Address—D. Nicolet
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But I would like to ask us to do something. I trust it's all right. I'd like us to stand and sing this beautiful little hymn together. Hymn #82 Jesus.
How alone are we?
Praise, Praise. Praise you. Praise God, save you. Say so. close your voice and prayers. Pray.
Praise him.
Far and wide light will grow.
Praise him. Praise God, Savior.
Faithful.
Your voice and pray, pray and pray praise. They were praying. They were thrilled.
With the Lord's self this afternoon going to turn, perhaps to several passages.
But I would like to turn first of all to the Gospel of Matthew.
For it you want to read just a short passage or the Gospel of Luke. Rather, it contains a phrase that really would summarize what I have on my heart, I trust from the Lord.
6 words.
But let's look at Luke chapter.
9.
And beginning with verse.
57 Luke 9 and verse 57.
And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee with itsoever thou goest.
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests.
But the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
And he said unto another Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
And Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou, and preach the Kingdom of God. And another also said.
Lord, I will follow thee, but let me go. Let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home, at my house.
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit.
For the Kingdom of God.
There's a phrase in these verses which.
Tests each of our hearts as to following the one that has been before us in the meetings.
As that supreme object of delight and joy and satisfaction for our hearts.
There's a phrase that I'd like to speak beloved young people to you and to my own heart, and perhaps to each one here this afternoon.
Lord, I will follow thee.
But I said 6 words.
So let me add to six but.
Lord, I will follow thee but.
So beloved young people.
Want to talk about following Jesus Christ this afternoon? I want to talk about the necessity of a commitment.
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A wholehearted commitment to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
That phrase starts with Lord, and before I go any further, I trust that each one sitting here does know Jesus Christ as Savior, as Lord.
You know, it's a pretty solemn thing, the Lord says in His word of those who use that name.
Why call us thou, me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?
If there's someone here who has yet to own the Lord Jesus Christ, his personal savior.
That's where that phrase starts, Lord, and I hope that there's reality in your heart this afternoon.
You know, in Acts the question was asked, what must I do to be saved? And the answer was given, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Can you call him Lord in that sense this afternoon? You know, sometimes people say and then rightfully as they use that expression, in the sense they're using it, you can't do anything.
To be saved and I think we can understand if someone makes a fray or makes a statement like that, what they're saying, but there is something you have to do.
To be saved, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus.
Christ so that we read in Romans 10 and 9 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
We read Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you done that, beloved young people? Because it doesn't really mean anything to talk about following Christ.
To walk the path of a Christian, to have that testimony as being a disciple.
If there's not reality in your heart and you don't really know him as Lord and Savior.
Lord, I will follow thee. I want to add to that before we go any further.
What we have often heard, and I want to remind our hearts, I'm not here to cause doubts or questions in people's hearts, but it's altogether possible and I fear probably more.
Common than we realize or would care to admit that we meet many, perhaps among ourselves, that is, those who are gathered to the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who know Jesus Christ as Savior.
But have never really owned him as Lord, have never really given him full Lordship in their life. How about you, beloved young person person here this afternoon? You not only know him as your savior, have you turned absolute, full, submitted, unquestioning authority over to Him as Lord in your life?
Well, this one said Lord, and then he went on and he said, I will.
We're talking about something very personal this afternoon, an individual choice. There's a group of people gathered here.
There's a large group of young people here and it's wonderful to see, and perhaps you can during the year, go to a variety of these happy times where brethren go through the labor of expending the energy and effort to call brethren together.
That they might come together and be encouraged and so you get together and you see other young people and there is certainly not wrongfully.
A wonderful encouragement to that.
But following Jesus Christ as an individual decision.
It's an individual choice. It's not a group concept. It's not a group choice.
I'm going to probably embarrass a bit of beloved brother sitting in this room.
