was that.
And nothing to do with this.
Books out there that are all in air and we have to start to love the.
The ministry that we have is just so wonderful.
Careful, because it's so easy to pick up bones up on them and.
Well, we read in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse seven. I think it was yesterday. I'll read it again. It says remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. So we need to consider the end of the lives as these dear ones. And so there were those that walked in the truth of God as it was recovered during the 1800s and those two in the 1900s and they we know by their walk.
That they were consistent in their walk. It was consistent with the truth that they taught, and it was blessed of God. And we ought to be satisfied with what He has provided the children of Israel. You know, we're not satisfied with the manna. They wanted something else. They wanted to beat it and bake it and all kinds of things. But oh, what a precious thing to have Christ and to have them ministered in purity. And so the apostle in this passage beginning there really at verse 3.
He says. You know, there are things that we could have done but we didn't do because they're not consistent.
With what a good Christian worker should do. And so he says our exhortation was not of deceit and there was no error in how what they were. He was presenting to the Saints there, nor uncleanness. He did not have impure desires nor in guile wasn't trying to twist things to present things in the light that he wanted to. He was presenting the truth of God. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. What a.
Privilege. He was entrusted with the gospel and he presented it in its purity, and it's necessary for us to do that. He says Even so, we speak not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. He wasn't trying to be popular and trying to present a popular gospel and trying to leave off the sharp edge of the sword. It didn't mean that he was obnoxious. That's not what it means. It means that he spoke the Word of God faithfully.
Truthfully, and he says here in verse seven, we were gentle among them. There is a right way of presenting the truth of God in the gospel and there is a wrong way. And so we know that he was very gentle. He didn't use flattery in verse five. And as you know, for a cloak of covetousness, it wasn't yet something out of them. God is witness, nor have men thought we glory neither of you nor yet of others.
When we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. And so here he had a need. He was in Thessalonica and he had a need, but he didn't hold out his hand. He just worked, He labored, He laid himself out for those brethren and they heard the gospel of the grace of God didn't cost them a dime. And you know, it says it's one of the principles that we have in Scripture to give the gospel of God, as he says, without charge. Let's just turn to 3rd John.
It's mentioned in several different places and passages of scripture, even in the story of Naaman, how Naaman was given.
Fresh skin and so on he was.
Given new life as it were and that wasn't to be at a price so 3rd John and it says verse 7 because that for his name 's sake they went forth taking nothing.
Of the Gentiles. So none of us should ever be guilty of taking something from someone who we were trying to get give the gospel to, and that's why perhaps we might find it objectionable to.
I hesitate to say it, but I don't listen to Christian radio and I don't listen to or watch Christian television or anything like that. I used to, when I was younger, turn on the Christian radio and hear these ones asking for funds. And it struck me strange that it didn't matter whether you were saved or lost. You could send your funds in to present to help support the gospel. I'm not I'm not.
00:35:24
I'm certain about it, but I think that there would be those that were lost that thought, you know, we can, I can produce something. I can send some money in and get some money.
And send it into this guy and I'm going to be on my way to heaven. While God in his grace desired that the gospel would go out without pure, with purity, and without any covetousness. No money involved.
And it's free, the gospel of God, because Christ paid the price.
The price is so great it can never be purchased. And he wanted the Sinner, even in the day of grace, to recognize that. So what a privilege. Paul spoke, preached the gospel, the grace of God. It didn't cost the Thessalonians a dime.
And his character here.
Verse 7. Gentle among you, even as a nurse.
Cherish it, her own children. It should read. A nurse might.
Be a little different toward her own children than toward the children of others.
But this was completely contrary to the natural character of Paul. He was an insolent, overbearing man.
If ever there was a character that was strong and dead.
And unsympathetic toward anyone.
You know the life of the Apostle Paul before he was saved, he used every effort to staff out the name of Christ. He was mad against the Christians and.
The bitter of bitter opponent. Here he is now. The grace of God had worked so marvelously in his life. He was gentle, he was.
Compassionate he was longing for the blessing of these Thessalonians, burdened about their spiritual condition, laboring with his own hands sometimes say that Paul plied the canvas most of the day.
And preached half the night. I don't know how he could have done it. We know intro as he preached right into the night, perhaps most of the night. Probably in Philippi too. So what a what a marvelous role model, if we might use the term. He was in his life and ministry and sacrifice and devotedness.
For these Thessalonians, and for others too, that he labored among.
There is a the waiting on the ward in these things, the tendency with young believers to be anxious and we like to be able to know all the scripture almost overnight after we say sometimes, but.
Tells us that we learned why the bottom line precepts, a lot of precepts. We don't wear everything all at once. So we have a tendency to turn the ministry books, and there's nothing wrong with that. And maybe even other avenues to try to learn something of the scripture we're reading. We don't understand it and we're trying to learn, and that's good. But we can. We're using ministry books.
Oftentimes that can be error as we pick up something that's an error and then we develop it from there. First thing you know, we've got a bad doctor, so we should be waiting on the board. I think that the advice that the apostle Paul gave the elders an emphasis is to look at that tax money.
Acts 20 and verse 32.
Now, brother, I commend you to God through the word of grace, which is able to build you up and give you an imperative among all them which are sanctified.
God has given everything that we need to grow in order to know that the Corinthian states were built actually growing because they were carnal. So there's different things in their lives that hold us back from learning to word of God. So we should be exercising with those things, perhaps are holding ourselves back and learning. But then.
00:40:11
We have the Holy Spirit God has given to us is able to take things in Christ and make it known to us. And so we have everything that we need. We have a new nature that entire spiritual things that enjoys the word of God. So God has been given to us everything we need to learn and to grow.
Our own selves that hold them back most of the time but the turn to ministry that drops you're not familiar with.
Off the Internet and things like that, I think it's very dangerous and even translations that have a lot of paraphrasing in them and thoughts put in is very dangerous.
We have in First John chapter 5. The Spirit of God records there. I should say first John chapter 2 verse 20.
You have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
I have not written unto you, because you know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is out of the truth. Verse 27. But the anointing or the unction which ye have received of him, abideth in you, And you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing or unction teacheth you of all things, and his truth, and his no lie. And even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him, or in communion.
And so it's not saying here that in verse 20 that you know all things, you read the scriptures and God is going to reveal everything to you. No, he says you have a an unction of the Spirit and when you hear the truth of God ministered, you know it's the truth.
If you walk in communion with the Lord and if you hear something that's aired, you're indwelled with the Spirit of God, you're anointed with the Spirit, and you detect that it's not quite right. And then you were able to search the scriptures and perhaps read some ministry, some teaching. I would just augment what you said, brother, in connection with the gifts that we just spoke about, about God gave gifts. And one of the gifts that he gave was those that were teachers. And if there's a good teacher.
And there are those that are false teachers, those that are good teachers, walking the truth of God. And they are consistent in their past, their course through this life. And at the end of their course, it's very clear that they walked in the truth and they taught the truth. So we have the function of the Spirit and the Spirit of God can reveal to us what is error, but we do need to walk in communion with Him.
It doesn't mean we don't need written ministry or not. I'm sure you're not.
Inferring that to Robert, we do need to avail ourselves of the gifts that the Lord has given to the church and has gathered to the Lord's name. I think we have the richest source and.
Amount of ministry that is available in Christendom, we don't need to go beyond it. We don't need skim milk if we have cream. And we have the richest unfolding of the mind of God doctrinally accurate in the writings that we have before us in our libraries, and we're not always availing ourselves of that.
That's the our brother Roy, I guess referred to that verse. It's very important in Ephesians 4 there.
The perfecting of the Saints, the work of the ministry.
The the should be no more children or vapes tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of man. So a person who never avails themselves of the.
The the written ministry that God has given through gifts to the church, you know the Lord has imparted gifts to men. This is the way that the church is edified and nourished and built up. It's through the gifts which an ascended Christ has given. If I say I'm not going to read any written ministry by brethren, I just have the Bible. Of course, that is the most important of all.
00:45:02
But we need to avail ourselves, like Ruth did. She couldn't draw the water from the deep well herself, but she could drink out of the vessel. The water that the young men had drawn, they had drawn from the deep well. She didn't do that herself, but she drank of the water that had been brought up and the little picture, I think, of availing ourselves of.
It's precious ministry available to us.
Yes, that's to be clear. God has raised up and given to the church teachers.
What does a teacher do? He teaches, and he sometimes uses written. He writes his teachings down, and he writes them down so that another generation might learn them or that they might be communicated to the existing generation. And so Paul was a teacher. He taught verbally, and we have even in this epistle he says.
In chapter 2 here in verse 13.
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when he received the word of God, which he heard of us, you received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believeth. So Paul was a teacher, but he was inspired of God to write and to teach the truth of God in connection with what God has done.
For your blessing in mind, for the blessing of mankind. And he also taught what God has done for his own pleasure. He taught of concerning the mystery of Christ in the church. That's what God has done for His own glory, for His own enjoyment, as it were. And so it's not all about us.
God has done some things that he might enjoy for thy pleasure. We are and were created.
And so when we come into the presence of the Lord, even on the Lord's Day morning and remember the Lord in his death, it's not all about us. Why God has presented to us something of Christ and the burnt offering character of the Lord Jesus and how he pleased his Father. He smelled a sweet smelling savour. And so both of those aspects Paul taught. So we ought to be thankful for it. And so here he goes through with these new converts.
And speaks to them of the flawlessness of his character in connection with how he presented the gospel of the grace of God and that they could trust his.
Delivery of it and those workers that were with him were witnesses and they worked, they labored in the same way. Is that not right?
I was thinking of the adverse first Timothy 4 along the line that we are speaking just to reference to verse six, because Timothy was a very.
Valued servant of the Lord and close companion of the Apostle Paul. I have no man like minded who will genuinely care for the people of God. He was the.
A bosom laborer and.
Friend and brother of the Apostle Paul. But you see in verse six, I think this is a beautiful verse to to comment on here briefly if I'll put the brethren in remembrance of these things.
What things? The things that Paul had talked to, Timothy. Thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast detained. So I believe that, Timothy.
Was diligent in learning the truth that Paul had presented to him. There was diligence there. There was real.
Devotedness to the Lord but energy put forth. I think that second Timothy chapter, while it's already already been referred to continue down the things which thou hast learned and hath been assured of not only learn the truth, but he walked in it. So Paul here commends him for learning the truth that had been presented to him and.
We just might mention.
More for the young people that enchristened them today you do not find Paul's doctrine ministered the press special truths that.
00:50:05
Are characteristic of Paul's doctrine.
