Michigan Family Camp: 2018
Table of Contents
The Faithfulness of God
Address—Bernie Roossinck
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Well, it's certainly good to be with you again.
Uh, quite a many few years that we've been here together at this camp and the Lord is good. The Lord is faithful and it's so good to see each one of you. So welcome.
I would like to start with him #288.
#288.
O thou whose mercy is far.
I fell pimple.
With that Brown and every time I go away again. And yet I said it's our whole.
Till out of gold on me. That's my father name.
In our thumbprints and thou crystal, praying and praying and praying and praying and throwing that down.
Assess for the Lord's self.
Her loving God and Father we.
Come before the the beginning of this meeting, Father, and we quiet our hearts before the.
We ask for a blessing out of thy word tonight.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy faithfulness and goodness and grace and mercy and kindness.
So many things, gracious Father, that thou hast poured out upon us, Lord, we ask for blessing, encouragement, strength.
Umm, help as we go along together these last few days.
We commit this meeting into Thy hands. We turn today for guidance. We pray for the right words, the right thoughts. We thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for thy well beloved Son, the Lord Jesus, who has done all things well. We ask for those that are traveling at this time, perhaps.
Caught in traffic or just about here? Lord, we just pray for.
Traveling mercies for them too, in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, as I look around, I know a lot of you.
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But I don't know all of you. My name is Bernie, I'm from Grant, MI.
And other than Doug and Sue, I probably live the closest to this camp of anybody, so we're about 15 miles from here.
Some of you have traveled a long ways. I see a lot of children here and I love children.
I still think I'm a young man, but turns out I have a kid that's almost 20 now. So I'm not a young man anymore, but see a lot of young people here. I value you young people.
A lot of families.
I hope that, uh, your time at the camp this year is gonna be a time of encouragement and blessing.
You know, we're living in a in a day where there's not much faithfulness.
I have on my heart tonight to talk about the faithfulness of God.
And that's a big topic and we're not going to cover every single aspect of it, but I have a few things in my heart that I hope will be a help and an encouragement.
You know, I just said we're living in a day where there's not much faithfulness.
You know, you turn on the news and you hear about fake news. You hear about.
Umm, bad character. Uh, you hear about broken promises. You know, we just had an election here in Michigan this week and, uh, it was a primary election. So you got candidates that are on the same team, more or less bickering with each other. Oh, this guy is no good. He promised that he wouldn't wear.
Black shoes and he did can't be trusted. I'm just making an example, right? But umm, all kinds of decay in the world around us we see, uh, you know.
Solemn wedding vows being tossed aside.
You know, umm, recently we were at a high school graduation and they were announcing the graduates and, uh, surprising, shocking to me how many kids were announced as uh, from multiple homes.
And it's.
It's sad, you know, some of us, uh, come from assemblies that are getting smaller.
And they're shaking in our assemblies.
We're living in a day in the business world where character hardly matters at all.
But you know, despite all of that turmoil.
And stress.
God is faithful. God is faithful.
So there's a lot of places we could turn, but let's turn to Lamentations chapter 3. And we all know the song Great is Thy Faithfulness, which is taken from this passage. I thought about singing that tonight, but I don't know the words well enough. I would be the blind leading the blind, probably.
So.
This book of lamentations is written by Jeremiah. Now you young people will remember Jeremiah was living in a day.
In, uh, the land of Judah. That was much like our day today. Umm.
The people of God were given to idolatry. They were given to uh.
Sexual immorality. They were given to uh.
All kinds of problems and Jehovah had been pleading with his people, turned back, come back, and finally.
The judgment of God was given out and Jeremiah had to preach the message.
God is going to judge, and right before he wrote this that we're going to read in Lamentations, umm.
The enemies of God's people were amassing their armies and they were going to come into the land and there would be a Holocaust.
Thousands of people slaughtered, people carried into captivity.
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Jeremiah suffered because he was God's messenger. So let's read from verse 19.
Uh, remembering mine affliction, my misery.
The Wormwood and the gall, my soul happened still in remembrance and as humbled in me. We often read that on Lord's Day morning, uh, in relation to the Lord Jesus. And it's a beautiful application. Uh, but I think for tonight, uh, I would like to drive this with Jeremiah was saying in a literal way, yes, ma'am, I have been having a hard time.
Any of you relate to that?
I can.
That would look what he says in verse 21. This I recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's failed not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
You know Jeremiah, I take from this every morning. When he got up, he took an inventory.
Of his life. And you know what the conclusion was The conclusion was.
Great is thy faithfulness.
Thy mercies, thy compassions, fail not. They're new every morning.
Young people.
Are you what? What is? What is your life anchored on?
You know, sometimes we sing, uh, the hymn Will your anchor hold in the storms of Life?
You anchored on the Lord Jesus. You anchored on the promises of God. God is faithful. He's for you in every way, and you can trust Him.
You can trust the purposes of God for your life. You can trust the counsels of God for your life.
God wants to bless you.
And here Jeremiah could think over all the hard times that he'd been going through.
And say.
I recall to my mind the Lord's mercies, and I have hope.
This I recall to my mind therefore, and I have hope, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's fail not. You know, sometimes bad things happen to you Christians.
And we'll get into that a little bit later here, but.
I wanted to start with this. You can trust God. God is faithful. You can trust his Word, You can trust his purposes for you. You know, I think sometimes of the.
Song abide with me. There's a line in there that says change and decay and all around I see.
O thou who change us not.
Abide with me.
The Lord never changes the rest in that. So there I would like to go into the faithfulness of God and three things to start here. And the first one is God's character. You know, people talk about character and it brings to our hearts, uh, words like trustworthy.
Honesty. Umm.
Change.
And a person that is faithful has good character. God has perfect character.
You know it says in Hebrews chapter 13, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever ever changes.
Malachi, it says, I, the Lord, do not change. He is faithful.
Absolutely trustworthy.
You know young people.
I think I imagine some of you are asking yourselves, is God trustworthy? Can I really turn my problems over to God? Does he care? Yes, he cares. God loves you.
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God is staple. Think about some of the character of God, Mercy, God merciful. We could spend the whole camp studying the mercy of God, Gracious, God gracious. What is grace by the way, Brittany?
Grace is getting what you don't deserve. You know how I learned what grace was? Kids, How many? How many of you like candy bars?
I do. When I was a kid, there was a man named Ron Reeves from Iowa that was a brother to Mrs. Beliselli that some of you know, and Ron Reeves was a great umm.
Object lesson guy and I was in the back of the Sunday school, absolutely misbehaving in every way. And he had this candy bar. I don't know how big it was, but it seemed big like this. And he said you there in the back, you come up here and get this.
So I went up there and he goes, this kid is the least deserving of this candy bar and we're giving it to him.
And I never forgot what grace was. God gracious.
Yes, God is gracious, holy.
God compromises holiness. No, it's been the whole camp on these subjects. Uh, righteous. Absolutely righteous.
And so.
We can take courage that God has the.
Absolute perfect character and he's faithful. Faithful. You can anchor your soul in it. You can some, Yeah. If I can use the expression you get that, the firearm on it, you won't be disappointed. God is faithful. He loves you.
OK, now.
Let's say that Tim has character.
And he's kind of committed to helping you, but suddenly he crashes his car and he's no longer able to do it.
That can happen, right?
Happened with God. God loses ability to be faithful ever.
God is capable of keeping you. Yeah, we think of, I think it's Ephesians chapter 3. Let's turn to that.
Is God able to keep us? Is God able to help you?
In your time of need, yes. Ephesians 3, verse 20 Now unto him that is able.
To do abundantly, exceeding abundantly.
Above all that we ask or think.
According to the power that worketh in this, and to him the glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, World without end. Amen. Capable. You know I could be willing to help you, and I might not be able to.
God never has that problem. God is absolutely totally able in every circumstance of life, no matter how hard it is, God is capable.
June tells us.
Like I can quote this properly now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you blameless.
God can do that. God is faithful. He has the ability to do it.
About commitment.
The three C's about God's character. I wanna bring out God committed to his people.
All right, we could turn to a lot of scriptures for that, couldn't we, God?
Is committed to his people in so many ways.
Umm. One of the my favorite verses about this is Romans 8.
He despaired, not his own son, but the.
Delivered him up for us, so now let's read Romans 831.
What shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us?
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He that spared not his own son, but delivered Him for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
God committed to you.
Yes.
Yes.
You know, there are a lot of umm.
Covenants and promises that God made.
Just turned to a couple of them just to see.
These are unconditional covenants that God has given to His people.
There, there are. There are some things God has said that if you do this, then I'll do that.
But there are three that I wanna just notice really quickly that are unconditional.
First one is Deuteronomy 7. Sometimes we call this the Levitical covenant. This is what God said to his people Israel.
Umm Leviticus 7 verse 9.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to 1000 generations.
God is faithful.
Turn to Psalm 89.
You, uh, young people will remember that, uh, David, King David was a man after God's own heart and.
Umm, God gave him a promise that there would never lack a person to sit on the throne of David, uh, forever. And we know that the Lord Jesus was in the royal, umm, line of David and he is the king of kings. But, uh, let's look at Psalm 89. And this is the sum of.
Uh, David, I believe I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
Verse Two. Mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
Umm, first three, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed though I established forever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Seal.
And then if you go down through the chapter, the psalmist is taken up with the faithfulness of God. Verse five, thy faithfulness. Verse 8, thy faithfulness. So on, thy faithfulness. Well.
Goddess faithful, he promised David that he did it.
There's no way that God wasn't going to do it. Uh, let's look at the new covenant.
Umm could spend a lot of time on this too, but we're not going to, uh, it's mentioned in Luke 22. Umm.
Luke 22 uh, verse 20 likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and.
Uh, we could read in Romans 9 and in John chapter 10 how God was bringing out blessing to the Gentiles and to be blessing his own earthly people. God has an earthly and a heavenly people and we're not going to spend time on this, but it'd be good to study this, umm.
Where God says to his people, umm, while this quote, a few of them off the top of my head, uh, John 10 you know, other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring. And so the Gentiles are brought into blessing. Romans 9, it talks about Israel and the Gentiles being brought into God's favor.
And Jeremiah speaking to, uh, God's earthly people, There's a.
Well, let's just turn to it so I can get it right to Jeremiah 32.
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Umm, verse 37.
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries.
Further down in the verse I will bring them again and I want you to notice how many I wills there are here. I will bring them again. 38 I will be their God. Verse 39 I will give them one heart and one way.
40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away from them, I will put my fear in their hearts. Verse 41 I will rejoice over them, I will plant them in the land, and so on. Now this is written 600 years before Christ was born into this world, now God faithful.
Where are the Jews today? Are they in their land? Yes, they are.
Everything God said he would do, He will do.
OK, now.
Let's change gears a little bit. Turn to 1St Corinthians chapter one.
I wanted to spend some time, probably more time than I should have, on God's faithfulness, but now.
I want you us to think about.
God's faithfulness in keeping us and protecting us and in nourishing us.
God care about your protection. Yes he does.
God care about your spiritual growth. Yes he does.
God wants to nourish you in your life. Yes, he does. OK, Now before I read these verses, umm, so for some of you kids that don't know the word as well, First Corinthians was written to, uh, it's a letter. It was written to the assembly at Corinth and that assembly had some serious problems.
Let's get a list of some of that I can think of.
Quarreling, bickering, arguing, disagreements, Paul says. They were carnal, boastful. They had superior attitudes toward each other. They were allowing immorality in their assembly.
They had domestic problems, marriage problems, they didn't understand the resurrection.
They were dabbling in idolatry. They were abusing the Lord's Supper. A sound like a.
An assembly where there can be progress and growth.
God is faithful.
So let's read these opening verses of First Corinthians.
Paul, that's the author called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Suthanese our brother unto the Church of God, which is at chorus to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints.
With all that, in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, and in everything you're enriched by him. You know utterance and in all knowledge.
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
So that you come behind and no gift.
Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was thinking of whispers. God is faithful.
Whom you were by, whom you recalled unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. You know God is faithful, and God is interested in your.
Spirits will growth and well-being.
God is faithful. How could, how could the apostles say here that you might be blameless?
Given all these problems that they were having, be.
Because God is faithful.
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Gladys Staple.
Turn over to 1St.
Let me think where to go first.
Second Peter, chapter 3.
I know we're moving around quite a lot here.
Second Peter, 318.
God is interested in.
Your growth but growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
God is faithful and He will work in your life to produce growth. We're gonna get into this in a minute or two here. Umm.
Any of you kids, uh, ever wonder if you're really safe?
I used to wonder that any of you, even adults, how many of you wondered once asked the Lord more than one time to save you?
I did.
Umm, let's turn to John Chapter 6 for something.
A way to think about and hear what the Lord Jesus himself says.
Alright, umm, I don't like standing behind that thing. Is it OK if I stand out here?
John, Chapter 6.
Uh, we'll begin with uh.
Verse 38.
Yeah, verse 37.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.
And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which sent me. That of all which He hath given me I should lose.
A couple.
Is that what it says?
How about it? Is that what it says? I'm just I'm only going to lose a few. I should be able to hang on to most of them.
No, I should none.
Excuse me?
All that the father giveth me all. How much is all? One of your kids, Alison, How much is all?
Most.
More than most all is everything. The Lord is not going to lose any better. His none.
So rest in that you know you can worry about your salvation. God's not worried about it. He knows what he did.
And he says here I should lose none, none, zero says in John chapter 10, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal life, and most of them should be able to squeak through. Is that what it says, Rich?
No. Most of them, no.
How I gotta turn to it because I got my cell phone messed up. Gotta stick to the word.
Uh, by the way, uh, kids, uh, do you ever wish that there were good books you could read that were exciting?
Go read the book The Stories of the Grace of God in Bolivia.
Uh, about the missionary name Eric Smith, I wish, you know, sometimes you ever wish that you could go back in time and meet somebody.
If I could do that, I would like to spend a day with Eric Smith.
Anyway, he gave this verse to uh Inca Indian chief.
And it led to his salvation. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never. How much is that, Shannon?
How often is never none for perish, neither shall any man pluck the men in my hand. OK, you kids, is God able to save you and keep you?
Is there a chance you might slip through his fingers? God is faithful. Never. It's not going to happen. You know, it says in I think it's Second Timothy.
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God is faithful. He cannot deny himself. I'm not quoting that right. I got second Timothy. Let's let's look at that.
I think it's chapter 3.
No, it's not. Somebody help me with that.
Second Timothy, 213.
Yes, if we believe not yet He abided faithful, He cannot deny himself.
OK, can God be unfaithful to himself? Kids, could you slip through the hands of God if you're really his? It's not going to happen. Rest in it, anchor yourself in it. You're safe. You're in God's hands.
Your safety and security. I I don't worry about that anymore. I used to because God's Word tells us God is faithful and you are secure.
OK, now let's go back to growth again. Uh, First Thessalonians 5.
All right, First Thessalonians 523 the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God, your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that called you, who also might be able to get it done.
Did I read that right?
No. Who also will do it? He will do it right, is faithful.
And so here we have.
Your whole spirit, soul and body being preserved, blameless. God is faithful to do that.
Does that encourage your heart? It does mine.
Let's go to 2nd Thessalonians Chapter 3.
Verse 3.
But the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil.
You wanna be established in your Christian life?
God is faithful, faithfully working in your life to establish you, to ground you in the truth. You know, young people, do you spend time in the Word of God?
The open it up. Do you read it? Is it?
Mean anything to you?
God is faithful.
Get into the word. Pour it into your soul.
God will, uh, bless that and bring out growth. Establish your heart. He's faithful to do that.
Turn to Hebrews 10.
Alright now.
In case you think that I umm.
Am a seasoned professional at the Christian Walk. I'm not.
I'm not.
Some of you heard me talk at Saint Thomas Conference about confidence.
We need confidence.
There are things that happen in our lives that shake us.
And I confess that I'm one of those people, but I take great.
Umm, comfort and great encouragement out of the fact that God is faithful. So here Hebrews 10 verse 23.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.
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OK.
The Lord Jesus is sometimes called the rock.
Now.
Is the word Jesus shaking and.
In anticipation of how he's gonna get me through tomorrow. Is he nervous about it? No.
Now I sometimes I find myself on the rock shaking.
But the rock is not shaking, is it?
And here's some encouragement for you.
Let us hold fast without wavering. That's hard to do.
It is hard to do.
But think about young people. Who are you putting your confidence in? This is God. This is God's Son, the Lord Jesus.
Perfect in every way.
Totally trustworthy. You know, I, I maybe this is a man thing.
I like to know what the plan is.
Often we do. I don't know what the plan is. I asked my wife about this. What's the plan? What are we doing? What are we? You know, it's it's 8:45. What's that happened at our house? Ready.
It does, you know.
I find myself sometimes wavering, but young people, God is not wavering. God is solid. He's trustworthy.
Faithful is he that promised? Promised what?
Let's go to first John's chapter 2 and we'll see what he promised, promised a lot of things. Uh, one of my favorite verses, uh, in Peter is whereby are given unto us exceeding and great and precious promises.
And I have to ask myself, am I walking in them? But anyway, let's go to uh.
Uh, first John chapter 2.
And verse 25.
This is the promise that He had promised us, even eternal life.
Eternal life, you know, if you've given your heart and soul to the Lord Jesus, if you have confessed to Him that you're a Sinner and asked Him to wash your sins away, and he's come into your heart and He's your Savior.
You'll never be lost. You are gods and He is in all the way home, Savior all the way home.
God is trustworthy. He's faithful. He has promised eternal life.
Now think about this with me.
Uh, when God told Noah to build the ark?
Umm, did you read? You ever read the verses about the handles on the outside?
Have you seen?
No, I haven't either. Are you glad that God didn't tell Noah? OK, for at least the next 40 days and then I'll let you know what the next step is. Dave, you read about that? No.
God, there's no handles on the arch.
Oi and his family went into the Ark.
God said come, bow into the ark and say go, and he said come in, which means God was in there, right? And God shut the door and they were safe now.
Are you trusting in, uh, God for your life? Do you care about the decisions you're going to make tomorrow? You care about what college you're going to choose to go to? Does he care about the recent death in the family that you're sad about? Does he care about the family tragedy that you've had to deal with this year? Yes, he does. He loves you. He's in all the way home, Savior.
And you can trust him, fully trust him.
And you can revel in that, you know, it's, uh, sometimes there's a, a him that really, uh, strikes a chord with, with you. You ever have him like that? Uh, one of one of those hymns for me is how good is the God we adore?
Our mostly faithful. Is that what it says? Faithful, Unchangeable acquaintance?
Friend, he's your friend. How good is the God we adore, our faithful, unchangeable friend?
00:45:03
Maybe we'll sing that at the close, but.
Think about hymns like that, you know I have driven to work and then in real struggle.
I got a 50 minute drive to get to work.
And maybe anticipating having to let somebody go.
Or.
Hope I can say this without getting in trouble this winter I sat across conference room table from a farmer that owed me.
A million two.
And he looked at me, said you owe me 1,000,005.
And I ain't paying, so sue me.
Tell you what, man.
That hurts. I think I went as Gray as Tim's shorts in three nights.
The Lord preserved me. He brought me through that time of stress.
And I tell you, young people, it's so helpful to be in the words and to sing and to pray.
Yeah, you're driving over there and you know, you got to go meet this guy or whatever your situation is.
You know, just open your hymn book and sing.
You know, things like a little talk with Jesus how it smooths the rugged Rd. He sang that 1000 times this winter.
Day by day.
So encouraging the Lord speaks to your soul.
Pours his love in.
Says, am I trustworthy, Bernie? Yes, Lord, you are.
Yes. OK, now for the rest of the time, I wanna deal with a, uh, another aspect of God's faithfulness that's maybe a little more difficult. Umm.
Some 119.
This is a sum written.
Where the psalmist was in love with the Word of God.
But I want to look at verse 75.
I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that, and that Thou in Thy and faithfulness has afflicted me. Ouch.
Thou in thy faithfulness has afflicted me.
Anybody here enjoy affliction?
I don't see any hands why it hurts. But here the psalmist could say, Lord, in your faithfulness you have afflicted me.
So just in your minds imagination here.
It's just.
Sit beside the road in in ancient Bethlehem had a hot summer night.
And we see 2 ladies coming.
Up the track.
And we're looking and others are watching and.
Can see that they're not having a very good time of it.
And maybe they have most of their possessions in the sack on their back.
And.
One of the older people in Bethlehem says, you know, I think that's Naomi.
Could it be Naomi?
Get up there and see you, Naomi. Don't call me Naomi, call me better. The Almighty has afflicted me.
Ouch.
Was God for Naomi?
Yes.
But he was against her ways.
Now we all have affliction in our lives.
And those of you that are really young, you will have affliction in your life because God is faithful things, sad things, tragic things happen that God allows.
A couple weeks ago I had a guy in my office, one of my applicators, and uh, he was trying to get a raise out of me.
00:50:02
We talked back and forth for a couple weeks. One Monday morning he said no, I can't do it, I'm leaving. Got another job driving over the road, truck make 20 or $30,000 more. I broke. I got to have the money. It was fine. So we had a nice discussion together.
Next day he called me. He says I'd like to keep my phone number. Yeah, that's no problem. Next day I got a call. Randy just had a massive heart attack and he's dead. Boom. Dan 8, probably day and a half later. He's in eternity and his widow was devastated. Young children.
You know what? And I know those of you that are my age or older, you felt it. You know you've had to have surgery on your back right then. Is that fun?
No, a loved one has passed away.
Somebody that's dear to you is, you know, broken home.
All kinds of problems, yeah. So I'll use Jim Highland as an example of cancer to have surgery.
The Lord has allowed it.
So what is our response? Is it gonna be like the psalmist David that says bored in your faithfulness?
Thank thankfully Naomi didn't stay there well.
Why do Christians suffer? I'm going to be really pointed here. Sometimes Christians suffer because you're too far into the world.
That's the facts of it young people, you get out into the world, God will have to bring you back and it can hurt. Think about lot lost is umm.
Marriage losses, yeah. I lost everything you had financially. Lost his home.
Lost his testimony. He lost everything. Why? Because here he was seated in the gate of Sodom. Should he have been there? No. Absolutely not.
OK, why else do you Christians suffer unwise use of the tongue?
Get ourselves into trouble? Yes, we can.
How about, uh, sewing to the flesh and reaping what you sow?
Says in Galatians 6, Be not deceived, God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that, so he also reap. And God in his faithfulness you will reap what you sow Count on it now God will be with you.
In the valley, it takes to go through that reaping.
But you will reap what you sow.
But it's not all bad. How about, uh, Christians and Dave, uh, how about Christians in India right now suffering from persecution? It's real, It hurts, but God has allowed it. How about Joe, you know, his friends thought he had all kinds of problems, but he was caught in a spiritual battle and God allowed Satan to take away.
His goods, his family, his home, his health.
Sometimes we can suffer from the sins of others, right? Think about how it must have burned Samuel's heart when the children of Israel said, you know, Samuel, your sons are no good. We're not following them. Oh, ****.
Hertz.
Physical problems, you know, your hands are your knees hurt, you have bad eyes, whatever. You got cancer.
Sometimes it's for the glory of God. Think about the man who was born blind, right? And his disciples say Lord, was it him or his parents that were bad?
That deserve to be born blind, Lord, says neither one.
It was so I could be glorified, right? You're willing to suffer in those circumstances?
Umm, think about the what Paul could say about the fellowship of Christ suffering.
Umm, his daily care for the churches, how he loved them and went through agony of soul for their good.
But you know, young people.
00:55:02
You will have affliction because God in His faithfulness afflicts us.
But it's for a reason. We're almost out of time, so go to Hebrews 12.
Umm, you know, God chastens us as sons. Yeah, If you're not feeling anything from God, I wonder if you're really in the family.
Umm, my God, it it says here he chases us.
Umm.
Hebrews 12 Umm yeah, it's hard to know where to read because we're almost out of time here. Umm.
Verse six for whom the Lord lovethe chaste nip and scourge of every son he receiveth do you endure chastening God dealeth with you as sons and so on. You know there are multiple reasons God could chase in you. Umm, one of them is to punish for wrong behavior.
That's the reaping what you sell. One of them is to purge things out. You know, I have tendencies and pieces of my character that God has to deal with.
And you have that too. And there are things that he has to purge out. It's like pruning the vine so it brings forth more fruit.
The Lord might afflict you to prepare you for something.
You know, it's not everybody that that can come along, a person that has lost a loved 1A son or a daughter and comfort that person.
God might be preparing you for a life on the mission field.
Uh, another way is, uh, that God, uh, uh, afflicts is to prevent this from things. You know, the apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh and he wanted to get rid of it. And God gave him that thorn in the flesh to prevent him from getting all proud and puffed up because he was caught into the 3rd heaven. And God said, no, Paul, I'm not taking it away, but my grace is sufficient for you. I'll give you the grace you need.
You know, I I brought something long to show you and we're out of time, so I'll be quick here.
You guys see this right here?
This is a wooden yoke and uh, this part of it right here is made from a piece of cherry wood that I got from Art Buchanan at the, uh, Lawrenceville harvest party. And I went down there with the young people and I wanted, it was harvest time and I thought, man, I'd really like to get in the combine, but it was raining, so Art said I got a brand new band saw and I really wanted to try it out.
So we cut up a bunch of logs and he gave me a bunch of cherry boards. And I like woodworking, but you know what? I cut this piece of cherry wood in that grain and begin to turn and it was twisted. And when I cut it, it snapped way out like this. And that's how it is when God is working with us. Sometimes every piece of wood that I'm working with is different.
You have to work it differently because of the turn in it.
Umm and God works with us that way in our lives. It's it's kind of affliction, but God is faithful and he's doing something good. Now these pieces then used to be straight. These are curved. They used to be straight. And I like woodworking, so I took these. These are pieces of ash, which is a long fiber wood.
And I steamed them and I bent them and now they're this way. And I had to do it really slowly.
And carefully. And I had to use heat.
And that's kind of what God is doing in his faithfulness. He might say, I need you to be this bent stick.
And he applies the heat and the gentle pressure and He gets you to where He wants to be. You know, God never promised to change your circumstances or mind, but He did promise to be with us in it. He never said, I will take it. I will take you out of your circumstances.
He's working with us. I hope that analogy is helpful to you kids. God is working with you as an individual. None of us are the same.
You can't compare your life to somebody else's and say how come he's doing this and she and I'm not and.
Everything God is doing is for your good and your blessing. God is faithful. He loves you. Well, now we are out of time.
01:00:05
When you're out of time, there's a lot, lot more to the faithfulness of God. But I hope, especially you, dear young people, I hope that you will trust him for your life, for your lives. You know, the decisions you're making, the places you're going, who you're choosing as friends, what you're thinking about.
God is faithful.
Absolutely for you in every way. He loves you.
All right, let's sing #23.
I was telling you has meaning to me.
Umm, when I was a 11 year old, you had to be 12 to get invited to the Belicelli's camp. And my brother Rez was old enough, and my friend Shane was, and I wasn't. But I was really hopeful because I knew the character of Missus Belicelli was kind and I thought, man, she's going to invite me too.
But she didn't.
So off they went to camp and I had to stay home.
And my great cousin.
I think it's my great cousin Kathy Reno was at our conference and she was singing this song to herself and I heard her singing it and it really meant a lot to me.
Never forget how I felt when she sang that hymn. She had no idea I was listening to her saying that. A couple of years ago my dad died and uh.
After he passed away, he was laying there.
Uh, we sang this hymn.
Around his bedside.
And I found out that I didn't know this. I found out that this was the hymn that my mom and dad sang at their wedding. They started their married life with it and they ended it. Same song.
Is the Lord faithful?
Anyway, that's why.
That's why I love this song.
So let's sing it.
Word cell.
Grace's Heavenly Father.
Oh, how?
Thankful we are for thy faithfulness, Father.
And the faithfulness of thy well beloved son.
Lord, I pray for each of the families that are here.
He said the young people.
Each of the children.
Lord help us.
To trust in you.
To turn to you.
In the good times and in the bad times.
Where you're faithful.
Can never change.
01:05:00
Here for us. Oh Father, thank you. We pray for blessing upon the camp this year.
Pray that the Word of God would be powerful and real. Uh, the fellowship and the times we have together would be uplifting and encouraging that we would go on together.
Until thou hast come.
Lord, it would be great if that would be tonight.
While we're waiting, we lift up our eyes, our faces today, and trust.
Banking the that thou art totally totally faithful. We bless you and praise you. Pray for those that are still traveling in Jesus precious name, Amen.
Remember the Battle
Gospel—Don Mackewich
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good evening and welcome to the Gospel Meeting. If you want to welcome everyone, thank you for being here tonight. And we have an exciting and a life changing message that we get to share with you this evening. So we are glad that you are here. I ask that you listen very carefully tonight. Your life could change.
We also take this time for those who are listening to this message around the world.
Through the use of technology, we send our love and greetings to you from the state of Michigan, and just as those are here, this message is also for you.
Like to begin with the number four in the back of the book.
Says his These are Victor's name, who fought the fight alone. Triumphant Saints no honor claim his conquest was their own.
By weakness and defeat he won the Median crown. Trod all our foes beneath his feet. By being trodden down. Bless, bless the conquerors slain, slain in his victory.
Who lived?
Who died?
Who lives again for thee or for you? His Church, for thee #4 in the back of the book.
Hazebe.
Let's pray and ask the Lord's help.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can come together this beautiful Sunday evening to share the gospel. We just pray.
For each and everyone who hears this message.
That they would come to know.
How much you love them?
How much you care about them?
In your desire that not one person in this room.
Or not one person who is listening to this message.
Would end up in the lake of fire, but that they would come to know you as their own personal savior.
We pray that the entrance of Thy words would bring forth light, and we pray tonight.
