Montreal Conference: 1996
Table of Contents
Denying Self Daily
Address—C. Hendricks
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Turn with me just to begin to Luke's Gospel and Chapter 2.
I'm just going to read a verse.
We know these account when the Lord was 12.
And his parents left Jerusalem. They thought he was with them.
But he tarried behind at Jerusalem.
And they missed him.
And then they came back.
And in verse 46.
It came to pass that after three days.
They found him in the temple.
Sitting in the midst of the doctors.
Both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him, they were amazed.
And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father, and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that she sought me?
Wished ye not that I must be about.
My father's business.
The things of my father.
He says I must be about.
My father's business.
Turn with me to Matthew 26. Read a verse or two. We're going to be looking at a number of verses.
That have one word in them.
And it's the word.
Daily.
Verse 55 of Matthew 26.
In that same hour, said Jesus to the multitudes, are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me Now this is at the end of his pathway. We saw him as a boy of 12 sitting in the temple not teaching that would have been inappropriate for a lad of 12, but hearing them and asking them questions and yet it does say they were amazed at his understanding and answers.
He says Here I sat daily with you teaching.
In the temple and he took no hold on me.
In Speaking of the subject that's before my heart this afternoon.
We must begin with him.
We must begin with what was his.
Habit.
He always daily.
Was there in the things of his father, doing his father's business?
He was in the temple teaching.
We get that same thing in Mark Chapter 14. We'll just look at it. It's a very similar statement.
Mark chapter 14 and verse 49.
He says I was daily with you in the temple teaching.
And he took me not.
You read Mark's gospel, you will see he's presented here as the perfect servant, and you'll see a.
Rapid you see words like forthwith, immediately.
Repeated over and over again.
As the perfect servant, he was always in the things of his father, doing his father's business and and teaching daily.
Now.
Let's look at Luke's gospel.
Chapter 9 and verse 23, and I'm going to begin with verse 22.
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders.
And chief priests and scribes, and be slain.
And be raised the third day. That would be his portion.
He was going to be cast out. Refused.
And.
He says now of his followers, he said to them all.
If any man will come after me.
Let him deny himself.
And take up his cross daily.
And follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it.
But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
For what is a man advantage if he gain the whole world and lose himself?
Or be castaway.
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me.
And of my words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed.
When he shall come in his own glory.
And.
In his Father's and of the holy angels.
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Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.
And follow me.
If you saw a man in those days bearing a cross, you would say he's appointed to death.
Death is going to be his portion.
The cross is something which is very distasteful to the flesh.
Very distasteful to nature. The cross.
Not pleasant.
To take up one's cross daily. Daily now.
Now here we are at a conference of nearly 400 of us, and we've been enjoying these two days.
It's a very refreshing time and uplifting and edifying time. But when we go back home.
Our Christianity doesn't stop.
It continues on Monday.
And on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday, and then Lord's Day begins a new week.
And the Lord was in the temple daily.
He was about the things of his father every day.
We never read of him taking a vacation.
We never read of him doing anything to minister to himself. He was constantly and always and ever ministering to the needs of others.
The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
That was his pathway.
And.
John tells us he that saith he abideth in him out himself also, so to walk, even as we walk, as he walked.
That's our pathway.
The truth as it is in Jesus.
To follow his steps, Peter tells us.
Walk as he walked.
And in order to do that daily, we must take up our cross, not His cross.
We can't bear his cross. It's impossible.
He bore it.
At infinite cost to himself.
But each one of us has a cross to bear.
To accept our portion.
To accept death.
Rejection.
To accept the hatred.
Of this world that has cast him out.
To accept the same thing that they did to him, they will do to us.
It's difficult to speak on this subject because so little of it that I'm speaking on is true of me.
And probably of you.
Because we know so little.
Of rejection.
We know so little of what Paul said.
When he said, and we'll look at the verse, but I'll quote it, he said I die.
Daily.
Daily.
And he had accepted that as his portion down here. If a man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily.
And follow me.
Now I'm going to turn back to second Samuel.
Chapter 11.
For an example of a man.
That did not deny himself.
It came to pass, after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the children of Ammon.
And besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. Notice it was the time when kings go forth to battle. But David tarried at Jerusalem.
He should have been out fighting the battle.
As the Lord always was.
And what characterized the Apostle Paul as well?
He was always in the things. The Lord was always in the things of his father. But David stayed back at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an even tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the King's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself.
And the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And David sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
And David sent messengers and took her.
And she came in unto him. He lay with her.
For she was purified from her uncleanness.