But years ago, the one time in my life I grew up in, the little assembly in Iowa Falls. And I've often said I was in my young teenage years, the young people's group in that assembly. In other words, it was very lonely for me as a kid growing up.
But one year a letter came in the mail, and it was from our beloved, now home with the Lord, brother Gordon Hayhoe, and his dear wife Pearl.
And wonder of wonders, I got an invitation to go to the cottage up in Canada, 16 years old.
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And I went up there and you'll have to understand, I came from a community where there was a small community and people knew each other and they knew that there was this family that.
Went to this weird little group that met up above a dry cleaning store in a kind of a dusty attic type.
Facility.
And.
I There were a lot of things that I couldn't do and wasn't allowed to do and it all pretty much.
Boiled down to my not only feeling alone in the assembly, but feeling kind of alone in the world and pretty much made to feel like kind of a weirdo. Perhaps some of you young people know exactly what I'm talking about.
But when I got up to that camp, that cottage up there and in those days, I suppose this will really date me, we got to stay for two weeks.
And it was wonderful, because all of a sudden I realized there's a bunch of neat young people, the kind of young people who really made it plain they didn't want anything to do with me back in Iowa Falls.
But here's a bunch of neat young people, and they are Christians, and they're not afraid to let people know they're Christians.
And I thought I'd never seen quite so many attractive young ladies. I thought they all just went to high school and, you know, didn't bother with weirdos like me. And here there was a group of them up there. It was quite an eye opener for me. And then there was these guys, and this is the brother now I'm going to kind of embarrass.
This guy named Josh, who every time they threw a softball to him seemed to park it out in the pine trees. I don't know how many softballs we lost up at Otter Lake because of this guy that could hit a ball. And I thought only the people in the world could do things like that. And all of a sudden I was around, a group of young people that were fun to be around, had a good time together, and we read the Bible together and it was incredible to hear the ministry and it was encouraging.
And it was easy to follow Jesus.
For two weeks.
And then I came home.
Back to the dusty.
Empty dry attic above the dry cleaners. Store back to all the.
Concepts that the people in the community where I live had of Maine.
Back to the loneliness.
And it took me a long time after that to realize.
That following Jesus.
Is an. I will, not a we will.
It's wonderful blessing to be together like this, but you're going to leave here and you're going to have to go back to the I will.
And this afternoon I'd like to talk about I will, but what will I do?
Follow thee.
I will a conscious choice, a conscious commitment.
To wherever you are and whatever the circumstances of your life are to follow Jesus Christ.
And then that word but.
Beloved young people hear me.
There is no such thing as a conditional commitment to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That doesn't exist.
Scripturally, you don't tell the Lord Jesus that he is your Lord and you're going to follow him.
And then put a condition on your following.
And that's what this person did, he said. Lord, I will follow thee, but.
And this afternoon I would like to consider from scripture.
For the next few minutes.
Some who followed the Lord.
And then I want to pick up on one specifically and look at the circumstances which characterized his life. Because some of these followed the Lord in reality, truly submitted to the Lord Jesus, truly willing to own him as Lord and as having full rights and full control in their life.
While others had other reasons for doing it.
I don't think there's a person sitting in this room, a parent or an older person, whoever you beloved young people look at as being older people.
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Who don't have a desire, a yearning, A longing to see their children, their grandchildren.
The young people each individually coming to that point to make a commitment to just say the first five of those words, Lord.
I will follow thee.
Takes faith.
It takes love and it takes hope. The three essential principles of Christianity faith, love, and hope. You don't make that. You don't make that decision without those things being real and active in your life. And I say again, beloved young people, don't make a mistake about this. There is no such thing as a conditional commitment to following Jesus Christ if you want to be happy.
And satisfied in this world.
You do not put conditions on him, You simply in faith submit to him.
And bow to him to whatever he decides is best for you, so that you say not, Lord, I will follow thee but.
You say, Lord, I will follow thee, I want to before we go into the.
Characteristics.