That there would be many who would come to know you as their own personal Savior. We pray for power, we pray for conviction, and we pray for blessing on that precious word. And lastly, we pray for the young people from Canada who are traveling the group of 15 or 20. We pray for journeying mercies and a safe trip for each and every one of them. We ask this in your worthy and precious name.
00:05:10
Amen.
Before we sing another song, just like Bernie introduced himself yesterday to the group here.
Just the servant of the Lord. But it's nice to have that personal connection.
Because the message that we share with you tonight is something that I've accepted myself.
And it's changed my life. My name is Donnie and I live on the other side of this beautiful state of Michigan, closer to Detroit. So we welcome each and everyone here. For those of you that are not from Michigan, you can use your hand and we're over on the left side of your hand. That's approximately where we are. And then Michigan, though, where we're from on the other side, Detroit and Richmond over on the right hand of the side. So if you're not.
From around here, you can ask somebody to show you where on their hand they they live. Michigan is a great, a great state to be able to use your hand. OK. And if you have a thumb on your hand, which I believe everybody does, just go ahead and touch your thumb.
I want you to know tonight that you are somebody that God loves.
And he cares for you.
I'd like to sing the same song we just sung.
There's value in repetition, there's value in singing a song more than once because we want the message to sink in and we want the truth that's in this song to be something that you remember not only for tonight, but for the rest of your life.
Because I'd like to speak about the one who is the victor, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it's all about him and nothing about ourselves. So tonight as we preach the gospel, it's all about him and nothing about ourselves. He was the one referring to the Lord Jesus.
Who whence I'll Calvary's cross to bleed and suffer?
And die for you and for me. And I'm excited to be able to tell you about him and the true story from God's Word this evening. So let's go back to #4 And we're going to sing it again, four in the back of the book.
His visa.
Alright.
Tonight's messages I mentioned can change your life, and I ask that you listen very carefully. It would be a wonderful thing if tonight you found peace with God. It would be an incredible thing if the sins that you have are forgiven. It would be a marvelous thing if the direction of your life, instead of going to the Bad Place Hell was changed, you could go to the Good Place Heaven.
00:10:16
It would be so special if that void in your heart that you have.
Could be filled.
We're just so thankful that him and his wife Elaine have this camp and invite us to come. It's just, we've been here 2 days now and it's been so fun being able to visit, being able to meet new friends, being able to catch up with, uh, our brothers and sisters in Christ that we know our children have really enjoyed being able to uh, see their friends and to make new friends and just so special to be here.
But tonight could be.
Even so much more wonderful.
If you were to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
As they look out into the room, I assume that most of you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, but I don't have assurance that every single person does.
And it's so important that if you're one of the ones who doesn't, that you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior tonight. And for those of you who are listening to this, perhaps you're on the treadmill right now. Perhaps you're driving down the street. We love you too, and we want you to come to know the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Tonight we present to you a God.
Who loves you? But before we do that is we just step back as we look around the beautiful scenery here at the camp, as we see the beautiful trees outside, as we see the beautiful water down beneath the, umm, big recreation room. Who made all that?
That was created by God and God who created this world.
Who created the beauty around us? He also created view.
And he knows all about you.
The Bible says we'll begin with this verse in John chapter 3.
John chapter 3 and verse 16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So right at the very, very start, we want to bring out the wonderful truth.
That God loves you. We also want to bring out the truth that God is holy.
And God cannot have any sin in His presence.
And I also wanna bring out that God is light. So as I speak to you tonight, it's really not what I say, it's what does God say? God's Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. And it's the entrance of God's Word that gives light. If you're searching tonight, you come to the right place. We can help you. We can share God's Word with you and your life.
Tonight's message is going to be centered around a verse in the Book of Job.
In Job chapter 41.
It's gonna be 3 words so that even the youngest person in this room can remember it to the oldest. The gospel is not complicated, it's very simple. It's life changing.
But the story behind it and what happened?
Is.
Very, very important because someone had to die to make it possible for you to be able to accept God's gift of eternal life. But before we get into that, let's set the stage with a verse in Job chapter 41.
00:15:09
And verse 8.
Job chapter 41 and verse eight it says Lay thine hand upon him.
Remember the battle? Do no more.
It's an item. I'm gonna use this first in Liberty and the Gospel, and we're gonna focus on those 3 words. Remember the battle?
We're gonna talk about what was that battle.
Who was involved in it? Where did it take place?
Why did it take place and why is it so important?
This morning we had the privilege, and it was a privilege to be able to remember the Lord Jesus in His death as He asked us to do. What a wonderful way to put the Lord 1St and start off the week by putting Him first and being obedient to His request to remember Him. But you might be wondering, who is Jesus? I've heard about Him.
Who is God? I've heard about him.
On this battle that took place on Mount Calvary. And so today we're going to remember the battle, we're going to look at it, who was involved, why did it take place? Why did somebody have to die? What happened? What was the outcome?
Remember the battle?
Well, first of all, let's set this stage. We've mentioned that God is a God of love, and he loves each and every one of you. And remember the thumb on your hand. You are somebody that God loves. Yes, I can speak intelligently, but I was just putting that as a pun upon You are somebody God loves. But think of that song. You are somebody that God loves, and God loves you more than you ever know.
He was the one who created you.
He was the one who knew long before you were born who your parents were going to be.
He was the one who knew what state, what province, what country you would live in.
He was the one who knew if you would have any brothers or sisters.
He's the one who sees you inside your mommy's tummy right now, even though you haven't been born.
And he loves you.
That's one of his characteristics. We've also reminded ourselves that God is.
Holy God cannot tolerate sin. Timothy was speaking this morning. Remember those bricks? And I'm going to kind of use a little bit of repetition, one that helps my children remember what we've covered so far in the meeting. So if I reference what Tim was speaking about or what Bernie was speaking about yesterday, it's good to remind ourselves and to build upon them, right? Line upon line, precept upon precept. He had before us those stones. Those were weights.
And the one who can remove them? We're gonna tell you about that again today.
I did not bring it as an object lesson, but I could have because I just got a fresh one about 45 minutes before the gospel meeting. But it was a very.
It was a poopy diaper and thin is like a poopy diaper.
It's 30, it's awful and in the eyes of a holy and righteous God.
He can't have it. I think some of you are smiling and glad I didn't bring it, but I think that you could relate to it even though I don't have it here. It's bad and God cannot have it in His presence. So we have a God of love and we have a God who is holy, and we have sin and we have love and something has to be done because God loves you.
But he cannot allow sin into heaven.
Won't allow any sin into heaven. And why that is important is because let's be honest, we all have what?
We all have sins.
And if we're honest, we will admit that the Bible tells us that in Romans chapter 3, verse 23.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that includes me. The Bible tells us that there is none righteous, no, not one. So when we bring before us the realization that each and every one of us.
00:20:09
We're guilty of sin.
I know we live in a society today where sin is kind of watered down.
Ones that our sins are kind of given names that are more softer sounding.
For example, adultery is kind of known nowadays, not so much as adultery, but premarital sex still is sin. Umm, fornication, which is sin, is now known as having a affair. Homosexuality, which is sin, is known as having an alternative lifestyle. Can you see how our society waters things down? It's still a sin.
Abortion, which is murder, we call that.
Pro-choice, that's still sin, but even the things like lying.
Stealing. Those are sins and those need to be judged and those need to be dealt with. Turn with me to, uh, Luke chapter 5, please.
Luke chapter 5 and verse 8. This is Peter speaking.
After I read this first I'll ask you the question. It says when Simon Peter saw it he fell down at Jesus knees saying.
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
At this camp, let's just be real. Let's be honest, let's not try to hide ourselves, not try to put on a mask. Just let's get to the point. Have you ever in your life gotten to the point where you said I am a sinful man, I am a sinful woman, I am a sinful boy, I am a sinful girl. Have you got to that point? I have good news for you. But we need to get to the realization that we need to see things as God sees us, don't we? Don't try to pretend.
Is there someone here tonight who is pretending your parents think that you are a Christian? And maybe you said your verses in Sunday school. Maybe you sing the songs with excitement and enthusiasm, but you know.
In your heart, you've never accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Maybe you're the teenager who's sitting here tonight. Same thing you said your verses in Sunday school. You've heard your parents tell you about the Lord Jesus. You've heard your grandparents tell you.
But just have never made that decision to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
I want to encourage you to do that tonight.
Not only if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, are you in your sins? There is a sense of danger because the path that you're on is not the path that leads to heaven.
Help me out. Where is the path that you're on leading to?
It's the hell for the Lake of fire, and that is not a road we want you to be on. We want you to change your direction. We want you to get on the path that leads to heaven.
Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 33.
I've got good news coming, but I need to make us see where we are in the eyes of a holy.
And loving God.
Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 14.
Picking it up in about the middle of the verse.
Who among us?
She'll dwell with the devouring fire. Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
It's not a joking matter tonight.
This is perfect for my sister. This is just what you and I need. Because if you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, not only do you have those sins which are weighing you down, think of those stones we saw this morning in Sunday school. Think of the poopy diaper weighing you down bad. Not something that God wants to see. But you are also not on the road that leads to heaven, but you are on the road that leads to destruction.
We need you to change your direction tonight.
And I'm gonna help you do that, OK? Are you listening?
00:25:03
So we have our guilt, we have the danger that's in front of us. And I'm also speaking to ones tonight who have an emptiness in their heart that only Jesus can satisfy. But right now you're trying to satisfy that, not with Jesus, but with the things around you. And we want to let you know tonight that that will not satisfy your heart. Would you turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2?
This is a book that every young person should read. Everybody obviously should read their Bibles, but you've not read the book of Ecclesiastes and you have not dug into what's in this book. It'll save you a lot of heartache in your life. Ecclesiastes, chapter 2 and verse 10.
And this again is written by Solomon, who had wealth, who had fame, who had tremendous possessions, basically whatever he wanted, it says in verse 10 of Ecclesiastes chapter 2. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them.
I withheld not my heart from any joy, for my high heart rejoiced in all my labor.
And this was my portion of all my labor. What was it? Verse 11? Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought.
And on the labor that I had labored to do. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Nothing in this world will satisfy that emptiness in your heart.
We're going to learn how we can do that, each and everyone of us, until we come to know, know the Lord Jesus is on the wrong Rd. going the wrong way.
And we need to turn around.
And lastly, if you have that void in your heart that you're trying to fill, perhaps you're trying to fill that by working extra hard so you can make extra money. Nothing wrong with extra money, but if that's trying to fill your void, it's not going to work. If you're trying to fill that void through a special somebody, a special handsome young man or a pretty young girl, it's not gonna satisfy your void. If you're trying to satisfy that through a muse going to amusement parks, you're trying to satisfy.
Is the gospel message.
Well, God is holy, right? And God is love. So we have.
If he lets everybody into heaven just as they are in their sins.
What's gonna make heaven any different than where we are right now?
We're just gonna have a bunch of people in heaven who still steal, who still lie, who still sin.
But there are no feasts in heaven, there are no liars in heaven, there are no hospitals in heaven, there are no police stations in heaven. So something has taken place.
And if God is holy and did not provide any way for any of us to have our sins forgiven, we all would be doomed.
So this is where it really gets good.
We need someone who would satisfy the holy claims of God.
And also.
Display and manifest His love.
00:30:31
Someone would have to come.
Into this world.
Someone who knew no sin, and that was the Lord Jesus. Isaiah chapter 6.
In verse 8.
It says let me get to the right page.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us, using this in the Gospel sense? Then said, I, here am I send me.
And we read in first John chapter 4, verse 14, the Father sent the son.
To be the Savior of the world we read in Matthew chapter one, verse 21.
Now shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from.
Their sins.
So into the world came the Lord Jesus.
One who knew no sin, did no sin, could not sin. But Jesus came into this world. We sang in the breaking of bread this morning. From the palace of His glory, from his home of joy and love, came the Lord Himself to seek us. He would have us there above Jesus.
Came into this world.
And he knew.
That for you to be able to go to heaven, you would have to have your sins forgiven.
So Jesus lived here, he was obedient to his Father, always did what his father would have him do, went about teaching, went about healing, went about training, uh, what we call followers of him known as disciples. We have the gospels that tell his life story.
Guys are doing a good job listening and I appreciate this.
Setting it up for the, uh, battle that took place.
Jesus knew that he would be going to the cross. He knew that he would be betrayed. John chapter 18 it says in verse 4 Jesus therefore knowing all. Sorry.
If I get ahead of myself like that, just let me know. John chapter 18 and verse 4. Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon him.
Went forth.
He wasn't gonna turn back. He was gonna go to the cross.
For you and for me.
Turn to the next chapter, John, chapter 19.
John, Chapter 19.
Verse 17.
And he bearing his cross.
00:35:00
Winforth.
Into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and two other, with him on either side, one and Jesus in the middle.
So set the. Let's set the scene there.
There on Mount Calvary.
We're three crosses.
You probably perhaps have seen as your dad or mom has been driving or.
Perhaps as you've been driving, going along the road and seeing 3 crosses on the side of the road.
There was 3 crosses.
On Mount Calvary.
And in the middle cross there was a man who had committed no crimes, who had done nothing wrong. That's the cross that Jesus was on, and on his right hand and on his left hand, on the other two crosses were criminals who were being crucified.
It was there on the cross that the question of sin and God's love was shown.
God cannot allow any sin into heaven and in order for sin to be settled.
Blood had to be shed, it says in Hebrews without shedding of blood is no remission of sin and blood would have to be shed.
But it would have to be blood from someone who could not sin and did no sin. A perfect spotless Lamb of God. And that was Jesus. And so Jesus there on the cross.
Was punished.
For you and for me.
The sins that we have committed, God punished him. He became our substitute.
A substitute and an illustration from the classroom.
When your regular teacher is not there, somebody steps in to fill his or her place, right?
And often that's a substitute teacher, so the substitute is someone who takes the place.
Of your teacher, Jesus was the one who said and went to the cross as a substitute.
To take the punishment that you and I deserve.
Well, he was on the cross.
So on the cross Jesus died, and on the cross.
His precious blood was shed. We want to make sure we bring out the value of the blood. Let's turn to Chapter 19.
And verse 32 Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the 1St and of the other, which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came out blood.
And water. And it is that precious blood that cleanseth us from all. Excuse me from all.
Our sins. It was the blood that was shed on Calvary's cross.
And there it was, Jesus dying on Calvary's cross. Jesus was taken off of the the cross, turned to verse 40 of chapter 19, then took they the body of Jesus and wounded in linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden the new sepulchre.
Wherein was never a man yet laid.
There lay they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews, preparation day for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
00:40:02
Well, now from the devil's perspective, and I need to mention him.
Because you may or may not know it, there is also someone out there who wants to bring you down, the enemy of our souls, and that is the devil, Satan.
He doesn't love you, he doesn't care about you. He is a liar.
And he wants to bring you down. He wants you to take you down to the where he will eventually be in the lake of fire.
And tonight, there's a battle that's going on in your soul for those who aren't saved, almost like a tug of war. On one hand, you're hearing the gospel tonight. You're hearing how Jesus loved you, how Jesus died for you, and how he wants to be your Savior.
But there's also that.
And then what?
I say it reverently, the kind of coming from the other side that the devil perhaps thought, oh great.
Here's one of those ones who said he was gonna save the world. Here's one who thought he was gonna change. I claimed the victory.
There's more to the story. There's more to the story because the good news is Jesus.
Although he died on the cross and although he was buried, that is not where he is right now.
He rose from the dead.
Jesus is alive. Jesus is not dead. God was satisfied with the work on Calvary's cross and he raised his Son from the dead. And Jesus is alive. It is so precious. The victory has been won.
Turn with me to the book of Acts.
Act Sorry Acts Chapter 13.
Acts chapter 13 and verse 29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him.
They took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre.
But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen many days of them, which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.
Who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings. There's glad tidings coming to you tonight here on this side of Michigan. How that the promises which was made unto the Fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, and that He hath raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the song, the second song. Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten thee.
Verse 38.
Be it known unto you therefore, and this is what we want to make known. And we boldly tell this to you tonight. We are not ashamed that we, uh, those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ that it's our Savior, we claim the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sins.
And by him.
All that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Here's the good thing we can share with you tonight is because of Jesus death and Jesus resurrection.
We can preach unto you tonight forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Those sins that you have tonight can be forgiven through our Lord Jesus Christ because He died on Calvary's cross and his blood was shed.
The direction that you're heading, the dangers that awaits you if you've not accepted the Lord Jesus as your savior. Instead of going to hell, you can go to heaven.
00:45:02
Because Jesus died and rose again that emptiness.
That void that you have in your heart can be satisfied and filled through Jesus because He satisfies the longing heart.
The gospel that we preach is not about works. It's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy.
He saved us. It's all about Him. And the good news is tonight the gospel or the salvation that He offers is to each and everyone in this room, be it known unto you. Tonight you can have your sins forgiven. Tonight you can have peace with God. Tonight that void, that emptiness in your heart can be filled because of the battle that took place.
Because of the one who loved you and went to Calvary's cross, the one who died for you.
God was satisfied with that work. The blood was shed. God raised them from the dead.
Jesus is alive. We preach to you tonight a risen Savior.
One who wants to be your Savior. It's precious. It's marvelous. Jesus is the answer.
It's nothing that we can do. It's all about what he has done. How wonderful, how marvelous. I was thinking this afternoon of the song.
When of the song.
Is nailed to the cross and I pair it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. O my soul, tonight you can have peace, you can have forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died on the cross. He satisfies the longing heart. He takes those bricks, He takes the sin that you have. He takes those burdens and he will remove them.
He satisfies the longing heart.
Near Grand Rapids, MI that Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Shout salvation full and free through the Lamb of Calvary. This is our song of victory. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Remember the battle. Remember who it was who died on Calvary's cross. He's the one who can save you.
Remember the battle back in the 1800s in approximately I believe it was 1836.
The Texans were trying to gain their independence from Mexico.
And a battle took place either in San Antonio or near San Antonio, and that's in the southern part of what is now the United States.
In a building called the Alamo.
Approximately 182 men.
Inside the Alamo, and this is coming from the Americans perspective of the history. Obviously there's two sides when, uh, dealing with history and with war and stuff. But these men were inside the Alamo and the battle took place in February, 23 of February 23rd, I believe of 1836. And for 13 days those men fought.
They fought for the freedom, they wanted the land, they were bold and they were courageous.
We know from history that they didn't win and the Mexican army was able to make their way in and eventually those ones in the compound were killed.
00:50:11
A month later, another battle was fought, and while they were fighting, the cry went out. Remember the Alamo. In other words, remember what the men who had gone on before had done to fight for the freedom. And tonight we don't remember the Alamo, but we remember the battle. We remember the one who came, who came from heaven, who came down into this earth.
And the battle took place was not at the Alamo, it was on Mount Calvary.
And tonight we remember the one who did that. And we proclaim to you, you can have salvation because of what took place.
There as we start to wrap this up.
Another thing that took place at the Alamo, and it's what's called legend, the men inside the compound were killed. So we just have the accounts of the women and.
Perhaps there was one slave who was there to escape them? Not for sure.
Different historians say different things, but the legend has it that Colonel Travis.
During the fighting got out his favor.
And drew a line in the sand.
And he let the men know.
That they had to make a decision.
Go out of the compound, out of the Alamo and fight the Mexican army and very likely would be slaughtered very quickly. Number two, they could surrender #3 they could stay and fight.
Tonight, I don't have options like that for you, but I do. I'm gonna have we're gonna draw that line in the sand, figuratively, so to speak.
Gonna get out that Saber, so to speak.
And draw it.
On one hand, we'll call it this hand. My right are ones who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
They've made a definite decision. We're not playing on the fence tonight. You either are saved.
Or you're not saved. There is no middle, OK? It's not a game tonight. You either know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You're either going to walk out of these doors over here or over here, over here knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior because you accepted him as your Savior. Or you're going to be on this side in your sins.
On your way to the Lake of Fire and with an emptiness in your heart.
That's not what we want for you. That's not what Tim wants. That's not what your parents want. Tonight, we want you to take that step and accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Tonight. We want you to cross that line. And how can you do that? I'm glad you're thinking that. I'm glad you're ready to ask that question tonight. You can do that by repenting and putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. And here's what that looks like.
Right where you are.
You don't have to come up here. You're welcome to do that. If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus, I'd love for you to come on up here and you could and I could help you or Tim could help you and Bernie could help you or anyone in this room who just asked could do it or you can do it right in your seat. This is where we have to draw the line in the sand and says tonight I am on the Lord's side. Tonight I want to accept Jesus as my Savior. So how would you do that? You could just bow your head right where you are.
And if you really mean it, you could just say it from your heart, Lord Jesus.
I am a Sinner.
I believe you died for me.
Please wash away my sins.
Come into my heart, I accept your gift of eternal life.
Amen.
The key point is if you really meant it, it's not the words you say, but just letting the Lord Jesus know I've sinned. I believe that you've died for me. Wash away my feet, wash away my sins. I accept your gift and you will. And tonight you go from being in your sins. You go from being on the way to destruction. You go from that emptiness in your heart to having the knowing the Lord Jesus.
00:55:09
As your savior, it's wonderful.
If tonight there's anything that I said that is confusing, if I didn't say it the right way or you have questions, my name is Donnie. I'd be happy to talk with you. I'm sure Tim would be happy to talk with you. Or if Tim's got other things going, I'm sure others in this room would be happy to talk to you. If you're sitting here tonight and you say my parents, they would be embarrassed to know that up until this point.
I haven't been a Christian. I want to let you know that tonight they would be so happy. There would be joy.
In their hearts, smiles on their faces. If you would accept.
Come just as you are.
Just as you are, come tonight, come to Jesus.
He'll save you, he'll save you, he won't turn you away #332.
Sing from your heart, please.
Just as.
Long as.
I.
And.
01:00:04
One verse and then we'll pray. Don't have to turn to it. First Corinthians 1557.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight there's victory in Jesus. Please come to him. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we just pray that you would open the hearts of each person here.
We know how much you love them, how much you care about them. We know that you are not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance tonight. May they see your love. May they see that salvation can be found through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And for those who have that struggle, that hug of war that's going on.
We pray that they would just say yes, Lord.
I believe Save me we pray that they would have victory.
Tonight and again, we pray for journeying mercies, for our young people coming from Canada, for safe travels.
We ask this in the name and the power of our victorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Session #1
Service in the Life of Gideon
Address—Manuel Adames
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.
And how was we gonna start? By singing 174.
Somebody can help me start it please?
Lower for his health.
I got on our Father, we thank you for this opportunity to open our and to learn from it. We now ask for grace as we speak, uh, for the speaker and we just ask for clarity and we ask father that we maybe focus on him, on the Lord Jesus and that he may produce in US.
Uh, a thankful heart, a worshiping heart, and a heart of service in our lives. We ask for help as we do so, Father.
As we open my word and the precious name of thy Son, the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Before I start, I just umm, I wanted to talk a little about a little bit about ministry.
This afternoon.
And, umm, things that.
Are of help to me and that I have enjoyed.
And umm, before I do, I'd like to ask you, I like to know which ones of you are in the ministry. So I'd like to see a show of hands please.
How many are in the ministry?
OK.
Yesterday I was talking to brother Josh, uh, Stuart.
And umm, he actually mentioned a verse to me, First Timothy 4/6 and I'll I'd like to start with that verse.
First Timothy, 4/6.
It says, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Now you stop in the words of faith and of good doctrine, where unto thou hast attained?
And I enjoyed what Brother George had to say in terms of bringing in, remembering.
And you mentioned that we do not have to bring something new.
But bring something into the remembrance of the brethren, and that's my intention tonight. My intention is not to bring things that are new, but just to bring to your remembrance and to my remembrance this thing.
And, umm.
I'd like to pass another chapter in Colossians chapter 4 verse 17.
Colossians 417.
00:05:01
Say to occupy.
Take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the Lord that thou fulfill it.
So occupants must have been a very special brother, right? Because he was, he was given a ministry of the Lord and he had to fulfill it.
What does the word ministry mean? Somebody can help me?
Or the team? Would you like to help me?
Service.
And that's why I started asking you who is in the ministry.
And brother Tim raised his hand and brother Tim Roach raised his hand. And you probably think, well, they are in the ministry because for the same has been in in Malawi, in Africa. So the Tim Roach does the camp, the the work of the camp and so on.
They must be in the ministry, so it's right for them to raise their hand.
The truth is that we have all been given a gift from the Lord.
And if we are have all been given a gift from the Lord, we are all or should all be in the ministry, ministry service like Brother Tim just said, and ministries just exercising the gift that the Lord has given you. And let's just read one verse in first Peter 4, verse 10.
First Peter 4 verse 10 says as every man has received and it should be a gift.
As every man has received a gift, Even so minister. The same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. As every man has received a gift, Even so minister.
So the the book that I have, the chapter rather that I have in mind is in the Old Testament.
And umm, like I said, I'm I'm not going to share anything new, but I'd like to remember the things that we have learned from others.
And Judges chapter 6.
We see some examples of the life of Umm Gideon.
And we see how the Lord prepared him for the ministry.
But first we're we're going to read the first verses and see what the condition was in the times of Gideon.
And we will just read a few portions of Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 and just glean was, umm, certain to ministry here.
Judges 6 and verse one.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of media in seven years.
And the hand of medium prevailed against Israel, and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dance, which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the East, even they came up against them.
And they encamped against them, and this destroyed increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza.
Unless no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox, nor *** but they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers from multitude, for both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites.
And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
So that was the condition of the children of Israel in the in the time of Gideon. It was not a time of, of prosperity. It was a time of, of umm.
It was, it was different, a difficult time in, in, in Israel where there was no food for the people of Israel.
And we live, we live in similar times. We come, we thank the Lord, we have places that we can come like this camp and we can nourish, umm, ourselves spiritually.
00:10:07
But the world is a dry place.
And that we see that the Israelites were scattered from their their inheritance. They were in the dance and the caves of the earth.
And there were there was a spiritual mount, malnutrition. They did not have food.
And I will jump to the next part, which is the profit of the lower coming.
But the Lord sends the profit, and this is interesting because when the profit comes, the profit doesn't say you will get delivering, he just says.
You have disobeyed the Lord.
Umm.
I released I released you from from your we'll just read a a few verses in verse 8. The Lord sent the prophet and so the children of Israel will said unto them. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the House of *******.
And there's, umm.
Verse 10 And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the gods of the Amorite. In his land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. So this prophet was different. He's not telling about anything in the future. He's telling them as from the Lord, that they have not obeyed his voice.
And then we find in verse 11 That an Angel of the Lord sat under an oak, uh, which is an Oprah that pertaining to George ABI the abuse, right, and his son Gideon thrashed wheat by the WI wine press. So hide it from the Midianites.
So we see that Gideon was, it says it should be in the winepress. So he's threshing wheat.
And umm, not being from the countryside, I don't know exactly uh, how we, uh, how to thrash wheat, but I've watched some videos so I have an idea.
Umm, it takes a lot of effort and to do it by hand, you have to hit it with, umm, with a hammer or hit it with something either on the floor, uh, thread something on top of it. And then you have to separate the grain from, from, from the shaft and it takes a lot of effort and energy. And the first thing that Gideon had was that he was, he was put in an effort.
Uh.
To threshing wheat and wheat in the scriptures talks about the Lord Jesus.
It talks about.
His person and his work and, uh, he Washington, he found. Except, uh, a place where he could do so.
What were the others doing? They were hiding in the den that were hiding in The Cave. But Gideon said I will have something to eat for myself and for my family.
And that's what the lawyer looks in us if we want to be in the ministry. And again, the ministry is any, anything that the Lord has called you for. What does the Lord want, wants you to do? The Lord has given you a gift.
And has given every one of us a gift. And it may not be a public gift. It may not be something public. It may be something that you may do from 1:00 to 1:00 or in private. But yeah, it is important to the Lord. The sisters have a gift the same as the brothers have a gift.
And umm, the Lord has.
Placed each member of the body.
And each member of the body has a function.
And I know that the apostle Paul did not talk about the internal organs, but he makes reference to it and says that there are many members. There are many members. And he talks about the ones that we can see, like the hands or the nose or the eyes.
But he makes reference to the ones that we cannot see.
And if I say, well, the hands are very important because I can handle things with my hands, But what about the heart and the kidneys and the lungs? You don't see them working, but yeah, they have a vital function. And without them the body does not work, to say the least. The body cannot, cannot live without them, without the heart or the lungs and so on. And there are.
00:15:05
Members among us that are private, they're not public, and yet they're vital in their function, in the function that they do. And it is necessary that we all exercise the gift that the Lord has given us.
And uh, in the case of Gideon, he was concerned about getting something from the Lord. So it all starts from the Lord. The gifts is something that the Lord has given us is not my, my natural ability is a gift that the Lord has given me.
And the first thing that we see in Gideon is that he had, umm, he wanted to feed himself with the things of the Lord. If we don't feed ourselves from the Word of God, we cannot help others.
And then if we keep reading and for the sake of time, I'll just touch upon some some verses. Verse 12 And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And Gideon must have thought, well, all I'm doing is threshing wheat, Oh my almighty man of valor.
Well, he had a couple of things that were to note.
The first thing is that he wanted to feed himself of the Saints of the Lord of Christ in type.
And the second one is that, as we're going to read in the following verse, he cares for the people of God.
It's not so much what He was capable of doing. The Lord wants us to care 1St to feed ourselves from the Lord, and then to care for His people. And the Lord will use us.
Hungarian said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of saying, Did not the Lord bring us off from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
And the Lord looks upon him and said, Go, and this thy might, and thou shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely it will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.
So the first thing is that he was caring for the people of God.
Then he also identified himself with the people of God. He says us.
This when? Why then is all this befallen us?