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And she returned under her house.
Now I'm not reading about.
Someone that was in the gutter at Skid Row.
I'm reading about the Saint of God.
I'm reading about the sweet Psalmist of Israel.
And we might read an account like this and say.
Oh, I would never do that.
Oh, you think not?
You have the same capability that.
That I have, that David had.
And he was a man of God.
There is nothing.
So terrible when a man of God falls.
You expect it from a mere world bling.
Who's living on the level of the flesh?
But here was a man of God.
David.
And he may have thought.
Oh well, I had my.
Enjoyment.
I indulged the flesh.
And that's the end of it.
But she sent a message verse 5.
The woman conceived and sent and told David.
And said I'm with child.
You see, our actions have consequences.
According to the Jewish law, the woman was unclean, I think for two weeks.
And during the time of her uncleanness.
And she was washing herself after that period of time. That's when David saw her.
Purifying herself. And according to the law, that's when the woman is the most fertile.
I think the law was written that way so that there would be many children.
And the psalmist says that happy is the man that had his quiver full of them.
Wonderful to have a child, to have children, to have many.
We're living in a in a day.
When the highest authority in the lands.
United States 1973, January 22nd.
The highest court ruled that abortion was legal.
They kill over a million children a year.
Over 1,000,000.
The nice side of that is that they'll all be in glory.
They'll all be in heaven.
God makes the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof he restrains.
He turns the worst evil, the worst evil ever seen was the cross, and he turns it into the greatest blessing.
But still the evil is there, is it not? And we are.
Identified with a scene where this kind of thing is, you know, we talk about Nazi Germany and how they murdered the millions of Jews and, and how they treated them and they treated the Jews as being something less than human.
And that's what they say too, about the.
The embryo.
The little child that's in the womb of the mother before it's born.
They say it's not human.
Oh yes, it is.
Oh yes, it is.
And my 1 mother was told, one woman was told, she says I don't want to be a mother, but she had conceived.
And the person said.
You are a mother.
Your question is whether you're going to bring forth a live child or a dead 1.
Well.
I don't want to get into too much of that.
But we're living in a day when.
The grossest evils? Murder.
On a large scale.
More have been killed on that basis than we've lost in all the wars that we fought.
And she tells David.
I'm with child.
And David said to Joab immediately. Now he begins to reason.
How am I going to cover this up?
And he sent to Joab and said, send me Uriah the Hittite.
When Joab sent Uriah to David.
And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and he acts very concerned about the battle and all this he should have been out there.
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But he wasn't.
And so he got into trouble.
Got into a situation.
That he now tries to cover up.
And so David says to Uriah, Go down to thy house and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the King's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.
But Uriah didn't go into his wife.
But he slept.
At the door of the King's house.
And then David was told that he hadn't gone down. And so he says to Uriah, why didn't you go down with your wife to be with her?
And he gets Uriah drunk.
And he sends him down, but he still doesn't.
Go and lie with his wife.
So David's sin was not covered up that way.
Verse 14.
It came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
And the instruction in the letter that Uriah was bearing was to set Uriah in the thickest part of the battle where he would be killed, and it succeeded, and Uriah was killed.
Uriah the Hittite is dead, verse 21.
So the message is given to David.
And he says in verse 23, The messenger said unto David, surely to men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot them off the wall upon the thy servants. And some of the King's servants are dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
That's what he wanted to hear.
Who is this that's doing this?
King David.
You say that I cannot believe this.
But it's here.
I am capable of doing it, so are you.
He's guilty of two sins now, actually, more than that.
Three, he is guilty of the sin of lust.
He is guilty of the sin of adultery.
Guilty of the sin of murder.
Then David said unto the messenger, verse 25 Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devareth one as well as another. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him.
And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And then this last verse is very sad.
And when the morning was passed, David sent.
And fetched her to his house.
She became his wife.
And bear him a son.
And the thing that David had done.
Displeased the Lord.
Greatly.
It seems as though.
That was all covered up.
But God sends David a prophet, Nathan in the next chapter.
The Lord sent Nathan with unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto him. There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. We know the story.
And he took, he took the lamb, the sheep from the poor man.
And.
Used it.
Says the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished up.
Grew up together with him and with his children, indeed of his own meat, and drank of his own cup. Lay in his bosom and was under him as a daughter. Became a traveller, and he could have taken from.
The rich man could have taken from the abundance that he had. David had an abundance of wives.
But he.
He went to another man's wife. He stole her. He was a thief.
And.
It says I'll read verse 4. It's amazing how angry we can become.
At someone else's sin.