Of one that I'd like to look at this afternoon, as time allows, who followed the Lord Jesus rather followed Jehovah?
And gives a wonderful set of examples of the things that will characterize one who is saying, Lord, I will follow thee.
I'd like to just look at a few very well known examples.
And they're just some of many in Scripture of those who followed Jesus and may I say, beloved young people.
What we have been saying in this meeting, what has been said for all the years I've said in meetings.
No one, nobody. Nothing. No person is more infinitely worthy of your decision to unreservedly follow him.
Than the one who hung on Calvary's cross, thinking about you personally as he hung there. Jesus Christ.
Turn to numbers 32.
We will.
Come back to one of these two that are mentioned with the Lord's help a little later.
But I'd like to just read something here. Numbers 32.
For the sake of time, I'm going to assume that these all being very well known passages, you're pretty well aware of the.
History, The background involved in these accounts.
Numbers 32 and verse 11.
Surely.
None of the men that came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upwards shall see the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob now this for praise, because they have not wholly followed me.
You know, if I am correct in my understanding, I believe it's recorded that 600,000.
Well over a half a million men over the age of 20 came out of Egypt that Passover night.
Isn't this kind of a solemn statement?
600,000 of the people of God delivered from the ******* of Pharaoh.
Delivered from the power of Pharaoh across the Red Sea, set at liberty and free from all of that never to have to go back.
600,020 years old and older.
And not one of them.
Got into the promised land.
With the following exception, the next verse save Caleb the son of Jeepuna, the king of the king of Zeit, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. They didn't say, Lord, I will follow thee, but they said, Lord, I will follow thee.
Two out of 600,000, in the world's way of estimation, aren't very good odds.
Not only that, but you notice the difference in the language. They have not wholly followed me.
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And then these two have wholly followed not me, but.
The Lord, why does he change that language from They have not wholly followed me.
To when Speaking of Caleb and Joshua, they have wholly followed the Lord. Well, I'd like to suggest this. It means something personally. Maybe 599,998 people.
Are such a large group that you think.
I would get lost in that group. No one would notice me. I'm not an important individual.
But it was important to Jehovah everyone, of those 599,998 men that didn't follow wholly the Lord, he said. They didn't follow me, may I say reverently. It was a personal thing with the Lord. He personally felt it.
What do you think?
Beloved young people, Jesus feels.
After what he went through at the cross.
Hanging there in that agony and suffering, and as he hung there, thinking about you personally.
Being there for you personally.
And then what does it mean to his heart to hear you say, I'm going to go along with the crowd, There's a lot of Christians.
They have a lot of fun together, they don't get all wrapped up in being so careful about their walk and they're enjoying some things out in the world.
I don't really have to wholly follow the Lord. That's kind of a legal type path.
I suggest to you it means very much to his heart what you decide to do.
About the commitment you make to Jesus Christ in following him.
Joshua and Caleb wholly followed the Lord.
Want to turn to?
Second Samuel.
19.
Very quickly, you know the story of this David coming back after Absalom had tried to overthrow him.
And we read.
This very interesting, but I think very solemn, these solemn words.
Verse 24 of two Samuel 19 and Mephibosheth the son of Saul, came down to meet the king.
And at night addressed his feet, and trimmed his beard, and washed his clothes from the day the king departed, until the day he came again in peace. And it came to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem, the king that the king to meet the king, that the king said unto him, Wherefore, Whenest thou not with Mephibosheth?
Now we can go back and say Methodistship had a servant named Zaiba that fooled him. Ziba said, I'll go get your donkey ready for you. You're lame on your feet. So he went for his master to get the donkey ready. But he had no intention of allowing his master to ride that donkey to go with David, to follow David in his rejection. Instead he got on the donkey. And when David said to him, where is your master, He said, oh, he's back in Jerusalem because he thinks now he's going to get to be king.
His servant lied.
And the fiduciary heart was set to follow David. But he got fooled by his servant, beloved young people. God has given you servants.