He did not accuse his brethren. He says, well, I am doing all right. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. But look at my brother and they're hiding in dents and caves. They're not, they're not doing what they're supposed to. He doesn't say that. He says befallen us. And if we do not feel, umm, the times that we're in, if we do not feel that the church, umm.
Is in a state of of decay if we do not feel that.
We're part of it. We're part of the of, of that, umm, condition that church has. If we feel that we are the ones that are correct, then we're not going to be able to help our brethren.
And the Lord tells him to go in that might. And the Lord never asked us to go in our might. It is his might, it is his strength. And Gideon understood that. He understood that he, he did not have strength in himself. He says my family is the least of the of the tribe of Manasseh. And my, my, my tribe is the least in Manassas, and my family is the least in my tribe.
And, uh, he understood that.
Well, the Lord says that he he makes umm.
He in in weakness his strength is shown.
And then in verse 17.
Verse 16 I'm sorry. And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. So it is the Lord that makes the difference, if we feel ourselves with the things of the Lord.
Then something will come out from our heart, and the first thing that should come out of our heart.
Is not service.
Even though what I'm talking to them I'm talking about today is service.
00:20:05
What should come from our heart is thankfulness for what the Lord has done for us is worship, and that's what comes out of Gideon's heart, as we'll see in this in the following verses.
In verse 18 he says that depart not parents, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. So the Lord puts in his heart something to do.
And that is to deliver the people of God.
And he says, I will be with you, I will be your strength. Just go and there's your mic.
And Gideon understands that it is the Lord that is sending him, and what comes out of his heart is worship.
And Gideon went in and made ready a kid and 11 Kids of an evil flower. The flesh she put in a basket, And he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. And the Angel of the Lord said unto him, Take the flesh and the 11 cakes, and lay them up on this rock, and pour out the broth.
So we have learned from this from others is that.
Gideon had a, had a hard had a.
Had it hard and could be corrected. He was a a man that when he was corrected he did not get mad. And we all make mistakes and we also we all start umm.
Our path and we make mistakes as we do so.
And if your brother comes and he wants to help us because we perhaps did not lay out something as clear or perhaps we we made made a mistake clearly something that we said or did.
We should be humble enough to say yes brother, that that is so, as you say, and it should not discourage us from going on.
And I did say this to myself and also to my younger brother here.
As you are, as you are and you should be in the ministry.
Umm, that you do not, uh, think that because you make a mistake, uh, you should be discouraged. But we need one another and we need our older brethren to help us in the past.
And the mistake here that Gideon made was that when the Lord, he said, I will bring something to offer to you.
And it says that he brought IFA case of an IFA flyer flower. The flash you put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot. The Lord never gave directions about bringing broth into the sacrifice. It was something that Gideon thought would be a good idea. And sometimes we think some things are a good idea.
And the Angel of the Lord corrected him.
But in a way that Gideon felt that it was umm, the Angel of the Lord and, and umm, he corrected him in a way that he understood that and says, he said, take the flesh and the 11 cakes and laid them upon this rock and pour out the broth. Just throw, throw it away is what you're saying. And he did so.
And the then the Angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the 11 case.
And there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the 11 cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord departed of his sight. So the Lord takes the things that we bring, and I, I believe that something umm like that was mentioned this morning.
Umm, my brother said that he is the gardener. He he picks the flowers. Sometimes we bring something that is not what the Holy Spirit wants and he chooses what umm.
What he wants. There's a story of umm, of umm, of a mother that fell sick. I'm not sure if I have it all right, but I'll say it the way I know it. And she was at the in the hospital and her boy wanted to bring her flowers. So he brought a bunch of flowers from the field and he, it came with old, old umm, with thorns and everything you can think of in addition to the flowers.
And then, then he gave it to the nurse and said this was for my mom and the nurse took the BU, the, the flower bunch and he took, uh, she took out everything that was not good.
She just left the flower there and she she cut them to A to her thighs that was the right size and all that she put everything together and she brings it to the mother and says your son brought you this.
00:25:09
And that's what the Lord does with us too. But He does correct us, and He and we should be, umm, learning from Him and also from our brethren as they do.
And then we see that Gideon bills an altar to the Lord.
And verse 24.
And that is umm.
Something that the Angel of the Lord suggested to him.
Verse 25.
And it came to pass the same night that the Lord sent unto him, Take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of bail that thy father hath, and cut down the growth that is by it.
So we I believe we all know the story, so I won't read all of it.
But what happens is that the Angel of the Lord tells him to do something before he goes to battle, before he's able to fought to fight the Midianites. He's to start in his own, umm, community, if I could call it that.
He used to point out to the Abias rights, his own plan, something that was wrong. They were they had fallen into idolatry and it takes courage to point certain things out. And the thing that he was going to point out was something in his own family. It was his own dad that had this in his in his house.
And umm, it was the altar of Vail that thy Father had.
Throw down the altar of bail that thy Father hath. That's a hard thing to do.
Because we tend to excuse our family, we tend to, uh, sometimes we're able to say, to say something to those that are a little distance from us.
But our family is a little bit harder to do so, umm, sometimes.
And umm, and he takes the stand, and he was afraid, and he does it by night, and he takes down the altar of Vale that wasn't his father's house.
And the, the Abias, right, Which were his plan, they come and, uh, they ask about.
The person that has done this, but let's notice that he did not only do that, he did caught the the bail down, but the Lord asked him to do something first. It says the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old.
And verse 26 And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in the order place, and take the second Bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Grove, which thou shalt cut down.
So he was going to cut something down, but he was going to point them to the right thing, which is the second bullet, the 2nd man, which is the Lord Jesus. And he was going to point them to what they had had left. They had left the Lord and they had gone to the veil. And whenever we point something that is umm, negative in our brethren, we should point to the Lord Jesus, we should point their hearts to him.
If we just leave the things that umm, that are sinful in our lives and just leave them because they and, and just just put them aside and don't go to the Lord and, and don't fill ourselves with the Lord, we will be empty.
Is displacing those things, even those things that are not seen in themselves, in order to fill ourselves with Christ?
And they misunderstand him when in the morning they say, Who has done this? And they want to kill him. And many times when we try to do something for the Lord, we may not do it, perhaps in the right way, and our brethren may misunderstand it.
And they may say, umm, they may not think that we're trying to do something good for them and for the Lord.
And umm, but something happens, and as we know the story, we know that George, his father, umm, Gideon's father, he recognizes this and he stands by Gideon. And he says if Veil is a God, let him defend himself. And what he did first convince his father. And then at that moment the median eyes come.
00:30:10
And the spirit of the Lord comes upon Gideon.
And he blows the horn, and the same RA, the the same that were against him, they gathered to him. And that's what happens when we go on for the Lord. We may be misunderstood at first, but if we go on for Him, the Lord will change the hearts of our brethren.
And, umm.
The part that I wanted to emphasize now.
It's in Chapter 7.
We have, we have seen the things that Gideon had that were good things for the service of the Lord.
But there are certain things in Chapter 7.
That disqualify those that.
Were following Gideon.
And I'd like to note those.
We know that Gideon blows the trumpet.
And let's read that verse in chapter 6.
Verse 34.
The spirit of the Lord came up in Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiasar was gathered after him, and he sent messengers throughout all. Manasseh, who also was, was gathered after him, and he sent messengers unto usher and unto Zebulun, and unto national eye, and they came up to meet them.
So the call was to all these people.
And each one of us has been called to do something for the lawyers.
And if we feel that the Lord has called us to do something, then we should, Our hearts should be, uh, disposed to do the things that the Lord has, has asked us to do.
But there are certain things that may hinder us from serving the Lord.
And that's what we will see in Chapter 7. We will come back to chapter 6 just for a little bit in verse 36.
It says, Umm Venge 0BA Jerobail, who is Gideon? And all the people that were with him rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Herod, so that the host of the median eyes were on the north side of of them, by the hill of Moore in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands.
Lest Israel bond themselves against me saying my own hand.
Has saved me.
Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from Mount Gilead.
So the people was was in such a state that the Lord did not want them to go, all of them.
And.
If you think about it, there were not that many. There were like 3030 + 1000. We'll we'll see that in in the following verses.
Umm, there were 32,000 I believe.
And umm, the problem was that their heart was not right with the Lord, and the Lord could not use them.
And so the Lord there was a proclamation that says, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him, let him return.
Wasn't Gideon fearful, unafraid before?
Apparently, Gideon stayed right.
So it was more than just having fear. I believe that we're all fearful at some point.
But I believe that this is in reference to something that was commanded by Moses and Deuteronomy chapter 20, if we can go there just for a minute.
And it is a test to the heart.
Deuteronomy chapter 20.
And verse one.
00:35:03
When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seeth horses and Chariots, and people, more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when year come nigh unto the bottle, that the priest shall re approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them.
Hear O Israel, he approached this day into into battle against your enemies.
Let not your heart faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
So there's a promise there that the Lord will be with you.
So as I was reading this I was thinking but the second part doesn't make sense.
But it is really in, in my understanding, attached to the heart.
Because then the officers say, verse five. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the bottle, and another man dedicated. And what man is he that has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten of it? Let him also go and return it into his house.
Lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it, And when man is there, that has been thrown a wife.
Has not taken her. Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the bottle, and another man take her.
And the officers shall speak further into the people, and they shall say, When man is there that is fearful and faint hearted, let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart.
Didn't the Lord say in the prior verses that He will save them, that he will be against their enemies and that they should not fear says do not be afraid.
Why is he then giving them liberty to go to the house? I don't think it's liberty. The Lord is testing their hearts. The Lord has given them a promise.
But they are not holding, they're not taking hold of those promises. And that's why he says last they lest he die. Didn't the Lord say that He will be with them if they held those promises? They should not have to worry about their vineyards or the the field that they just purchased or the house that they just built or the wife that they just married.
Those things are necessary, and the Lord knows that they are necessary and umm.
But the Lord tests our hearts and he, he wants us to trust him. It's a matter of trust. It's not looking up on ourselves. The Lord never asked us to do something with our own strength. He first gives us something and he says use that walk according to what you are. He never, he never asked us to gain our salvation. He says you're saved now walk according to what you are, a child of God.
He gives us all the armor of God, He gives us all the strength, He gives us all the power that we need, and he says use it. It's not our own, it's his.
But when we look upon ourselves, and we measure our own strength with the strength of the enemy, than we think.
And umm, in connection with that, we could read in First Corinthians chapter 4.
I'm sorry, it's umm.
Speaking of first grade in Chapter 7.
Verse 29.
But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none. And they that weep as though they weep, weep not. And they that rejoice as though they rejoice not. And they that buy as though they possess not. And they that use this world as not abusing it. For the fashion of this world passes away.
00:40:24
But I would have you without carefulness.
So all these things are necessary and the postal is not saying that we should be careless about our lives or the things that we that the Lord has put in our ha hands. That's not the point, but the point is that if there's something that is an obstacle in our lives because our heart.
Are focusing on those things rather than on the lower than they are a hindrance for our service and the Lord says go back, go back.
So if we go back to our chapter.
Verse Four. And the Lord said unto Gideon.
The people are yet too many. Verse four of Chapter 7.
Bring them down into the water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go, with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go, with thee the same shall not go. So he brought down the people into the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone the lapeth of the water with his tongue as the dog lappeth.
Him shall thou set by himself. Likewise everyone that bought uh boweth down upon his knees to drink.
And the number of them that lab put in their hands or their mouth were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down until their up on their knees to drink water. So if you imagine.
Those, uh, those that remains so that the first ones were 32,000 and it says that 20 and 2000 were fearful and they returned and they remained 10,000.
We're in all cold. Didn't Gideon send to all these places and send send messengers and say come, let's fight the medianites? And they came, but there was something that hindered them.
And there is something that may hinder us in our service for the Lord as well.
And the second thing here is.
Where the majority of people, the majority of us, I think are at fault, there were 10,000 people in the water. And then the, the Gideon said, drink water and the water in this case talks about the refreshment and the temporary, uh, provisions that the Lord had for them before they went to battle.
And.
We see that.
The majority of them.
9700 people, they bowed down and they drank water right from the river and they put their head down.
And what happens even the animals, so there's some, some are lifting their head up and some are drinking down because they cannot bring the water up to their to their mouth.
Umm, so we see the majority of people here of 9700 people drinking water and putting their face, their head down in the water. What would happen if the enemy comes? They would be surprised by the enemy.
And 300.
Were taking the water and bringing the water to their mouth.
And that talks about?
The things that the Lord has left us, UMM has provided for us here for a refreshment. The things that He has given us as a provision are that they are emergency from the Lord. But if there are our complete focus, we lose the main point that is to serve the Lord.
And this 300 we're willing to do that. And they serve the Lord and they were willing to serve the Lord in a way that was not they were not even seen when they were serving the Lord, because when when Gideon said do what I do, he had they had a trumpet in one hand and they had a lamp on the other hand. And.
They were in darkness, they were not seen and.
00:45:03
When when the Lord gave the median eyes in their hands, the credit went to the Ephraimites. They, they, they, they got more credit in in their in their eyes and.
They were not in the in the spotlight, if you want to call it that.
But the Lord wants to use us if we are willing to do that. We don't need to be in the spotlight as long as we're doing what the Lord wants us to do.
And, umm.
I want to go back a little bit on that note to chapter 6.
And verse 36.
And Gideon said unto God, If thou will save Israel by my hand, as thou has said, behold, I put a fleece of wool in the floor, And if the dew be on the fleas only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou will save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.
And it was so for the for he rose up early in the mar on the Morrow and thrust the fleas together, and ranked the dew out of the fleas, a bowl full of water.
So.
What we have learned from this is that.
We should be ready, umm, even even when other, even when everything else is dry around us. In the case of of Gideon, he said if if thou will save Israel by mine hand. So that please, I understand it to be Gideon himself.
Even though everything else was dry around didn't want it to bring blessings for the people of the Lord.
Even if, if everything is dried around us, we could still be a blessing for the people of the Lord. And that's what the dew speaks of, a blessing. And it was, it says it was wrong. And a cup full of water was brought up and that was refreshment for the people of the Lord.
And, umm.
Sometimes it takes the ringing it it the apostle Paul was consumed by the service of the Lord and it was because he loved the Lord and but it takes it, it takes effort.
And umm, it takes willingness, but it's not your own strength. It's not my own strength.
And then the second attempt, the 2nd test that he does with the fleas is also interesting. And in this case he doesn't say.
If thou will save Israel by my hand, this is the opposite of that.
It says in Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hard against me, and I will speak unto but this one let me prove, I pray thee, but this one's with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleas, and upon all the ground. Let there be dew, And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleas only, and there was dew on all the ground.
So the fleece was dry.
On the ground.
Was when?
That talks about even if the Lord was not going to save Israel by Gideon's hand, even if there, if, even if the duo did not come through Gideon, even if the dew does not come through us, we should be happy that the ground has due. We should be ground that there is blessing for our brethren, even if it's not through us.
It comes from another way. Then we should be happy. That's part of the service of the Lord. If we're serving the Lord, it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be that we think that it needs to be through us. If the Lord wants to use another brother, we should be happy with that.
And justice to conclude, you know, we have only a few minutes.
I was thinking of the way that the Lord works with us.
And.
I know that a few of you noticed this morning that there was a bald eagle and, uh, on the yard and, uh, that remind me of something in of a scripture in Deuteronomy chapter 32 in connection with what we have here that the Lord does work with us to prepare us for his service.
Your roommate 32.
00:50:28
To find the verse.
Verse 11.
Your army 3211 Says as an eagle stirred up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth, brought her wings, taketh them, burst them on her wings. So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. He made him he. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, and he made him to saw Connie out of the rock.
And oil out of the Plenty Rock.
So I was thinking of what this means from the scripture. As many of you know, the the eagle makes an S and it has branches and thorns and sometimes small rocks. And then she covers that with the feathers and makes it very comfortable. And then she lays her eggs and then her young are are born there and her Youngs are very comfortable with all that feather.
But after a while, they need to fly.
And they don't want to.
And, umm.
Because they are very comfortable.
And what the eagle does, as it says here, it stirs off her nest, it takes the feathers away and it flaughters her nest. And all that fluffy stuff leaves the nest and they now feel uncom uncomfortable.
Before they were afraid, you know, they look down, they're even afraid of the heights because they're not ready to fly.
But when they feel uncomfortable then they they actually jump out and they don't fly.
What happens is that they try and then the eagle goes under them and catches them and brings them back again and they have to try again. And that's why it says the spread is her. It spreaders have brought her wings tickets then burst them on her wings. So the Lord does not leave us, but He wants to train us. He wants to train us for his service and overall He wants us to be more like His son.
The goal of the Father is that we are.
More like his son.
Even even from down here, we will see him as he is when we, when we are in heaven, when we meet him in, in, in the clouds, But umm, he wants us to be like him even from now. And he works, uh, with us, uh, for that purpose. If we look at an eagle doing that, clocking all the feathers out and making their, their, their young ones uncomfortable, we don't think, oh, that's a bad eagle. Look, what is what he's doing to.
These young ones, we don't think about that. We say, well, there's there's a purpose.
But when the Lord does that to us, we complain and we don't think there's a purpose. They say, well, look what's happening to me.
Or, umm, look what's happening to that brother. The Lord has a purpose for each one of us, and He does things to teach us. And as he did with Gideon, he corrected him, but he also showed him that he works, umm.
Weakness is what he uses. When we feel ourselves weak, then he can use us and he's able to use us in in in such a manner that we're honor, honorable to him. If we're not umm, if we're thinking that we're something, then we cannot serve him.
I was speaking to brother Dave Umm also about his trips to India.
And he was mentioning about CAA and he said that we're well a CAS when they throw a paper on the on the ground and they expect the lower caste to pick it up because they feel so important.
But he was saying the Christians you see a a leading brother, he's serving water to the other one.
Umm, how different that is from where they come from.
Is totally different. Christianity is totally different. And the Lord came to serve us and he made himself so that he will serve us, umm, for all eternity. He is serving us now. He came to serve us when he came on, when he came to die on the cross. He's serving us now, interceding for us, and he will serve us then. It is a a wonderful thing to think of, but very sovereign too.
00:55:25
How is it that our Lord is going to serve us and that should it should flow from our hearts first worship and they're in service for Him.
That we should be, that we should umm, dedicate our lives to Him and that we should put umm, we should do whatever He has given us to do. Because if we are a member of the body of Christ, we have a gift that is from the Lord.
And, umm.
To conclude, recruiting #46 in the back.
But before we do that, I'd like to ask the same question I asked before. How many of you are in the ministry? Like to see some hands?
Thank you, we could see 46 if somebody can help me.
01:00:10
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for Thy word.
Which speaks to us and which teaches us.
We are Father that our eyes and our hearts may be may be on Him that save ourselves, Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may be focused on Him, that He may be the object umm of our affections, and that our occupation with Him may produce a life of worship and our service.
We may be waiting for His coming, and while we wait for His coming, we may serve Him.
That thou may work in our hearts, that we may do so.
Thou has given each one of us.
Something to do, Father. We ask that each one of us may do so.
Help us, uh, we cannot do it on our own strength.
But we umm, help us to focus on these so that we may umm.
Get hold, get a hold of the provisions that Thou has given us and be able to serve Thee. We ask for the remaining part of the day, and we ask for the remaining stay that we have here at camp. And we ask for continuous blessing and fellowship. And that we may ha have the things of that that light things in our hearts and in our minds, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Session #2
Dispensational Truths Connected
Address—Josh Stewart
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.
Welcome to the meeting tonight. It's so great to see so many here. Let's begin, uh, tonight with him 330.
330.
What raised the wondrous thought all the day?
No problem. And if I love lifetime love counselor.
May fall as long as I'm gone now. It's not. It's gonna rain. Crimes and time.
Umm, I wonder if I'm happy?
To bring Friday.
I'll just read one verse before we pray. You don't have to turn there, but it's Psalm 119, verse 18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Let's pray. A loving God and our Father, we just pray.
This evening, that our eyes might be opened, that we might behold wondrous things out of thy law, as we have our Bibles open that we might.
Learn that which is thy desire for us.
And that the glory might go back to Thee, our God.
As we have been singing, what raised the wondrous thought or who did it suggest? And we know that the thoughts were thine our Father and our God. And so we just pray tonight that as a result of this meeting and as a result of the scriptures that we have before us, that more glory and honor might be brought to our Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask this in his worthy and precious name, Amen.
Well.
I've had a line of things on my heart for the past, umm, few weeks, maybe even months, and I would like to umm, unburden myself tonight. Umm.
The, uh, the line of things that's been before me has to do with the Word of God, and it has to do with how the Word of God is all connected together.
And.
Umm, the Word of God is like a puzzle, and So what I wanna do tonight is work on a puzzle together. So how many of you here like puzzles?
There's a lot of people that like puzzles and that's, that's great. And umm, you know, sometimes we do a puzzle and there's a lot of pieces to the puzzle.
Who, who, Who said they really like puzzles?
Tim, how What was the biggest puzzle have you ever done?
00:05:05
3000 pieces. That's fantastic. Well, I have a puzzle tonight and we're going to, with the Lord's help, walk through the puzzle and I'd like to use it as an illustration to show how the word of God all fits together and it works together. You know, there are, there's a thought and I've I've heard it and I perhaps I don't. I sensed it in myself.
That, umm.
I can dispense, I can do away with this part of the word of God, that this particular truth, I can set it aside and I don't have to worry about it. It's not going to affect me.
One of the things I'd like to show is that we can't do that. It's all the word of God. It's all connected together. And as you know, when you're doing a puzzle, if you lose one piece, what happens? You cannot finish the puzzle properly. So I'd like to show you that with God's help tonight. And, uh, I'd like to speak to you tonight about how.
Man's wisdom can come into.
Our thinking and affect our thoughts and get us off track.
This book is the word of God.
And umm, if there's, if there's nothing else that you get from this meeting, I hope that you understand that this is God's word that God has spoken to us and our place is to accept what he said. We may not understand it, we may not be able to logically reason it out, but we need to accept it because it's God's word. He is the Creator after all, and we are his creatures.
And So what can happen sometimes as human wisdom can come in?
To our understanding and we can get off track and it can cause us to set aside one of those puzzle pieces. Well, the word of God is it's, uh, it's not limited to four puzzle pieces. Tonight I'm just going to take up four things in the word of God that are connected together. But really the whole word of God is like a huge puzzle. More than 3000 pieces, OK.
And they're all connected together and umm, So what I wanna do tonight, with the Lord's help?
Is to take up four pieces that are, you might say, overarching themes. Umm, it's, it's in a line of things that we sometimes call dispensational truth. And that's, that's very, very important. I'm not going to talk tonight about dispensations exactly and exactly what a dispensation is and how many there are and when they start and end. I don't want to get into that, but I want to.
Speak to you briefly in a general way of some of the great themes.
In Scripture pertaining to God's purpose and the ways that God is going to go about to accomplish that purpose. And So what I'd like to do without any further delay is start with our first puzzle piece and umm, I was able to.
If I turn this on.
Put the puzzle pieces up on the screen in case you can't see.
I've used this puzzle one other time, and so it's been across the country and back, and it doesn't fit together quite as nicely as it once did. But I have some clips that I may need to rely on if it doesn't quite stay together. Umm. But we'll start with this puzzle piece, The testing of man.
And umm, let's turn to ververse to 1St Corinthians chapter 15 now.
There are so many verses that we could read to do with these truths that I would like to speak on tonight. And, umm.
We could never go through all of them. In fact, each one of these four puzzle pieces that I'd like to talk about tonight you could spend a week of meetings on. OK. And, and I'm gonna try to discipline myself to maybe 5 minutes for each piece. So I'm probably just gonna read one verse for each one and just give a brief summary. Umm. And so the testing of man, umm, what I'd like to do just just first of all do, is just run over in our minds for all of us.
What do we mean by the testing of man? Well, Adam was the first man, and he was placed in the Garden of Eden. And God gave Adam a simple test. He told Adam you could eat from every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat thereof, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That was his test, obedience. Would he obey God?
00:10:09
Did Adam obey God? No, he did not obey God. Well, Adam was.
Expelled from the Garden of Eden and uh, God allowed man to go on for 1700 years almost with nothing but his conscience to uh, remind him of what is good and what is evil.
And during that 1700 years, did man get better or did he get worse?
Silas, he got worse. That's right. In fact, the the world was filled with violence and corruption such that God said the end of all flesh has come before me. And he said that he would judge men with the earth, and he would destroy men from off the face of the earth. Well, after the flood, when Noah came off the ark, God gave something to Noah.
He gave him a number of instructions, Genesis Chapter 9, but one of the things he gave.
To NOAA was government, and he told NOAA, if somebody commits murder, you're responsible to put that man to death.
And he committed the principle of government to NOAA. Whoso shutteth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. You can look that up in Genesis Chapter 9. I'm gonna try to quote these verses instead of turning to them.
And government was given to restrain evil. And man continued. And on through the course of time God began. God continued to give various principles to man.
And each of those principles was a test for man.
He gave to Abraham the principal of calling and promise. Later on he gave to Moses the principle of law, and then priesthood, and then judges, and then kings, and then prophets. Each one of those things was for man, for his blessing, if he would take it from God.
But each of those proved to be a test that man failed, and he just continued to fail over and over and over again. And that's what we have in the Old Testament, a history of the failure of man. God chose a nation called the nation of Israel, and they're just like a sample of all of mankind. And Israel failed over and over and over again.
And then God had one final Test for man.
The final Test for Mann? Does anyone know what the final Test was for man?
And the greatest test, I might say.
Does anyone wanna volunteer, Dave?
Very good. You quoted a very important verse. Umm, let me just try to quote it. It's from, I believe it's from Mark chapter 12, the parable of the vineyard. I'm gonna recommend you read that for homework. The husbandmen, uh, the owner of the vineyard said.
Having therefore one son his well beloved, he sent him unto them, saying, Surely they will reverence my son.
But they said, come, this is the error, let us kill him and seize upon his inheritance. The greatest test that God ever gave to man was the sending of the sun into this world, because the Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ was here on this earth, right before man was the full heart and character of God displayed.
Light and love, grace and truth. And it was right there under man's nose. What did he do?
What did he do with the Son of God, with the Messiah of Israel, with the Lord of glory? What did man do with him? He nailed Him to a cross. That is the last Test. God is done now. Pencils down. OK, the test is over. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 12. Now is the judgment of this world.
It's done.
And God is no longer testing man in the flesh. He's done with it. That test sealed the deal. Man is irrecoverable. He can do nothing to recover himself. He can do nothing to please God. That man is what scripture calls the 1St man, So First Corinthians 15.
00:15:05
And, uh, jumping down to the end of the chapter.
1St Corinthians 15.
And I would like to read.
Verse 46 and 47.
It says, howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual.
But that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The 1St man is of the earth earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy. Such are they also that are earthy. And that's, that's really where I wanted to stop.
Well, there's not just one man, there's two. Praise be to God. There's not just the first man, but there's a second man. The 1St man was tested and it and we read throughout the Old Testament and into the Gospels and even the book of Acts.
The fact that man, the 1St man, is a failure. But what we find is that God doesn't just have one man, he has two. He has a second man and that man is the Lord from heaven. The 1St man is natural and he is earthy and he fails over and over and over again. But God has another man, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God came into this world and became a man. He is the second man, He is spiritual, He is heavenly.
And he is perfect.
And one of the things I believe we have in the Word of God, running all through the Word of God.
Is the fact that the 1St man fails and everything God gives to him.
But the second man succeeds perfectly in everything. The 1St man has failed it.
Umm, JN Darby was, was asked to write an introduction to the Bible and uh, his opening comment was what a task to write an introduction to the Bible. But one of the comments he made in that, uh, in that introduction was that the Bible is a history of two men, a history of the first man and the history of the 2nd man. And so we see these two things running all through the word of God.
But the first man fails, the 2nd man succeeds perfectly.
And so we find that all those dispensations that were given to the first man, whether it is.
The priesthood, whether it was the judges, whether it was kings, whether it was prophets, we see these things all fulfilled perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And some of them in the future day, I said that, uh, God dispensed priesthood to know that when the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven after completing the work of the cross, God told him, the Father told him, sit thou at my right hand until I make them any thine enemies thy footstool. And he also said to him, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So you see how man failed in priesthood, but the Lord Jesus is the perfect.
Priest after the Order of Melchizedek.
Man failed under the judges, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the Judge of Israel.
We know as King he is not only the King of the Jews, but he's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As as a prophet, he is that prophet that Moses spoke of in the book of Deuteronomy, to whom all his people will one day listen.
And here and so the second man has, has and will succeed in all that the 1St man has failed. OK.
The next piece that I want to talk about.
Is the mystery OK?
The mystery, OK. And it's not a mystery as to what this mystery is. Alright, we're gonna talk about this. This is probably one of the most important things to study in the Word of God. What is the mystery? OK, so we're gonna turn to a verse in a minute that tells us what the mystery is. But first of all, the Word of God is God's revelation to us. It's God's mind revealed to us and he.
Saw fit to write down some of those revelations for us, so we have them today. God did not give all of those revelations at once. He didn't reveal everything to Adam and Eve. Later on He revealed more like to Moses and others throughout history. But when we come to the New Testament, we find that there was a revelation which God kept hidden throughout all the ages of time.
00:20:12
All through the Old Testament scriptures he kept this thing hidden.
And that thing is called the mystery and.
He kept it hidden until the testing of the first man was completed. He kept that hidden.
And umm, he kept it hidden. But then after the cross was the work of the cross was complete, he came out and he told us about this mystery that had been kept secret since the beginning of the world.
Let's turn to Colossians chapter 2. I just want to read a verse to emphasize the importance of this Colossians chapter 2.
And.
Well, we'll pick up in the middle of verse umm 2.
It says being knit together in love, and then to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. The next words really shouldn't be there, and of the Father and of Christ.