The coming of the Lord which we have in this epistle, The Lord's table, the.
The body of Christ and our heavenly calling, these things are not.
Presented in Christendom today, in large measure, Paul's doctrine is ignored. But Timothy was very careful to learn the words of good doctrine. This was more than the Old Testament. No doubt Timothy did have a background in the Old Testament Scriptures. We're told that in the epistle that he was brought up under the sound of the word. That was the Old Testament Scriptures. But this is the the revelations that we have in Christianity now.
Which go much beyond the blessings of Israel. It's a completely new order of things in Christianity. Timothy had learned those things. He had availed himself. He didn't have the complete word of God as we have, but he had sat under the teaching of the apostle Paul and he imbibed it.
Just so lovely and the shepherd's voice is so gentle.
When we hear another voice.
Read it and and we should be afraid.
Verse four. And when he puts forward his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, and they know his voice. And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. And then in verse 27.
I can't hear my voice and I.
And we know his voice.
Exciting.
Failure, waste of time and that the Lord has been really dealing with these great people to.
Anybody else before we breathe and then it's just like.
Pills are sold for joy and just to meditate on the word and then when you read it later on maybe in in ministry something that showed you without the ministry it.
Multiplied by George.
And that's important, I think, Bill, that we don't allow written ministry to displace the Scriptures. That is the supreme object, but they can help us. Mr. Garvey never wrote written ministry to displace the Scriptures. He wanted it read with the Scriptures. I think that's important. In fact, he made the statement, if I my recollection was correct, that he wrote some of his ministry, that it would require the Saints to have knowledge of the scriptures to be able to understand what he had written.
So he was very wise in that way. Might be good to just point out in verse 10.
That Paul was very he had a very sterling character. There was nothing in how he presented himself and walked among the brethren that would be chargeable that he might mar his testimony. He says ye are witnesses and God also how holy, justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe and then he I'll just point out in Acts chapter 20. This is written by divine inspiration.
00:55:00
So it's not Paul patting himself on the back. God had an in view Paul that would the apostle as a model of how we should conduct ourselves in service for the Lord. And so in Acts chapter 20, he says in verse 18, he points out his consistency and how he served. It wasn't he was on fire for the Lord and he was doing things. He was honorable in all that he did and then he compromised a little bit just to make sure things went smoothly.
No, he says in verse 18 of Acts chapter 20. 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, with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in weight of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, and I've showed you or announced to you publicly, and have taught you publicly from house to house.
Testifying to both Jews and also the Greeks. And so he was very consistent in his delivery of the truth and his teaching of the truth. That's something that we ought to covet is an evenness and a steadiness. And he was not one that you could knock off center. And so he served the Lord faithfully. And that's really what he presents. Then in verse 11, he says he presents himself as a father there. You know how we were we exhorted.
Were encouraged and comforted and charged everyone of you as a father doth his children.
Now he was gentle with them, he says earlier in verse 7 as a nurse, but now he was a father. What's the difference?
A father is firm, a father is faithful. And brethren, we need those that are in the assembly that are firm and faithful in connection with the truth of God, Not to walk out of harmony with our brethren, but to be firm and consistent in connection with the truth of God, and not to yield on points of doctrine that would mar the testimony and mar the glory of Christ. And so there's wisdom given in the Word of God even for this.
I have a question concerning the use of written ministry. We know that the only true source of infallible doctrine is the word of God. And dearly brethren mind the deficit of Scripture and Baptist a bounty of written ministry, but they certainly weren't infallible and I'm wondering if.
The principle is laid out in First Corinthians 14 would apply to her use of written ministry. It says in verse 29 or First Corinthians 14.
Let the prophet speak two or three, and let the other judge. We're using written ministries. Is it important that we read more than one writer to ensure that we're getting a balance of thought and comparing it back to Scripture?
Well, it says in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. So maybe others could speak to this. But I do enjoy reading the scriptures on their own and then meditating individually on those. The passage that I have just read, just meditating on it for a little while and enjoying a little portions of it, and then reading something that might be like the synopsis. That is very reliable ministry and getting that 35,000 foot elevation.
So to speak, the broad overview of the passage, and then perhaps drilling down and getting something else that's a little more detail according to what I'm reading at the time. And so I might read a little bit of Hamilton Smith, might read about a little bit of some of the other writers. And so we ought to, in answer to your question, I believe there's safety, there's wisdom in reading from different writers the perspectives that they had.
And they were given of God. Those teachers were raised up of God, were a gift to the Church. And to despise their writings and to set them aside is not profitable. It will not profit us in our souls. And so we ought to value them and to read them, but to have a very high regard for the word of God. But what our brother said is, is important because.
Even amongst brethren some very serious doctrines have been promulgated in books.
And have led to even.
01:00:04
Significant divisions, so we cannot trust all the writings that are.
Available. And we have to, we have to be acquainted with who the writer is. I'm not going to mention names, but there's some brethren whose writings were widespread, who talked definitely fundamental, fundamentally evil doctrine still under the umbrella of brethren. So we have to be careful what our brother says is, is important.
You have to be careful who we read and knowing the background of this person, there's certain well mention the name that's already been brought before us, Mr. Darby. Certainly sound Mr. Kelly is very sound in their writings, but there's others that are not sound and so we need to be careful.
And know something of the background of this person, right, Robert?
Important too I think John in the 13th verse there how it's received since this possible So thank you God of ceasing because when he received the word of God, which he heard of us, he received it not as a word of men, but it isn't true. The word of God, which affectionately worked also a human belief. If the word is given out our Holy Spirit.
Which it was here, but the Apostle Paul with him, it was received in that way and so.
Words that they heard worked at an effect within them, produced what what needs to be produced within them. So we read ministry books.
We should be exercised by the Holy Spirit what we're reading.
Is this really the truth of God? Is this really the word of God? Is what the word of God says of us?
This one major of that if you look at James Bissell chapter 3.
We read Ministry for Wisdom in the scriptures to to give you know the clarity perhaps of what the thought might be. We don't understand it and will be James chapter 3.
And verse 17, it gives us there a very good description of what that wisdom is. The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruit.
And those democracy, you know?
Guidelines, I believe.
Evaluating the initiative as they might read.
On the same subject, it's what everyone's been bringing out, but in the 5th chapter of the 21St verse, these are just practical exhortations that are given at the end of the chapter it says prove all things.
No matter what brother it comes from, if you're reading some type of ministry, prove all things and then it says hold fast that which is good.
So we prove it by reading other scriptures, don't we? Because no private, no scripture is of any private interpretation. So it will be corroborated by other passages of scripture. No scripture can be isolated and a doctrine built around that single passage of scripture. And so God has principles that he uses all throughout the word of God. And so here the apostle just longed for them to walk worthy.
Of God who has called you unto his Kingdom and glory. And so there were going to be those that sought to in the energy of the flesh and as agents of the enemy, agents of Satan to derail them and to derail them doctrinally as well as practically in their holy life. And so that those verses of Scripture that were just read to purity, you know, those that teach the truth of God.
And we're raised up as teachers and walked in a holy path. Why? You can just see how there's holiness in their walk. And it transfers into the writings that there was consistency.
And they produce what they produced, that there might be righteousness and holiness in the Saints. I just would say this as a little bit of a help. I trust that if you're not sure about a particular book or a particular writer.
01:05:09
Ask one of your older brethren that have a little experience and won't give you just the answer that you want to hear. You know, there was a brother, he's a well loved brother, a dear friend of mine. And he says when he was first saved, came back from Vietnam, got saved in Vietnam, he came into the assembly and he said that he said awful struggles with the flesh. And he said, you know, sometimes I wanted to do something or go someplace.
And he said, I knew if I went to such and such a brother, and I asked him about the possibility of going to such and such of an entertainment, I know exactly what answer he would give. So and then I would know this other older brother, if I went to see him, he'd give me a passage of Scripture very clearly condemned what I had in mind. And so he says there was a struggle going on as to whether I should go and see this brother or this brother. And he said oftentimes I went to see the wrong brother.
But then my conscience smoked me and I had to go and ask the other brother. And so I would just say this as a safeguard. Read the scriptures diligently and savor them and enjoy them. Read the teachings that we have that are those teachers that were raised up of God and ministered the truth. Read those those teachings and if you have questions as to the veracity of one writer or another, ask someone that has experience in the path of faith.
I would rather see you enjoy and develop, mature in the things of God by reading a little bit of ministry than not reading ministry because you're afraid to. And I wish as a young person that I had read more.
I it's something that I cannot reverse, cannot do, but I just feel the necessity in the very short time that we have left to read the scriptures more and more and to read a little bit of teaching to be just established in the truth.
Yes.
The apostle here our time is nearly up here the end of our chapter. He was looking on to that day when he would see these beloved Thessalonians Saints in all the glory of Christ, our hope, our joy, our crown of rejoicing. That's the soul winners crown and.
He would know that I'm in that coming day.
How could he they be his joy and crown of rejoicing if he couldn't identify them? So we're going to have bodies like Christ, glorified bodies. Not new bodies, but glorified bodies. The same body will be raised and transformed and glorified. The same body. So I'll recognize my brethren here in the glory and if we've been a help to anyone or if we've been a means of bringing them to Christ.
That will be our crown of rejoicing. I guess you might say the crown, the shepherd's crown is in first, First Peter. Maybe we can just read that First Peter Chapter 5. That's the shepherd's crown, Those that are faithful in ministering the truth.
When the chief shepherd, this is chapter 5, not as being Lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not awaits. That is before those who in any measure minister the word to the Lord's people, seek to build them up, shepherd them.
Pastoring and the Lord will not forget.
Any such labor of life.
Tough time our sinking.
01:10:00
Breaks.
The summer more and I saw.
The air, sweet Lord away.
Dark, dark have been.
The Midnight.
Birthday. Spring.
And glory, Glory.
Well, any man goes land.
Oh, Christ is.
The Fountain.
A deep, sweet while of love.
The.
Streams on Earth.
I tasted.
More deep outbreak of.
There's still an ocean.
Corner his mercy, thought. That's Christ.
And glory.
Glory.
With mercy and with judgment.
I.
Whereby?
And I will do some sorrow.
We're lost.
From hand, let God bless the heart of.
Went one where glory dwell.
Any man rose life.
Upon his.
Man, I.
Know no Save her step.
Gospel 3
Gospel—Paul House
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.
In tonight with him #4 on our hymn sheets. Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me. Long I was chained in sins darkness. Now by his grace I am free. So may we sing #4 together. But before we do, I just want to mention that what I say tonight is going to be from the word of God, the Bible.