Your mind, your energy, your health, going to school, perhaps a job you're working, perhaps the desire for companionship, all of those things are good and right. And as you often hear brethren say, that there's nothing wrong with those things in themselves.
And that's right, as long as they're kept as servants.
To help you to walk a path that allows you to fully follow Jesus Christ.
But too often we get fooled by our servant. We get fooled by our talents. We get fooled by our jobs. We get fooled by our schooling.
Not one thing I'm saying is to tell you not to go to school.
Not to find work, not to use the talents that God has given you, but make sure they stay your servants.
So that you can follow Christ fully with no buts added, because when desires in your life become more than a servant and a fool you, you add the conditions to following Christ.
Some of you are sitting here saying you know you don't have a clue what it's like where I'm from. And as others have often said, you're right, I don't. But the one who desires your company knows perfectly what it's like where you're from.
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And in case you're thinking that it's OK to make a condition on Jesus Christ as the following Him as your Lord.
Read the condition that Mephibosheth was in all the time, that David was gone, that he wasn't following him.
It doesn't sound like to me that being fooled by a servant gives you a very happy, peaceful path.
It says.
That he had neither dressed his feet, you know he was lame. Those feet needed ointment applied. They needed to be cleaned. They needed to be re banded.
They needed to have help every day. You need to have help every day to walk for Christ, and so do I.
But all the time that they weren't following, that Mephibosheth had been fooled and did not following.
David, those feet never got taken care of.
That would be a pretty miserable feeling if your feet were hurting bad every day.
Nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes. What a mess.
He was in was the palace in Jerusalem worth staying in instead of the dust and the rocks and the stones that were thrown at David in the wilderness for Mephibosheth? No, they weren't. He got fooled. Beloved young people, don't get fooled into not following Jesus Christ. Don't let anything in your life that is given to you by the by the grace of God and meant to be your servant to help you live to please. And don't let any of that fool you.
Into staying through in a place that looks comfortable.
But that's lacking 1 vitally important thing.
Fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's the worth of staying in a nice place if I don't get to have fellowship with Jesus?
Who hung on the cross and suffered and died for me?
Well, there are others that we could look at.
But I think forsake of time, I'm going to go back to Joshua. But I do want to.
Mention you without turning to them, A couple of others.
You'll remember in the Gospels a man named Bartimaeus. He was blind. He sat by the wayside, begging.
And he heard a commotion. He heard a crowd coming.
And he found out that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
And he started crying out.
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And then there was a louder cry.
Bartimaeus, be quiet.
You know where that cry came from?
You know where that charge came from? To tell Bartimaeus, the blind man who needed such help, needed help so desperately.
If you turn to Luke, we won't do it, but you turn to it and look it up, you'll find it came from those.
Who went ahead of Jesus?
There is a group with the Lord Jesus somewhere in front of him and it says others were following him.
But the ones who were in front of the Lord Jesus, it clearly says in Luke, were the ones who told Bartimaeus be quiet.
Oh beloved brethren.
Do we want our young people to follow Christ? I know you do. I know there are hearts that are weeping and yearning and longing for your young people, your children, your kids, that they will follow Jesus.
Don't get ahead of the Lord in your life.
Because if you get ahead of the Lord and if you don't follow him in your life, you're going to end up hindering.
Those who need their sight so they can follow him, because that's exactly what Bartimaeus did.
When he got his sight, he said, he followed Jesus.
Those that are in need that need their sight to follow Jesus.
Like to?
Go back. There are many others. I would recommend you, if you have time, do a little study in the word of God of the moral implications of all the various ones that are recorded. The Spirit of God, I say reverently took the trouble to record in the word of God.
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A variety of people who followed the Lord. Some followed him because of what they got from him. The multitudes followed him because he fed them and did miracles. And then when the crisis came and he was being carried, taken, rather led to the cross, and before that really they got offended at him. They all forsook him and fled. Peter followed him one time, but he followed him afar off.