In whom again, a poor translation, it really should say, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So I know that might be a little hard to follow, but if you look in critical translations, you'll see that what this is saying is that in the mystery, again, I we haven't talked about what the mystery is yet, but I want to emphasize the importance of it in the mystery our hid.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I'm just gonna say this to you young people, children trying to learn the word of God. You need to learn what the mystery is. In the mystery are hit all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When you understand what this mystery is, it will open up the rest of the word of God to you. OK, So what is the mystery? I wanna lead lead you on too long.
Let's turn over to Ephesians 3. Very thankful to God that He gave us a verse that tells us exactly what the mystery is. OK, Ephesians 3 and verse.
Well, it's just, umm, start with verse.
Too, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to Ewart, how that by revelation he bade known unto me the mystery, as I wrote a four and few words, whereby when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And here verse six is tell what is telling us exactly what the mystery is.
That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. What is the mystery? The mystery is the wonderful truth that now, after the cross, God was going to bring some from among the Gentiles and some from among the Jews into something brand new that did not exist before.
That is the church, he says here, the same body, the body of Christ. The mystery is the truth that God was gonna bring some from the among the Gentiles and some from among the Jews into something brand new, the Church of God, which is the body of Christ. It did not exist before there was. It was not revealed beforehand in the Old Testament.
For 4000 years nothing about it. But now God is doing something brand new. OK.
And we find that God has a wonderful purpose for this church that he formed from Jewish Gentile. They are fellow heirs. What does that mean? Well, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ, the 2nd man, has an inheritance. He is the Creator of all things. He is the Redeemer of all things. He's the heir of all things.
He has inherited everything.
He's inherited the entire universe. It belongs to him.
00:25:01
And he has a bride, and that bride is the church that's you and me. We're part of this Church of God, the body of Christ.
God wanted his Son to have a companion, to have a bride, to share all that he possesses, to have her with him and share everything that he has. And that is what the church is. The church is that bride, that companion, that body that is his. We are the closest people to Christ. We are bone of His bone.
Flesh of his flesh.
We are the bride and body of Christ. That is the truth of the mystery. It is incredible.
You know something, if we didn't have this truth of the mystery, I think I don't. I don't know. It's hard to say where we would be. But wouldn't there be something missing? Did God having his purpose to pick, to take up with the nation of Israel and deal with this obscure people over on the side of the Mediterranean and, and deal with them and test them and see them fail over and over again?
Was that really his end goal? Is that what he's been getting at this whole time? No, no, no, no, no. Instead, the Apostle Paul reveals. The Spirit of God reveals through the Apostle Paul the truth that God has something so much farther beyond all of that. He had from a past eternity the purpose to give His Son a bride.
To share with him all that he possesses, well, that is what the mystery is, and there's much, much more that could be said about it.
So again, I'm just going right over the surface of things at 30,000 feet and we're just giving a high level overview. Well, how does the mystery fit with the testing of Man? So I have my two puzzle pieces here and I would like to show you how they fit together.
OK, can everyone see now how these two pieces fit together?
Well, how do they fit together?
Well, as I said before, the mystery was revealed after the testing of the first man was complete.
God finished that testing. God do all along what the outcome would be. He's omniscient of course, but for men and angels, he allowed that testing to roll on. And now it's complete and the conclusion is final that the 1St man, the natural man, the earthly man, can do nothing for God.
And then he formed the church, and he began to build the church.
From Pentecost onward and that companion for Christ is associated with the 2nd man.
That, I believe, is the great connection. All of our hopes, all of our promises, all of our blessings, our destiny is all in heaven with the heavenly man, with Christ. We are not an earthly people. We are a heavenly people because we are united to a heavenly man, the 2nd man, the Lord from heaven.
And for us, I might just add to go back.
To the first man to go back to the law, to go back to the things of this earth is really to miss Our Calling, to really to miss our true identity as the Church of God. OK, so that's how those pieces connect together. And there's more ways that they connect together, but we've got to keep moving. So let's talk about our next piece.
The next piece is.
Prophetic events.
Prophetic events, OK.
Now there might be some people smiling here.
There's no way we're going to cover prophetic events in 5 minutes, OK? That would take a week, two weeks, 3 weeks to even begin to scratch the surface.
Let's just reverse.
Again, what I'm trying to do is not so much.
Expound these various truths, but it's just to show you how they're connected together and to remind you of what they are. Let's turn to Revelation. Revelation chapter 19 for a verse.
Let's read part of verse 10.
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It says the last part of the verse.
Worship God.
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
What I wanted to start with in talking about prophetic events is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the theme of all prophecy.
What is prophecy? What are prophetic events? Well, I believe prophetic events. Prophecy in the sense that we're talking about today. There's a broader sense of what prophecy is, but in the sense we're talking about today is the revelation beforehand of future events Co in connection with God's interest in the earth.
The revelation beforehand of future events in connection with God's interests in the earth.
And in the Word of God, a great portion of of the Word of God is connected with prophecy. A great portion of it is prophetic. The major profits, the minor profits, there's many types and pictures in the Old Testament that are prophetic. Even in the New Testament there's a great deal that's prophetic. What is prophecy and what are prophetic events?
As I as I read here the testimony of Jesus.
Is the spirit of prophecy. And so we've we find in the Word of God that prophetic events are what are going to begin to unfold after the church is taken out of this world.
And they prophetic events describe the steps that God is going to take to glorify His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the theme of prophecy and umm, God is going to take steps to vindicate and to glorify His Son here in the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ was rejected and he was cast out.
2000 years ago and God has not forgotten there is going to be judgment on this world. His son will be glorified here in this world. He's not gonna start over on Mars or some planet somewhere out in the.
Solar system.
He's going to come back here and he's going to be glorified here and every eye shall see him and he is going to be glorified.
And judgment is going to come on this world, and prophecy describes those judgments that are going to fall. Are we going to be here for those judgments? Is the Church going to be here for those judgments? No. The Lord Jesus says in Revelation chapter 3 that He will keep the Church out of the hour, out of the time of tribulation which is coming upon the world to try them, which dwell upon the earth. We are going to be taken.
Before those events begin. But judgment is coming and evil is going to grow worse and worse in the earth, and men are going to apostatize and God is going to bring his judgments. Christianity is going to continue after the church is taken out. It won't be the true believers. It will be false. Profession is gonna continue and it's gonna grow worse and worse and worse. And it's described in the Book of Revelation. Read chapter 17 and 18.
As Babylon the Great.
The mother of harlots, she is. Drunken with the blood of the Saints she is.
Controlling the governments of the earth. And she is laughing in the face of God. This is the church, this is the false church. This is what's left after the true have been taken out. And God is going to judge her, he says.
Their recompense unto her, even as she has recompensed and double unto her double. And so she is going to be, she is going to be judged. The false church. Judaism is going to apostatize as well.
Jews are gonna come back to their homeland and they're gonna be there, many of them in unbelief, and they're going. A king is going to rise up among them, and they're going to receive that king. That king is called Antichrist, and they're going to receive him. And rather than protect them, that false king is going to lead them headlong into destruction.
God is going to raise up the ancient enemies of Israel surrounding the land who are going to threaten them. And finally, at the end, God is going to allow the great enemy of Israel, the Assyrian. I don't think it's the.
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Same ethnic group, but answering to the what the Assyrian was in the Old Testament. A great enemy to sweep down through the land of Israel, and it's gonna put an end to apostate Judaism.
Governments are going to apostatize. Satan, through his energy, is going to gather all the peoples of the world into great confederacies. There's going to be a Western confederacy. Sometimes we call it the revived Roman Empire or the Beast.
Probably some of those that you know.
Who are who are rejecting the gospel, who don't, do not die through some of the natural disasters that occur. I shouldn't call them natural. Unnatural disasters that occur in the tribulation period will perhaps find themselves aligned with the beast in the West. There's gonna be an eastern confederacy under someone called the Assyrian, the king of the North, the Little Horn.
Many Arab nations and Muslim nations are going to align themselves under the Eastern Confederacy. There's gonna be a Southern confederacy, Egypt and Ethiopia and her allies. There's gonna be a northern Great Northern Confederacy. Gog and Magog and many nations confederate with her.
This is going to happen very, very soon.
And God is going to bring judgment down. Those confederacies are going to smash themselves against the stone of Israel, against the rock of Zion. They are going to be met by the Lord when he comes out of heaven in judgment on all his enemies. And when all his enemies are put down, that he is going to set up a Kingdom.
And he is going to reign here in this world for 1000 years.
And that is going to be a reign of peace.
And here's why. It's a reign of peace, because it's a reign of righteousness.
And he is going to reign for 1000 years and he is going to be king over all the earth.
And umm, at the end of the thousand years, then God is going to bring in a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwell, sin will be no longer, and that's going to be the eternal state of the universe.
Well, there's a lot more than that, but.
That's a little bit of what's going to happen in prophecy.
But the goal of it all is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is.
A huge part of the Word of God prophecy. How does it fit?
How does?
This is where I might need my clips. How does prophecy fit with the mystery and the testing of man? You better just get those.
Thank you.
OK, I'll put these together and then we'll talk briefly about how these pieces fit.
OK.
Prophetic events fitting in with our other two puzzle pieces. OK, last time I uh.
I did this the the pieces held together better but.
All right, I think that's going to fall apart, but in reality, the pieces fit together perfectly.
OK, here's how they fit together.
Prophetic events is running on a timeline in God's word and I won't have you turn there, but for further study I suggest you look at Daniel Chapter 9 in which we find that God's timeline to bring in the Millennium thousand year reign of Christ is running on a timeline of 70 weeks of years or 490 years.
And that that timeline has been cut short at the 69th week and there is one week or seven years of that timeline remaining.
That seven-year period is the tribulation in which those judgments that I already talked about are going to take place.
And in between the 69th week which was concluded by the Lord Jesus the Messiah. You can look it up for yourself being cut off.
At the cross.
And these remaining seven years is a huge span of time that has opened up between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel.
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And the church, the mystery unfolds in that parenthesis in that period of time. So do you know what a parenthesis is? You use it in your sentences, a parenthesis.
Use these little symbols.
And you put something in the parenthesis that helps you to understand what's around it. But you could just take the parenthesis out and reread over it.
OK, that's what a parenthesis paren parentheses are. The mystery unfolds in a parenthesis in time, in a prophetic timeline.
And we live in that period, and there's going to come a time when that prophetic clock, if you will, is going to resume and Daniel's 70th week will begin to unfold. But we live in a parenthesis in that. And the prophetic events have primarily to do with Israel and the nations on the earth. But we live in a parenthesis.
That is heavenly.
And so everything in this parenthesis has to do with the Church of God deals with us as a heavenly people.
And the events that will take place after we are gone, God is gonna direct His attention back down to the earth and to deal with Israel again on the earth. So I bring this out to show you that these things fit together. If you don't see what the mystery is, if you don't see that it is something distinct, that it is not Israel, it is something brand new that never existed before.
Something that is heavenly and disconnected with the earth if you don't see that.
You're not gonna understand prophecy.
And we're gonna talk about that a little bit at the end of the meeting. OK? I need to keep moving our next piece.
Is.
I lost it.
Our next piece here it is.
Is the glory of Christ the glory of Christ? If I could say there's one theme to the whole word of God, it's this. It's the glory of Christ. OK, there it is.
And for this, we're gonna turn to a well known verse. But first, before we do, we've talked about the testing of men that's passed. We've talked about the mystery that's currently going on as God is building the church. We've talked about prophetic events future. Now we're gonna talk about something.
That's eternal, and it's the eternal purpose of God.
And this is one of my favorite verses in the Word of God. So turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians, chapter one.
And we'll read.
Umm, Let's just start with verse 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.
Even in him. We're gonna pause there, but don't lose your place.
OK, let me just read that again, just first. Ten. In the dispensation of the fullness of times, he or God might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. Even in Him. The truth that I have just read, God, Spirit of God calls the mystery of God's will.
You know, there are people in this world today that are seeking, that are looking for the purpose of everything. They're doing their PhD thesis on the purpose of human existence. God tells us the purpose of everything right here in this verse. He tells us the purpose.
The God of the universe.
Have a purpose in His heart from a past eternity, and He has come alongside you and alongside me, and He has whispered, if you will, that secret in your ear, and that this is His purpose. He's gonna glorify Christ. That is what He's going to do. That is what He is after, to glorify His Son.
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And here's how he's going to do it. He's going to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. God is going to bring all things under the headship of the 2nd man.
And prophecy describes how he's going to do that in earth, but it also says in heaven. And the church is going to be headed up, is headed up by Christ. He is the head of the church. And Israel is going to be headed up by Christ as the Messiah. And so the entire world, heaven and earth, is going to be placed under the headship of Christ. He is the glorified head of it all.
All the glory is going to be brought to him. That's God's purpose. That's what he's been getting at.
Why create man in the 1St place? Why suffer? Why allow all of the things that have come into this world? Why test man?
Why do all that he has done?
To glorify Christ, That's what it says. That is the mystery of his will.
Isn't that amazing? This is what God has said. He's revealed it to us.
Well, how does it fit well?
It fits wonderfully.
Umm, let's let's put this piece.
OK.
The glory of Christ fits together with the testing of man, because everything that the 1St man failed, every test he failed, the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna take up that and himself, and he's gonna do it perfectly.
And all of the prophecies all are made in Christ.
All the promises of God.
Are yay and in him Amen to the glory of God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to be glorified. How does it fit with the mystery? Because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have a companion with him. I'm going to read that in a minute. The next verse. How does it fit with prophecy? Because prophecy, prophetic events are the steps God is going to take to glorify his Son here in the earth.
It fits with all of these pieces.
And it's.
God's eternal purpose. I forgot to read the next verse and I need to do it because it's the second part of God's eternal purpose, verse 11.
In whom we, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council of his own will.
God is going to place Christ as the glorified head of all things.
And then if that wasn't enough to make you a worshiper, to make me a worshiper, it says here we have obtained an inheritance, God has given Christ a companion to inherit that all with. And there in that glorified state, as head over all things, as the one before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.
We are going to be alongside him, sharing and all that he is.
And in all that he has, we have obtained an inheritance in Christ.
Isn't that amazing? That's you and that's me. Old Testament Saints didn't have a hope.
Didn't have a clue, didn't have a inkling of blessing like this. This is reserved for those who are part of the Church of God, the bride of Christ. Well.
What I wanted to do next was to take our puzzle.
And I wanted to show what happens at the close of this meeting when we bring in human wisdom into the things of God. What's gonna happen to this beautiful puzzle?
And I wanted to just read one verse before we demonstrate this to you.
In First Corinthians chapter four First Corinthians is a book that takes up.
At the beginning especially human wisdom coming into the things of God.
It's been my experience that so much of the trouble that has come into Christianity has come in from bringing human wisdom into the things of God.
00:50:09
Human wisdom basically says this. I know better than God. That's a pretty serious thing to say. Who here would say that? Well, we don't necessarily think that way, but we might be unconscious that our thought processes are actually putting us in a position like that.
We need to understand that this is God's Word and it is up here and we are creatures and we are down here. We are blessed creatures. Oh, we are infinitely blessed creatures, but we are still His creatures. This is God's revelation and we need to get down on our knees and accept it as His word. We are subject to it.
It's the only way we can be blessed is really to be dependent on Him. But what happens when human wisdom comes into the things of God?
As man gets to reasoning and he takes this book and he makes it down here and he makes it the subject of his own thoughts, something comes up in the word he doesn't understand. And what he does is he, he, he subjects it to his own logical reasoning. You take man, uh, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Can you logically put those two things together, Evan?
Can you put? No, you can't. What happens when human reasoning comes in? As we say, this has got to be understandable and rational to my human logic.
And, and, and then we twist the word of God, or we deny some part of it. We set something aside this morning. We talked about the eternal sonship of Christ. We talked about how there are some who want to deny that blessed truth.
You know, it's been interesting to me that with that particular error that that comes in, most of the time, denials of the eternal sonship of Christ come whence when certain individuals take what we experience in the relationship of human fathers to human sons and they impose that on the relationships of God the Father and God the Son like this.
Is.
Tim, you have a son.
You bigot Kyle, you therefore must have existed before Kyle and they imposed that on God the Father and God the Son and say therefore.
The sun and the sonship of Christ must not be eternal, you see. That's human wisdom coming into the things of God.
Another thing is he that begets is greater than he that is begotten. That's something that's true. A Father is greater in a certain sense than his Son.
It's called the sunship inferiority theory, and it's that sunship is is connected with inferiority that the Lord Jesus, when he became, as they say, the Son, that he took a lower place. The Scripture never presents sonship as having to do with inferiority. Again, see, it's taking human reasoning and bringing it into the things of God. And what does it do? It wreaks havoc.
So what I want to encourage you young people and children, is to take this book and read it for yourself. And when God says something, just believe it. Just believe it. It's God's word. You may not understand how all the pieces fit together, but just receive it. So First Corinthians 4, verse 6, just the last part of the verse.
There's a phrase in here that is not in the best manuscripts that is.
Of men middle of the the verse. So I'll just read it without that. That gene might learn in us not to think or not to let your thoughts go above what is written.
Not to let your thoughts go above what is written.
And I believe this is what we need to do. We need to think when we read the Bible, but we need to not let our thoughts go above what is written. So if you if you get nothing else out of this, I hope you can learn that great lesson.
OK, let's see what happens. First thing we're gonna do is we're gonna see what happens when we bring in natural wisdom. And I wanna show what happens when we look at the testing of man and we bring in human reasoning. OK, What we're gonna do is find the puzzle piece.
Right here.
I gotta do this very quickly.
We're going to bring in this piece here that says deny the failure of the first man. Now, there are some that teach, you know, man really isn't a failure. The 1St man, in fact, he's gradually improving himself over time. And yeah, Israel may have failed in the Old Testament, but in the church period, we're gonna get it right. And that man is slowly improving himself. And in fact, Jesus, some actually teach us not all. Some teach that Jesus just came here to be the perfect role model.
00:55:21
Of what a good human ought to be and we just need to imitate him. That's human wisdom coming into the things of God. I don't want to admit that the 1St man is a failure. OK, let's see what happens.
You know this is gonna be better on the screen, but what I wanted to show is that it doesn't fit with the pieces we have.
OK.
It doesn't fit.
Did everyone see that these two pieces don't fit together?
Alright, what happens when you're building a puzzle and two pieces don't fit?
You want them to fit, but they don't fit. What do you do?
What do you do? Someone just say it.
You can force them together. That's one option. Get out the hammer.
Get out the glue. You've thought of it, I've thought of it. Where is that piece where you find another piece? This is what happens when we try to force human wisdom into the things of God as we end up not just denying one thing we have to say, take the next piece out. We've got to do something with that. And what do we come up with?
We come up with a piece that does fit, but it's also.
Runs contrary to the word of God.
And instead of the mystery, we, we will embrace replacement theology. OK. Each of these is a contrast to the one that it replaced. It fits with this erroneous piece, but it denies the word of God. What's replacement theology? Replacement theology is the teaching that the church is the replacement of Israel, that the church is the spiritual continuator of Israel.
And, umm.
That basically, there's no such thing as a heavenly.
People of God, the church today that we are just a continuation of Israel and they go through they go through hoops to show that try to show that from the word of God. It's an awful thing what they do. They basically deny that there's an earthly people of God and they say that the church has a role in this earth. The church is not heavenly merely, it is earthly as well. We have a responsibility to influence the governments of.
Earth and uh, it's, it leads to that because if we refuse to realize that God has passed judgment on the 1St man, then we don't see what he has done after the cross and he's opened up something brand new connected with the 2nd man. OK, So what happens next?
We find that replacement theology. Uh oh. That doesn't fit with prophetic events. Now, you know what happens when you put the wrong piece in. Let's say you were to get out that hammer, OK, and force it. The next piece isn't gonna fit any better. So what do we do?
You throw it aside.
And we replace it.
With another piece.
This one holds together better actually.
The literal We deny the literal fulfillment of prophecy.
OK, so how does that work? Well, we've, we've already, uh, embraced replacement theology, which says that the church is the replacement, the conspiratorial continuator of Israel. So then what's, what's to become of the nation of Israel? Are they going to be restored in the Millennium under Christ?
No, because we've already said the church has replaced them. So what about all those prophecies that said that Israel was going to be restored? What are we going to do with them? They said that the city was going to be rebuilt, that Israel was going to be established in their land. Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 32. Read those prophecies. What are we going to do with this? We're going to deny that those prophecies are literal, and instead we're going to say they're all spiritual or they're all.
You see how these one thing leads to another?
01:00:01
OK, one final step.
I know our time is gone, but.
Just for the sake of completion.
The final step.
And they need to, uh, advance the.
Is to detract from the glory of Christ. Final step.
You might say, oh you know, I never intended to do that. I just started out by denying the failure of the 1St man.
But I ended up detracting from the glory of Christ. Well, how does that work? Well, a number of ways #1 If the 1St man wasn't ruined, then why did Christ need to come? Why did he need to die on the cross #2?
Does God keep his promises? Our brother Bernie spoke on God's faithfulness. Does God keep his promises?
We said no, he doesn't.
We're gonna, we're gonna spiritualize, we're gonna allegorize them. And God isn't faithful and it robs Christ of his glory. And there's many other ways, too. Again, I'm speeding.
And So what we have here.
Is not just one error, but a whole system of errors. Does anyone know of a verse it talks about a system of errors?
Joe, can you think of 1?
Yes, Ephesians 4 verse 14 I believe talks about systematized error.
And let's just quickly.
Look at that.
And then we'll close.
Ephesians 4. Sorry, I'm having a hard time turning to it. Ephesians 4 and verse 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of man, and in cunning craftiness. And this should be translated onto the systematizing of error.
And so you see the dangerous thing about this.
Is that it's a system of error that all fits together. It all works, and you talk to someone who holds these errors and they've got an answer for everything.
But it's all wrong, and it's so dangerous because once we start by bringing human wisdom into the things of God, it doesn't stop until we fall down into a system like this. Now, can someone tell me, roughly speaking?
The system of error that I have shown here is that there's a term for it that we've used before. Does anyone know what it's what I'm what I'm getting at here?
Covenant theology, I don't know who said that. It's exactly right. So we talked about covenant theology. We wonder how did we, how does someone get into that? How does someone fall into that?
Step by step, that's the answer. Step by step. And it starts with insisting on our own will and our own thinking rather than simply submitting to the mind and will of God. Well, that's a warning, but I think.
Something that the Lord put on my heart to say to you young people and children, and I guess adults as well.
Think of the first puzzle that we showed the.
The true puzzle and think of this false puzzle. Does anyone see a difference between this puzzle and the other?
Mark, bullet holes. OK, I didn't wanna give you the impression that this puzzle truly fits together as well as the old There's holes in it, and if you push on Covenant theology, you find that there are holes in it.
But the true puzzle, as God presents it to us in His Word, glorifies Christ, brings blessing to man, and is true for the Word of God.
Well, I trust that we'll be preserved from error and we can do that by believing what God has said. Let's, uh, let's close in prayer, loving God and our Father. We give thanks for the opportunity this, uh, this evening to have thy word open to.
Talk about some of these themes of Scripture. We think of that eternal purpose from a past eternity to glorify my beloved Son in heaven and in earth. We think of the privilege that we have to be part of that companion, the Bride of Christ, to share with Him all of his glory and to share His inheritance for all eternity.
01:05:19
What a privilege may we be encouraged to open up our Bibles and to read and to believe.
And to accept.
What God has said. So we just pray this and give thanks in the name of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Session #3
Creation Genesis 1
Address—Tim Ruga
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good evening everyone.
Welcome to the meeting tonight, and if we could, let's start the meeting with him #4 and our little clock inbox.
Hymn #4 Air God had built the mountains, or raised the fruitful hills, and so on.
Uh, well, let's see if I can give you.
A nice day just passing your hands and I have to follow up with where.
Increase your size down, it's greasy.
So I'm talking to beating my eyes and.
And then I don't know if you're gonna do it with my appreciation.
It's open with prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank Thee tonight that so many of us could be here to have a word open before us. We thank Thee that before Thou dost ever think about the creation of this world.
That's how this have in thy mind on thy son, and that there should be a bride for thy son.
We thank Thee, our God, that in time that thou to send him here, and Lord Jesus, tonight we acknowledge Thee as the Creator.
We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that although Thou came into this world and came here and was rejected by men and women like us, yes, how to love us and Thou just give Thy life for us. We thank Thee for the redemption that we have through Thy blood, our God and our Father. We thank Thee for those words that we just sang together.
Which tell us the shortest to say center I am dying. And so with this confidence we look to thee. We ask for help in the meeting before us. We pray that that would help us each one to enter into thy word and.
That the message would be from these, that I would help the speaker to deliver it. We just ask for thy health and the precious and worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
So tonight I'm taking a bit of a risk and I'm going to talk about creation. And as I talk about this subject, I am conscious that, umm, perhaps in this room there are ones who have a different viewpoint from my own. And, uh, and yet I think the Word of God has very important lessons about it that each one of us can benefit from and hopefully we can.
Agree on the important things. So umm with that I just want to go in start with a verse in Hebrews Chapter 11.
00:05:15
Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse three says through faith we understand and I will read on in a moment, but I want to stop right there because if we don't get that point, the rest of what we're going to talk about tonight isn't going to matter very much through faith or by faith we under.
Stand. It's not any other way if we don't understand by faith.
We really don't understand at all. The Word of God says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so we start right there. And we could do the same with many other verses in the Scripture. In a moment. We're gonna go to Genesis one and we can do the same thing there. In the beginning. God, before you continue on in that passage, stop right there and acknowledge what that's saying. God is in the beginning, and it's by faith that we understand.
It says by faith and through faith we understand that the world.
Were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And so we understand by faith about this subject of creation and by faith we lay hold of the fact that the world were framed by the word of God. Now let's go to Genesis chapter one.
We just quoted the beginning of that. In the beginning, first one, God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earthquake without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep. It was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light and so on. We'll look at this chapter a little bit more later on. But as I already mentioned at the beginning of this meeting, I am aware that.
There are some who.
Would have a bit of a different view from my own. I believe that this verse, these verses in Genesis teach that God made the world. No question about it. We all agree on that, but he made it as sometimes and we don't know when.
And afterwards it fell into a state of chaos. And thereafter God made it in the six days that we have in this chapter. And there are others, perhaps many others in this room who believe that God created everything from verse one 6000 years ago. If that is your view, then I have one point about that. That is.
If you take that view because this is what God says is in His word, you have the right idea.
I have no quarrel with you, and that is a big point I wanna make in this meeting, that we understand by faith. We don't understand by evidence of things around us. We understand what we know because God has said it. We may not all have the same understanding of things, but to have a Thus saith the Lord and.
To rest on what we believe God has said in His Word is very, very important for us.
As believers, having said that, I'm going to acknowledge something else. I'm aware that there are those who hold an older view of the earth position, like myself, who accused others who believe that Genesis One One was exactly or right around 6000 years ago of believing this because of things other than the Word of God. And that might be true with some, but every single one who holds the Genesis One one with 6000 years ago that I've ever talked to.
Holds that because they believe that's what God says in his Word. And I think that's wonderful. If that's your reason, then you've got the right idea and I hope we can agree about believing God. As I go on in this meeting, I'm going to explain a little bit more of what I think these verses are saying and I hope I don't offend anyone. I don't mean to.
Umm, if it. If you disagree with that and thank God made everything 6000 years ago, that's OK, as long as your reason is that this is what you believe God said and you rest on him.
00:10:06
And what he has said in his word.
When I grew up, I learned that the there was a space of time between Genesis 1/2 and 1/3, as we'll talk about in a little bit. And I accepted that. I went through school with that. And then some years later I heard teachings about that that wasn't true and that everything was done 6000 years ago. And those teachings I found to be very compelling and.
I changed my view and I.
Then at that time accepted that Genesis One one was 6000 years ago.
Thereafter I changed it again. So you could say this guy changes all over the place. And if you wanna discount some of the view of Genesis one, OK, But don't miss what I'm saying about faith and believing God. That's the critical thing.
I hope I can take that experience that I've gained and maybe it can be a help to you, maybe it won't. So let's go on first of all.
The idea that faith is what is important. I just say this on the other side, I am aware that some.
Who hold a young earth view. And for those of you who aren't exposed to this, bear with me for a minute. I'll explain this in a moment. Many here have heard this before and I just, I'm talking to them for just a moment. But there are those who hold that if you that the earth was only 6000 years ago. And they look at men like some of our early brethren and say, well, they taught something different.
And they're very upset with that, and they won't even read their ministry, and they write them off as well. And I think that's sad because those men held to the verbal inspiration of Scripture, and their view was formed around Scripture. And I trust tonight my view also will be based on Scripture. I'm not going to refer to geology or things of science. We're gonna talk about Scripture tonight.
So let's go to Proverbs chapter 30 and just take off a little bit about this. Is the word of God reliable?
And I don't think I'm gonna find much disagreement in this on this point in this room, but it's a vital point. I think we need to start there.
Proverbs chapter 30, verse 6. Every word of God is pure.
Every single word of God is pure. This book, the Bible, is filled with words, and it's not that the majority of them are good and pure, and some of them are a bit shaky. No, every single word of God is pure.
Go back to Psalm chapter 12.
Psalm 12, verse 6.
The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace, and the furnace of earth purified 7 times.
The word of God is absolutely pure, purified 7 times. God has written in this book what he intends for us to know, and he means what he says in this book. And so we don't take some of it and discount others, other parts of it. And in that I'm not talking against people who disagree with me on creation because I believe from all the ones I've spoken to.
That this is your viewpoint as well.
I'm only striving to say that it's vital that we have this viewpoint when we come to any subject of the Word of God, not the least of which is the creation. And so every single word of this book is tried, purified 7 times. And what does this purified word, this infallible Word of God, say? Well, we already read some of those words, but let's go and look on again a little further in Psalm chapter 33.
Psalm 33 and.