And I don't want anyone to think that.
In any way, I'm better than you. I'm not.
And so as I sing this hymn tonight with you, I'm going to sing it as someone that is a Sinner.
But I've been saved. By the grace of God, may you be saved tonight. If you're not yet #4 please, someone started.
This is the same thing for me.
Now I can say I am part of him, happy and just in my dream.
Save by my blessed reading her, this is the Savior for me.
Say your standards.
Say your sinners like me.
Now there is no condemnation.
This is the savior for me.
Save your sinners.
Savior of sinners like me.
Saying is what for my grandson?
This is the savior for me.
Love, Crystal laughs. I'm changing glass with all blessings. So free I shall I tell them it's crazy?
This is a stay here for me.
Say God standards. Say there are standards like me.
You've never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
Then you really Can't Sing the last part of this that we sang over four times. This is the Savior for me. But you know what? The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior for you. He died on the cross. He shed His blood so that you could be saved from your sins. You might not know it yet, but He is the Savior for you. And tonight I would encourage you to listen.
As we go over some verses from God's word.
That tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ and His love for you. Shall we just pray and ask for His help?
Dear Lord Jesus, we need thy help tonight. Where weak.
And we're tired.
And we just pray that that will help us to take in the verses from Thy word, the Bible, that will do us good, not just in this life, but forever.
And Lord Jesus, let us know the hearts of each one. Perhaps there's one here tonight who doesn't know thee as their Savior. We pray that before they leave, they may be sure that Jesus is their Lord and Savior, that they will know where they're going when when they leave this world someday. And so we ask for thy help. We ask for thy blessing here.
00:05:18
And we pray, Lord Jesus, that by thy Holy Spirit.
That might work in hearts tonight.
I'll bring salvation to any that are lost.
And now we just pray for those of us who are saved already, and how thankful we are, Lord Jesus, for Thy love, for picking us up and washing away our sins and making us sure of our heaven. And now we just would pray that what we hear we may pass on to others, but Thou give us opportunities to tell people the way.
Like people told us and we thank the our God for Thy goodness to us, we pray for help in thy most worthy and precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I'd like to sing #42 as well, hymn #42 There's a lot of children here tonight.
And I'm going to tell you something, children. This was my favorite one when I went to Sunday school. Still is 42. Someone started, please.
That's validation through his blood.
Most of you know that I'm from Ontario.
And when we go on a trip.
We were away. We're on vacation this week. We like to pick a scripture that we have for our family readings, and so we've been reading through First Timothy. I'd like to read chapter one of First Timothy and verse 15.
First Timothy, chapter one. You can turn in your Bibles please.
To verse 15.
This is the Apostle Paul writing by the Holy Spirit of God to a man by the name of Timothy, First Timothy, chapter one, verse 15.
This is a faithful thing and worthy of all acceptation.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
I said at the beginning that I don't want anyone to think that I'm better than you in any way. I stand here tonight as a Sinner.
I have done some horrible things in my life.
I've been unkind to people, disobedient to my parents. I've cheated.
I've lied. I've stolen things.
But as a Sinner, I came to the Lord's justice, the Savior of sinners.
You know, maybe I could.
Take my place with the Apostle Paul, that I'm the chief. I take my place here tonight as the worst Sinner in this room.
But God and his goodness to my soul, who went to the cross of Calvary.
And he died for me. I accepted him as my savior, not because I'm good, but because I admitted that I wasn't. But I was bad and vile and a Sinner in his sight.
Have you ever done that?
I ask you before God, don't answer me. It's God that's important. Have you ever humbled yourself and admitted that you were a Sinner before God and as a Sinner you are unfit for His holy presence?
You know, I like to give this a little illustration.
I love my little boys that are sitting up here.
My little boys love to play outside. We live on a farm.
And they have rubber boots. We have carpet in our house.
I love my little boys to come in at supper time.
To enjoy company with them.
But if they came in with their rubber boots and wrecked our carpet?
00:10:04
What would I say? Would I be thrilled that they had come and stamped all over the carpet with mud? And dear Sinner friend tonight, it's no different with God's home.
You can't come in with your sins.
It's holy in his presence.
And people say, well, I'm good enough.
Are you?
Before a holy God, one sin.
Will keep you from his presence. One piece of mud isn't welcome on our floor.
We do, let's not forget that. And so as sinners, God has said, how can I have a sinful person in my home?
God made a way. He sent his son here, and his son died and gave his life and shed his blood so that my sins could be washed away and I can go someday to heaven clean. Not because I'm good, but because he paid. He paid with his blood. He loved me enough to want me in his home that he died for me.
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Dear friends, this is not my words. I read them from God's Word.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and am I ever glad He did?
Because I wouldn't have made it to heaven on my own.
I know it.
And down deep in your soul, you know it too, That if you're not washed.
In the blood of Jesus that your sins aren't gone and paid for by another.
You're not going to get there. We heard last night both the judgment of hell.
Where I live in Ontario, there are thousands of lakes.
Some of the people here know where I live. There's a river on behind me and a lake in front of me.
You know, last night the brother that spoke spoke about fire.
I'd like to add one more thought to that.
You know it's a lake of fire.
We know what it is to be refreshed in the summertime. It's 90°, the humidity is high.
Nothing like getting into the lake and cooling off. It's so refreshing. The water just goes all around you, covers you. You just feel so good.
But what about a lake of fire? You thought about that?
That's what Hal is like.
The Bible tells us that hell was made for the devil and his angels.
Not for people.
But if you say I'm good enough on my own and God's just going to have to overlook the mud on my boots.
And I'll get in my own way.
Then guess what? The word of God teaches us that people like that who will not admit that they have sinned.
That don't have their sins forgiven, they have to go to hell.
To be with Satan and his angels for all eternity. That is Solomon. And that's why we have a meeting like this to warn.
Everybody not to go to hell, don't you think?
That that expression in the world when somebody is mad at someone, they say go to hell.
Do they really think about it what they're saying? Can you imagine wishing somebody to go into a lake of fire for all eternity?
A dreadful thing.
You know, while we're on the subject of people swearing.
When I was in the university.
I went to school with people from all different religions from all over the world. In Canada, that's how it is, right? You go to university, there's people from every country you can imagine, but that brings people from all different religions.
00:15:06
You invariably we'd have troubles.
And consistently the people from every religion that were in my my graduating class, they would swear by one name, the name of Jesus.
It didn't matter what religion they were, when they were angry, they swore by the name of Jesus.
Why? Because there's only one way to be forgiven for your sins, and that is by Jesus Christ. And that's what God loves. And the enemy of your soul, Satan hates. And that's why everybody uses the name of Jesus as a curse who hates him.
Tonight I would like to look at.
A story we had this morning in the book of Luke.
Before we talk about Luke Chapter 7.
Perhaps there was. There's some people here tonight and you weren't here this morning.
I want to explain about another meeting that we had in this room this morning.
This is a gospel meeting tonight, but this morning there was a group of Christians that were here and we had what we call the breaking of bread.
The scripture calls it the breaking of bread.
And there was a table in the middle of the room, and on the table was a plate, and on the plate was a loaf.
And on the table was a cup.
And in the cup was wine.
And we were here because when the Lord Jesus.
Just before he died on the cross nearly 2000 years ago.
He got his own all around him, his disciples, his followers.
And he said, I want you on a regular basis.
To Remember Me.
To think about how I died for you.
No, not nearly 2000 years have gone by.
And the group of Christians that were here this morning.
That loaf was broken and passed from one to another, and then the cup was passed from one to another.
And we remembered how the Lord Jesus died for us, how he suffered for us. And we thanked Him. We thanked him for suffering for us, for dying for us. You know why? Because we love Him.
We love him.
I love them.
And so tonight.
Yes, it's true, I'm a Sinner.
But the Lord Jesus died for me. I love him because of what he did for me.
And now it's my privilege to tell others. And so as we read a few few stories from God's Word, from the book of Luke.
I want you to think about.
As we contrast contrast to men.
In story after story, which man you are like? Are you like the man that took his place as a Sinner before Lord Jesus, who really loved him and who was pardoned, forgiven for his sins? Or were you like the other one that said says I'm good enough the way I am, I don't really have a need.
I'm OK, I'm going to take my chances. I'm going to wait.
You know, there's blessing for the person tonight who says, yes, I have sinned and I do want to go to heaven. I want to be with the Lord Jesus and have the favor of God for all eternity.
I want to have my sins forgiven tonight. May it be that there's someone here like that.
Luke Chapter 7.
Verse 36.
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meet.
00:20:05
And behold, a woman in the city which was a Sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
And when the Pharisee which had been in him saw it, he said.
Spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman. This is the touch of him, for she is a Sinner.
And Jesus answering, said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on There was a certain creditor which had two debtors, the one owed 500 pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both.
Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.
And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time they came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil, thou didst not annoyed, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meet with him began to say within themselves, Who is this?
That forgive us sins also.
And he said to the woman, Thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace.
So we had this story this morning.
Because as sinners we were here, but as saved sinners.
Those that had taken the place of this Sinner lady.
And we're at the feet of the Lord Jesus and praise and worship.
You know, this man, Simon, is the first man that we're going to talk about tonight.
You know, I used to be like Simon. I used to think I was better. I was better.
You know, I was from a nice family.
We had a modest income.
I hadn't done anything really that wrong. I was pretty good.
I wasn't. I'd never really been terribly unkind or done anything really bad to put me in jail or anything like that. I'd never killed anyone.
I never really cheated that bad.
You know, that's kind of like Simon. He's like this Sinner lady.
Jesus.
Plowing her to show affection to him.
How is it with you tonight?
Do you love the Lord Jesus?
What does he mean to you?
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross 2000 years ago.
Did he pay for your sins?
Have you asked the Lord Jesus to be your Savior?
Tonight, He's willing to be your savior.
Come to Him as a Sinner. Take your place like this, lady. She was a sinful lady. She knew it. She did something about it. She came. She came to the right person. She came to the Lord Jesus.
What did he say? Thy sins are forgiven. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Thy sins are forgiven. Boys and girls, tonight you can have your sins forgiven.
Maybe you're different than me, but I remember when I used to lay in bed and I remembered my sins and I couldn't get to sleep some nights because of my sins. Is that you tonight, boys? Be honest.
00:25:07
Your sins.
You think about them, you worry about them.
You wonder.
I remember when I wasn't saved.
My dad used to always pray beside the bed at night.
I was so glad when I saw him kneeling beside the bed.