And there came a traveller under the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him. And but he took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, And he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die.
That was David's pronouncement.
And he shall restore the Lamb fourfold.
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Because he did this thing and because he had no pity.
Nathan said to David.
Thou art the man.
Thou art the man.
Sometimes when?
Another falls into sin.
And we become very angry and indignant about it.
And we ought to feel God's thoughts about it.
That's proper.
But.
Have you ever?
Heard the prophets say to you.
Thou art the man.
Well, he said it to David.
He had said he shall die, and Nathan says you will not die.
God has told me you will not die, but in the government of God he said he is going to restore 4 fold and David did.
The result of this pregnancy was that the child died.
That was his first son that he lost.
And then there was Amnon.
Who loved Timar and he lusted after her.
And he deceived his father.
And had her compare a meal and he forced her.
And Absalom.
Her brother.
Decided from that point on he was going to kill em.
Which he did.
I'm not going into it all because I have much else to cover.
And he killed Amden and then Absalom rebelled against his father.
He was exiled for a while because of what he had done to his brother.
But then finally he came back and it says in the end of verse 31 of chapter 12.
David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
And.
Verse 39 of chapter 13.
Says the soul of King David.
Longed to go forth unto Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.
And the last verse of chapter 14.
So Joab came to the king and told him, and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
And then we read that it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him Chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him.
And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, Then Absalom called unto him, and said, Of What city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.
Absinthe said, Moreover, O if I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me.
I would do him justice. It was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all his real that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
And he headed up a rebellion and David had to flee for his life.
And he fled out of Jerusalem.
And then there was a battle.
Between Absalom and his forces and David and his forces, and Absalom was caught in a tree.
We read that this morning at the table, didn't we?
And then we read about.
David's lament. I think Absalom was his favorite son.
And that was the third son that died, he had said he shall pay fourfold.
That was the third one.
And the last one was.
Abide you. I think that was after. I think that's his name.
And he?
He had never.
David had never said nay to him.
And he wanted to be king.
Let's just quickly look at it in First Kings chapter 1.
Adonijah.
Verse 5 Then Adonijah the son of Hagath, exalteth himself, saying, I will be king. He prepared him Chariots and horsemen, 50 men to run before him, And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou thus done so?
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And he also was a very goodly man, and his mother bare him after Absalom.
And then he gets the following.
And.
David had promised that Solomon.
Who was the son?
Of.
Bathsheba, second son. The first one died, remember.
But after the death of that son, David comforted his wife and went in unto her, and they had another son. His name was Solomon Beloved.
You know when you read the story, you read the account, you read the awful sin of David and what he did.
You would say there can never come anything good out of that union.
Solomon and Bathsheba, David and Bathsheba. There can never come anything good out of it.
Solomon came out of it.
The beloved of the Lord.
The government of God is one thing, and David paid in the government of God the consequences of his sin and folly.
But then there's the grace of God.
And the grace of God took that union.
And took that second son, Solomon.
And made him a beautiful type of Christ in all his Kingdom glory.
Solomon, the wisest man.
That ever lived outside of the Lord Jesus.
He didn't end well, but he certainly had a wonderful beginning and showed great wisdom and wrote some wonderful books in Scripture.
Well, you know the way we look at things.
We would say God would never bless that union. They'd never come anything good out of it. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
You can never.
You can never.
Outdo God.
In his grace.
It's not possible.
So he's picked us up, brought us into blessing.
Well, this.
This man, this fourth son.
He ends up being put to death by Solomon when he requests Abishag the Shunammite for wife.
Who had cared for David when he was dying?
And he requested it through Solomon's mother, Bathsheba. She presented the request to Solomon. And he said he's asked this against his own life.
And he died so he so some of what David had said came true.
Well, I'm spending too much time on this.
It's a very solemn, very solemn thing. I wonder if there's anyone in the room.
Young man.
Knows what it is to be a.
A David.
You might think.
That.
Your sin is so great.
That there can be no forgiveness.
But I want to tell you that there is forgiveness.
Great forgiveness in God.
And if you repent and judge yourself and come back to him.
He will forgive you.
We get that in Two Corinthians chapter 21. Corinthians 5.
That man who committed fornication took his father's wife.
And had to be put out, had to be judged. But he repented.
He judged himself.
And he was restored. 2 Corinthians 2. Paul says forgive him.
Comfort him.
Show kindness to him.
That's the heart of God, isn't it?
The only case we have in Scripture in the New Testament of someone being put away is restored.
Showing that the God of all grace thought is that he doesn't leave.