Verse 6.
By the word of the Lord, where the heavens made, and all the hosts of them, by the breath of his mouth, he gathereth the waters of the sea together.
00:15:10
As in heat.
He sorry, I'm gonna have to use my glasses here. He layeth out the depth in store houses that all the earth fears. The Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for he speak and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
That's what God has said in his Word. You know, we go and look into this world around us as we have to in many different ways, whether school or job, and we find many other things that are being said.
God has said in his word that He commanded and stood fast. He spoke and it was He brought these worlds into being and is vital if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that you accept that every word of God is pure and this is what He has said. This world was created. It did not come to be some other by some other means.
And we understand that by faith. And what is faith? Well, it's worth defining our terms. On that. Let's go to John chapter 3.
John, Chapter 3.
And verse 33 says he that hath received his testimony hath sent to his seal that God is true. And so this is simply what faith is. It takes whatever God says. And it says I count on that. I will put my life on that.
God is right, Paul says in Acts 27. He says I believe.
God.
That was a bit of a glare, but anyway, that's OK, I'll check with you. And it's important that we have this thought that.
God is true. Faith simply lays hold of that and believes God. Now, these are important principles because you know, there's many children here and either you are going to school that you're going to go to school and you're going to be confronted with things, things that are going to be difficult. They're going to say this word of God is not pure. In fact, it's foolishness. And here's the truth. And they're going to give you things from science.
Much of which is science, falsely so-called. And parents, your children are gonna come to you with questions.
And you're gonna need to have answers for those questions. And what are you going to say to those questions that you're going to have? And young children, what are you going to say to your friends who ask you? It's important that you understand from where to the word of God what he says, and that you're established first of all, that God has said something and then that you believe it. And it doesn't matter what man says because.
You rest on what God has said and so.
This is really where we want to start off. As Paul said, I believe God and let's go to Genesis 1 again.
Look at some more things there.
I now want to just go through and explain.
These first verses and how it is that I believe or what these verses are teaching and verse one it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
That means he started out and he made it. He created them and he made them a certain way. Verse two says, And the earth was without form, and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Now as our brethren have taught from the Hebrew, and I believe that this the earth was or became without form.
Or waste and void or empty.
This is a condition that God did not initially created in. And if you go and read Mr. Kelly on this, I'm just gonna refer to it now and I'm not going to go any further than that. I'll let anybody want to pursue that, do that in their own. But he goes into the meaning of these words became and without form and void and shows that this was not the original condition that God created the heavens and the earth in.
00:20:01
It ended up that way and then you get down to verse three. You find God doing something else.
And from verse three down in six literal days, God takes the earth and he makes it. He makes it in a condition then that is suitable for man and for God working out His eternal counsels with respect to man on this earth in which we now live. Another verse that we can look at is Isaiah 45. So I'm just gonna give a brief overview of this.
And those who want you can look into this further later.
But Isaiah chapter 45 and verse 18 says For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens.
Sorry, some are still turning. There is a 45 verse 18.
Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made it. He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none else, and as I understand it, every other place where.
Created not in vain is used, as in Jeremiah and other places, in the Word of God. It always has taken up in connection with a condition where things had initially been.
In an ordered state and then fell into a disordered state. And so that is what is described in Genesis chapter one. And I believe that now those who believe that the world was made 6000 years ago from Genesis 1 take verses one to two to be the introduction. Just saying that this is telling that God did it and then versus 3 to the end of the chapter telling how he did it.
That's the the, uh, simple structure.
Of Genesis one as they understand that I'm gonna come back to that issue and I hope I can give you something to think about on as far as that is concerned. I told you before that at one time I believe that the earth was made from Genesis 16000 years ago.
There were two main verses that convinced me of that.
But one of them was Exodus 20 verse 11. In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that in them is and the 7th day God rested and and so on. That was the one verse. Found it very compelling. The other verse is Romans 5 verse 12, which we will go look at right now because it's important. We'll start there and we're gonna come back to Exodus.
11.
Romans, chapter 5.
Verse 12.
Therefore, if by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all has sinned.
And so the thought from this verse is.
That God did not make the world at some earlier time and did not create animals or anything else in it, because there was no such thing as death in the world until Adam sinned, because the verse says.
Wherefore as by one man Adam, that is, sin entered into the world and death.
Entered into the world, that's implied by sin, and so death passed upon all men, so that all has sinned, And so the argument is that if.
Sin came into the world through Adam, and death came into the world because of that sin. Then there couldn't have been death before the fall of man, no death before the fall.
Now I don't believe that's what this verse is teaching.
And I'm going to just try to show why in a few words. First of all, we know that there was sin in the world before Adam sinned. And 2nd Corinthians Chapter 11 tells us that the serpent beguiled Eve. I think we all know that.
In Revelation chapter 12 tells us that the serpent is the devil and Satan. And so Satan came into that garden and he certainly sinned before Eve took of the fruit. He sinned before Adam sinned as we have here in Romans chapter 5. And I'm gonna tell you too, there was death in the world before.
00:25:05
That that Adam sinned as well. The word of God tells us that the Lord gave to man.
We could go back and read in Genesis one, but I'll for time I'll just refer to it. He gave them fruit of the garden to eat, and when you eat fruit, necessarily cells die. I also spoke about every seed of a tree, every tree having seed in itself, and then it would bear, that seed would go into the ground, it would die, and other trees would grow of their own kind.
And so this principle is introduced by God in the creation itself.
And that is no trivial matter. By the way, you go to John chapter 12 and you find that the Lord Jesus speaks about a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. He says unless according to week, falling to the ground and die isn't biteth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And so this principle of death with a seed going into the ground is something that the Lord applied and tied to his own death.
It's no trivial matter that God introduced the principle of death before the fall ever was.
I'm saying that for a purpose, because the main reason for one of the main reasons why people discount that there could have been an earlier creation is that they say there could have been no death from any animals or anything else before there was the fall of man. And they do it on Romans 512. So what does Romans 512 talking about? It's not talking about animals. It's not talking about seeds or anything else. It's talking about man. You see it here.
It says wherefore as by one man.
Entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men. For that all has sinned, all animals. No, all men have sinned. And so death passed upon all men. That's the subject here. So I just say that in case it helps someone, that there may have been, in fact, we know that there was death in the in the world before the fall of man, and there was sin as well. Satan has sinned before.
And I'm not going to say much about that.
But that's something that you need to consider, that sin had already come in before man fell.
Now I wanna go to Exodus 20 verse 11.
Exodus 20, verse 11.
Says in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is and rested the 7th day. Really if we were to start back a little bit earlier, it says verse nine, six days shall our labor and so on 7th day is the Sabbath and then a verse 11 goes on to the 7th day of the Sabbath and you see all through it's speaking about 6 literal.
Days and it's making a direct connection between those six literal days of the week and the Sabbath being the 7th and what God, God did in creation. And this agrees of course, with Genesis 1, which says the evening and the morning were the first day, the second day, and so on. These were six literal days that God made everything that we see on the earth around us today, every single thing.
As far as the animals, trees, man, anything like that is concerned, the things described there.
So you say, well, that seems so pretty open SHO shot if it's, uh, ever God made everything.
That's in them. Then how do you have anything made outside of that?
Actually, this verse is the one that convinced me more than anything else that Genesis 1 did not occur on the six days. And to show that I want to go back to Genesis chapter one and I'm going to just, uh.
Use a bit of an aid right now because.
We already talked about how Genesis One could be looked at as the 1St 2 verses being an introduction and the rest of it telling us how God did it. And it says if that's an if you just take a natural reading of Genesis 1, you'll arrive at one conclusion that is that God did everything 6000 years ago. I don't think that's right. I believe if you take a reading and just look at the words of Genesis chapter one that you'll see it's different and.
With that, I'd like to go through it. We can just start on these days and we'll go to the very end of them. If I have this working now, you're not gonna be able to read this first slide.
00:30:11
I have it up here just to say that we have all of Genesis one in the first verse of Genesis 2 on on the screen and we're going to look and see how this chapter is broken up. And there's a very definite structure to this chapter and we know what it is. We know that there's six days and there's something before the six days, the 1St 2 verses and there they are in colors.
While I have them out as I guess 5 days here, I missed the dividing the 1St 2 days.
But you can see, obviously there's a structure. We all know what that is, but I wanna look at that structure and we're gonna start on the 6th day and we're gonna work up to the first. So please follow me on this.
Here is the end of the chapter.
The 23rd verse and the evening in the morning where the 5th day and so on. You get down to the 31St verse and then I have the last verse on the screen is the first verse of chapter 2. The question is the first question I have is.
How do we know when the six day ended?
Well, you go to verse 31, it says the evening and the morning where the 6th say and say that's when it ended. And how do you know that? Well, because the next verse says lost the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them. So that structure is pretty clear.
The next question is when did the six day begin?
Let me go up a little bit and you can see and God said that's in the 24th 1St. And how do we know that's the beginning of the 6th day? Well, because if you just go back one verse, you see in the evening, in the morning where the 5th day. And so the structure of Genesis one is actually quite simple and very clear, easy to follow.
And we can see then that something happened in the 5th day, and all of that which happened occurred between the words and God said.
And the words and the evening in the morning were the 6th sex. And what were those things that happened? Well, we can easily pick them out. Then in the chapter we find that the living creatures who are made, the cattle, the creeping thing, the beast of the earth and man, that all was on the 6th day. Now what about the 5th day?
Well, we just go back up a little bit and we see again and God said in the evening, in the morning with a fifth day.
And what happened on the 5th day? We find the waters bringing forth abundantly. The fowl that fly above the earth and great whale are all mentioned on the 5th day. What about the 4th day?
Just go back up a little bit and again you see the same structure never varies. The 4th day we can easily then find that we have lights in the firmament of heaven. 2 great lights. We know that the sun and the moon it ends with He says he made the stars also.
These are the things that are introduced.
On this on the, uh, fourth day, likewise the third day beginning with thank God said ending with the word third day.
And there we have dry land, grass, herb, herb, the fruit tree.
Second day, same structure and God said evening and morning for the second day there we've got the firmament of heaven, the sky made where the birds fly today. That's what was on the second day.
And of course, we had the, the waters being divided, separated in the beginning of that. I didn't highlight that the first say, what do we have? I think we all know that. And God said that could be light and there was light, uh, separated the light from the darkness. And that first day, of course, goes on the same exact structure.
And so if we look at that, put that together, we can see that we have this structure all through Genesis chapter one and then before we had these two verses.
That we started the meeting with. And just to summarize all of that in one slide, here we have.
These six days, the first day was light, second day firmament, heaven, dry land, grass, so on. All these things very clearly marked out as what happened in those six days. And that takes care of God, making the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that in the midst. The question is, when did God create?
00:35:01
The heaven and the earth. When did God create the water? Let's mention in verse 2 all of that was created. When was it? Well, some people say, well it was right before, maybe day zero, but that doesn't work because you don't have six days anymore. You have six days plus days zero, and then you can't get to Exodus chapter 2011.
In six days the Lord made heaven and earth.
To see and all of them that in them is I've gone through this exercise because This is why I believe what our brethren have written when they say that the word made is different from the word created on 6 days the Lord made things on the earth and those things that were made are listed in some reform up here on the screen in the green text and.
There were things that weren't made in those six days and those things are given in versus.
One and two, the heavens and the earth, whenever that was, it was made outside of those six days and the waters were on the earth made outside of that six days. The darkness as well. I hope everyone sees that. Umm, I believe that's the main reason for that line of things and.
For me I wanna say that I do not.
Compromise with geology or evolution or anything like that. Because of this, I have found there are a number of things that I see that perhaps they can fit in there. If they don't, what do I care? God said He created it. Is evolution true?
They say yes. Is it true? Of course not. God said he made man, He made the animals, He made the heavens and the earth. I don't care what they say. I don't care what evidence they default. It doesn't matter. God made it. And so whether you believe one way or another in some of these verses, the important thing is that as believers we believe God. He said he made it, and so he made it, and that's the end of it.
Now I just want to go back and look at a few more things with that.
And say too, that the heaven and the earth weren't the only things created before, umm, these six days. Angels were created as well. And we just do that real quick job. Chapter 38.
Job chapter 38 and.
Verse one you see if the Lord answering Job out of the whirlwind.
And verse four he says, Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou has understanding, who hath laid the measures thereof it found knoweth, and who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Now we see that this is the time God is Speaking of when he laid the foundations of the earth and what happened at that time.
There were sons of God there, and it says that they were shouting for joy. Now who are these sons of God? Go back for a moment to Job chapter one.
Job chapter one.
And verse six. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.
And we see then Satan was one of them. These were angels that came. God had created the angels before he ever created the earth. And so there were things created earlier. And the Word of God doesn't say much about that, but it does tell us something about that. And we can at least see from that that God has not told us everything that He did. He told us what we need to know. He told us about His purposes with man, and He told us about His purposes with the Son of Man.
And all that he's gonna do in glorifying him. This is the subject, the theme of Scripture. And when it comes to creation, God has told us certain things.
And beyond that, we don't know.
We can see what certain structures are as we've gone through tonight, but beyond what's revealed, we just simply have to rest on what God has said, regardless of what we see around us. I'm going to say a little bit more about that, but I just wanted to take up this issue again about evolution because so many who are here are going to be faced with the question of evolution in school. And the question is, is evolution true?
00:40:18
We already spoke about that and the answer is no. Well, it some of it might be, but by and large it is not. There are two things. One is called macro evolution, which is that somewhere in the process of time one species can change into another. And God said no, He created animals after their own kind and they don't change into another animal.
A horse doesn't change into a cow or anything else like that.
There is such thing, however, as microevolution, and that's not hard to observe. For instance, eight people are on the arc and those eight people eventually became what we have on the earth today, whether Africans or Eskimos or sorry, I didn't use the right word there, but umm, whatever terms we have for the different peoples of the earth, the Nordic and so on, very different in structure, the Asian and in this room we have quite a diversity.
Of, of backgrounds as far as these, uh, ethnic differences or cultural, umm, racial differences that exist among us. God allowed for that. It occurred as man, uh, moved to different parts of the earth. And today we see the effect of it and it occurs in animals as well. But that's a very different thing from the teachings of evolution. They go and wickedly.
Extrapolate that back to some beginning of a common piece of plasma or something like that.
And that isn't the truth at all because God created the animals and God created man. The Word of God says so and there's no question about it. And God created the animals. How long ago? 6000 years ago. You go out up to dates in the in our Bibles and you get back to that. These six days of Genesis one were approximately 6000 years ago. When did God create man? Approximately 6000 years ago.
And it doesn't matter what science says, and this is important.
Because you're gonna be confronted with it, and you may not always have the answers, but you need to know that this is what God has said, and you need to rest and what God has said in His Word. So I just wanna go on and address a few more things. What about dinosaurs and other animals?
The word of God doesn't tell us.
Where they in some earlier creation of God before Genesis 13 perhaps?
But the Word of God doesn't tell us, and so we can leave that question.
Now here's an important one. What about man? Did God ever make man before?
That one we can answer because the Word of God takes up the subject of man and the subject of the Son of man. I want to go back to some of the verses Josh is referring to yesterday, 1St Corinthians 15.
Important to see this because they now are talking very much about man and having existed many thousands of years ago and.
And a common thread coming all the way through to the present. I don't care what they find the word of God says otherwhere otherwise and they're simply wrong.
And we need to get a hold of that. What does the word of God say? And do we rest on that or do we get swayed by the opinions of men?
First Corinthians chapter 15 and it says in verse 45 and so it is written, the 1St man Adam. See that it wasn't, It wasn't a man before Adam. God has said so. He made it very clear in his word. Adam was the 1St man.
The first man Adam was made a living soul.
Now what about men? Will there ever be other races of men that God creates? The answer is no. We have that in this verse too.
The last atom was made of quickening spirit. Who is that? Ask the Lord Jesus Christ, and it calls in the last Adam. Why? Because Adam is the head of a race, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Because he's ahead of a race. He's ahead of the new creation, and he's not just ahead of another race. He's the last Adam. There won't be another race after him. He's the head of the last race that God has made all of God's purposes.
Are centered in His Son, and He brings it all to a head in Him, and that is the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose in our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:45:03
And that new creation that's in him, these are the important things that God has laid out in his word that we need to lay a hold of. And it doesn't matter what man says about all these other things. This is what God says and we rest on it. Now. I just want to go in our time that remains and cover just a little bit more on this subject of faith and maybe.
Somewhat of the question of well then what do I answer unbelievers if I'm challenged, maybe at school they come and say, well, what about, uh, them finding dinosaur and human footprints together? Or what about?
Any number of things.
Let me just suggest this answer. I don't know, don't be afraid of it.
And this answer of I believe God, don't be afraid of it.
Make sure you get that second answer right and really think hard about that first one. You aren't gonna figure out everything.
We're just not going to do it, you know? What if God not only said he created the heavens and the earth, which man rejects, but what if God also said that there's going to come a day when he is going to take people who have been dead, doesn't matter how many years, and raise them back up to life, bring their bodies back?
All those particles wherever they were eaten by fish.
Dissolve the dust or burn to ashes and scattered in their Ganges river. He's gonna collect all of that and put that together in a body and reunite it with soul and spirit and that person is gonna be raised again.
What if God said that? How do you explain that to your friend?
You need to think about that.
Did God say it? Romans chapter 8.
We know he did. Romans 8.
Verse 11 If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up price from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Many other verses that we could look at, but the important thing here is that God has said it and this is a far more difficult thing than creation.
You go and you look and see what God has said. You see, this is the measure of God's power.
Just stop for a moment and say something. There are Christians who go out in apologetics and they say something like this, they say.
Faith is not reason.
But faith is reasonable. Is that true?
Kind of a neat thing.
What I'm gonna tell you here, I don't believe that's true at all.
Faith is not necessarily reasonable at all. Do you believe God's gonna take particles of people and put them back together? What's reasonable about that? How do you explain that to an unbeliever? You know, you go to Acts chapter 17.
And Paul told them about their resurrection. They mocked them. You go to Acts chapter, uh, I think it's 26 and.
The resurrection was considered there by Gentile to be a thing incredible. And that's what it is in the world. Talk about absurd that God is going to raise the dead. Oh sure, spirits or something like that. But raise dead bodies, put them back together.
That's nonsense in this world. But is it nonsense or is it true?
And this is an important challenge to each one of us, because does it matter what an unbeliever thinks about the resurrection?
No, it doesn't. It really doesn't matter at all. God has said it. It's true. I believe it. I lay hold of it by faith. I count on it. It's the hope for all those who have gone on before. Those of us who are living, we have an even better hope that the Lord Jesus may come and take us straight home to heaven.
But our faith is not necessarily reasonable at all. But our faith let's hold on God no matter what it is that God has said. And it says that that is so. God is true, and I believe God.
So faith rests on God's Word, and it doesn't need any confirmation from science. Remember that faith does not need confirmation from science. All it needs is a. Thus saith the Lord. Now I just wanna go.
00:50:07
And talked in the last few minutes about one final subject. And that is, umm, something that has come in to Christianity that might affect us sooner or later in our Christian lives. And that is the thought of creation evangelism. And I'm using that as an example, just tied to the subject. But there are other forms of it that are equally, I believe, unscriptural.
And I just want to address that because the idea is, and I wrote down this quote from a leading exponent of that, where he said if the first bulk of the Bible can't be trusted.
In their eyes, then, why should any other be trusted?
And the idea here is that we have to explain what God has said in his Word in a way that makes sense to men and women who are lost and in their sins so that they can believe it. And if they believe that, then they can go on and they can believe the gospel story and they can get saved. And that's what we want to do. We want them to be saved.
And I agree with them on the last part, but I don't agree on the first part. We do not try to convince those who are lost about the gospel. That is not God's way. And I just want to look at that First Corinthians chapter one.
Just a very few verses here in our last few minutes.
Because we talked about faith for us as believers. Now I'm gonna talk about faith for unbelievers and how it comes and it does not come through the intellectual First Corinthians chapter one.
And verse.
21.
Says For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God to please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
But the Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block unto the Greek foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
See what he's saying here? We don't go. We don't go after the wisdom of this world. Look down in, umm, Second Corinthians.
Chapter 2. See how Paul came to the Corinthians verse one. He says Hi brethren, when I came to you, I came not with Excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you say Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul did not go back to Genesis and try to convince him of that.
He instead took up Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling in my speech. And my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Why?
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
This is how we take up the truth of God. This is how we preach the gospel. This is how Paul went to them. This is how they believe the only way God reaches man. Go down a little farther here chapter 2, verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him.
Neither can He know them because they are spiritually discerned.
And so we don't take up with those who are lost through the intellect. We don't try to convince them of anything. Instead, what do we do? We give them Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the only thing that will ever help them. Don't try to convince your friends that the Bible is true. Just go and give them the word of God. Let's turn to Romans chapter and 10 for a final verse.
Romans 10.
And.
Verse 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
They can't understand. Why can't they understand why? Well, that's where we started by faith. We understand they don't have faith. How does how is someone who's lost going to get faith? It comes by hearing and hearing comes how? By the word of God.
00:55:11
You don't have to convince them that it's true that person is lost. They're dead in trespasses and sins. And the Word of God teaches us that when we preach the Word of God, the Spirit of God takes that living Word of God and it applies it to one who is dead.
And it produces life there. That dead, lost Sinner comes to life and they get this wonderful gift from God. As Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 tells us, faith is the gift of God. And then they can understand as well.
And then they can know what God has said that's important both in how we believe ourselves and then how we approach others with the gospel or anything else about the Scriptures they can't understand until they get that wonderful gift of faith from God through His Word. Just a story in closing. I worked years ago with a man.
Who was older than me. He worked for me at the time he was a geologist and he.
Uh, had spent his whole life from his education in geology, and as part of that he learned all the tenets of evolution and everything that went through with that, and there wasn't a question in his mind.
And he told me one day, he said I walked into a Baptist Church and I sat down there and that preacher started to speak and he described me.
He described me as being a lost and guilty Sinner before God. He said that preacher was right. He said I repented before God and I believed in Jesus Christ.
He came to life. He was dead as can be. He went in there. The word of God found him.
In that Baptist Church and that dead man came to life. I rejoiced with him.
After I said so, what about creation?
The Big Bang and all of that.
He said, Well, when I believe, when I learned all those things, I always had a doubt. It was matter that went through a Big Bang. Where does that matter come from? He said, I always had doubts. I said, still, then, what about the creation? How does it fit together with all you've learned? He said, I don't know. He said, When I get to heaven, I'm gonna have to ask the Lord about that.
That was it was done, intelligent guy working in a difficult field, still working right along and all of that. That didn't matter to him. His faith rested in God. And that's the critical message of tonight, that our faith cannot rest in anything else but God, in his word. If you have a thus saith the Lord, you understand that God has said something in the Scriptures, then you lay hold of that.
And you accept it because God has said it, and no one.
Can shake you. Well, I hope that can be a little help to some of us. I hope I didn't confuse especially some of those who are new to this subject too much by going back and forth. I suspect it could be so if you have further questions, I'd be glad to talk further with any. But the big thing is that we believe God and let him be God and we as creature. So umm.
Just say 2 on these slides. The first slide that we had was from the Hubble telescope.
And uh.
There's just a few slides left on here that are all taken in space. Quite a, a marvelous thing when you actually look at God's creation. It's no wonder David said what he said in Psalm, uh, chapter 19. It's just marvelous. What I'm sorry, went by that one pretty quick. All the man is discovering that God has done out there. And when you see all of this, to think that's a very man who went out and, and got these pictures.
And then put them out here for us to look at them. Deny that very God. It's difficult to imagine such foolishness.
But we can take these pictures and glorify the God who made all of this.
The vastness of his creation.
And that's the last one. So like to close with prayer.
01:00:04
Eric Gardner Father, we pray that Thou would enable each one of us to simply rest on Thy word and to have the confidence in Thee that no matter what it is that we see or hear around us.
That now are true, we thank Thee that Thou art not only the God of creation. Lord Jesus possess our heart, the God of redemption.
That thou, Lord Jesus.
Died and rose again.
That's Howard alive, a living, powerful Savior. We thank the Lord Jesus.
That there is coming a day when thy voice will raise the dead, when all the mighty power of God will be revealed. That mighty power with which He raised thee from the dead will be worked in all the rest of this creation to bring about.
The fulfillment of all His purposes. We thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that in that day all glory will be today. We give thee glory now and thank Thee so much for all this. How it's done. We thank Thee and thy most precious and worthy name. Amen.
Session #4
Authentic vs Counterfeit Scriptures
Address—Rob 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.
Well, the last couple of people are struggling in Why don't we start by singing #242.
Sing aloud to God our strength doubt not, for His Word is stable. 242.
And I've got my friend and saw our granite time to go out and say crap and turn.
And come out to God.
'S right?
And when it was, there are there was.
It allows us to be my eyes grand.
Theft and whenever we need to come.
Here we can Allah let's do a community planning. It's a completely cloud and I have to give you.
Well, welcome to this meeting tonight.
I, uh, finished my presentation of a slide preparation about, uh, 25 minutes ago.
And.
Uh, when I came back.
There is this remarkable picture that I've never seen before on that screen. I want to thank my brother, Mark Rogers for finding it and putting it up because I'm gonna talk about the word of God and some of the other books that are up there. You can see the Holy Quran. You can see the bag at Gita and, uh, those different books. But uh, what I found interesting was I left here and I went to my room.
When I came back, my presentation was way better than when I left.
And I'd like to ask the Lord Jesus for his help because let us help in the presentation tonight. Things won't go real well, and I really need his help even more than I needed Mark. So Mark, thank you very much. And let's ask the Lord for his help. Our God and Father, we just come to thee. Thanks thee for thy goodness to us. We thank thee for the time we can spend at Michigan Camp here.
And now we just confess that we need our help. We pray for help.
For me to be able to present the.
00:05:00
Information that I wanna present. The truth is I word in a way that's respectful of other people and other faith and yet at the same time makes it clear.
That Thy word is stable, trustworthy, because the written word reflects the living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ and our God and Father. We pray that He might get honor from this presentation. Tonight. We ask for the help of Thy Spirit. We pray particularly for those who are in the audience that they might be able to listen. Pay attention.
And the day will be blessed as believers, as Christians, to be able to live a life that's more effective, more confident.
In following Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in walking in the Spirit, we ask for Thy blessing now in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, just to show you what you're supposed to be coming in with, this is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. I think a lot of us have spent most of the day having fun and enjoying life, and I trust it will keep doing that while we're here now.
I have noticed that that screen is significantly smaller than that screen, so if there's anybody that has a vision problem they might wish to move to the exact side of the room. Feel free to do so while I'm talking.
Now what I wanna talk about tonight.
Is contrasting counterfeit?
With the authentic.
Ultimately, I'm gonna be getting to the Word of God as the authentic. That's, uh, where I come from.
But I want to tell you a story first.
Anybody recognize the person in that picture?
That picture, they're the same full screen.
It's me. It's me in front of my house, uh, last Thursday night on the way to, uh, reading meeting.
And, uh, the reason I want that picture taken is because.
I was thinking about this meeting.
And I was thinking back to a time about.
30-45 years ago.
When I was around 12 years old and here's what happened.
On Thursday night in Ottawa, where I live, my parents always went to the reading meeting and that Thursday night I was done early. I was cleaned up and all ready to go and I walked out my front door and I saw one of my buddies from school, Rocky, driving his bike down the road. I waved at him and Rocky way back started to slow down his bike, which means he wants to talk.
So umm, I went down to the corner of my driveway.
And I started talking to Rocky as a 12 year old. He was on his bike. I was standing in exactly that post.
And we talked for a couple of minutes and can you guess what? Rocky asked me.
Mm-hmm. Not where I was going. Look at that picture. What do you want to know? What do you want to know?
What's behind your back?
You know what was behind my back?
That book right there and in that picture, this book behind my back.
And umm, I don't know how many of you are like me when I was 12. I've had a problem with that my whole life, still have that problem. But I have learned that, uh, as you go through life, it's much better to show your colors right when you first enter into a relationship.
When you meet somebody new at school, when you start a new job, you start a new, uh, activity with different friends. Make sure you let your colors shine because you're gonna get that question, What are you hiding behind your back?
And it's much easier just to have it up front now what I'm going to be talking about tonight.
Is the word of God in contrast to, uh, other?
Books that have been written, and I have another story for you in connection with that. But first look at first Peter.
Chapter 5 and verse 8.
00:10:02
First Peter, chapter 5, verse 8.
It says be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
I'd like to apply that verse this way.
The devil's got a loud roar. I've never been to Africa. I probably Tim and Tim have heard lions where maybe some other people. I understand it's intimidating. Is it?
Anybody else heard it? Nobody knows. I understand it's intimidating. The devil goes around like a roaring lion and he, uh, would try to 1St scare people and then destroy people. And here's, uh, here's what I want to say. Me behind with the Bible behind my back. That's the devil got me running scared. And it might not be me that he eats.
Might have been rocky, my friend.
And so we need to be prepared to give an answer to people. We need to live so that our light can shine, so other people will know that we have something that's worth having.
And not hide it. Don't let the devil scare us. And that's part of what that talks. The talk about is tonight.
Counterfeit.
And how we can be confident that God's word is stable and that we can trust it. So first Peter 5/8 important verse to remember.
And.
My objective tonight.
Is to strengthen all of our belief in the Bible that it's the word of God.
I'm going to be comparing Bible prophecies to prophecies of other main religions.
And I'm going to be considering previously fulfilled prophecies that are in the Bible.
Part of the reason why I'm doing this is because I sat across the table from a friend of mine who's a skeptic and atheist, almost an atheist, 99% agnostic, got that one little percent that he holds out, that he's showing some integrity, that he's still thinking about things. And the question he asked me was, how do you know what you believe?
Is any better than your Muslim friends?
Or your Hindu friend.