Because I knew that my dad was a Christian, and I knew that someday Jesus was going to take all the Christians out of this world. And I knew that because my dad was still there praying that the Lord Jesus hadn't come yet. So I still had time, but I put it off I delayed.
And you know, the longer I delayed, the more excuses the devil gave me to not get saved.
One excuse after another. And I heard many, many faithful gospel meanings. You know, I used to come to conferences, too.
I hear people say that I needed to get saved. Did I? No. How come?
Why aren't you saved? What is the excuse that you have?
You know what my excuse was? I didn't want to be up here. That's why the devil told me that someday if I got saved, I was going to have to be a gospel preacher like my grandpa. That's what he told me.
So I didn't get saved and I put it off and my sins bothered me night after night.
And you know what? The Lord Jesus wanted to pay for all my sins. He loved me so much that he died for me.
And here I am saying I don't want to get saved because I'm going to have to preach.
And you know, when I was a teenager and I'd come to the Lord Jesus.
You know what the devil told me? Don't ask for your place at the Lords Table because you're going to have to get up and preach like your grandfather.
He's a wicked, wicked person, the devil. He'll keep you away from the Lord Jesus as your Savior, and then he'll keep you away from having affection for him.
You'll ruin your life if he can. Christ Jesus came into the world.
To save sinners, take your place as a lost, ruined, guilty Sinner, and that's the place of great blessing. Come to Him tonight. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
I want to contrast this man Simon with someone in the 19th chapter that we've all heard about. Hopefully, if not listen carefully. Chapter 19, verse one.
Luke chapter 19 and verse one. And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich, and he sought to see Jesus, who he was, and could not for the press because he was little of stature.
And he ran before and climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him.
For he was to pass that way.
Now a little background to help this story to sink in a little bit. This man Zacchaeus was hated not because he was rich, but how he got rich.
April the 30th in Canada we have to pay tax, right?
You know, I haven't met too many people that were really excited about paying income tax.
Or when we came back from PEI, we had to pay $46 to go over the bridge.
We all have to pay taxes.
But in those days, in Judea and Palestine, the Romans were in power.
And they had those who they gave contracts to, to gather taxes up for them.
And they were the publicans, the tax collectors.
And they were hated because often they would say, you owe this amount of money, and perhaps it was a little bit more than they really should have gotten. And the extra went right in here in their pockets. And this man, Zacchaeus, was rich.
00:30:18
Can you imagine if you had to pay the Canadian Revenue Agency a certain amount and then somebody here came to your door and said this is how much you have to pay, but add another 1000 bucks for me while you're at it. You wouldn't really be very happy with that person or if they said add another 10,000 bucks.
You know, these people were rich, but they were hated and despised.
Verse five. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone. To be the guest with a man that is a Sinner.
You say? Yeah, Zacchaeus was a Sinner.
And if somebody came to you and said revenue or Revenue Canada $5000 and you owe me 2000 payout, you'd say that person was a Sinner. They're taking 2000 extra dollars from me like.
So all the people murmured, all of them. They said, hey, why is Jesus paying attention to a Sinner tonight? I say, I'm so glad he did because he saved me.
What about you? Have you taken your place as a Sinner?
Happy, never mind the person beside you, because God tells us that every one of us shall give account of ourselves to God. Not our friend, not our neighbor, not somebody we work with, but us, ourselves. We have to answer someday.
Verse 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation, come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Grand Verse Grand verse The Son of Man is come to seek and to save.
That which was lost, that's me. I was lost and he came and he found me in my desperate need. Is there somebody here tonight who's lost in their sins? That's far from God?
You need him. Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me. Long I was chained in sin's darkness.
Now, by His grace, I am free.
So these are the first two men that I wanted to look at tonight, Simon, who thought he was better. I'm good enough.
I'm not a Sinner like that Lady.
But he was, and so are you tonight.
And then this man, Zacchaeus, he's hiding up in the tree as Jesus passes by.
And Jesus looks up and calls his name, and he goes to Zacchaeus's house and people say he's a Sinner. What are you going to his house for?
Because he's a Sinner, Jesus came to save sinners.
Tonight, our USA center, I am. It's grand to be a save center, to know that when we leave this world, we're going to heaven for sure on the authority of this book.
You say, well, how do you know about it? Well, you know, we have a few more verses to cover and Luke, but if you want to stay behind tonight, I'm very happy and there's many that are very happy to go through the questions that you have.
As to whether you're a Sinner or not and that Jesus came to save sinners.
You know, we're going to touch on just a few verses in this book tonight. There's many more.
00:35:05
They're all God's word and they're all grand.
I'm going to Passover a couple of stories in God's Word. In the 15th chapter there's two more men.
This story is referred to often as the Prodigal Son.
Story of the prodigal son.
But there was another son. We thought he was better. We thought he was good.
The other his brother, was a Sinner, but not him. He'd never done anything wrong.
Who got the blessing? The prodigal.
That's who got the blessing, the bad one. Why? Because he came to the Father and asked for forgiveness, that's why. That's all. He humbled himself. He came as a Sinner and he was forgiven and blessed.
You know this isn't complicated.
God made the way of salvation so simple that even a little child could understand that they were a Sinner, that his Son Jesus came and died on the cross. His blood was shed so that his blood could wash away the sins of any person who would ask to be forgiven. It's that simple.
But it's wonderful. You know, at the beginning we sang a little child of seven or even 3 or 4.
Even three or four.
It's not complicated. If it was, could a three-year old get saved?
But lots of three-year olds are going to be in glory because they said, Lord Jesus, please save me from my sins.
And the Lord did that.
In the 16th chapter, we won't talk about this story either, but there's two men in the 19th verse. There's a rich man, and then there's another man called Lazarus who was a poor man.
But the rich man, he had everything in this world.
Except.
Salvation from his sins.
He had everything that a person in this world would naturally want. He had great food, a great place to live. He had great clothes. He had everything that this world offers, except he didn't have a relationship with the Lord, with God. His sins weren't forgiven, and so in hell.
When he died, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. We talked about that last night, what hell is like a little bit. I hope anyone that was here last night that heard that that isn't safe. Well, think about that. Think about your destiny, where you will end up if you don't come to the Lord Jesus.
Now I'm going to add a story now on our way here.
When we were driving along every few miles.
I would see, I shouldn't say every few, but quite a few times I saw at the side of the road across.
Sometimes there was just one, sometimes there was two, sometimes there was three, sometimes there was a whole bunch of them.
You know why they were there? Because somebody died at the side of the road there.
And their loved ones came, and they put perhaps a little bit of flowers and a cross to signify their death there. I want to tell you about another little cross near our house.
It's on the way to Ottawa if anyone knows.
Century Rd. When you're going in on the right hand side, there's this plexiglass box.
And beside it is a white cross, and in the box are flowers.
And whoever puts the flowers in changes them.
Now and again so that they're always fresh.
Why? Because they loved the person that died at the side of the road there.
Why is it across?
Why do people put crosses where somebody died at the side of the road? Have you ever thought about it?
00:40:00
You know there was a cross 2000 years ago where a man by the name of Jesus died for me.
And that cross is so significant to so many people that it represents death of a loved one. I love Jesus for dying for me.
You know when a little boy or little girl or another relatives passes away in an accident, they put a cross there because they love that person.
Do you love the Lord Jesus for dying on the cross?
Do you?
You need to.
And if you recognize your sinfulness before God, you will love the Lord Jesus even more.
When you think of how he suffered for you.
And how he paid for everyone of your sins when he died on the cross and was punished by a holy God in those three hours of darkness.
You'll love.
This man, this rich man, had no love for God.
He left him out, you know. We were in Turo on Tuesday night.
We got there late, but I knew I was in the right place.
Because as I kneel down.
Beside the chair, my brother was praying and he's here tonight.
He's sitting on the front row here. He was praying and I knew from his prayer that I was in the right room.
He was praying as a saved Christian, someone that loved the Lord Jesus, who loved the people of God.
I was so glad to be at that little meeting.
Those who love the Lord Jesus.
But this rich man?
He didn't love the Lord Jesus.
He left him out of his life.
In Terrell, one of the brothers made a comment about.
People being very thankful for all the things that God has provided.
All the water we drink, the food we ate today, the ski hills we ski down.
The ranks we stayed on in the winter time, the oxygen we breathe, we're very thankful for all those things from a holy God.
But this man, he said, you know, thanks very much for the food and I'll take all the wealth and all the prosperity, but I don't want you. And is there somebody that's like that tonight that says, I'm very thankful for everything that God has given me, my health, my strength, my job, the country I live in, all the things that I have.
Thank you, but please stay away from me.
I don't want to have a relationship with you, God.
There's somebody like that here tonight and you're saying thanks for everything but no thanks to you. You know, the Lord Jesus and his love.
And it is mercy.
He picked up.
The poor man in this story.
This poor man that had nothing.
It tells us that he in verse 21 and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
That's horrible.
He wanted crumbs, feet, dogs licked his sores. You think oh that's disgusting and yes it was. But this is a picture of me. I'm saved of you, unsaved before God sores.
Sins, dirt, filth, crumbs. We may think we're rich.
People in this world may say you're doing well.
They did that. They said that to the rich man too, and he went to hell.
Lazarus had nothing in this world.
To the eye of faith, he had everything. He had God. He had a relationship with God, even though outwardly he was poor.
He had the blessing as a result.
If you turn over and your Bible, maybe not, but in my Bible it's the next page.
00:45:03
It says.
Verse.
23.
The rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus.
In his bosom, you know, in the Old Testament, the Jewish people look forward to being with Abraham.
And blessing as a result in eternity. That was the portion of Lazarus.
What will your portion be?
You say well.
Who are you to ask me that?
As a Sinner, I've already said I'm worse than you.
I ask you that.
What about your apportion?
In eternity.
Have you had your sins forgiven? Have you taken your place as a Sinner?
As somebody that deserves judgment.
Before a holy God and said I'm sorry, I want to be forgiven.
I want my sins to be paid for by the Lord Jesus by Son.
Now let's turn over to.
Chapter 18.
We'll read this story about two more men.
Verse 9.
And he spake this parable unto certain, which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.
Two men went up into the temple to pray. The 1A Pharisee and the other, a publican, were a tax collector.
Now the Pharisees prided themselves in being religious.
The Pharisee, the religious one, He stood and prayed thus with himself.
He prayed with himself.
Think about that.
God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I get ties of all that I possess.
And the publican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a Sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
I said at the beginning what I say will be based on this book, the Bible.