And he got caught in the warmth of the world's fire, and he ended up denying the Lord.
There's a tremendous amount of lessons to be learned, but I want to go back and look at one of those two wholly followed the Lord.
To see if we can gain some moral help and principles, excuse me. See if we can gain some moral health and principles.
In what is involved in following Christ without the three letter word but without the conditions, I don't want you beloved young people to follow Christ conditionally. I say again, it's impossible to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ to really submit to him as Lord in your life and do it based on your conditions that you set.
You can't do it. Don't try. It's going to work. Wreckage.
Go back to Exodus. Now please. For the remainder of our time together, we're going to quickly follow through the life. Not of Caleb, who is certainly a worthy study, but I want to follow through a dimension some of the mentions of this man Joshua, because Joshua not only wholly followed the Lord, but the Lord mightily used him and beloved young people if there was ever a time.
In fact, our beloved brother.
In, I believe in one of the first prayers Thursday night.
Prayed, thanking the Lord for the young people and owning how vital, how much we need them, because the gaps that are opening up are going to be filled. Beloved young people, we pray and long and yearn by you. There's a dear brother sitting here who last evening told me in the last two years and named them off 33 brothers in Christ.
No one and loved by us.
Sitting in this company, 33 and two years have been called home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And everyone of them.
Has left.
A sister in Christ.
There are gaps.
Beloved young people, and I would venture to say, if I gave you the names, you know some of them very well. If I were to give you the names of some that were recorded on this list, you would nod your head, saying there was 1 wholly followed the Lord.
Are you willing to do that for your joy and satisfaction and for the blessing of the people of God?
With whom God has chosen to place you.
Let's look at some of the instances in Joshua's life.
Of one wholly followed the Lord.
And that's back in Exodus 17, and we'll read a few verses there.
Exodus chapter 17 and verse 8. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and referendum. And Moses said unto Joshua chooses out men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with a rod of God in my hand.
This is, as far as I know, the first mention of Joshua in the word of God.
The first mention of one of those.
Two out of the 600,000 who wholly followed the Lord and his history begins with a fight.
And so will yours. If you want to wholly follow the Lord, who are you going to be fighting?
There's going to be a unending fight with the flesh.
That's Amalek.
And that is going to be an unending battle until you go home to be with the Lord Turn very briefly.
To Believe It's in Numbers, Chapter 32.
Brother Lee, could I get you to get me a glass of water, please? Thank you. The Book of Numbers, Chapter 32.
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No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We'll look at that. But it's, it's in Deuteronomy.
And I believe it's chapter 25.
And giving everyone here a lesson on the importance of learning references in scripture, and I'm not finding it, so I'm just going to tell you.
In either Numbers or Deuteronomy, there is a passage which describes what Amalek did to the children of Israel when they came out from the wilderness.
Of.
I was right. Chapter 25 of Deuteronomy.
Thank you. There's something you're going to find young people as you seek to follow the Lord. You're going to need your brethren.
Deuteronomy, chapter 25, verse 17 and 18. Remember what Amalek did to thee, by the way, when you were come forth out of Egypt. How he met these messy by the way, and smoked behind most of the even all that were feeble behind me when thou was faint and weary. That's probably when the flesh strikes.
With the most victory, when in the path of faith, we get tired, we get cast down, we get discouraged.
And the flesh is there, and it attacks.
The Spirit and the flesh are in conflict with each other, and that conflict will continue.
And beloved young people, if you're going to follow Christ, you have to learn that up front. First of all, to follow him wholly. You have to believe by faith that God isn't lying. He's telling you the truth when he told you what the flesh is and what he's done with it, and he's asking you to treat it according to what he's done with it. And that's treated as dead. And that takes a fight. And I'm going to tell you.
As an old brother, an old guy, the flesh is just as painful, and more so, perhaps, than it was when I was your age.