That was his question and it made me think, how do you answer that question because I didn't really have a solid answer for him.
Not that it would necessarily have done any good, and we'll touch on that later.
But how would you answer that question?
So let's consider these things. Let's look at what God's standard is, and let's, uh, think about what the, uh.
Other alternatives are now What does counterfeit mean?
It's, uh, made an imitation of something else with intent to deceive.
Being forged. I got that from Miriam Webster. That's a dictionary.
And imitation made an imitation of something else with intent to deceive.
Now you can check out my next.
Slide.
I need somebody who's a Canadian about thirteen years old.
Any 13 year old Canadians here?
None that are gonna admit or make eye contact.
OK. How would you like to make $5?
OK, $50.
$50 sounds a lot better, right? So I want you to look at those two pictures up there really carefully.
And especially note the top left hand quarter corner, OK.
Now if I had those two here.
I would let you look at them and feel them.
You can you tell me what Canadian money is made out of?
What's Canadian money made out of?
But nowadays it's made out of plastic. I'll give you one more clue. That $50.00 bill would be so nice to have in your wallet.
Is very new and it's made of paper.
Now, which would you rather have?
That one was at $5 or the one with $50.00 with all the color. Think of how much fun it would be to have $50.00 in your wallet.
00:15:14
If you look at the one that I.
On the top, if you look at the back it's all white.
Which one would you rather have?
The American one or the Canadian one?
See, unfortunately I forgot my prop. It's back up in my room. I'm not gonna go get it. So if you get the answer right.
I'll give you whichever piece of paper you want.
You want the five? Why do you want the five?
Uh-huh.
That means it's what?
You're exactly correct. What does that mean? It is.
The forgery, right?
It's a fake. It's a counterfeit.
Can you see me later on before you go home or I go home? I'll give you the $5. Thank you for answering the question. You got the right answer. You picked the real one.
There's certain things you can look at that money and you can tell which one's real, which one's not and the the clear plastic because one of the clues why you wouldn't take the Canadian 50, because it's not a Canadian fifty, it's a fake now.
That's an object lesson.
What we have today in the religious world have a whole bunch of religion, Christianity, Islam, Muslim, secular, atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, and a whole bunch of others.
What really surprised me when I got this off of, uh, Wikipedia, was that one in every three people is a Christian.
At least in name, it's a very large group.
One in every four people is a Muslim.
But what really shocked me is that one in every six is secular slash atheist, either doesn't care about God or doesn't believe there's a God, doesn't believe in any of these holy books that our brother Mark had that spines up of before.
But one in six is Hindu.
One in six Buddhists, maybe, maybe a little less than that, and then just about, uh, one in 20 could be anything else.
So how do we get all these religions in the world today?
There was one God originally talked to Adam.
What happened?
We know the world got so bad at the time of the flood that God sent that flood and he washed away all of any signs of humanity except for eight people. Adam, I'm sorry, Noah and his wife, three sons and their wives.
They knew who God was. They knew how they've been delivered.
They got off the arc and they did what God told them to do. They replenished the earth and then they started to travel around. Remember the story of the Tower of Babel? God confused their languages and they went all different directions.
And they went very rapidly into idolatry. And Satan is using that. Satan is using his demons. People have a heart that's against God anyway.
And they were just going after these different things and so.
By the time of Abraham, Abraham was a Syrian ready to perish in a land of people who worshipped idols.
In not very many years at all.
From 2348 down to 1928, not even 500 years, they've forgotten about God.
And they turned already to worshipping demons through the idols that they had come to pass, that they created for themselves.
Well, from the call of Abraham, a couple 100 years after that, there was some guys in India that started writing down some things that they thought would define their religion. That's the oldest Hindu Vedas, about 1700 BC.
About 200 years after that, God called the children of Israel out of Egypt. We know that story, and that's the time when Moses wrote Deuteronomy.
00:20:10
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, those five books.
So it's a long time between now and the exodus. 3500 years, more than 3500 years.
So the oldest religious writings, maybe 200 years older than the Bible, first written record of God's Word. But there's a continuous human record from Adam all the way down to Moses of what God's Word was, what he communicated. You can see that if you follow through. How many people had to go through that? It was recorded in the Exodus.
At the time when Moses wrote it down.
Well, another thousand years went by and some guy named Buddha. He has a different name, but he wrote down the rules for Buddhism.
And then about 500 years after that, the Lord Jesus himself was here on earth.
And uh.
We know the story of the crucifixion. It's central to what we believe.
That Jesus died on the cross and that God raised him from the dead. And then about a little over 500 years after that, along came a guy named Mohammed, and he invented this religion of Islam.
I'm not sure he actually invented it, but we'll maybe touch on that later. And then another thousand years goes by and we have this subject up here called atheism.
A belief system. It's it's a phase.
Just to faith in not too much.
Now let's just umm, move on through the word of God. I'm ex. I'm showing you these things because we got all these options out here now and we have to figure out.
They can't all be right.
Because they all point different directions.
Only one of them can be right.
Only one of those bills was a valid bill.
And you're gonna get it later. The good one.
How we recognize what is the right holy book?
Because a lot more depends on it than $5, right?
Is really important to be following the right book?
Reading the right book, because it's not just $5, it's your whole destiny, it's your whole life. You need to get it right. So we're going to spend some time look at that. Obviously, I'm going to look at it from a Christian's point of view. I'm going to look at the two tests that are in the Word of God. I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13.
We'll start in verse one and read the 1St 5 verses.
If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and give us the a sign or a wonder, the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.
Then thou shalt not hearken on to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God prueth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. He shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, keep his commandments and obey his voice. He shall serve him and cleave on to him that profit. Or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God.
Which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the House of ******* to thrust the out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee.
So there are five things that I see in verse four that are essential to understanding what's true and what's false. The first thing is that God is a God of relationship. He wants to walk with us. He shall walk after the Lord your God. We need to walk with him. The second point is he's a God of miracles and judgment. He brought them out of Egypt.
That was a huge indication to the whole world.
And to the children of Israel, that God was the I am, the everlasting. We need to respect him. It's also the God of the commandments he gave them.
00:25:08
We need to obey him. And for those of us who are Christians, one of his, uh, main commandments is that you love one another. There's a lot associated and connected to that. We need to obey him. He's a God of mercy. We need to serve him. Our brother Manuel talked about that on Monday night, and it's something that is necessary for us. And then he's a God of grace and love and we need to hang on to him.
Be attracted to him and stay uh.
Cleaving to him.
But this?
Test is one that, uh, comes a little bit later.
I have it as the first Test here and uh, the one I wanna focus on is test #2.
So we're gonna make the transition to quest #2 but I wanna say in going there.
All of the religions except Judaism, Judaism and Christianity fail that task. I'm not gonna go into that tonight.
In any detail, because I wanna move on to the next one and that is a fulfilled prophecy.
So if we could turn over a few chapters to Deuteronomy chapter 18.
Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse 21.
Thou shalt say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? That's the question we're asking tonight. How do we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?
Answer is in verse 22, when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet that has spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him. So here's the task. According to prophecy, does it come to pass?
Somebody makes a prediction. Does it happen? Turn it over to Jeremiah, chapter 28.
Jeremiah 28 and verse nine. This whole chapter is fascinating from the point of view of prophecy and fulfilled prophecy. I'm looking at just this verse in the middle.
The profit which prophesied of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall a prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him. So that's the test.
If the Prophet speaks and it comes to pass.
Then you can be confident that the Lord.
Sent him.
But you always have to remember test number one is the person pointing you back.
To the Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father.
Or is he pointing you somewhere else? So both have to be true. Now let's move on.
Just to have a quick look at this, there's one prophecy about the 70 years of captivity of the children of Judah in Babylon. Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 10, one or two pages over.
I'm telling you, uh, this one right now and I'm gonna come back to it again.
Because I'm setting the stage, I'm giving you an expectation of what to expect from prophecy, alright? Because we're gonna go and look at some of those other main religions and we're gonna come and compare them against what you find in the Bible. You compare them against the evidence that God has given you for this test that he set up. So in, uh, Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 10, it says thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years.
Be accomplished at Babylon. I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. Now that's a very interesting prophecy. 70 years is a very specific amount of time.
And they were gonna have to be gone, and they were gonna be coming back 70 years, all right.
Now keep that in mind, because we're gonna be thinking about.
Atheists first.
00:30:01
What, uh, prophecies do atheists have?
There's no God. How would they know the future? Everything is driven by random chance. So guess what? No God, no prophecies.
Psalms 14 verse one gives you God's opinion of uh, people who live like atheists think like atheists.
Psalm chapter 14 verse one says.
The food will have set in his heart. There is no God.
So the full the atheist can have the opinion that there is no God, but God's opinion of people who think that is that they are very foolish people.
However.
That's from God's point of view. They're also very intelligent people. And I went to the Internet to find some of these things that I'm going to be sharing with you this evening. And there was one fellow by the name of Krueger who's an atheist. And he said some criteria are needed in order to distinguish cases of lucky guesses from those of prophecy, of true prophecy. So let us define a genuine prophecy as one that follows the following five criteria.
Now I'm going to show you his five criteria. I think generally they're pretty good. Because just because you're an atheist and from God's point of view you're a fool, doesn't mean you're not intelligent, doesn't mean you're not considerably smarter than me.
And maybe most of you.
Here's the first one. The processing must be clear. It must contain sufficient detail to make its fulfillment by a wide variety of possible events unlikely. Second point, the event that can fulfill prophecy must be unusual or unique. The Third Point, the prophecy must be known to have been made before the event that is supposed to be its fulfillment.
The event foretold.
Must not be the source. That could be a result of an educated guess.
The event that fulfills the process cannot be staged or the relevant circumstances manipulated by those aware of the prophecy in such a way as to intentionally cause the prophecy to be fulfilled.
Now I'm gonna use these criteria.
You'll notice I have one to five down here. I've summarized them because I needed them a lot smaller. I didn't want all those words on a whole bunch of slides. So here I've I've got the five points and I added one more of my own. It's kind of implied in the five, but I wanted to be clear. So the first one clear details, 2nd unusual 3 before the event, four, no educated guesses.
Five, no staging, so you can't arrange to make it happen. And six.
Verifiable.
By verifiable I mean you can check and make sure it's happened.
So let's go back to uh.
The 70 years of captivity, is it clear he was talking about the children of Judah?
That's pretty precise.
70 years is the defined period of time. Is it unusual for our captive people to come back after 70 years? I'd say that that's fairly unusual.
Is it, uh, before the event? Yes, Jeremiah was long before the 70 years.
Could you have an educated guess?
That they would come back without the Bible. Every other people typically just scattered around. Look what happened to the 10 tribes. Nobody knows where they are.
So I don't think you can make an educated guess that they were coming back. Could you stage it? Well, your enemy has control of you. It's pretty hard to stage when your enemy is controlling you.
Is it verifiable? Well, you all know the answer because as a country called Israel today that has people who are Jews in it, you also know historically that 70 years later they landed back in the land. So from the way I look at that prophecy.
I'd say it met the fixed criteria.
Now let's look at, uh, the Hindu prophecies.
I had a hard time finding Hindu prophecies.
I only found one.
00:35:00
And there it is.
Whenever there is a withering of the Law and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest myself for the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of such as do evil for the firm establishment of the Law, I come to birth age after age.
I don't see any years. I don't see too much to measure it by.
They have Hindu texts that describe stories of avatars that supposedly the Hindu gods when they come in animal or people form.
Including one named Buddha.
Which was supposedly the last one.
Is it clear in detail? I don't think so. Would it be unusual? Yes. Is it before the event? Yes.
Could you have an educated guess that this is gonna happen? No. Is it possible to stage it? No. Is there any way to verify that it's happened?
I don't think so. So from my point of view it would fail and I think the atheist friends would agree with it with me.
Well, let's move on to the Buddhist prophecies.
I had a hard time finding Buddhist prophecies too. I found one.
And it said that umm, after 2500 years, apparently Buddha said that there would be some event happen in Metro would come that was supposed to be 1957. I saw a little footnote to that that where they'd recalculated it to 2017. And as far as I know nothing happened in 2017 either.
So when you run the tests on it, they've got some detail, not terribly clear what's gonna happen. Unusual, yes. Pre event, yes. You wouldn't make an educated guess about it.
Don't know about staging, don't even know if it happened and can't really verify it.
So that one, from my point of view, is failing God's test.
For a fulfilled prophecy. Now the Muslims that have Muslim friends, when I talk to some of them, they sometimes talk to me about some of the prophecies that they have.
I'll show you. I think it's three of them.
Fingerprints.
They have a saying their skins will bear them witness against them as to what they have been doing.
And I think that that's a prediction of the fingerprinting system for investigating criminal and doing immigration work.
So when I go down the list, is it clear?
Their skins will bear witness against them as to what they've been doing unusual.
I gave it a yes but maybe I should have said no pre event yes. Educated guess.
Maybe yes, maybe no. No staging.
It's verifiable that that's what that meant. Their skins will bear witness.
In my mind it's a no. Let's move on to the next one.
Genetic engineering. They will alter Ala's creation.
It's not very clear what they were gonna do, not very detailed.
They're suggesting is plastic surgery, genetic engineering and cloning.
But it seemed to me that, uh, without being disrespectful.
I ate the center of a hard boiled egg today and I think somebody had altered God's creation from a soft yoke to a hard yoke.
But I don't think that was the fulfillment of any prophecy.
So I'm not too solid on that one either. Well, there's another one.
By the heaven full of tracks.
And my friends would tell me that, uh, that's talking about air traffic control systems 1400 years before they were ever invited, invented.
But I also think it could be shooting stars.
Umm. So I think it's clear. Do I think it's detailed? No. Unusual maybe to have that written in a book.
Pre event, yeah. Educated guests, Well, I don't know what it represents. No staging. I agree with that, but I don't think there's any way to verify that what was written there is what they say it means.
00:40:01
So is it a fulfilled prophecy?
I don't think so.
Let's go on with some Christian prophecies.
And here I want to make a little bit of a point.
You can look in uh, you can find very easily in the Christian literature.
And with respect to the Lord Jesus alone, there are at least 200 prophecies concerning Him.
There is a gentleman by the name of Eidersheim who believes there are at least 456 prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus. I am not going to go through all of them tonight.
You'd probably have a hard time going through all of them this week.
But I picked a few that meet the criteria of my atheist friends.
That he might use and what I want to do is just look at them very quickly. Micah chapter 5.
And verse 2.
You probably know this, thou Bethlehem Ephrata. So thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth has been from of old from everlasting.
The ruler in Israel. We all know who that is and how this is fulfilled. Gospel of Luke shows us that, but it's predicting that the ruler of Israel will come from Bethlehem.
So it's stating a specific city.
But not giving us any time. Is it unusual? Yes, it's unusual to state exactly what city it comes from. Is it before the event? Yes. Michael was long before the Lord Jesus was here on earth.
Could it be staged?
Not easily.
Is it verifiable to check where the Lord Jesus was born? Yet we have a record of it in the Bible.
So from my point of view, when I look at this, I passed that one. Let's move on to the next one, the virgin birth, Isaiah Chapter 7, verse 14.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.
You know it as well as I do.
It's a very specific statement about what he would be called and that a virgin would have a child. That's unusual. This is clearly before event, probably 500 years before.
Maybe more. No educated guesses about that one. No educated person in their right mind would guess that a virgin would have a child.
Can't stage that either.
And it's verifiable unless you call the people who wrote the Bible liars.
Next one is Isaiah chapter 44 / a few pages.
Verse 28.
That's that's the law, sorry, the southeast of Cyrus. He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid.
Let's turn back to First Chronicles chapter 2036 and verse 20.
Actually the second Chronicles 36.
I was typo that I missed.
Verse 20 says, And them that had escaped from the sword carried you away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the Kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath.
For as long as they lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill. 3 score in 10 years. For those of you who are young, a score is 20/10/20. If you do 3 * 20 you get 60 and if you add 10 you get.
00:45:03
How many 70?
What did the prophecy in Isaiah say long before this happened?
Let's keep going. In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his Kingdom, and put it also in writing. Thus that Cyrus king of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth have the Lord God of heaven given me. He have charged me to build him in house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among?
Of all his people, the Lord is God. Be with him and let him go up. So Jeremiah's prophecy came true because of 70 years later this happened. But Isaiah's prophecy came true because it was Cyrus that did it. Now for all you Americans who are really up on your politics.
I need you to, uh, tell me.
What the, uh, first name of the President of the United States will be in the year 20?
26.
It's only 8 years away.
I don't see anybody volunteering.
I don't even. OK, let me ask you an easier question will be the Republicans or the Democrats. That's a coin toss.
Nobody wants to answer whether it's going to be the Republicans or the Democrats in power in eight years.
Why? Because you don't know, and you sure don't know the first name of the president, do you? You don't even know whether it'll be a man or a woman. Hundreds of years before Cyrus was even born, God said a man named Cyrus is going to make a commandment to send my people back to the land of Israel.
And it happened.
I give it all check marks.
Well, there's another one to look at, Genesis chapter 15.
Verses 13 to 16.
God speaking to Abraham.
Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger to land that is not theirs, and shall serve them. They shall afflict them 400 years also. That nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come out with great substance. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age, but in the 4th generation they shall come. Hit her again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Well, let's turn to numbers Chapter 26.
I'm just gonna look at one aspect of this prophecy and that's the 4th generation, Numbers 26 and verse 59.
The name of Amram's wife was Jacobed. I think you all know that she's Moses mother.
The daughter of Levi.
Wow.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, who is the father of Levi?
Who is the father of Jacobin? That adds up to four.
And her son LED.
The children of Israel at God's command out of Egypt.
Again, it's very clear there's a lot more that you could follow up on here. That God made sure happened in his prophecy to Abraham. Is it unusual? Yes, it's unusual.
Pre event, yes. Would you guess that?
Unheard of. No staging. Verifiable, Yes. Established historical fact. Children of Israel left with Moses.
I passed that one. Let's look at Christ's entrance into Jerusalem. Zechariah, Chapter 9.
Yes.
00:50:05
And verse 9.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just, and having salvation lowly, and riding upon an *** upon a colt, the foal of an ***. You know the story. Jesus riding into Jerusalem the week in which he was crucified.
Go down the list.
Riding on a donkey.
King of Israel, So what they crucified him for put right over his head Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
We'll come back to this in terms of whether it's stageable or not and verifiable or not.
Whether you uh.
Believe what the people wrote then. Now let's look at one more Psalm, chapter 16 and verse 10. It's the resurrection.
Verse 10.
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One, to see corruption.
It's this last phrase thine Holy One to see corruption. The Holy One I take to be the Lord Jesus, and we all know that God raised him from the dead.
Not allowing him to see corruption. That's the key part in here. And so when I go through it, this one is not as clear as some of the others. But if you look at the context and you look at this, umm, this particular expression here, the Holy one to see corruption. The Lord Jesus went into the grace and God raised them on the third day. You remember what Mary said about Lazarus the 4th day you think of.
So even from a natural point of view, by the third day.
He's coming out in time for no corruption and so I look at that and I say.
Yeah, is fulfilled.
Now I wanted to just stop for a moment and I wanna make the point that I cannot say that I can prove the Bible is the word of God. That can't be done and is very related to what our brother Tim was saying last night.
About creation.
Because without faith, it is impossible to please God. And I'm speaking to you as if you're all believers tonight. And I trust that that's the case. I hope that everyone of you has accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
So Hebrews 11 and verse six says without faith it's impossible to please God.
But what I want to make a point here, as we go into the next section of my presentation, is that we're not ignorant of Satan's devices.
We know he created a bunch of counterfeits. We know he's the father of lies.
That's what we expect of him. So we expect him to throw our challenges and we get them from, uh, our atheist friends. You can find them on the, uh, on the Internet. Let's talk about the virgin birth.
Well, we know from Matthew chapter one, verse 22 to 25. It's documented there exactly that Mary was a virgin.
What do they do?
While they try and change the translation of the prophecy to be.
A young woman.
How many of you mothers here were once young women?
I need to see a shorthand.
Not too many, I think. I think anybody who's a mother here was once a young woman. That's obvious. And so to make a prophecy that a young woman is going to have a child.
That's not a prophecy, that's normal. That's why it's important that it's a virgin, because that's a miracle. And to predict a miracle that meets all the requirements that we're talking about. So Matthew chapter 12225, unless you say the people that wrote it were liars.
You guys take it?
As a fulfilled prophecy that meets God's requirement. Daniel Chapter 9, verse two. In terms of Cyrus, what do they say about Osiris? Oh well.
Obviously that was written after the fact, after Cyrus had already let them go.
00:55:05
Well, I got a bone to pick with that one because if you turn to Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 2.
They may find fault with it, but often the Word of God gives a solution to the complaints that they have.
Daniel Chapter 9 and verse 2.
And it says.
In the first year of his reign I, Daniel understood by book the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet.
So before it happened, Daniel was reading it, which means it didn't get written after.
Well, let's move on to the next one.
You know, our brother mentioned the other day, you can hear the hiss sometimes when Satan's telling lies, sometimes you can hear that hiss, but very often it turns into a roar because he's trying to scare us away from the truth and the strength and the stability and from trusting the word of God. So we have the Lord Jesus Christ coming to Jerusalem. That prophecy said he was going to come in on a, on a donkey, on the cult of a donkey. And what I find remarkable about that is yes, you could say the Lord Jesus.
And find fault with it as a prophecy that he knew it was written so he made it happen. But what was incredibly interesting to me, the prophecy said it was to be on a cult.
And the Lord Jesus said is to be a cult. You bring me. That's never ever been written on. I've never ridden much on a horse. The one of the horses that I rode on rode so fast that I fell off sideways and my friend rescued me as the peas were whipping past my head. And another horse I was on didn't like the guy that was in front of me stood right up.
And tried to kick him and I almost fell off backwards.
Those were tamed horses trained for a rider, and I understand that donkeys have a lot much more cantankerous point of view than horses.
So as a real miracle, and the thing that to me solidifies that Christ indeed is the Christ, the fact that he wrote an untrained donkey perfectly, calmly and sedately into the city of Jerusalem.
Well, the last one that I want to talk about in terms of what?
Atheists or others might throw up against the resurrection. You turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15, first eight verses, and I'm just gonna grab a few points out of there.
Because I'm already late Tim, I know First Corinthians chapter 15, and what I want to point out is in verse six that Jesus was seen of about 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present.
At that point in time, you go back, you talked to 500 people who'd seen Jesus alive.
You're gonna call them all liars now. It's easy 2000 years later to say they were all lying.
But I don't think that's the case now, along with what Tim was saying the other night.
It's not possible to intellectually persuade people to believe.
1St Corinthians 17 First Corinthians 1/17/21 Tim, you had those last night, I believe.
God in his wisdom made sure that human wisdom could never figure out the way to him because he wanted to be faith-based.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4, verse three says the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the mind. You don't expect a blind person to see anything in this room, and you can't expect a blind man who's got a blinded mind to understand anything about the Word of God. And so John 3, verses 5 and eight tell us that there has to be a work of the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God moves like the wind.
When you're playing volleyball, you can't tell when the wind gusts is gonna come, what it's gonna do to your ball. And that's what has to happen in the heart of a man in order to give him life, to let him see the light of the gospel. Because Satan is busy blinding them. Well, that was another picture taken Thursday night.
01:00:00
This is a much better place to start any relationships from right in front.
Let your light shine. Why? Because Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.
We had some discussion this morning about taste and see.
You ever talking to your friends and they don't believe? They're not Christians, they're Muslims, they're whatever quote the word of God, they'll get a taste of it.
And the word of God.
Is the truth of God.
Thy word is truth.
John 1717 God's Word is the Spirit sword. Start quoting it, you'll be amazed at what happened.
Can't argue with the Bible, Ephesians 617. We have nothing to be ashamed of. Don't be ashamed. Don't do what I didn't. Put your Bible behind your back.
Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. His Spirit can help guide you and guide your thoughts on the moment when you need them.
Use the sword of the Spirit, your personal readings, your discussions with others. It's gonna help you in your service for the Lord, whoever He brings across your path. Well, in closing, I just wanted to sing this together. You join me in singing the Bible, the BI.
Thank you very much for your.
Attention, I'd like to just pray. Our gardener, loving Father, we come to thee. Thank you for thy word. We thank you that it is a rock that we can build on. We thank you for the truth that's in it, for the method that thou has given us to be able to know that it is indeed truth. Thank you for the prophecies that that has given us as well. And we thank thee that by thy Spirit that us work in our hearts to give us faith to believe.
Help us to remember this, help us to remember that, uh, those around us are lost without us, love them and that we have uh.
Opportunity to reach out to them and share with them the truth of the Word of God and the love of Jesus. We just ask for thy blessing on the rest of this evening. Pray for encouragement in our lives in Jesus name, Amen.
Session #5
Taking Offense
Address—William Hayhoe Jr.
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.
Uh, good evening. Good evening everyone. We're, we're having some technical difficulties, but uh, we can start with the song anyway, Uh, number 88, number 88.
Oh, blessed.
All right, my.
Name is.
With any friends in Germany and I don't know, we're getting paid.
We are going to make a new one.
And.
Umm.
Everything.
My name.
Luxury. Did you see any color? Do you need anything Umm, I don't know. I don't know if it's bleeding under my eyes and.
Mm-hmm.
Uh-huh. Great.
Morning.
Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we thank you that we can all be here at this camp and spend time in fellowship with other believers and also.
00:05:02
Some time to look into the word of God and get some help and direction we trust and I would just ask for your help for me this evening more to be able to express what's on my heart and pray that it would be what you would have. And we pray that if nothing else, the example of the Lord Jesus.
In the subject that we're going to speak about would speak to our hearts and that we would.
We stirred up to follow after the example that He has left for us in humbleness and meekness in the life that He led down here. And we pray this in a worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
This evening I'd like to look into the Word of God to.
Look at some instructions and some examples on a subject that has a everyday practical.
Influence in the lives of everyone here, from the very oldest one down to perhaps some of the children who are able to understand a little bit of what we're talking about this evening.
And that subject, anyways, the subject that I'd like to look into the word of God about is taking offense. You can click ahead there, Zach.
This is, uh, a phenomenon that I think in our culture today is a problem of epidemic proportions. In our culture, we are consumed with our rights and what we deserve. And because of that, whenever anything is done that doesn't fit with our interests, people are very quick to take offense and as Christians.
I don't.
The culture around us affects our Christian culture and our Christian communities and our daily lives more than I think we perhaps realize. So to start off with, I made a list of some of the different ways that in our day-to-day language we refer to this subject. So Zach will will click through a few here pretty quickly. You can go ahead there. So this is some different ways we use in language to refer to this one is getting offended.
Taking something personally?
Holding a grudge?
And holding something against someone. I just made this list to hopefully help us all understand what it is that we're talking about. And then next, we'll click through these again pretty quick. Zach, I have an outline of what we're going to look at this evening, so you can go ahead there. But first of all, we're going to look at two characteristics to avoid taking offense as seen in the Lord Jesus.
And then we're going to look at 2 examples in the Word of God.
In people want a man, want a woman, where a wrong was done to them and they did not take offense. Go to #3 there. And then we're gonna look that at the action that can flow out of our heart, that exhibits these inner characteristics that we're gonna look at. And then we're gonna talk briefly about the difference between being hurt and taking offense.
And then at the end of the meeting, we're gonna look at two specific cases relating to this subject, 1 being a case where.
We might take offense not because the wrong is done to us, but because the wrong is done to someone close to us that we care about. And then lastly, we're going to look at a case of offense within families or assemblies.
So the first thing we're going to look at, like I mentioned, is 2 Characteristics to avoid taking offense as seen in the Lord Jesus.
So the first one is humbleness.
I think this word is pretty easy to understand, but I put some thoughts up there on it. First, describe negatively humbleness is the opposite of pride. And then what humbleness really means is it sets others before oneself. It takes a low place. The word loneliness is often used in the New Testament and it's the same word in the original. Umm, in place of humbleness.
So we're gonna look at an example in the Lord Jesus.
Of humbleness. You can go ahead, Zach. And this is in Philippians 2.
I can't speak for all the assemblies represented here, but in all the assemblies that I have spent time in in my life.
This passage in Philippians 2 That we're going to read now is perhaps the most commonly read passage in the breaking of bread on Lord's Day mornings. And there's a good reason for that. There's perhaps no other passage that more beautifully expresses how low the Lord Jesus came for you and for me, and that's why it's read so frequently on Sunday morning. So you'll see up there on the slide that I put versus.
00:10:28
Three to five up there. But before we go read those verses, I'd like to go read the verses that we often read on Lord's Day mornings. We'll read those first. So that starts at Philippians 2 and verse 6.
I'll read the last two words of verse five. Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but may himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. I read those verses so it can be right there, fresh in our minds and hearts.
This expression in the Word of God.
With how low the Lord Jesus will come for you and for me, the very Son of God, the first place in heaven He would leave and come down to this earth and become a servant and go all the way to the cross and suffer.
A shameful, horrible, painful death for you and for me.
And I think any true believer here can read those verses and they mean a lot to us what the Lord Jesus would do for you and for me.
And it's good that we can enjoy that and thinking about the Lord Jesus. But the part that I would like to emphasize this evening is perhaps what, at least for me, we tend to think about a little bit less when we read these verses and that these verses were written specifically as an example for us. So now let's read the part that's up on the slide, verse three to five.
Let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory, but in loneliness of mind. That's humbleness. Let each esteem other better than themselves. Look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. And I underline this phrase because this is what I wanted to emphasize. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Those verses that we read first.
Expressing what the Lord Jesus did for us, we're called to have that same mind in US.
We're called to not look on our own things, to take the low place, to put others before ourselves.