I've had friends in the world, acquaintances, that have told me that the Bible is just too complicated to understand. They don't read it because it's just too difficult.
So we just read.
Six or seven or eight verses.
Was that complicated?
No, it wasn't complicated. We got the story, don't we? Two men go up into the temple to pray.
One is a religious man and he prays with himself. The prayer is here, it doesn't go to God. He says the right word, God, but it didn't go above his head. He told God how good he was.
What the other one? The publican, the tax collector that despised 1.
It says that he wouldn't lift up so much as his eyes onto heaven. He looked down and smote his breast. He says, God be merciful to me, the Sinner.
Me the Sinner. Is there a common thread to the stories that we've had tonight?
This is the 4th one of two men. God is giving us a contrast in His word.
So that we'll get it. God wants us to realize that there are those that say I'm good enough, I don't need to be saved.
I'm OK the way I am, but then there are those that say, you know what, I'm a Sinner.
And you know what? In each of these stories, there's blessing for the Sinner, and there's blessing for you tonight.
00:50:05
If you'll take that place, that humble place before God.
It says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you due season.
You know, there's a day coming when I'm going to be in heaven, not because I'm good, I'm a Sinner, I told you that. But I'm going to get to heaven because the Bible says so. Because I've been forgiven and God can righteously forgive me because Jesus paid for every last one of my sins when he died on the cross for me.
Can you say that, boys? Can you say that?
Tonight.
Or else anyone here?
That clock stopped. I'll watch this one now.
At the retirement home.
That I go to every week.
One of the saddest things for me.
Is to see people that are past the point.
Of being able to think.
And they're still alive, day after day after day.
It's a tragedy.
Tragedy.
You know, there's other people that come to our Bible class.
In their whole life, they've planned everything.
They planned where they were going to go to school, what occupation they were going to have.
They were going to plan. They planned who they were going to marry. They planned for their retirement, their career.
They planned everything.
And then they get to the retirement home.
And they're going to leave.
They're going to leave in a different way that they came. They're going to leave in a vehicle that takes them to the funeral parlor. They know that.
50 people a year leave that facility.
It's a big one.
But many of them come to the class and they own that they never planned to leave this world.
Are you like that? Have you planned to leave this world? Do you know with assurance that your sins are gone?
You can know on the authority of the word of God that your sins are gone.
Now chapter 23 for the last two.
Verse 33.
We had this this morning of how the Lord Jesus died on the cross and we were so thankful and we praised him.
From full hearts verse 33. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. That's Jesus and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they parted his raiment and cast lots, and the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying He saved others.
Let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself. And the superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews.
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
And if you compare Matthew's Gospel, the account of the Lord Jesus dying on the cross, and the account in Mark's Gospel, you'll find that both of the malefactors said terrible things to the Lord Jesus when they were on the cross on either side of Jesus, they were dying for their sins.
One of them, verse 40 The other answering her, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
00:55:11
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee.
Today shall they'll be with me in paradise. And it was about the 6th hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried, with a loud voice he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
Now when the centurion saw it was done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man.
We have just a couple of minutes left.
But this is the last two that I want to speak about.
I love this story.
What could those men do?
Nothing.
They were there, hanging on a cross.
They knew why they were there. They were crooks.
They were guilty. They were thieves.
You know.
Each one of us.
We're no different.
I said at the beginning I was the worst.
But if we're honest, everyone of us is come ashore. All have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God.
Were represented in those two thieves that were being punished for their sins.
By the Roman government.
Both of them said terrible things to Jesus. Why did they do that? Why do people swear with his name when they get angry?
When they're from China, Malaysia, Japan, it doesn't matter where they're from. Why do they say the name of Jesus when they're mad?
The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Jesus says, and the devil knows it, and that's why he encourages people from all over the world when they're mad to swear by the name of Jesus.
The blessed name of Jesus. These two men they cast that says in Matthew the same in his teeth.
That implies to me that they said horrible things to Jesus.
There was me and somebody said something like that to me. Would I be very disposed toward them? Would you?
The other answering viewed him saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. He owned he was a Sinner. He was on the cross dying because he was a thief. He admitted it to the Son of God. And so the Lord Jesus says, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Is there somebody here tonight and you're willing to tell God that you've sinned?
If you are, and you ask for the Lord Jesus to forgive you from your sins, and you ask Him to be your Savior, tonight He will be that. He will save your soul and you will know for that forever and ever you will be safe in heaven.
Why? Because if you ask for forgiveness, then Jesus will pay for your sins.
Verse 44.
There was a darkness over all the earth, you know in English.
I'm not an English major.
But it says there was a darkness.
Why? Why the app?
Why doesn't it just say there was darkness? There was no other darkness like this that had ever happened or will happen when Jesus was punished for my sins. Think about the millions and millions of people that have been paid. Their sins have been paid for. Jesus was punished so much on the cross as the millions and millions and millions and millions of sins were paid for.
You know what he said on the cross? My God, My God, Why asked thou forsaken me?
God had to turn his back from his Son while he was punished for my sins.
01:00:05
There was that darkness. It was so terrible.
And God has not forgotten that his Son.
Died on the cross.
We had it last night about judgment hanging over this world. That's another part of the gospel. We don't have any time left, but I would ask you tonight.
If you have never accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, do it now. Don't wait. Don't let Satan give you any excuse or reason why you shouldn't get saved now. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Christ is the Savior of sinners.
And I'll just read that verse in First Timothy, chapter one, verse 15.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am Chief Spray.
Dear God and Father, how thankful we are for the Lord Jesus. We're thankful that thou did send him into this world. He became a man and he lived here so perfectly. My word tells us. And then we think of how we've read a little bit about the cross and how people like us took him. Thy Son, thy perfect son.
Thy well beloved son, and hung him on a cross to die.
We think of how he did die for sinners and that now anyone who wants to have their sins forgiven.
Can accept him as their savior to believe that when he died on the cross.
He died for them. His precious blood was shed to wash away their sins.
And we just pray if there's somebody here tonight who has recognized their need as a Sinner that wants to have their sins forgiven, the Lord Jesus, they may turn to thee as the Savior of sinners and cry for mercy. We pray this in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Open Mtg. 6
Open—R. Boulard, S. Allan
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.
Lord, Thou has drawn us after Thee.
Now let us run and never tire.
What in thy love possessing?
Our star by night, our sun by day, 166.
Lord.
Of the rings.
I'm waiting for the Lord.
My beauty to see, Lord, I am waiting for thee, for thy coming again, number 78 in the back.
I'm waiting for the Lord thy beauty to see Lord I waiting for me more like a man.
Over there, Lord of praise, to prepare more blood. Oh, my whole life shall be, shall bear for thy name.
Mid danger.
In the water of life.
We're here for a day and I'm still here of my God again.
00:05:00
Good Lord.
Should we just turn to the book of the Acts?
Read a couple of verses there, beginning at verse 41, Acts chapter 2 and verse 41.
And they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about 3000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in apostles, doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they continued daily.
They continuing daily with one accord in the temple.
And breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. While we read another passage in a little bit. But I just have it on my heart this afternoon to just speak of a couple of passages in the Scriptures in the book of the Acts of a couple of assemblies, and they were running on all cylinders, you might say.
And brother, where we're staying at, he got into his car last night and started to shutter and didn't run very well and something was wrong with it. And so they opened the hood up and beat on the battery and a few other things, and it seemed to run better after that. But you know, the Lord desired that the assembly would run smoothly and run on all cylinders. And here things were running smoothly at the beginning of the church period. And God, if I could put it this way, has organized.
The assembly, and it's not just something that is thrown out there and in a disorganized way, is to kind of chaotically go on and find its own way. It says in Philippians that they were to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.
And that is that there are going to be difficulties coming into the assembly and among the Saints of God.
And it is the Lord's assembly and they were to workout the salvation of the assembly. So in that context, you know, in Philippians where we're quoting that verse, it's really not the salvation of the soul, it's the salvation of assembly. I don't think we realize in the day that we live in, very close to the end of the day of grace, we have a sense and we song of it just now of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
That the Lord.
Desires to bless the assembly and but there's an enemy that desires to destroy. He's a destroyer and that's his name, Apollyon. And he seeks to destroy your life and mine, but he seeks to destroy the assembly. That which is a testimony, a public testimony to the grace of God in this scene and ought to be a clear testimony.
00:10:19
As the assembly. And so here we have these 3000 souls that were saved on the day of Pentecost.
Peter preached what a mighty word was given and it was a work of the Spirit of God. 3000 souls brought into the Church of God on that one occasion. Perhaps we don't have any other preaching ever told, and perhaps having happened since, we don't know that 3000 souls were saved at that occasion. And they came into the normal course of things, into the assembly, and it says they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship.
And so I just want to point out these three things, four things perhaps we might say that are 4 anchors to the assembly, 4 anchors to your spiritual life. And if our spiritual lives individually are not in order with us in reading, meeting and different times, he would say to us, brethren, if our personal lives are not in order.
Then it's going to transfer over into the assembly.
And it will affect the assembly, It will affect others. No man liveth unto himself, no man dieth unto himself. But here they were saved by the grace of God, and they continued steadfastly. They didn't just continue in the assembly, but they continued steadfastly. It was a focus of their lives. It was a priority. I want to ask you this afternoon, is the assembly a priority?
You know the world wants to make their priorities your priorities.
They want to supplant the Spirit of God and the work of the Spirit of God among his people. They want to take Christ and supplant Him with some other priority.
But these souls, after they were saved, they received the word, they were baptized, there was a public acknowledgment that they belonged to Christ.
Now, I just want to say this, that sometimes we have thought and I have myself, that baptism is really a public thing that needs to be done in in public. Well, you know, we're not going to turn to it. But the Philippians jailer, he was baptized about midnight, maybe after midnight after he was saved. Was it a public thing? No, he was just baptized.
It just he wanted to disassociate himself from the heathen world that he had grown up in. And now he wanted to leave idolatry and everything else that was associated with it. He wanted to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And there at midnight in the darkness, perhaps by the Riverside or perhaps in his own home, he was baptized. I just want to encourage anyone here that has never been baptized. It doesn't need to be public thing. You don't. Phillip was baptized, baptized the Ethiopian eunuch.
The Ethiopian eunuch out in the middle of the desert, did he say, well, you know, this has to be a public thing and we can we kind of have to wait until we get to the city or something and and gather a crowd. It's nice, you know, to go to baptism and that there are others there perhaps that rejoice with you, but it's not necessary. And if you're not baptized, what a wonderful thing would be to identify with the Lord Jesus.