You know.
There's the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Maybe that's the stages of life when we're young. It's the lust of the flesh.
Want you to taste and try and experiment with things? Then we get a little older and it's the.
Lust of the eyes. We see things and we want to accumulate them for ourselves.
And then we get a bit older and we get kind of proud about how we've done the pride of life. That's how the Satan met the Lord Jesus in Luke, in that order.
Make these bread. Make these stones bread. You're hungry. The lust of the flesh.
He took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all the pride connected with him in a moment of time. And then he took him up to the pinnacle of temple and said cast yourself down because the angels will care for you and the Lord Jesus, the only perfect man ever to walk this earth, totally overcame, totally won the battle using the word of God.
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, and so.
Here is Amalek back in Exodus 17. Thank you.
Here is Amalek back in Exodus 17.
And Josh was going to have a battle with him. With him, he's going to be down in the field battling, but up above there's going to be.
Moses.
You have beloved young people, a fierce battle if you're going to follow Christ wholly, But you've got one on high end glory, who's there for you? And may I just make this application. There were two that were with Moses, one hand holding up each arm, because as long as those arms were upheld in blessing.
Joshua was winning.
You have the Lord Jesus, your Savior, on high end glory as your great High Priest, interceding for you to help you through. There's not one detail of your life that he's not interested in that he wouldn't want to help you with, that He doesn't desire to give you the strength and the grace and the wisdom to walk through.
And sometimes we fail, we sin, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our advocate.
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Who's already taken up?
That failure with the Father, you've got such a tremendous resource. You've got a fierce battle, but you got a resource. Well, we won't spend more time with this. Joshua had to fight. And incidentally, before we leave it says the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for memorial verse 14 in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
Write it for a book.
Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.
Let me just make this application beloved young people, If you're going to wholly follow Christ, oh how I long that you'll wholly follow the Lord.
You keep.
Close to this book? Read it, rehearse it, Make it a daily part.
And a major part of your life turn over now to.
Exodus chapter 24 We'll read something else about Joshua.
Moses is going up into the mount to meet with God.
And in verse 13 we'll just read this verse. Moses rose up and his minister or his attendant.
Joshua and Moses went up into the mount of God, and that wonderful.
Holy following Christ involves serving others.
But all beloved young people, until you have fought that battle and know what it is to fight the battle of the flesh and know that you have one on high who's there for you in that battle until you battle.
And overcome, as it were, the flesh, you're not going to be able to effectively serve Christ.
The Lord Jesus desires our service, but Amalek has got to be put down first.
You can't. I can't. Though we try sometimes serve the Lord.
According to the energy of the flesh.
And so we'll just leave that comment. Now we see Joshua as the attendant of Moses, the man of God.
Turn over to.
Exodus.
32 I think it is.
Moses has been up in the mountain.
I don't know how far Joshua went with him, but I'm going. I would be happy to be corrected or helped on this, but I will share what's been made good to my heart. Moses didn't take Joshua all the way with him. It doesn't seem to me into the very presence of God on the top of the mountain.
Joshua went with him, but he couldn't go all the way.
And now Moses comes down from the mountain.
And in verse 17, as they come down and they're going down into camp, that's now wholly turned away from the Lord and turned to idolatry.
We read this when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted. He said unto Moses. There is a noise of war in the camp.
Here was a young man that will read later, described as a young man who recognized something was wrong among the people of God.
But he didn't make a proper discernment.
Because Moses tells him.
In verse 18, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
Joshua had fought the enemy and overcome him, realizing that he had help from on high, Joshua had made a determination to be a servant, and he was going to be a servant of the man of God. Moses Wonderful decisions, but now he makes a discernment in his service and he's wrong.
He thinks he's hearing a war, and it took an experience. May I say this, an older brother.
In my application, it took an older brother in Christ to give him the appropriate discernment. That's not a war that's singing. Now, beloved young people, let me tell you something.