And the reason I wanted to bring this out is because if we are following this example of the Lord Jesus and taking a low place, putting others before ourselves, when someone does something wrong to us. And there is that temptation to take offense, take things personally. If we've taken the low place and we're following the example of the Lord Jesus, putting others interests before ourselves, including the person that's done something wrong to us.
Then it can help us to not take it personally and hold it against that person.
So humbleness is the first characteristic and the second one is very, very closely connected to humbleness and.
That is meekness. These two words go together are put right together. Many times in both the Old and New Testament, loneliness and meekness are put right together.
This is a word that perhaps we don't as easily understand the meaning of as humbleness because we don't really use this word in our day-to-day conversation as much.
I put some thoughts up there on the slide. First of all, describe negatively. Meekness is the opposite of selfishness, just like humbleness is the opposite of pride. And then described in itself, meekness sets aside yourself in view of God's interest. I think one place we can see that is in the Beatitudes in Matthew, and that when you go through the Beatitudes.
00:15:04
A character, a person who exemplifies a characteristic, and then it states a reward, and often the the reward is the opposite of what that person endures. So it says blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Then when it gets to meekness, it says blessed are the meat, for they shall inherit the earth.
So a meek person is one that has given up themselves in view of God's interest. And that's why in part of the reason, at least in Matthew says they shall inherit the earth because God values that. And when it comes to Millennium, because they've given up themselves and their own interest in view of God's interest, he's going to reward them with an inheritance.
So in a certain sense, meekness is going beyond humbleness. Humbleness is taking a low place. It's saying I'm going to take a low place relative. I'm going to put others before myself. Meekness is going even further beyond that. It's saying I'm completely giving up my own interest in view of God.
And where that comes into the subject that we're looking into this evening.
Is when something is done, something is said about you or wrong is done to you. If you've completely given up your own interest in view of gods and someone wrongs you, you can let it go because you are only occupied with God's interest. Your own interests yourself has no bearing. You've given it up in view of God's interest.
OK, you can go ahead there. So I'd like to look at again how this is exemplified in the Lord Jesus. This is another passage that is often read on Lord's Day mornings, again, because it's so beautifully expresses what the Lord has done for us. First, Peter 2.
21 to 24.
For even here untu were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, He threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. So in this verse there's two expressions where there was wrong done to the Lord Jesus by men who had the same wicked heart that you and I have in the middle there it says.
Uh, when he was reviled, when he was spoken evil of, he reviled not again.
When he suffered wrong, he threatened not. There was no response of vengeance or retribution in the Lord's heart. And how could that be in the Lord? Well, we know he couldn't sin, but it gives us a glimpse into here on how that could be. It says he committed himself to him that judges righteously. Lord Jesus had completely given up his own interest for His Father.
And then we know that the next part of this passage here explains what his Father's plan for Him was, and that it says who His own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, That we, being dead to sin, should live under righteousness.
So when wrong was done to the Lord Jesus, when he was reviled, when he suffered at the hands of man, there was number response.
There's no retribution, there is no taking offense in his heart because he had set aside his own interests and view of honoring his father.
So after looking at those two characteristics, I'd now like to look at 2 examples of individuals in the word of God who lived out this exhortation in their own lives. So the first one is Moses.
In Numbers chapter 12 and verse one, the story is recounted where Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses.
It's not recorded what they the details of what they said, but they speak against him.
And I like this example because I find that wrong is done to us often take this exact form today someone says something about us that it may be true, it may not be true, but it's certainly not done in kindness and it's done against us and two verses down here it says the man Moses was very meek above all men, which upon the face of the earth and there's no.
Recorded on the PERS part of Moses, Miriam and Aaron undermine his authority as the representative of God amongst the people and they are speaking against him and I'm sure that hurt him. But there's no response from Moses. He left it with the Lord. He wasn't occupied with himself, his own interests, and therefore when this wrong was done to him and they spoke against him, he left it with the Lord. And the Lord did come in and address the situation.
00:20:21
And it's recorded here in the Word of God that the man Moses was very meek.
Above all, men which were upon the face of the earth. So the reason that he was able to respond in that way was he. He'd given up his own interest and he left it with the Lord.
Now I'd like to quickly look at an example of a woman who went through this very similar experience. This is Jeff's daughter. We'll turn to Judges 11, verse 36.
I am. I'm going to quickly recount part of the story here and not read the whole thing for the the sake of time. I I hope perhaps everyone here would know this story. Jeptha had gone out to battle with the Ammonite and Lord had given him a victory and in a moment of self righteousness and pride he'd made this rash vow that when he got back to his house he was going to offer the first thing that came out of his gate.
To the Lord, and he gets home.
And his daughter comes out of the house.
1St and.
If you're anything like me, perhaps you've read this story and you hear that happen and there's this voice in your head almost crying. God, it's not fair. Why would that have to happen to that poor girl? She's going to lose her life because of what her dad did.
Perhaps is a bit of an aside.
On that question of God being fair, God not fair, he never has been fair. He never will be fair. And I'm so glad he's not fair because if God was, God is light and God is love. If God was fair, every person in this room, including me, would spend eternity in hell. And that's a bit of an aside there. But I just when confronted in situations in life where I believe the enemy of our souls is speaking to me.
Saying it's not fair.
Well, fairness is a human concept that we've invented that's concerned with our rights, and it's not interested in in God's rights in our lives. But back to this story here. I want to read this girl's response when she finds out what has happened.
And in human terms, if there is anyone that ever had the right to take something personally, to take offense at this wrong that her father did to her, in human terms, we could say Washington was this girl.
She was gonna lose her life.
And this is her response in Judges 11, verse 36. And she said unto him, My Father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that.
Which have proceeded out of thy mouth, for as much as the Lord had taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
What an example, I don't know if there's anyone here that's ever going to have a wrong done to you to the level that this woman, this poor girl had done to her. And this is her response. And how is she able to respond this way? Because she gave up her own interest in view of God. She says, my father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord.
Dad, if you have made this solemn vow in view of God.
Then you need to do it. And she gave up her own interest.
This example speaks to my own soul so powerfully because I know so many times my own life or something so small is done to me and I respond in pride and selfishness and I hold a grudge against that person that's done it. And it wasn't even, again, in human terms, that big of a deal.
That we could take to heart this example of this girl who is going to lose her life because we're wrong, that her own father had done to her and this is how she responds.
Well, now I'd like to just make a few brief remarks on the action and attitude that can flow out of the heart of someone that exhibits an inner characteristic of humbleness and meekness. Go ahead there, Zach.
00:25:18
And that action is forgiveness. So again, I'll I'll say it again up there as a, as a definition, I suggest for forgiveness, it's the action and or attitude.
That flows out of an inner character of humbleness and meekness in response to a wrong. And again, if we were to describe it negatively, we could say it's the opposite of taking offense.
So.
In relation to the subject of forgiveness, I'd just like to put this question out there. When is it OK to take offense or take something personally or hold a grudge? And this is gonna be the easiest part of this whole talk because that exact question was addressed directly to the Lord Jesus and He answered it. So all we have to do is read the verses.
Matthew 18 verse 21 is up there. This is Peter.
He said to the Lord, Lord, how OFT shall my brother stand against me, and I forgive him till seven times. Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7.
I think it's very clear here that the Lord was giving what we partially at least what we referred to in language as a rhetorical answer. It's not that we're supposed to add up until 70 * 7. The answer is never.
To never take offense, never hold take something personally. To never hold a grudge.
And now as a way of, uh, of review and summary of what we've talked about so far, I have a little diagram up there to summarize what we've talked about so far. And that is that if a wrong, that's the action is done to a person who has developed in following the example of the Lord Jesus and inner character of humbleness and meekness.
Then the response to that wrong will be forgiven.
And on the other hand.
If a wrong is done to someone who is in their character is one more of pride and selfishness, then the response to that wrong would be to take offense.
So now I just like to briefly look at the difference between being hurt.
And getting offended. And this is a very, very important difference.
And again, I'd like to do this by looking at the example of the Lord Jesus.
Psalm 69 is a Psalm that recounts the inner thoughts.
And feelings and experience of the Lord Jesus that prophetically that he went through when he suffered at the hands of man. There's not the only place, but it is one of the one of the places where it's most clearly expressed. And I we could read the whole Psalm, but for the sake of time, I picked out two verses.
That express what the Lord Jesus felt as He was wronged by.
Wicked man.
The first verse I put up there is Psalm 69, verse 20.
And let's just read this and think about it, speaking prophetically of how the Lord Jesus felt when he was wrong.
Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters but I found none. And then a second verse is earlier in the chapter, verse four. They that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully are mighty.
Then I restored that.
Which I took not away.
This is an expression of the heart of the Lord Jesus when he was wrong.
By men. Clearly he was hurt. Incredibly, deeply reproached.
Broken my heart. He was hurt incredibly by what men did to him.
00:30:04
But at the same time that it was true that he was hurt in the deepest manner, it was also equally true those verses that we read in first Peter chapter 2, that when he was reviled.
He reviled not again, and when he suffered he threatened not so, even though he was hurt very deeply. At the same time it was true that there was no part of him that in any way held it against the very one that did it to him. And this difference is very important, because if a wrong is done to us.
It's going to hurt.
And that's OK. It hurts the Lord Jesus when He was wrong. But that second part, that taking offense, holding the grudge, taking it personally, that is what you need to seek to avoid.
So then we might ask the question, OK, well.
Something is wrong is done to me. How can I know whether I've taken offense, whether I'm holding it against the person who's done it wrong? Especially since often this happens in its subconscious. We don't even realize that we're holding against that person. I'm going to recount 1 brief personal story. I was in my late teens at a young people's weekend and we were playing a game.
And my sister, who I love very much, was on my team.
And another young man who is competing very vigorously came along.
And just completely took her out in his effort to get the ball.
And I was mad. I love my sister and I didn't like to see her treated like that, so I took him out.
And but the part that I didn't realize at the time was that that little thing.
He, he, he got a little carried away in games. I think there's a lot of people here that could speak to me getting carried away playing sports because I'm very competitive. It wasn't a very big deal, but I held it against him and I didn't even realize until years later we were in a group and he, he asked me and it's just the two of us is there, is there something I've done that?
That bothers you?
And in that moment, I realized that way back then, years before that one little thing, I hadn't forgiven him, and I was still holding it against him. I didn't even realize it.
And so.
I I recount that to make us think about this question. How can we know when something wrong is done to us? In that case, it was someone close to me, it wasn't to me. How can we know whether we have taken offense?
And the answer that I would suggest is it's not a very deep thought, but if someone does something wrong to you, you need to take that to the Lord and in prayer before the Lord and in reading of the word of God, ask him to help you discern the thoughts and intents of your heart. That's what I put Hebrews 412 up there. I we we know that verse very frequently. The last phrase that worse says that the word of God.
Is a discerner.
Of the thoughts and intents of the heart and perhaps the the prayer of David in the Psalms when he said search me O God and know my thoughts, try me and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way. Everlasting would be a very appropriate prayer to address to the Lord if something is done to you and and it hurts.
But you, you want, you want to there to be forgiveness to that person. Take it to the Lord and ask him to help you discern your thoughts and to be able to forgive that person. And then, umm, maybe you can just go back one there, Zach.
I would just suggest one test from the Word of God that we could apply to help us discern whether we have forgiven someone. And this would be that expression that we read earlier in first Peter chapter two said of the Lord Jesus. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. So when he was spoken poorly of.
He did not return that in any way and how can we apply that to our own lives? If someone.
Does something to me that's wrong and I ever find myself.
Recounting what that person has done wrong to me to someone else.
00:35:01
I would just suggest on the basis of this adverse, that that would be a little test, a little indication that I have not in the spirit of homeless and meekness, forgiven that person because if I had, I would not be recounting what that person had done to someone else. This can happen very easily in conversation because we we appreciate sympathy.
And we recount what someone else has done wrong to us. We tell it to another person. And even if what we say is true, that's not putting that person in a good light. That's not out of care for a per that person. That's not taking a low place, that's not giving up myself in view of God's interest. So that's a little test I think we can apply to our own lives if we ever find ourselves repeating, oh, this person said this or this person did this to me.
That should be a red flag. There hasn't been real forgiveness in my heart.
OK, so now I'd like to look at two. I'll call them special cases.
Relating to this subject, one is offense on behalf of others. You'll see up there in the title on the slide. I've put quotes around the words on behalf, and we'll see why as we go through. But often it's not necessarily a case of a wrong that's done to me, it's a wrong done to someone that I care about.
Someone does something wrong to a friend or a family member and it hurts because I care about that person.
We care about that person, and it's possible to take offense and hold a grudge in that case as well. And I'd like to look at a story in the Word of God that illustrates how harmful this can be.
That story is in Genesis chapter 34.
This is one of.
The stories in the Word of God that we could say is perhaps a little bit unpleasant. There's a sad, violent story, but it's there to give us instruction.
Again, for the, for the purpose of time, I'm I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll, I'll briefly recount what happened here. Jacob had a daughter. Her name was Dinah. She was the direct sister, the daughter of Leah, and therefore the direct sister of Simeon and Levi. And it says in the first verse of Genesis 34 that she went out to Shechem, she Washington. So she went out to see the daughters of the land.
And there was a man in this town called Shechem. The man was also named Shechem. He saw her.
And he took her into his house and they slept together, which was wrong.
And the part of this story where it applies to the subject that we're talking about this evening is when we get to the response.
Of Jacob's sons, and therefore Dinah's brother's response to what happened here.
And in verse we they then check him, he wants to marry Dinah and they get together and they want to make this agreement to give their daughters to each other. And down in verse 13, as they're talking about this, it's recorded there that the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hammer's father deceitfully and said because he had defiled Dina, their sister.
And it's that part at the end of the verse that is to keep the reason that they are answering deceitfully was because he had defiled Dinah, their sister. And the rest of the story goes it's it's very sad. The sons of Jacob fool the the men and to getting circumcised. And then when they're in a weak condition, they go into the city and they.
Slaughter every single person in that city. Murder them.
Men, women and children. Oh, sorry, excuse me. They only the males, but they came in and slew all the men.
And when they come back to Jacob and Jacob confronts them about their action, because this didn't make him look very good in in the presence of all the rest of the people in the land. There's another verse there and the answer that Jacobsons give to Jacob.
Is the very last verse of the chapter and they said should he deal with our sister as with in Harlan.
And the point I'd like to take from the story is that.
I'm sure Jacob's brothers cared about their sister. So Arno Arong was done to her. Umm, she was perhaps partially guilty in the wrong. But this man Shechem, he, he defiled her. He, he acted wrongly towards her. That was wrong.
00:40:15
But Jacob's sons.
Took it as a wrong done to them.
And they justified it in their own minds, this action they took of deceitfully dealing with the men of Shechem and then going and killing them all when they were in a helpless condition. They justified it in their own mind by saying, well, it's OK because of what they did to our sister and the lesson that.
I'd like to take from this story is that I believe Satan does this very, very well with us. That story that I recounted earlier.
I think Satan did it with me. Then he gets us. Something is done to someone close to us and we take it personally. We get offended and hold it against the person who did the wrong. And we justify our attitudes and our actions toward that person in our own mind by saying, well it's OK because I care about this person close to me and therefore it's OK how I act toward this other person. Just like Jacob's son's here when they came back and Jacob said why? Why did you?
Do this, he said. Should they justify saying well he he was, he dealt with our sisters of the harlots, so therefore the fact that we deceitfully dealt with them in mergers and it was OK.
So Lord help us to it if we're put in that situation where we're tempted to.
Hold an attitude or act in a certain way towards someone that has perhaps hurt someone close to us. Be careful that Satan is not fooling you into acting in that way and justifying it in your own mind. Mind by saying it's OK because I'm acting this way because I care about someone. Be careful with that.
OK.
Let's look at a second unique case of this subject, and that is.
Offense within families, for assemblies, or really it could be any form of community.
So.
It hurts when someone does something wrong to us or someone close to us, but it can hurt even more deeply when a wrong is done to us by someone that is close to us, by a family member or someone in our assembly, or someone that we're close to us and they wrong us. That can hurt even more deeply.
And I'd like to look at another example in the Word of God that bears out.
This case.
So I have a map up there on the slide. This is a map of the northern portion of the tribes of Israel, and you can see that I've highlighted in red there two sections on that map. The one in green on the left is the NASA and the one in pink on the right is called on the map East Manasseh.
We often call that the half tribe of Manasseh.
Did you ever wonder why the tribe of Manasseh ended up like that?
It's a very interesting thing to look into and it has to do with this subject that we're talking about this evening. And we'll look into the verses now that that show that that it was because of a wrong done in that family way, way, way back, hundreds of years before a wrong was done. And the other part of the family held a grudge and held it against another part of the family. And years, hundreds of years later, you can see that old wrong and that old lack of.
Come out and lead to civil war within a family. It's a tragic story. We'll look into the verses that show this now.
So first Chronicles 7, verse 14, I think Bruce this morning was mentioning that when you read the whole Bible, you should read the genealogies too. And this is one spot within the genealogies where there's a little detail that puts a puzzle piece into the story and helps us to understand it.
First Chronicles 7 and verse 14 says the sons of Manasseh whom she bare. The she there is referring to Manasseh's wife.
But his concubine, the Aramitis Behr Maker, the father of Gilead. Gilead is the name in the Bible given to that land where the half tribe of Manasseh ended up settling. And you can see that in this other verse that I have up there on the slide, which is Numbers 3239 and 40. That verse there says the children of Maker.
00:45:10
The son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and Moses gave Gilead unto Maker, the son of Manasseh. So, just so we understand what these verses are saying, Manasseh had a wife and she had a son named Ashrie Ellen. In another verse, which I'm not going to look at, she had other sons as well, but he had a concubine.
And that concubine had a son, and that son's name was Maker.
Should Manasseh have had a concubine?
The answer to that is no, he shouldn't have done that. And it's interesting to point out that it wasn't only a concubine, it was a concubine that wasn't from the people of Israel. She was an Aramaic. So Manasseh did something wrong. He went and took a concubine, and he had a son by her. And that son, whose name was Maker, he's the father of all the people of Gilead. This is the half tribe.
That ended up on the side of Jordan. They were all the descendants of this man maker that was the son out of uh.
This relationship between Manasseh and his concubine and then it's interesting to just notice if I Click to the next slide, you'll see I've circled up there in the top right corner. What's the name of the land right next to where that half Dr. settled Arum and that verse we just read said that concubine was an Aramitis. It's it's an interesting detail. I just highlighted it there that when the children of Israel got to the land that one family, the descendants of this concubine they want they.
Right next to that land where where their mother was from. So this wrong was done. Manasseh made a mistake. He shouldn't have done that. And then he had a son, Maker, through that concubine. And we find out hundreds of years later that the rest of that family of Ephriam and NASA Ephraim was the other son of Joseph. They're often put together that the rest of the family, even NASA held it against Maker and against his descendants hundreds and hundreds of years.
That he was the son of a concubine. And we see that come out in the story of Jephthah, which we'll look at now. So again, I we can't read the whole thing here, so I'll just recount it briefly. The story of Jeptha after the part that we already talked about where he defeats the Ammonites, he Co he makes the rash bow, he comes back home and he has to offer his daughter as a sacrifice.
Then in the next chapter is gonna turn to it now in in judges chapter 12.
Verse One says The men of Ephraim, so this is a Ephraim was the brother of Manasseh, gathered themselves together and went northward and set into Jephthah. Wherefore passes thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us to go with thee. We will burn thine house upon thee with fire.
In chapter said unto him, I and my people were at a great strife with the children of Ammon. And when I called you, you delivered me not out of their hands. Perhaps I should just, I didn't say this before, but Jephthah is a member of that, uh, half tribe in the land of Gilead, a descendant of Maker. Verse 3 And when I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Wherefore then are you come up to me this day to fight against me then?
Gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim. And this is the critical part right here. It gives the reason for the whole conflict, the root cause, because they, if you might, said, Ye Gilly dice are fugitives of Ephraim among Ephraimites and among the monocytes.
Hundreds of years later after that happened, where Manasseh went and took the concubine and he had Maker.
Through that concubine and makers, the father of the family of Gilead, we come and we find the root cause for this division between that family and the rest of Ephraim and NASA, which we just read. This is what the people of Ephraim Manasseh said. Ye Giladites, your fugitives of Ephraim, among Ephraimites and NASDAQ, you don't really belong. You're the children of a concubine. You've never really belonged. You don't really have a rightful place here.
And.
That route way back then when that wrong was done and there was no, there was no humbleness and meekness on the part of that family asked that you accept Maker and his family. They were made to feel for hundreds of years that they were not really part of this family. And then we get to the story of Jeptha so far along and that route between that family that divided them apart ends up in full blown civil war.
00:50:16
And if we were to keep reading down there, we read after that, after the Gileadites defeated the Ephemites, that they went and took the Fords. And as they came to the floor to try and get back to their own land, they did the test with whether they could say shibla. Then they couldn't say it because they weren't from that country. And when they couldn't pass this test, they they killed them.
So something was done within a family that was wrong. Manasseh went and he took a concubine and that sun maker from that relationship. He didn't do anything wrong. He never did anything wrong. He was the result they were wrong. They had done before but the rest of the family, it must have started then or it never would have passed down. They made him feel you're not one of us, you're just a fugitive.
And it goes down hundreds of years through all the time in Egypt, through the time, through the Exodus. They settle in the land, they get through the land. And evidently that family still felt the same.
See is that half drive that wanted to settle way over on that side of Israel next to where their mother going all the way back was from. They wanted to be separate from the rest of Ephraim and NASA. And then they would come to the civil war where we find the root of it. Given you all are just fugitives, you don't really belong and it caused civil war within a family and the important lesson to take.
Here is that sometimes.
Someone close to us in our own family or our assembly or our friend has something wrong. I wanted someone close within a family. We could say it hurts especially bad and it's especially hard to forgive. But if we are not able to forgive.
Then Satan can use that to drive the wedge like he did with his family here and.
'Cause we could use it as an expression civil war within a family or within an assembly. So it's a very, very, very important thing.
When a wrong is done to us to take it to the Lord and.
Ask Him to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts through the Word of God, to search us, search our hearts and help us know, and for us to follow after the example of the Lord Jesus, who in humbleness would give up everything.
For us, and then his attitude of meekness, where when he was wrong, when he was reviled, when he suffered at the hands of our wicked hearts, there would be no response in his heart to what was done to him because he completely given up his own interest and his only concern was for God. May we follow after that example and avoid a situation like this where?
There would be a fence taken and forgiveness not granted. It could be used to divide a family or divide an assembly.
And maybe just.
In closing this, read this one verse here Ephesians 4, verse 2.
Walk worthy location with which you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.
Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we.
We thank you for the Word of God and the instruction it has for us. We thank you for the example of the Lord Jesus that's recorded for us that we could read a little bit about this evening. And we would just pray that that example of the Lord Jesus in humbleness and meekness would speak to our hearts and that there would be a response in our hearts to seek to follow after the example of the Lord Jesus.
And that if it is the.
Difficult portion of one's year to have wrongs done to us in the future that we would be able to, in the spirit of homelessness and meekness, forgive, and that as a result there would be blessing in the lives of individuals and families and assemblies. And most of all, that honor and glory could be given to the Lord Jesus who gave up everything.
Even his own life to save us. And so we pray this and worthy impress this name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Session #6
Suffering
Address—Tim Roach
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.
We can start by seeing #246.
I'm going to read verse four. Uh, whither could we flee for aid when tempted, desolate, dismayed, Or how the hosts of hell defeat at suffering Saints no mercy. See Sing #246.
OK, let me try.
To find out if I am going to be anything. It is OK to hear anything about it. That's why I'm trying to continue.
Umm.
Let's ask the Lord's help our God and Father. We come to you this evening independence, and ask for strength.
This meeting helps us speak the words that you would have for our hearts and we just ask for help to understand and we just give thanks, Lord Jesus, for all you've done for us and we just commit this evening into your hand. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
I want to speak a little bit about suffering tonight. And you can see we'll take a little moment in the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo. We can see up here on the on the signs we see a monument for 702 Persons who were beaten and brutally murdered in one day. The rebels came down and killed everyone in the village. They put up this monument to these people.
00:05:21
And that happened back in 1998. That fighting is still going on. It's one of the worst places in the world right now, the worst place in the world right now for all the, uh, wicked violence that's going on.
The next picture is a little girl, a young girl. You see she's crying.
The last thing she saw.
Before she passed out, when the rebels came recently to murder everyone in the village, the last thing she saw was her mother.
Her pregnant mother with the fetus, both of them being brutally murdered.
Next picture.
This is that same girl and her little sister. When the girl, older girl, she woke up, when she came to, they left her unconscious, left her for dead. When she came to, she found that they had cut off one of her arms. Her little sister. In the next picture you can see there's slashes across her face and I don't know if you can see it, but across just above her ear from being slashed and hacked up with a machete.
When you go to the refugee colonies camps and you just listen to all the tragedies of each of the refugees as they experience the savage cruelty of man, it is more than the human soul can bear to hear all these stories and try to sympathize which with each and everyone. But yet to think that the Lord Jesus bore the grief and carried our sorrows of the sin sick world and that he bore it all.
Alone. It's no wonder that the face of the man of sorrows was so marred more than any man's, when sin and its consequences were laid on him.
And also his face was marred more than any man's when he endured the wrath of an holy God against himself because of sin, the sin that was put on him. And it just boggles my mind that when bad things happen in this world, God, who so loves the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that God gets the blame.
This world turned away from Jesus. They rejected him. They hated him. They chose Barabbas.
In this world, except Satan as their leader and God, they don't even believe that God exists, but God gets the blame when everything goes wrong.
In Isaiah 53 verse three says he is despised and rejected of men. Luke 1914 his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. In John 19 verse 15 the people cried out, they said away with him, crucify him that in mark 1515 until pilot willing to content the people.
Released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. And so they crucified Jesus, the Creator of this universe, the very one who gave them the breath to breathe and the life to live here in this world. They crucified the Lord of glory. Another story of suffering again, coming from the Congo, a man named Desire.
He had escaped the fighting and he came down to Malawi for refuge and he was in the camp there and there was a missionary Dr. there.
And he had come to the missionary Dr. He had unexplained pains throughout his body and he couldn't. The doctor tried and tried. They did so many tests. They could not find the reason for all his pains. But then the doctor found out that.
This man when he was in the Congo.
He had suffered such trauma, emotional trauma there, that the pains were in effect from all that trauma because they took him. He had seven children and they tied the desire and his wife up to trees.
00:10:07
And in front of them, they slowly slaughtered their seven children, one at a time.
This man has to live with that horror of those memories in his mind for the rest of his life and it affects his body and gives him pain.
If there is a God, why does he allow suffering?
Suffering is a result of fellowship with God being broken by sin.
The fact that there is sin in the world.
Has really disturbed peace and health and safety.
In all areas of the world, and sin causes all mankind to suffer.
In Congo is not the only place of suffering. Many people in this room tonight are suffering because of this sin, just because of sin that's in this world that has resulted in the corruption of this creation and our bodies. We get sick, we get diseases, we live with pain and discomfort. But I want you to know that you are not the only one who suffers from some malady. You're not the only one who suffers. I wanna talk tonight about a God.
Who suffers? Let's go to Hebrews Chapter 2.
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 18. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted. The Lord Jesus has suffered so much, He's endured so much and he's experienced so much in his life here on earth that when we go through some phase of suffering in our lives.
Sometimes it's more than a phase, sometimes it's a life long chronic suffering. Put the Lord Jesus can identify and empathize with the pain you go through in Ephesians. So before, before God, before creation, God chose to create people and put them on earth, people with whom he could have fellowship with. And in Ephesians chapter one we find that God chose certain people.
To be holy and to give praise and glory to God. You see, God wanted to have fellowship with man and that's why he put him in the garden of Eden. He wants fellowship. But if we go back, and before man was on the earth, before the world was created, one of the first things that God created was the angels. And the angels were created to serve God. And in Job chapter 38, when the angels were created, when when God created the heavens and the earth, all the angels were rejoicing.
Together.
God laid the foundations of the earth, and there was joy in heaven. But then the suffering began. We think we are the only ones who suffer, but God knows what it is to suffer as well. He has suffered. He has suffered disappointments and discouragements, and he knows pain. He knows rejection. He knows sorrow. This God who created the universe.
Began to suffer Genesis Chapter one.
If we were to go over to Isaiah chapter 14, we find Lucifer who is the chief of the angels. We find that he attempted to overthrow the power of God. He, Satan, wanted everything in creation for himself.
And at that time when Satan Lucifer tried to overthrow God, this could possibly be the time when the creation was thrown into chaos where where we don't know that, We're not told that, but it seems like that could be very likely. But in Genesis chapter one and verse two we find that the earth was without form and void. Without form and void it was waste and empty and darkness covered the face of the waters that covered the face of the earth.
God did not create the heavens and the earth in this way. We had the verse on Isaiah 4518 the other night says God created this earth. He did not create it. Waste and empty. God created the earth to be inhabited.
00:15:06
He created it in a beautiful way so mankind could live here. But something destroyed that wonderful creation that God had made. Ecclesiastes says. That God made everything beautiful in his time.
But when the Spirit of God came down in Genesis one verse 2 and saw the chaos and the darkness that the world had become.
We can't imagine what God was thinking at that time. When the Spirit of God was moving through the darkness and over the waters of judgment, God was surveying the state of confusion.
And the emptiness into which this world had become.
From that time in ages past, God suffered all the way up to the time of Genesis one verse 3, where we find that God was working on his plan. And in six days we find that God fixed up his creation because he was going to prepare a place for man, a place where God could have fellowship with man, and in Genesis, Genesis chapter one again.
In verse 26.
God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He Him, male and female created He them. On day six God made man in his own image. That means God made man with the Spirit.
So that God could have an intellectual interaction with man on a spiritual level. And God, God originally made man when he put Adam and Eve in the garden. He originally made man to be good and righteous so that God could have fellowship with man.