In his death and resurrection, to go under those waters and to be disassociated from the heathen world that we live in, the Christ rejecting world and be associated with that one.
Who loved us and gave himself for us. And so it's a privilege. While they were baptized and they were added to the assembly, there they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. And so really they went on in what the apostles taught. The truth of God was revealed to the apostles and it was delivered to the apostles to deliver to the Saints of God. Now we have the written.
Ministry of the Apostles and God used I think it's 8 individuals to write the New Testament.
And we know that Peter wrote some epistles. Paul wrote 14 epistles, if you count the epistles of the Hebrews. And these dear Saints of God, they had a readiness of mind to hear what the doctrine was that the apostles taught. They weren't telling them about Judaism. They were telling them about Christ and the magnitude of the work that had been accomplished upon the cross of Calvary.
They received it with all readiness of mind, if we could use that term, that expression that the Spirit of God uses in connection with the assembly in Berea. They received it and they went on steadfastly in it. Today we live in a day and age where the Paul's doctrine and the doctrine of the apostles is being let go, maybe not totally trashed, not totally given up entirely.
00:15:11
At little parts and bits and pieces. Or perhaps kept. But these Saints didn't take a black magic marker to their Bibles and start blacking out those parts that they didn't like.
No, they went on in all of it.
And that's the place of blessing. That's the course of blessing for you and I is to read the epistles and to go on in the truth of God as was revealed to the apostles, and with devotion to go on steadfastly and in fellowship with what they taught. Now we might apply the fellowship in connection with the assembly, to have the assembly running on all cylinders, fellowship with one another as necessary, isn't it?
And I know we live in a day of busyness that says.
We could turn to Hebrews chapter 13 and just quote a little verse of Scripture there, because hospitality is one of those things that the Spirit of God records in the New Testament as being necessary, and that the assembly might be built up and that it might continue on, it says.
In verse two, chapter 13, verse 2, let's read verse one. Let brotherly love continue or another translation. Abide in brotherly love. Be not forgetful to entertain or be not forgetful of hospitality.
For thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
You know, brethren, we live in the day of business and you remember that Paul wrote this to the.
Jewish converts, you might say. He wrote it to the Hebrews and it was written approximately 7 years before Jerusalem was leveled. It was the last warning perhaps that they got written warning and it came from the apostle Paul, from the heart of God himself, and he said to them, leave Judaism.
Judaism is going to be destroyed, and they were being persecuted. And we read in First Thessalonians how the Jews persecuted the Thessalonians. There was much affliction.
People were losing their lives. The people were losing their goods. They were being hunted and chased. And it says, and I think it's in Acts chapter 8, there was a great persecution and they were scattered at all. They were scattered all throughout that known world except the apostles. So God limited the.
The effects of that persecution and so they were under a lot of pressure.
And we are under a lot of pressure, aren't we? Today? There's all kinds of pressure, financial pressure.
There's social pressures, there's all kinds of pressures and how we need to have the Saints in our home. I want to thank you those of you that have had me in your home, laid yourself out, taken of your funds, your, your food, your all the comforts of home and just tried to make me feel at home in your home and.
You know, it's just a wonderful privilege to have the Saints have gone in the home.
You know, the Lord Jesus didn't have a home that we know of when he was here in the scene. It does say that he moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, and I think that's Matthew chapter four. He moved and he made his base, as it were, Capernaum.
But he was invited into different homes, and what blessing flowed from those homes that he entered into? And so when you have the Saints of God in the home, God is never any man's debtor. And he says in Hebrews chapter 13, he says that thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Now an Angel is a messenger sent from God.
And you might say, well, I never entertain an Angel that I know of. Well, maybe you have.
You didn't know it, but you know, I've often had different ones in my home very thankful for that privilege. And maybe a sister or maybe even a young person said something or quoted aversive scripture when they were in my home. And I got a message from the Lord. I got a message of encouragement sometimes. I got a message of you sometimes, but I got a message.
I'm thankful, you know, you're never going to have that privilege if you don't have the Saints in your home.
And maybe there's something in your home that shouldn't be in your home, and that's why you don't have the sinks there. Well, it would be worth getting rid of it that you might be able to have the Saints in it. You know, the Lord delights to bless, and his desire is that we would go on and fellowship. Well, they were to warm one another. You know how you start a fire is you have a little bit of kindling and you put one log on one side and another log on the other side. You put a little bit of kindling in between.
00:20:19
And you light the kindling.
A little bit of newspaper, a little bit of cedar or whatever, and it goes up and then you just push those logs together and they get hotter and hotter and you start a good fire and then you put another one on top. Now you have a roaring fire. That's how a fire gets started and that's how you maintain it is to keep those logs together. And brethren, to have an assembly that's running on all cylinders. We need to have hospitality, we need to have fellowship. And it's wonderful to go into the home and then have the Bible.
And after a meal or something and just to read a little portion of Christ and get a little message from him. And so I just want to encourage us here this afternoon to use our homes in that way to have the Saints of God in the home. And then it speaks here of breaking of bread. And you know, there are two ordinances that were given to the church. The children of Israel had something like over 600 laws and commands and ordinances and.
They could hardly remember any.
Not even 10 of them. They could. Moses gave them the 10 commandments.
Even before he gave him the 10 Commandments, they'd fallen into idolatry.
But God has given us two things. He's asked us to do 2 Things. One is to be baptized, and the other is to remember Him in his death. And beloved brethren, the time is almost up.
And I just want to say perhaps there's a young person here struggling with the idea of going to talk to an older brother and say, you know, I'd like to remember the Lord in his death. You know, they're not going to interrogate you. They're not going to make life hard for you. Your brethren, you know, that are older. They were once young people, and they once knew how they felt when they went to see an older brother and say, I'd like to remember the Lord in his death.
And they're going to be very gracious with you. I can tell you that from experience. I never felt the love of my brethren more.
In Plain Grove, Ontario, where I asked, it would be received into fellowship. I never felt the love of my brother, and more than when I asked to remember the Lord in his death. And two of those dear, kinder, older brethren came to my home, my father's home, and just spoke with me, just to make sure that I had some exercise about what I was doing and wasn't just trying to do it mechanically.
I'm thankful for that. And so they just interviewed me and I was receiving the fellowship.
So you know, they continued in breaking of bread. And I just want to encourage you this afternoon that if you've never remembered the Lord Jesus in his death, doesn't matter how young or old you might be. Why there's the Lord would desire that he's asked us to be baptized and then he's also asked us to remember him in his death and then it says prayers and prayers.
And so to speak at the prayer meeting, and we had our older brother and often times used to say that this really this verse perhaps referred to those assembly meetings.
That were so necessary in our lives and that the enemy would try to present and prevent us from going to those assembly meetings. But the apostles doctrine and fellowship would really speak of the reading meeting and ministry meetings and the breaking of bread we know as remembrance of the Lord and prayers the prayer meeting.
All young people, can I just say this to you? Never miss a prayer meeting. Never miss a prayer meeting.
You may think, you know, you're so tired you can hardly go, but I feel refreshed that every prayer meeting, and it's the dependence that's expressed by those that pray. It's the assembly in on their faces before God, crying for help and sustenance, for his intervention on their behalf and on the behalf of others.
In a world that is against Christ and against his people, and you know the enemy is against the enemy and the assembly.
And so we come and wouldn't it be nice that if the prayer meeting was just full? And so we have this little picture of an assembly that's running on all cylinders right at the beginning of the church period. Now, if we just turn over a few pages, I'd like to reread what we read in the in the reading meeting in Chapter 11.
And very briefly touch on these four gifts that are given to the church, Acts Chapter 11, but perhaps we'll just read in Ephesians chapter 4 before we do that.
00:25:15
Ephesians chapter 4.
Verse 10.
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, and he gave some apostles. Now the commas really aren't in the right place If you look at the the new translation, I'll read it the the way it's written in the new translation. The Lord Jesus is the one who gave these gifts. He gave some apostles.
And some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Now this is the reason that he gave them for the perfecting of the Saints, for the ministry, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.
Or a full grown man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
So God in his grace, when the Lord Jesus rose and ascended into the heavens, I was reading recently a little book by Gigi Billette, and he said, you know, there's a risen Savior on high. He rose up and he's a crown priest in heaven, and he sent down coronation gifts to the church.
He sent down those that are gifts to the church, that it might be built up, that you might be edified and built up.
And strengthen. And so he gave here these different ones. And let's read from verse 19 in Chapter 11 of the book of the Acts and see how these different ones, they labored together. And if I might put it this way, that the work of the Lord went on smoothly and it was running on all cylinders at the beginning of the church period because these different ones didn't. They had respect for one another and they labored together.
Harmoniously. You know, I used to run a business years ago.
And we had job descriptions for every single person, the janitor as well as the the purchasing agent. We had job descriptions for everyone. And we had a little sentence at the end of every job description. It said this must work harmoniously with all other employees.
Not nice.
You know the Lord desires that you and I in our labor, our service of love for him and affection for Him, would labor harmoniously together, while this is what we have in the church. In the early Church Acts Chapter 11, verse 19, it says Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as seen icy in Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews unto the Jews only.
And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake under the Grecians. These were really Greeks, and not really, I don't think they were Hellenistic Jews, but they were actually Greeks. They spoke Greek and so on. And they speak under the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them.
And a great number believed and turned under the Lord.
Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave under the Lord, For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and faith and much people was added unto the Lord.
Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for the Sikhs all. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the Church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch, And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem and Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified.
By the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief under the weather in which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
00:30:16
Well, I think we you'll recall that we mentioned these different ones that were involved in this work of the Lord and as the Jews rejected the truth of God is connection with the Lord Jesus being the true Messiah sent to them. Why the Lord was going to bless and he sent the word to the Gentiles and he was not going to be hemmed in as it were. And it's really the secret of understanding the book of the Acts is to recognize.
That God was going to send the gospel throughout the whole of the world. And so that's, I think it's chapter one, verse eight. We're not going to take time to read it, but you can read it in your own time. And so the gospel began to go out in Judea, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and then to other most parts of the world.
So who does the work first? You know, there are some salesman here in the room and salesman have a little bit of an expression. They say nothing happens without the sale.
Well, in connection with the work of God, you know, the evangelist has given the marvelous privilege of beginning to present Christ to the soul. God does a work himself. He quickens the soul so that they can hear the word of God and give them life so that they can hear. And then they're brought into the knowledge of the the truth. But you know these men.
They were Greeks, gentiles. They needed to hear by the way of an evangelist.