I'm not here to criticize activities, but I want to tell you if you're fully following Christ.
What this world does for entertainment and enjoyment, you're going to soon find, is nothing but a cry of war. That's what it's going to sound like. It's not going to sound like the sweet, joyful music and sounds of praise and worship and joy that emanate from a heart that's wholly following Christ. Don't get caught up in a world.
00:45:12
That the sounds it makes when it's trying to find joy are the sounds, as it were, of being overcome and being mastered by the enemy.
The sounds of joy in this world, and I don't say this to be hypercritical.
But what I hear of them in the various ways that you can hear those things.
Sounds pretty much like to me often like the wails of death.
But in any case, Moses May or Joshua made a wrong discernment, and he needed an older brother to help him. Beloved young people. It's pretty easy to criticize your older brethren.
But if you're holy following the Lord, you're not going to have much time to do criticizing. You're going to spend a whole lot more time talking to Him.
And getting help from them. And now, beloved brethren, this is marked as a talk to young people. May I talk to the old people for just a moment?
Beloved brethren.
If you want to help the young people.
If I want to help them.
And if I see them, if the Lord leaves us here as the future of the assembly?
As those who are going to fill in those 33 and counting gaps that have happened.
In the assembly.
Come down.
Bring your knowledge and your understanding of the Word of God and come down to where they are.
God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
Hager was sitting a long way off so he would die. She didn't want to see him die. She loved him.
But she couldn't stand the thought that he was going to die.
And she got quite a revelation.
The revelation was Hagar. I've already heard him.
Right where he is.
What was he doing? Well, I'm going to suggest what he was doing was what his dad did, his father Abraham. He saw his father Abraham pray, and he was lifting up his voice, not weeping, but in prayer.
And Jehovah heard him where he was.
Beloved brethren, I'm not asking anyone here to give up one speck of precious truth. We have had such wonderful things before us, and we need to be taught those things, and we need to revel in those things. But they love it, Brethren, don't stay out of reach of the young people.
In the assembly? In the meetings.
Ask and seek for grace from God to bring those precious, discerning truths down to the level that they can be understood.
Young people need that.
Beloved young people, you desperately need your brethren.
Even the ones that are cantankerous, even the ones that act like they don't even know who you are.
You need them.
And beloved brethren.
We need the young people.
And may I add something. We need those with fresh third hearts, Young hearts. They may be Gray headed, but there may be stirring in hearts, maybe a life lived without much reference to the Lord. And all of a sudden the Lord has become very precious and very important, and there's a new fresh energy to want to go on with the Lord. Will you come down to that level and bring your joy and your learning and your understanding to help them discern what they need to discern?
Well, let's move on quickly. Time is going.
Let's go over to the.
33rd chapter.
We find that great failure had come in and Moses had to rightly move.
For the glory of the Lord, the testimony where he met with the Lord, far away from the camp of the people.
He had to pitch it far off from the camp.
And then in grace.
He went into the camp.
But we read this about Joshua in Exodus 3311. But his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young.
Man departed, not out of the Tabernacle, let me just say to.
Because of time rapidly slipping by, let me just say as a young man, Joshua valued the presence of the Lord.
The Lord's presence was there in that Tabernacle. It wasn't where the where the where the majority of people met.
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And if you're going to wholly follow the Lord, there's going to be an exercise to be found where the Lord is, not where the majority is.
And it's going to have to be beloved young people, an individual decision by faith that you make.
To decide to stay.
Where the Lord is.
May God give you and all of us the grace to do that. Does God change his standards?
Does God change what he gave us in Scripture as to the doctrine of these things because man has failed?
Have all of our failures made? God, I say reverently. Say OK, I'm going to have to change to a accommodate.
The giving up and the failure that's come in since the church was formed as one body on the day of Pentecost.
Not in the least.