But when Cindy came in, Cindy destroyed that capability for Fellowship.
Let's go to Ephesians chapter 4.
You and I, we were born with a sinful nature, and that's why we sinned, because we have sinned even before we're born. We have that sinful nature in US, and that produces sin once we come out of the mother's womb.
And that sin has destroyed the capability for fellowship with God. So in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 24 we find that at the time when we were saved we received eternal life at that time. And the verse says that we have put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So when God gives us eternal life, He now gives us the capability.
To have fellowship with God because that new life is made and created in righteousness and true holiness. Well, Adam and Eve are in the garden of Eden. God came down into the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. I suppose that could be the evening. And he came down to enjoy a time of fellowship with man, and it was a good fellowship, and God was glorified.
In this fellowship that God had with man in the Garden of Eden, well, it wasn't long before Satan also came down into the Garden of Eden. He's gonna check out God's restoration job that he did on the earth. And Satan saw Adam and Eve there, and he saw the glory that God received through his fellowship with man. Satan became jealous, Satan became jealous, and he wanted all that glory for himself. And Satan came into the Garden of Eden.
With a plan to destroy the fellowship of God with man.
Satan came in and he saw Eve.
She was up there looking at that tree, and he deceived the woman, and she ate the fruit. Then she took the fruit and gave the forbidden fruit to Adam, and together they disobeyed. Gone. And from that moment on sin controlled the heart of man. We read in the The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. And that started right there in Adam, in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and that wickedness and deceitfulness.
00:20:08
Has spread to each and everyone that is born into this world.
The fellowship at that moment, remember we said God came down from heaven and into the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. Well.
That fellowship with man, of God, of God and man was broken because of that sin and the suffering. The suffering of God was increased at that time as man was separated from God because of that sin. Let's go to verse five, Genesis 6, verse five and six.
And we know that the sin of man, it grew, and violence in the world became worse and worse. And this God who suffers looked down from heaven, and what did he see in Genesis 6, verse five? And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, verse 6. And it grieved him at his heart.
The grief and the suffering of God was too much, and in verse seven he says, I'm sorry I ever made man, I'm going to destroy him off the face of the earth.
And so it was that in the day of Noah, God told Noah, I want you to build this big boat. Noah built a boat. A flood was coming, God warned him.
And the waters of judgment. When the floods came, the rains came, and the floods came up. The waters of judgment once again covered the face of the earth. But we know, we know that the long-suffering of God is not willing that any should perish until God made a way of escape. And God told Noah to go and build this big boat. And everyone was invited to come into the boat to escape the judgment that was coming on this world.
This wicked world was going to be punished at that time with the flood on the Washington on this world. But NOAA built the boat. He got onto the boat. The animals got onto the boat. His family got onto the boat. There are eight of them. That's the only ones who got on the boat. Nobody else believed, nobody else wanted to be, to believe God. They hated God. Let's go over to Genesis 11.
We find in Genesis that the Creator God He put Noah and his family after the flood after the ark landed on Mount Ararat after the water dried up about a year later.
God put Noah and his family back on the earth into a new beginning. All that sin, the violence, the wickedness was gone. They had a new beginning. But it wasn't long before the years passed by and man turned away from God again, and they began worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars. And they built the tower, the Tower of Babel that went up into the heavens. And they worshipped. They wanted to reach the creation that they worshiped.
And they worship the creation rather than the Creator. And in Genesis Chapter 11 and verse 6.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is 1, and they have all one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to let us go down. And there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.
And now notice verse 9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth.
The face of all the earth. And so the Lord scattered people all over the earth. And so by families they didn't have they, they had different language for each family. And so the families of the earth spread out in all the all the earth. And that's why we have all the different nationalities and all the different languages in the world today, because God spread them out. But though I'm sure the heart of God was suffering again as he mixed up the languages and he dispersed the people throughout all the world.
God wanted people together fellow, but but because of the sin, God spread them out all over the world. You know, fellowship with God cannot happen in the presence of sin.
00:25:08
And so man was separated from God, and he got further and further away from God.
Well, sin, sin continued to grow, and it controlled the heart of man. And so God was going to test man in yet another way. And so God looked down in all this world of wickedness and idolatry, and God saw Abraham, and God chose Abraham, and he chose Isaac and Jacob and the nation of Israel. He chose them to be his special people.
God, then He gave the nation of Israel every opportunity. He gave them every advantage to be blessed with having the fellowship of God and this nation of Israel as they were wandering through the wilderness for 40 years. God wanted to have fellowship with them. Yes, they were rebels, Yes, they were sinners. But Jesus wanted to have, But God wanted to have fellowship with them. And he told them, build me a Tabernacle, a house where I can dwell with his people a place.
That was reserved for fellowship with God. So man the priest could go into the into the Tabernacle, they could OfferUp the sacrifices and the pre high priest could go right into the presence of God with the blood once a year.
That place was reserved for fellowship of God with man. But the Israelites, they didn't want it. Israel did not want the fellowship of God.
And God gave them just a few commandments to keep, and he gave them some rules to worship in fellowship with God. But Israel turned away from God. They wanted to go their own way. Let's go to Romans chapter 3.
We know from the book of Romans that man in his own strength and his own efforts cannot please God. Here in Romans 3 verse 23 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
With this test of Israel in the wilderness and with the law, and over the many years of of the law and the 10 commandments, God proves that man is unable to approach to God by good works. God suffered so much during this time of testing of His people Israel.
He suffered.
So what was God going to do now? He gave them every advantage, every opportunity to have fellowship with him. They didn't want it until God suffers. And So what was God going to do? It was at this time that God decided to send his son into the world to become a man, and he wanted his son to be with his people, Israel.
A man, God with his people, Israel.
But the Lord Jesus came, and he came unto his own, and his own received him not. And God suffered when the people of Israel rejected his Son Jesus Christ.
When the Lord Jesus was born into this world, there is no room for him in the inn. And when he was tempted by the devil Jesus, he refused the offers of Satan in the in those uh those days of temptation. And as a result Jesus suffered hunger because he would not do the commands of Satan. And then Jesus suffered Jesus, we can say Satan offered the Lord Jesus all the kingdoms of this world.
But the Lord Jesus wasn't ready to receive them, and there is no way the Lord Jesus was going to bow down and worship Satan. So the Lord, the Kingdom for the Lord Jesus was delayed.
Jesus suffered for righteousness sake. They accused him of blasphemy. They tried to stone him to death. They spit on him, they beat him. They put crown of thorns upon his head and they mocked him. Hail King of the Jews.
God suffered, God suffered when he saw sin at its worst.
And God saw his Son despise. They hated him. They rejected him. They crucified him. Jesus. Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief.
00:30:09
Let's go to first Peter, chapter 3.
We know that up to this time.
God was suffering because of sin, because sin had separated man from fellowship with God.
But now there is going to be a little change taking place, because now the time had come for Jesus Christ to suffer force in.
And in first Peter 3 verse 18.
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.
Before the Lord Jesus went to the cross to suffer for our sins.
Jesus said to his disciples in Luke chapter 22. He says with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer the Lord. Jesus knew he was going to suffer there at the cross, but yet.
The Lord Jesus was looking forward to the fellowship he was going to have with you, with the believers who would be brought into that new relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as the bride of Christ. And this is the church, this is the body of Christ. And God wants to have fellowship with people in the body of Christ. And so he was looking beyond the cross, beyond the suffering, beyond the shame. He's looking beyond the cross to the glory and the joy and the fellowship.
He would have on the other side of the cross.
We are now on this side of the cross, and we have been joined together into one body with Christ as our head. He is the Bridegroom, and we the Bride, the Bride of Christ the Church.
Let's go to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 and verse 2.
Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The Lord Jesus.
Said. Don't be surprised if the world hates you. You know that it hated me before it hated you. A Christian will suffer in this world.
This world is trying to make everyone to accept and to conform to the LGBQT agenda. I think I got all the.
Letters.
That's the homosexual lesbian.
Gay. I'm not sure what all these, the queer, all these letters. I'm not sure what they all mean. But if the parents show the children that this agenda goes against the will of God.
The children will consider that the parents are ignorant bigots and wicked people. That's right, parents. That's what they're teaching your children in the in the schools.
That is what many children think of their Christian parents.
As an intolerant bigot because you stand for righteousness.
That is similar to the man lot.
He stood for righteousness in the wicked city of Sodom, and he was hated for it, and his own children mocked him.
They mocked him when they he warned them of the judgment that was coming against the pride and the luxury and the homosexual lifestyle that was going on there in Sodom. They mocked the righteousness of Lot.
Satan is bewitching our children.
He's brainwashing our children in the schools to accept the lifestyle that was never intended by God.
And children all over the world are confused by this movement and they are caving in to the lust of the flesh and the lies that Satan is is spreading.
00:35:12
If you live by Christian values in this present evil world, you represent righteousness and you will be persecuted and you will be ostracized and you will be hated.
That's what it says in John 15. We referred to that verse. John 15, verse 18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So as Christians, how do we react to that? Yes, we suffer. And God suffers when he sees it, and God suffers when he sees his believers, his people, his bride, when he sees us suffering at at for righteousness sake.
But as Christians, we should not hate these people. We should not turn our backs on them.
I was talking to a young man and he had a job.
He was. He's just just a young, a young fellow.
But he had a summer job, and his and his job required him to work with a transvestite.
A young I don't know if it was a girl or a ma uh, boy who changed his his sexual disposition to be the other one.
And he was very uncomfortable working with this person. He didn't know if it was a boy or a girl or how to talk to him or her.
And so he wanted to avoid them. But I told him, you need to be careful because you may be the only Christ that that person sees because.
They're having an identity crisis. They don't know who they are, and they're trying to become something that they're not so they can feel better about themselves. Many of them end up committing suicide.
So as Christians, we should not hate them. We should not turn our backs on them because they need Christ as well.
They are suffering an identity crisis because it is imposed on them by their environment.
And they are sinners.
They are sinners like all the good.
All the good people, the morally upright people.
They're sinners. There's no difference between those ones and all those good people, you know?
But the good people don't think they need God. They think they're good enough the way they are. For the Lord Jesus died for whosoever whosoever will may come.
So why does God allow suffering in this world?
It's a simple answer.
I believe that God allows the suffering in this world so that we might have an idea how he suffered and how he felt, and so we can get to know Him better and so that we can be conformed to the image of his Son. He wants us to become conformed to himself.
And we may need to go through sometimes of suffering.
And persecution.
So we can become more like Christ. Philippians Chapter 3.
Philippians 3 and verse 10.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.
So we find that God allows us to suffer in this world, in this life, and we suffer sorrow, we suffer pain, we suffer persecution, and we suffer for righteousness sake, but in the eternal future with Christ.
We can look forward to that. We will not suffer anymore. And let's go to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 17 and 18.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.
00:40:09
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US.
We have spoken about a God who suffers.
God suffers when we suffer.
I want to read some verses in Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews 2 verse 17 and 18.
Wherefore in all things it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered. Being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
God allows us to suffer.
Many people can sit through a meeting like this through a week like this.
And they look like everybody else.
But you sit there and you're in pain.
You have emotional hurts.
There's things that disturb you.
And you have to learn how to deal with those things.
You can accept them and live by faith, where you can become discouraged and depressed and angry.
But just know this that when you do suffer.
The Lord Jesus, He knows what it is like because he has suffered himself and so he is able to help to sucker them that are tempted.
Because when we when we're in pain.
We have a 10. We're tempted sometimes to question the goodness of God. Why are you allowing this in my life?
Why is it so? Why won't it go away? And we pray to the Lord for mercy?
And kindness, please take this away.
But then we find that sometimes, instead of mercy, He gives us grace.
Grace to help in time of need, the Apostle Paul found himself in the same situation when he was suffering from a thorn in the flesh. We don't know what that is, so we can identify with the Apostle Paul. Maybe it was just like the same type of suffering that you have.
But he said the Lord told him, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is made perfect in weakness because when we are suffering, it makes us weak. It makes us dependent on on others. It makes us dependent on God so.
We need to accept that the Lord Jesus is trying to conform us to the to Himself.
Let's close by singing.
#168.
But I.
Reckon I need to say.
This turtle.
Come on.
I'm welcome.
00:45:06
Give it wrong.
Then the Lord.
Land when the big land and the declared.
I'm in the end of the day, the honourable man.
It's done. What I'm pretty and warm.
You can give you times and and.
For the beginning and loud and thumbnails and the bottom.
Holy.
Time they might be able to love the woman.
Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we give thanks that we have a Savior.
Who has suffered?
And that he's able to identify with our suffering. We just ask that we'd be able to cast all our cares on the Lord Jesus. Father, we give thanks for this resource we just think of that Crown Incorruptible will be the will be for those who have suffered.
Father, we just give thanks for the time we've had together this past week here at the camp. We just ask that uh, we might all be encouraged to continue on in our Christian pathway and that we might have developed fellowships, relationships with one another that might last until the Lord comes. We just commit our way to you, Father. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Covering Sins
Children—Luke Mackewich
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning and welcome to the Sunday School. It's a privilege to be able to come here this morning and to tell you about the Lord Jesus. We're going to start off by singing a few songs, and thankfully I know a lot of you don't have hymn books, but I did bring one and I also have the gospel sheet. And if I don't know what, maybe somebody else does. So does anybody have a favorite song you'd like to sing?
29.
The books of the Bible.
Around in 30 and they tend to be in the left again, no oxygen but I don't know when I'm eating and.
In the case I am and I believe in December 1990.
9.
Who here was paying attention when I was singing? Did you notice what I did?
I made a mistake.
And our verse today is be sure your sin will find you out. So did you know that I just made a mistake?
That each and everyone of you found out that I made that mistake.
OK, who has another favorite song?
101 Oh, that's a good one Why? Why does the ocean?
Does anybody know the motions for that?
Very good. How about somebody on this side?
Which one?
What?
My heart was dark within. All right, I have to find that one. All right #62 my.
Home.
I have done.
Somebody over on this side?
17.
Maybe one of the kids hiding, maybe they're too shy to sit up front and maybe somebody sitting in the back a little bit.
88 Oh, that's a good one.
Number 88.
He had jumped out of his eye. He stood.
I quiet the mist and weed on him. He made fell by thigh like thy knight God.
I'm invited to make you.
Whatever you want to to be.
I'm honestly treated when I honestly don't want to give him anything. I'm getting to the cloud. I'm taking behind three.
Uh, anybody else?
79.
Shall we gather at his coming?
We've got to ride the God of me. When I die down in Christ, arise.
I begin to think you're gone and I'm doing all day. I'm not a guy.
Yes, but I'm going to come on me.
Five days appear to be.
Sitting down, I'm talking for you.
I will have a grinding on me.
It's going to be honest coming.
00:10:02
Now you expected it to be excited on me.
MMM, I'm by my finger.
Print when nothing here I get on me.
Goddess on glory.
Breathing.
Will you be outside enough? But for every good and praise and pray for Him.
OK umm here Wednesday I just got on me and when I'm taking the sun.
That was a very good song and it had an important message.
It's sad that the Lord Jesus is coming back and there are people who are going to be happy when he comes back and there's people who are going to be sad when he comes back.
And you know, when I was up here, I noticed there were people who were happy when they were singing this song. And there were people who did not look very happy when we were singing this song. And that's sad because we should be happy.
To see the Lord Jesus if we have our sins forgiven, but if we haven't had our sins forgiven, well then it's a very scary thing when the Lord Jesus comes back because he's going to come back in judgment. And that means we're going to get in trouble for all the bad things we did. And so we can either be happy when the Lord Jesus comes if we have our sins forgiven, or we can be sad because he's going to come back and he's going to judge us for each and everything that we.
OK, you've had your hand up for a long time. We'll close with this one for the singing part. Which one would you like?
What?
12 disciples. OK, maybe we'll just sing the first verse.
Very good. Maybe before we go any further, we'll ask the Lord Jesus for his help. OK, let's close our eyes and let's talk to God. Say, dear Lord Jesus, we thank you for the opportunity we have to come and tell boys and girls.
Maybe some bigger boys and girls, and maybe some grown-ups too. About your love toward them and how.
You see everything that we do and that we need to have our sins forgiven and that you provided a way that that can happen. We just pray for blessing on the Sunday school in your name. Amen. OK.
00:15:13
Who here learned the memory verse for this week?
And I promise, if you say it, you can pick out a sucker.
We didn't give out papers last week. Oh.
Maybe you can say another verse, or maybe you can learn one in between and tell your parents.
And if you learn the verse, you can come up and get a sucker, and I'll leave it up here, but the verse that was for this week was #3223.
And it said be sure your sin will find you out.
Now there's some words in there that we don't use a lot sometimes.
Who here can tell me what sin is?
Something bad that you did? Yeah. Tim is doing our own will. So it could be maybe we told a lie. Maybe we hit our brother or our sister. Maybe we took a cookie when Mommy and Daddy weren't looking. Sin is anything wrong that we do. And it says be sure your sin. OK. We'll find you out. What does it mean? We'll find you out.
Does anybody know you answered the last one?
It will come out and everybody will know.
It will come out of you once you get saved, that's true, but that's not what the verts are talking about. Anybody else?
It will come to light. There we go, it will come to light. You know, sometimes we do bad things. Well, we had a couple people who tried to answer, so we'll give them some *******. They did a good job. It means that even if we do something bad and maybe nobody saw.
God saw and we can't get away.
With any sin that we do.
No matter what one it is, God sees and records.
Every single sin that we do. Did you know that?
So when you weren't kind to your brother or sister this morning, when you were grumpy and said, I don't want to go to a Sunday school, leave me alone. God saw that. OK, we're going to read a story. Well, I'll paraphrase this story real quick. How many of you heard the story of the children of Israel? And they went and they fought against the city of Jericho?
Raise your hand, OK? Lots of people.
Now, right after they won that big battle against.
Jericho, God gave them some instructions. Does anybody know what those instructions were?
What were the instructions?
Obey. The instructions were that this city was so bad it needed to be destroyed. And that's when the people went in to capture the city. They weren't to take anything from inside the city. They weren't to go and say, oh, this looks nice, this is a fun toy, or maybe this is some money, or maybe this was some nice shirt or pants.
They weren't to take anything out of the city because it was what God called a cursed because of sin.
And there was a man.
Who thought he was sneaky? His name was Aiken.
And he took some money and some clothes and he went and he hid them in his tent. Now I know that there were some people here at camp who slept in a tent, but back then they didn't have bottoms on their tents. And he dug a hole in the ground beneath the tent and he hit it.
And nothing happened. And then the children of Israel went on to the next city.
And do you know what the next city was?
Who knows what the next city was?
AI very good that deserves a soccer.
00:20:02
OK, so then they went to the next city and they had just gotten done with fighting a really big battle.
And so they sent out some spies to try to find out what did they need to do in order to capture this next city.
Is that a smart thing to do? Yeah. And so they sent out some spies to find out what they needed to do to capture this city. And they said, oh, it's just a small city. We just got back from a really big fight to send a few people, and we'll be able to take it really easily.
And so that's what they did.
And so the children of Israel ran, and they went, and they went to go fight against the city.
And then the people of the city came out and the children of Israel got scared and ran away.
And some of them even died.
That doesn't sound very good. That was a city that they should have won really easily.
And so they went, and they asked the Lord Jesus at that.
Time it was God, because Lord Jesus hadn't come in flesh yet and they said, what's going on? Why did this happen?
And God said somebody here.
Has taken that which they were not supposed to have. Somebody in your camp took something that was cursed. Somebody in camp.
Did something bad.
And they didn't know who it was, and so they had to call each person tribe out, and then by family and then by individual until they found out the person who took the things that they were not supposed to have.
You know.
I'm sad to admit it, but I've probably taken a lot of things that I'm not supposed to have in my life.
And I'm sure you probably have too, but it says the verse this morning must be sure your sin will find you out. And this man, he had gotten called out in front of all the people there that he did something wrong. Remember when we were singing the very first song this morning and I accidentally sang the wrong words?
I got called out in front of everybody here.
But thankfully I didn't get in trouble. So as you can see, that was one story. But you know, Aiken, when he took that stuff, he went from that first city of Jericho and they kept on going on their way until they got to the next city. And it went on a good period of time. And he thought that he got away with it. And sometimes we think that when we do something wrong.
And maybe.
Nobody saw us or we think nobody saw us. We think that we get away with it.
There is a verse in Ecclesiastes and I'm just going to summarize it. It says because the judgment, because the punishment doesn't come right away.
Sometimes people think that it's OK to do bad.
So for example, if mommy and daddy are speeding and they don't get caught every single time that they speed, sometimes they might think it's OK to speed all the time.
Yeah, and sometimes when we don't get caught right away.
We think it's OK to keep on doing that, but even if we don't get caught right away, God still sees and He still records each and everything that we do, whether it's good or bad.
You know, sometimes when we do something bad, it is really obvious. That's a big word sometimes. I just mean, sometimes it's really easy to see. Maybe we stole a cookie from the cookie jar and then we have crumbs or maybe some chocolate on our face. Sometimes when we send, it's really easy to tell we sin, and sometimes when we sin, it's not so easy.
And sometimes we try to cover up what we send, like the men in our story did.
So I brought in some examples on the chairs in front of Maine.
Because what I do for my job sometimes is I find out when other people sin.
You said that doesn't look like a detective story. What I do there's another verse in the Bible that says he or she who covers their shin shall not prosper.
00:25:11
OK, who wants to know what all I have up in front?
OK, I thought I would see that. So I when I deal to try to find out who does something bad, I'm looking at who's build chemicals or something dirty in the ground. So maybe it was an oil spill, maybe you spilled some gasoline when you're filling up your vehicle, maybe it was a bigger plant or maybe a chemical manufacturing facility, and maybe you spilled some drums.
Of chemicals.
And so we have different tools to look at screening things. So over here I'll give a few things.
I have a squirt bottle and a spoon here. Who here I think would think that this would help me find if you did something bad.
Did you know that sometimes, depending on what you spill, if I take a scoop of dirt and I spray some water on it, I might get a Sheen like maybe like a rainbow. You ever see that on the water sometimes? Or maybe you might even see some oil. And so I can scoop and I can spray some water and it uncovers and I can see.
If there's anything there, maybe I can smell it, maybe it smells really bad.
Other things that I look for.
Is maybe it looks different. You know, sometimes when you sing a song, my heart was stained with sin.
And sometimes if we spill some chemicals in the ground, they might stain the dirt and so we can look and we can see.
Exactly what color the dirt is. And there's a whole lot more colors in here, I promise you, than you ever knew it existed.
And we can see exactly.
What color the dirt is and if there's any dirt that doesn't look the same, we can see if there's a different color.
How many people here have seen blue dirt?
Yeah, and the site I was looking on it was because they spilled a really bad chemical called cyanide and it.
Turned all the dirt blue.
That's not easy to hide, is it? No.
And sometimes if we're looking, well, maybe we're looking in the water and we want to see is there something in the water?
I know around here sometimes we've heard about stuff being in the water.
Bye.
There's some tasks we can do for field screening, and this one will tell us if there's an acid or a base in the water and it'll tell us the pH. We would take out a strip. You see how it has a different color? Can you see the colors?
And we would dip it in the water.
And based on what color it turns, we would know if the water had changed from what it normally was, which is aph between 6:00 and 8:00.
To something different.
OK.
A bottle of dish soap? Who hear what? I thought that a bottle of dish soap would help me find out if somebody had sinned.
You know, sometimes when you're walking around the Creek or the pond, you might see a Sheen or some scum on the pond and you might think, did that come there because the plants are breaking down and creating some byproducts? Or did somebody spill some oil or maybe some gasoline?
And you can find out with some dish soap. Did you know that?
Yeah. See, when it's just coming from the plants, it will stay in giant blocks and it will stay in clumps. And if you take a drop of dish soap, it will go. It doesn't want to be anywhere near the dish soap, because when we're dirty, we don't want to be near anything clean. And so that poses a problem because if we have sin in our life, how can we be near God?
He is clean just like the dish soap. He is clean. He cannot have any sin in his presence.
And so we need to have that sin dealt with before we can get in His presence, OK?
00:30:07
Some of you may have been wondering, I hear this big yellow strange looking thing.
Maybe some of our firefighters and a few other folks know what this is.
This is called a photo ionization detector. That's a big word, isn't it?
And what this does is it draws in air in the front through this filter into the instrument and it has a small internal flame.
Did you know that and if there's anything bad in the air?
It will cause a brighter flame inside the unit called the fluorescence. And based on that, we can tell if there's anything dirty in the ground because, you know, sometimes it might give off a bad smell or maybe you smell some spilled gasoline as a vapor, an odor. This will tell if there's anything dirty.
Should we try it OK?
And this bag, so if we want to test it, we will put it in a sample bag and we let it sit for a little bit. And that way if there's any volatiles in the soil, they will come off. And sometimes when we hide our sin, it doesn't come away out right away. Sometimes after a while though, it's pretty clear you did something wrong because God gave us a conscience. And so even though we think we got away with it.
We still have that thought in our mind, but what if somebody finds out?
Then I'm gonna get in trouble.
And so we let this sit for a bit and then we check.
Let me put a little tip on here and we go puck.
And he draws in the air that was in the bag.
And this came from the beach and it was OK.
But what if there's not? What if we have something bad We.
Poke it in and give it a few seconds and it starts reading.
Oh, it's climbing, It's climbing.
Oh, oh, then I know that even though I might not have been able to see what was in the dirt, I might not have been able to see that it was stained, I might not have been able to smell it, but it was still giving off signals that it was dirty, and this instrument was able to tell.
And you know, as boys and girls, we may be able to fool mom or dad.
We might be able to be really sneaky and that way they don't know.
Whether I did right or whether I did wrong and they and so you think that you got away with it, but even if we are able to fool your mom or your dad.
You can't fool God. Let's turn to a few verses in Revelation chapter 20.
Revelation chapter 20.
Verse 11 And I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it.
From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to all their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works.
Verse 15. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
I have a few sheets of paper here I'll hand out.
That would be a very scary thing.
We had these people who had their sins that they hadn't had dealt with yet, and so when they saw God, they saw him as their judge. We were singing a song this morning and said, shall we gather at his coming?
And then it said, who are they who are who fear to meet him, or are scared to meet God?
And it was those who love now love, not his voice. They were still in their sins. They hadn't had their sins forgiven. And so they were scared to meet God because they met God as their judge.
00:35:09
But did you know that if you say ask God to forgive your sins, you know that verse I said earlier, see who covers his sin shall not prosper. You know the rest of that verse. But he who confesseth and forsakeeth his sin shall have mercy. And so we can have our sins forgiven. And if we have our sins forgiven, then we're not scared to meet God.
OK.
Maybe some of you can read, maybe some of you cannot read.
You know, you can fool me, you can fool your parents, and you know, there might be some dirt or some water that I look at and I can't tell for sure if it's clean or dirty. So you know what I do when that happens?
I take a sample and I send it to the lab and then the lab will analyze that dirt or that water and it will tell me exactly what is in that dirt or that water, and so it might come out clean.
Just like if we have your sins forgiven if you ask the Lord Jesus to wash away your sins and believe that He died on the cross to save you.
If you see God, you will be clean.
But if you turn it over.
Says dirty and this is a different sample we had.
Who here can read some of these numbers?
Maybe one of the bigger kids. OK.
But that number?
2102 Thousand 100.
You know, sometimes when we sin, we think it was only one sin. And you know, only one sin is enough to keep us out of heaven.
But often it's not just one sin, you know. The first one on here says 2,242,000.
That's probably closer where I'm at, and that's probably still a little low, but we can be thankful that the Lord Jesus can wash away our sins if we ask Him.
OK, So what did we learn today?
We learned that we have all sinned, we've all done something wrong, we've all done something bad, and we've learned, just like this test with the soap and the water, that that dirty stuff doesn't like the clean stuff.
We've learned that if we're still in our sins, we can't come near to God.
We need to have our sins forgiven and sometimes we think that we got away with our sins because nobody else knows. But even if we're able to fool mom or dad, we can't fool God. God still sees and he records each and everything that we do. And so our verse this morning was be sure your sin.
Will find you out. That means even if you think you got away with it, God still saw.
And just like I can send the sample to the laboratory and they can tell me is it clean or is it dirty? If we stand before God, he's going to be able to tell.
And you know.
Sometimes we think why it happened a long time ago, so clearly I'm OK. Did you know that some of the sites that I work on, they filled something between 60 and 100 years ago?
So maybe that was like your grandpa spilled something or your grandpa's daddy spilled something.
And so we dig a boring into the ground and we can still tell.
And justice, because our sin might have happened a long time ago, God still sees.
God still records and we need to have that sin taken care of.
You know, sometimes we think we can get away with something as we do it as a group. Maybe I did it with a bunch of my friends and therefore it's not as bad.
But that's still a sin. You know, Joseph's brothers, they all colluded, They all acted together to do something bad, and God still saw and held them accountable.
And so it doesn't matter whether it's just me or if I do it with a group of people.
00:40:05
I'm still responsible.
I still have that sin that needs to be dealt with and God sees all. You can fool me. You can fool your mom and dad, but you cannot fool God.
And so you might be saying, well, OK, I have this sin. What do I do? Confess to the Lord Jesus and say, dear Lord Jesus, I'm sorry I sinned. I believe you died to save me. Please come in my heart and wash away my sin. And you know if you do that.
You can go from dirty.
To clean.
And so I ask you, if you leave here today after Sunday school, make sure you leave here clean. OK, Let's close in prayer.
Our blessed God and Father, we just thank Thee for the opportunity we have to learn how to be clean. We learn that you see everything we say and do and we're so thankful that you sent away that we could be forgiven of each and every bad thing that we do. We just pray that if there is anyone here who has not accepted the as Lord and Savior and gone from dirty to clean that they would do it today.
We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. OK.
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