And the evangelist came, and he was preaching the word, and he was preaching to those he thought were worthy of hearing the gospel of the grace of God. He preached to the Jews 1St and then they began to preach to those that were of the Gentiles. And it says the hand of the Lord was with them, And a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.
And so we have the day, the day we live in the evangelist is used of God and he uses different opportunities. Our brother Mario persona we know uses the three minute gospel and on the Internet and people click on that and he's had millions of hits for three minute gospel. Souls are saved and assemblies are formed. And so, you know, it's still happening today.
And so we can do a little work of evangelism, as was quoted here yesterday.
Paul tells Timothy do the work of an evangelist. Now, we're not all evangelists, but there are some that are given the gift of an evangelist. And so God begins to work with evangelists. Now, you'll notice that the work of an evangelist is outside the assembly. He does his work out in the countryside. He does it in the city, he does it in the hospital, He does it all those different places.
He can exercise his gift in the assembly if there's an assembly.
A gospel meeting, Sunday school work, whatever, and the Saints of God deliver the hall to him to be able to preach the gospel of the grace of God. So a gospel meeting is not an assembly meeting. The assembly has fellowship with that work and can show fellowship with that work. And the Sunday school is not an assembly meeting either.
But the assembly delivers the hall, allows the hall to be used for Sunday school work, is wonderful work to be used for and the hobby class, all those sorts of things.
But the work begins there. An assembly that's running on all cylinders, if I could use that terminology, is involved in some kind of gospel work.
You want to have some blessing in the assembly, have a little bit of gospel work. It doesn't need to be magnificent. It doesn't need to be very visible. Gospel work generally is very hard, sometimes is very disheartening. And I just use the analogy of the salesman. I was just talking to a salesman at lunchtime, rather successful salesman, now retired, but you know.
He he said that it's often times very, very disheartening and discouraging work.
To try to sell something to somebody that doesn't think they have a need, they don't think they need it, but they do need it. And you see that they need it and you're trying to convince them that they need it. And so it's disheartening, discouraging work sometimes that the assembly is benefited by gospel work. And if you don't have a little Sunday school work, if you don't have a little work of going out to the nursing homes.
00:35:00
A little work, personally, individually, to seek to tell others of the love of the Lord Jesus.
Then it will not be as prosperous an assembly, if I could put it that way, it will not you you know what it says in Proverbs chapter. I think it's Chapter 11, verse 25. It says he that water shall be watered also himself. And so if you do a little bit of gospel work, you'll you'll get the benefit. The Lord will see to it that you'll be blessed. Well, the preaching of the word went out a great number of believed in verse 21 turn to the Lord and then the assembly.
Jerusalem found out about this that there were Gentiles that had taken Christ as Savior and they knew that they needed a shepherd.
And God has raised up those that are shepherds among the people of God. And if I could just quote Mr. Darby, I'm not going to quote him just word for word, but he said he mourned that there were not more shepherds among the people of God. He said he longed that there would be shepherds among people of God that would go after those that were disheartened perhaps, and those that just.
Were at the fringes.
And here was Barnabas, and he apparently was one of those individuals that cared for souls. He was a shepherd and a pastor. He pastored the flock of God. It was a gift to the church. God says in his word. He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave under the Lord.
And so here the assembly sees that they need some help. And he said they send, they asked Barnabas. He made himself available to go and see these brethren. And he went and they were comforted. They were exhorted or encouraged, you know, exhorted as no English word. It sometimes means encourage. Do you encourage people?
Or do you discourage people?
That's a wonderful thing to be an encourager. You want to read about an encourager, read about Tikkas in the New Testament. He's his name is mentioned only five times, but I believe every time he's mentioned, he's encouraging someone, he's encouraging the Saints and God records that. And so here Barnabas was sent to encourage and so he, you know, so was saved. They need to come into the knowledge of some of the things that God has desired for them to know.
Because they're now in a family of God and they need to know something of the truth of God and the doctrines of Christianity. Barnabas knew something of the truth of God. He was faithful and devoted to Christ. And if you are faithful and devoted to Christ.
I want to tell you this afternoon that God will use you in some way if you make him the center of your life and you make yourself available to be an encouragement to children or the Saints of God in some way. He will use you. And you don't know when, but Barnabas, you know, made himself available. He was a man, a good man, a full of the Holy Ghost. He was a shepherd and the Saints of God knew it. They saw as he conducted himself in the.
There in Jerusalem and they said, you know, Barnabas is just the right guy to go to encourage those Saints, and they send them.
And he went there with the fellowship of his brethren, and he encouraged the Saints. But, you know, he got there and he recognized that these Gentiles were not Jews. They didn't know the Old Testament Scriptures, perhaps as the Jews did, and they didn't know the truth of God. And they needed a teacher. They needed someone to come in and expound things in a very orderly way as to the new position that they found themselves in. And Paul, the apostle to the.
Was in Tarsus.
Verse 25.
Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. I don't know how many miles it was. I have a little note that I made years ago that says about 115 miles. I suspect that he walked. It may be more than that. Maybe someone can correct me after this meeting. But he walked perhaps for 115 miles. He went looking all over Tarsus till he found Saul.
That teacher.
And then he walked back with Saul, and they talked, perhaps about those dear Saints of God.
In Antioch, that Gentile city, and they talked about the different needs and they labored together. Then it says for a year, a whole year, assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. Now there was fruit. If there are a work of God and there's teaching that is according to the mind of God and in the Spirit of God, there's going to be fruit. And here there was fruit.
00:40:19
It says.
The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch, Christ ones. They were called something that they'd never been called before. And so good ministry as it presents Christ as the heavenly man really will always make us more like Christ and make us give us that desire to imitate him. And so these men.
Spoke of Christ, and they lived the life of Christ before these dear Saints of God.
And there was real fruit. Now this word Christian is only mentioned three times. I think once again an Acts where I think it's a Griffith says almost all persuades me to be a Christian. And then Peter says if any man suffer being a Christian, as a Christian.
And so it's not mentioned very often in the Scriptures, but it's wonderful to be known as a Christian, as Christ one. And so here, these three different sets of these three different grips, gifts, they labored together. The evangelist labored, and then the shepherd came. The shepherd and pastor came to this assembly.
And Antioch and labored for a little time and then he knew, you know, he wasn't selfish.
Wasn't protective of the work, so to speak, and he knew that he couldn't do all of the work that was necessary. He needed a teacher. They needed a teacher. And so he goes to.
Tarsus And he gets the teacher, He brings them there, and then there's fruit for God. Now we have the prophet in verse 27. And these days came the prophets, came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
And there stood up one of them gained Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea. You know a prophet is a man, or could be a woman.
A woman has a private place in connection with her work of prophecy.
But a man, a brother, and he's raised up of God.
By the Spirit of God to deliver a message to the people of God that's necessary at a particular time, and it's from the heart of God to His people at a particular time to meet a need, to address a need. Let's look at First Corinthians chapter 14.
And this really is a ministry meeting, and it says let the prophet speak two or three.
Let's read in chapter 14 of First Corinthians verse three, he that prophecy, it speaketh unto men to edification and to exhortation and comfort. So there's three works that the prophet has he really edifies and it's really for the knowledge that the Saints perhaps are lacking in and he.
Presents some passage of scripture that and he makes the knowledge of scripture.
The truth of scripture known he teaches a little passage that might be they might be deficient in and so he builds up the Saints in that way. That's what an edifice is is a building and so we edify that wonderful. Any one of us you know has the ability to build. There's a lot of tearing down that's going on in this world. There's a lot of destruction but among the Saints of God in the assembly there should never be tearing down there should be a building one another up and.
Brings blessing, but the prophet is used of God to bring, to build and then exhortation is really he's speaking to the conscience, he's stirring them up and sometimes we get complacent.
You know, we used to have a little expression in manufacturing world. It's called drift. When you have a manufacturing process and you set up an assembly line and you had all the parts designed properly and the whole process running smoothly. You just fire it up and then everything's running smoothly and products are coming off the other end. Everything's running fine. But then after three days you find that there's a little bit of a hiccup somewhere and somebody isn't following procedure or they decided they didn't like that particular screw and they went and substituted.
Screw things aren't working very well. We called it drift. There's drift and you and I have drift in our life. We know what the truth of God is. We know what's pleasing to the Lord. We've heard the truth, minister, and sometimes we're more devoted to Christ at different particular times of our lives than we are at the present time. There's drift and how we need to exercise ourselves and connection and judge ourselves in connection with the drift spiritual.
00:45:23
And so we need the exhortation and then the comfort. Sometimes there's something that goes on and the hearts of the people of God needs to be comforted. And the prophet often times is used of God to deliver a message of comfort to the people of God at the right time, just at the time that they need it. And he directs the movements of the prophet that he might be there at the right time to deliver a word of comfort. So that's the work of the prophet, but I just wanted to bring out.
These four different gifts, they're the key gifts, you might say, in connection with the assembly and the work of the assembly today and how God desires to build up the assembly and maintain the assembly, that the assembly might work and be productive and be for his glory a proper testimony. And it might run on all cylinders. And so the evangelist works outside the assembly. And I might just say this not as a word of.
Criticism. But his word of caution, Generally speaking, the evangelist doesn't involve himself in the work of administration in the assembly because his work is not in the assembly. It's outside of the assembly. And then you have those that are pastors and teachers that generally are involved in the administrative affairs of the assembly. And we have the profits too that sometimes involve themselves in that way. But I think it's so lovely in this passage of Scripture.
That they all lambered together harmoniously, and the Saints of God, that assembly, they were first called Christians in a Gentile assembly, not in Jerusalem in a Gentile assembly. And May God give us the grace as we go on individually.
And seek to go on steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and prayers, that individually our lives might be on running on all cylinders and in communion with the Lord, and that we might affect one another in a positive way that way, and that we might labor harmoniously together.
That there might be fruit for God, and that the assembly might be built up and a proper testimony at the time that the Lord comes and he's just about to come.
We've been, we've been taking up the Epistle of Thessalonians.
The last day or so and I thought of the verse that really comes in the 4th chapter.
And the first verse, I'll just read it very briefly to you.
It says there in first Thessalonians 4 verse one. Furthermore, then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that ye have, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk, and to please God, so that she may abound more and more. You know, I remember many years ago at a Frederick conference.
A brother said that this chapter has been called the Enoch chapter.
Because at the beginning of it, it says how he ought to walk and to please God. And then at the end of the chapter, we have the Lords coming brought before us. And if you go back to the story of Enoch, you find those features were true of him. And I just wanted to share something that I have enjoyed if you go to Jude for a moment.