I am God. I change not. You. Find out from Scripture, from being willing to wholly submit to and follow the Lord where the Lord is.
And stay there.
Turn over to numbers.
Chapter.
5.
I'm sorry, It's Not Numbers, Chapter 5.
I want to go to.
Chapter 13.
Let me just notice one little thing here.
They're sending the 12 spies out to spy out the land, and they're each individually mentioned.
But Joshua is mentioned twice.
He's mentioned in.
Numbers, Chapter 13.
Earlier in verse 8 and his name there is Oshiya.
I don't know how that's pronounced in Hebrew, but we'll pronounce it oshiya.
And then again in verse 16, God again makes mention of that. These are the names of the men Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshia.
The son of Nun Jihashi.
My understanding is that Oshiya means salvation or deliverance. Jehoshiwa means God is salvation or God is deliverance.
Isn't that a beautiful change?
To recognize who it is in your life that is your salvation and deliverance.
And to realize that in such a way in reality that you too, someday.
Can be a Jehoshiwa for your brethren.
That you can by the grace of God and the wisdom of God and the power of the Spirit of God.
Act and walk before your brethren as a deliverer of them.
We need that beloved young people. We don't have all the answers. We don't have, as the world says, all of our ducks in a row. There's lots of problems, there's lots of heartaches, And we thank God when we see the Lord raising up, one who can be used as a deliverer in the assembly. And every assembly desperately today needs deliverers, but not in their own strength. Not Oshias, but Jehoshias.
Turn over to.
The 24th chapter.
Of.
Of Joshua.
We'll leave numbers now.
Joshua 24 I want to give you the end of the path in closing.
Joshua, 24.
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You know, beloved young people, I want you to consider something.
Two out of 600,000 decided to be faithful to the Lord. 2 out of 600,000 decided to follow the Lord Holy.
What was their reward for doing that?
Well, let me tell you what it seemed like their reward was.
40 long weary years in the wilderness looking at the men who were responsible for their being there.
How would you like to do that?
Know in your heart that this is the path to go and this is what I want to do.
But the majority didn't follow it.
And I'm hurting because of it.
Because of all the mistakes of those 599,998 men, I'm stuck out here with Caleb in the wilderness for 40 years when I could have been in the land enjoying the milk and the honey.
Now, wouldn't that give you a reason to throw up your hands and walk away from those 600, almost 600,000 men and say if you're going to act like that, if that's the way you're going to be, I'm done.
40 years they walked.
Why did they walk for 40 years?
With those who were the reason for them having to be out in that wilderness.
I'll suggest two of them.
They loved the Lord.
And they love their brethren.
You ever made a mistake in your life?
He ever sinned in your life.
What the Lord do with you?
Did he give up on you? Did he say forget it, I'm done with you.
Or did he forgive you?
And bring you back into the joy of the Lord, so that then he could tell you.
Be kind, tender, hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. That's the standard and the measure of how beloved young people, if you're going to wholly follow the Lord, you're going to walk with your brethren.
Not complaining and criticizing and pointing out all their faults. Because you could write. You could write huge, thick books.
If you want to get involved with all of the faults and the failures and the problems that brethren have caused.
Why don't you look at him like Christ does?
This is my commandment that you love one another. How as I have loved you.
And that's going to give you the ability to wholly follow the Lord with people that are not easy to walk with and who in some cases.
Are the reason for the troubles and the trials and the difficulties that you're feeling.
May I suggest in simplicity, Love them.
As Christ loved you and forgive them, and walk with him, because in Joshua.
The Lord says there, Joshua says to the people.
You go ahead and choose who you want to serve, but As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
That's holy, following the Lord. Now before we pray, we won't turn to it. Do you remember when the Lord Jesus?
In John, six said some things that were very hard words. There was a multitude that had been following him.
They've been following because of what they got out of him.
And they got offended at those words.
Has anything in this book ever been presented to you? Have you had anything that's offended you? You say I'm not going along.