I'm thinking of Enoch now.
It says there.
In the 14th verse, Enoch also the 7th from Adam, prophesied of thee, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with 10 thousands of his Saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them all.
Among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken.
Against him.
You know, there's something interesting there. Nothing is written in the Bible for.
No reason and you'll notice there it says that Enoch that he's the 7th from Adam. Now if you go back to the the 4th chapter of Genesis or the 5th chapter of Genesis.
00:50:13
You will be able to count very quickly from Adam to Enoch and you'll find that he is the 7th from Adam and you know he's in the line of Seth. That is the line that God preserved. You'll notice the 26th verse of the 4th chapter, it says to Seth, to him also was born a son and he called his name Enos.
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
So in the line of Seth there was that godly line where the Lord, the name of the Lord, was continued.
But you know, it's very interesting. There was not only the line of Seth, there was also the line of Cain. And if you go to verse.
Well, excuse me.
If you go to the 16th verse of the 4th chapter, you'll find that Cain was can I say #2 from Adam, and then Enoch was three from Adam.
18 First Irad was 4, Mahujil 5, Methuselah 6 and Lamech 7. So the 7th from Adam in the line of Cain was was at was Lambeth. The 7th in the line of Seth was Enoch.
And to me it's very interesting that we have these two lines and that there is quite a description of the 7th from Adam. If you go to Lamech here now, you'll notice from the 19th verse down to the 24th verse, it's describing one man lame all the others. There's hardly anything said.
The same thing is true when the line of Seth, you have these various individuals that says so and so live for so many years and he died and then he his son lived so many years and he died. But when you come to the 7th from Adam incest life, there's a description.
And I believe there's something there that God is telling us, and that is that I believe that the 7th from Adam in Cain's line really brings before us the foundation of this world as it stands. And I was thinking of this in connection with our brother Walt Porter mentioned, in connection with the things that characterize the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. All that is summarized in this.
One man, Lana. So when we come to the 7th from Adam incest line, everything is summarized in the life of Enoch and he's a picture of the Lord of the Christian walking in this world in spite of the violence and corruption all around. And so I just mentioned very briefly these two men.
The first one, Lamech, you'll notice here. It says of him in verse 19 that he took to him two wives.
The name of the one was Ada and the number name of the other was Zilla.
So God's purpose was for man to have one wife. But here comes along this man, the 7th from Adam and Cain's line, and what does he do? He takes two wives.
Does not that bring before us not only the fact that he didn't go along with what God had set up in the beginning, that man was to have one wife? But here we have an example of what our brother was mentioning yesterday, the lust of the flesh. This man was not content with one woman, he had to have two. And we know that very same thing continued in the world until we have been like Solomon that had 300 wives and 600 and 700.
And a hazardous who had all those women to choose from for a wife. So you see here the beginning of it with Lamech, and then you have the next person coming along. It says Ada. I better read here Lamech took on to him too wise. The name of the one was Ada, and the name of the other Zilla.
And Ada Bear Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents.
And such as have cattle and his brothers name was Jubal. He was the father of all that had a handle such as handle the harp and the organ. And zilla also bear two volcanoes, an instructor of artiser and brass and iron. So here we have you might say the lust of the eye one is responsible for setting up. Can we say the business world?
00:55:25
The next one was responsible for setting up the entertainment world.
Because he, his children, handled the harp on the organ. And the third child was responsible for setting up what we might call the scientific world. Because you'll notice there that he was an art. He was the instructor of every artificer of brass and iron. You know, you just can't find brass and iron in their natural state. You have to use a scientific process.
To bring these things about and he was an instructor.
So it brings me forth the education and the scientific world, all established here by one of the children of Lamech. And so it is the lust of the eye, I believe, everything being done to make man happy in this world without God. That's really what it was. And then he had a sister, the sister of two volcanoes, Nayama. Now I understand that in the.
If you look up the meaning of that name, her name means pleasure.
And isn't that one of the things that this world is going after today? Pleasure. You find them building these huge cruise liners that will hold, I don't know, 1500 people. And everybody wants to go out and enjoy themselves. Of course, that's just one aspect of it. But here we have this girl. Her name means pleasure or pleasant. And so we see this all in the setting up of the world.
Well, then we come to the next thing that's very interesting. It says Lamac said unto his wives, EDA and Ziller Zilla.
Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech. I have slain a man, I believe it should reform my wound, and I have slain a man, a young man for my hurt. In other words, this man did exactly the same thing that his great grandfather had done, or whoever he was came.
Some man came along and wounded Lamech, and he hurt him somehow. And So what did Lamech do? He killed him.
So you'll find here that the Lamech established in his lying corruption by marrying 2 wives. He set up the worldly system and now we find violence coming in. He just killed this person because he had wounded him.
And notice the way he talks in the 24th verse. If Cain shall be banned sevenfold, Lamech 70 sevenfold. In other words, he was saying, you know, nobody's going to hurt me. Cain was told that nobody would touch him or would be avenged seven times. But I have killed somebody and nobody is going to touch me for 70 * 7. In other words, he was full of the pride of life and who he was.
So we find here and brought before us.
In Cain's line, the beginning of the worldly system that has continued right up until the present time and we find it all summarized right here. But you know it's very interesting when you come to the fifth chapter now and the 7th from Adam Incess line, you have Enoch mentioned and it's very interesting. There are two things I believe mentioned about Enoch.
In the Old Testament and there's two things mentioned about Enoch in the in the New Testament.
And it says here in verse 21 Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah, and Enoch walked with God after he begat method was left 300 years.
It's very interesting. We were noticing yesterday talking together, that it was only after, after Enoch had lived for 65 years and begat Methuselah, that he walked with God. And you know, sometimes we tend to be when we're young, rather careless and the world has an effect on our lives.
But the time comes when we're given a child and all of a sudden we see the importance of bringing up children for the Lord, and it has an effect on our lives. And I believe that was the case here because it was after he begat Methuselah that Enoch walked with God. And you know, I think it's wonderful to see here that he walked with God. 300 years. Can you imagine?
01:00:17
Back in those days, men went to live to be 909 hundred and 39160 years.
And here it says that he walked with God 300 years. What a wonderful privilege was Enochs. What's it mean to walk with God? Doesn't that mean to walk day by day in communion with him, speaking to him, sharing thoughts with him, walking in obedience to his word? I believe that's what it means. And just think, you know, we're down here for.
507075 some of us even 85 years.
But here was a man that commune with God 300 years and look at the days he was living in. It says there in the 6th chapter and the fifth verse, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth that every imagination of his thoughts were only evil continually. That was the the day that he lived in. And you know, dear brother, and we're living in similar days today, aren't we?
But what a privilege it is that we can walk with God, as Enoch did here well.
There's something else that's mentioned. It says all the days of Enoch were 365 years and Enoch walk with God and he was not. Notice there at the mentions he walked with God two times, it says it twice and then it says he was not for God took him. Now we find a little bit more about that in Hebrews Chapter 11.
If I just want to look at it for a moment, well, maybe just before I do that, can we turn back to Jude again where we were?
I don't. I won't take much time here. I know our time is running out. But you'll notice in Jude that he prophesized he was a prophet. He spoke the word of God and notice what he prophesied. He says the Lord comes with 10,000 of his Saints to execute judgment. Just imagine here is a man before the flood that prophesied something that still hasn't taken place.
We know the Lord is going to come with 10,000 of his Saints when He comes out of heaven.
On a White Horse and he judges this world. But, you know, Lenox was living in a day that was just as corrupt, just as violence as it is today. And he wasn't afraid to prophecy to the people. You know, often we're afraid. I know for myself, I tend to be a coward sometimes when it comes to speaking to people about their ways. But here was a man who was faithful.
And he prophesied what was going to happen.
And how wonderful that he was a testimony against the violence and the wickedness that was going on. We're going to Hebrews then Chapter 11.
We find that just a little bit more about Enoch in the fifth verse. It says by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him.
For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.
Now, you know what's rather interesting here? It says he was translated that he should not see death. Now just think for a moment, he was 365 years old when he had Methuselah, or I'm sorry I got that wrong. He was 65 years old when he had Methuselah and he walked to please God, 300 years and that's when he was translated.
You know, naturally speaking, he still had another 600 years to live if he lived like the rest, like Adam and Methuselah and these others.
He could have lived for another 600 years. Why does it say here that he was translated, that he might not or should not see death?
You know, I believe the answer to that is that people were so angry with his testimony that God was going to bring judgment on that civilization because of their wickedness, that they wanted to kill Him.
They wanted to kill him, and so it says here that he was translated that he should not see death.
01:05:01
In other words, if he had stayed around much longer, the people would have done the very same thing to him that they had done to.
That had been done to.
Yes, sorry. Well anyway, the same thing he had done to Steven. He wanted to get rid of him. And so we find here that the Lord translated him. And we know this is a beautiful picture of the Lord's coming. Because if you go back to the story of Enoch there, we know that Methuselah was the longest living man in the history of the world. And when he died.
That's when the flood came. Because it's very name means that I can't give it to you exactly, but it's something.
Like when I die, judgment will come. That was basically what his name meant. And so he was the longest living man on earth. And you know, we're living in the longest dispensation, you might say, of man's history. We've been the gospel of the grace of God. God has gone on for almost 2000 years.
And we believe that we're right at the moment when the Lord is going to come. And Enoch, here is a wonderful picture.
Of the Lord Jesus. And as we get closer to the end, I believe the anger against Christians is building. We know that there are many thousands of Christians who are being persecuted terribly in places like Syria and Iraq and Vietnam and China and many others. Many of them are giving their lives because their testimony is hated. And Enoch here, I believe was the same. His testimony was heated, hated, and yet the Lord.
Caught him up to be with him and you know, the day is going to come very soon. I, I think most of us here feel that the Lord's coming is about to take place. What a mercy it'll be for us to be taken out of here. Well, there's just one other thing I wanted to say about Enoch and that is what it says here, that he had this testimony that he pleased God.
Is there anything more wonderful than to walk in this world?
And to have that testimony to please God is that our exercise? We're not here for much longer, and the Lord wants to see us to go on for him just a little longer and to be faithful to him. And so how wonderful it is here that it says of Enoch that he not only walked with God, but that he pleased God. May that be our exercise until the Lord comes, which might be this very day.
Everything turned all day. It's been already.
Better.
So you can't close the sun and her birthday invention.
Certainly. Shall I start?
What shall change to God Cruise?
They need to praise.
Y.P. Address 2