One that's fallen outside.
But they're brought back into blessing.
And recovery.
And that can be true of you if you've fallen into this sin.
We're living in a day when you can't go outside your door.
And go shopping.
Without being defiled.
Without seeing suggestions to this kind of thing.
It's everywhere.
And we can't get rid of the problem by not talking about it.
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Scripture talks about it.
Over and over and over again.
Scripture says flee fornication.
Young man.
Flee fornication.
The power.
Of that urge.
Is too strong for you to come back. You cannot.
You cannot resist it.
In the flesh, you cannot resist it.
Flee fornication, flee youthful lust, the word of God says, because that's our only defense against it. We cannot stay in the presence of that temptation and.
Resisted.
Oh, you say I can.
Be very careful.
I was talking to a young man once and he said I never thought.
It would go that far.
I never intended it to.
All David did was get up off his bed and he was just walking on the top of his house and he just looked and one look.
Produced lust.
James talks about it. Let's look at it in James chapter 1.
Verse 14.
Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust.
And enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived.
Bringeth forth sin.
And sin when it is finished.
Bringeth forth death.
Uriah the Hittite died, the son of that.
Sinful union died.
Lust.
Produces.
Sin. Look at Romans 13, Romans 13.
The end of the chapter.
It says.
Verse 8.
Oh no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
For this.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. David did that.
Thou shalt not kill. David did that.
Thou shalt not steal. David did that. He stole another man's wife.
Thou shalt not.
Bear false witness. David did that. He lied about it.
Thou shalt not covet or lust. David did that everyone of these things.
David, a Saint of God, was guilty of.
And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no I'll to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. If love had been operative in David's heart, he wouldn't have done what he did.
And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.
Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent.
A day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness.
And let us put on the Armor of Light.
Let us walk honestly, as in the day.
Not in rioting.
And drunkenness.
Not in chambering and wantonness.
Not in strife and envy.
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And make not provision for the flesh.
To fulfill the lusts thereof.
I was in a meeting.
Not too long ago and.
Two responsible brothers were having a very serious conversation together.
Because some of the young people.
That were in that meeting.
Were carousing.
Drinking.
Smoking.
And I don't know what else.
There are consequences to our sins.
There are consequences to living in the flesh.
You will not. I will not.
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Get away with it.
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
He that soweth to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. David reaped.
He reaped, he reaped, he reaped.
He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap.
Eternal life.
There's a reaping when we sow to the Spirit. The choice is ours.
We have to take up our cross daily.
It isn't enough now to go back to our homes and.
To say we had a lovely conference and wonderful, I'm going to, I'm going to live now the rest of the week at the strength of that.
No, you have to do it every day.
I have to do it every day.
We know how we feel in it, don't we?
Deny himself and take up his cross daily. Christianity is a daily.
Experience.
It's a daily.
It's not weekly, monthly, yearly. It's daily.
Get up in the morning, and the first thing we ought to say is preserve me, O God, for in thee.
Do I put my trust? Psalm 16/1?
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth.
In the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth His fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Beautiful description of our blessed Lord, isn't it?
Well.
Taking too much time on these.
Other subjects.
Now let's.
Look at First Corinthians 15.
One Corinthians 15.
There is a parenthesis that ends in verse 28.
And I'll start with verse 29. Paul says, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Now what does it mean to be baptized for the dead? It means to be baptized in place of the dead. And that is, there were those in their company that were Christians, those early Christians, and many of them were martyred. They were put to death for their faith in Christ, and their ranks were diminished by those that had died. And there were others then.
That came in and said, I, I believe that too, I want to be a Christian. And so he was baptized in place of the one that had died.
But if the dead don't rise, that's folly.
And that's his argument, he says, Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise? Not at all. This is the chapter bringing out the resurrection of Christ and our resurrection.
It's the resurrection chapter and he's saying that if there is no resurrection, why join a religion? Why join a movement that's only going to subject me to death if there's nothing after?
If in this life only Paul said, I have hope in Christ, I am of all men the most miserable, because all he had to face him was death.
Daily.
Daily. I don't know anything about that.
Death daily.
We are not afraid that all of a sudden some army group is going to burst into this company and arrest us all and haul us off to prison.
We're not afraid of that. There are Christians in this world. If they met like we're meeting, they'd be afraid of that.
And that's what it was back then.
And he says in verse 30, Why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
In jeopardy every hour? We don't know much about that.
I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily.
It was what he expected.
He says in that second epistle. Let's turn to it.
2nd Corinthians chapter 1 He says in verse 8, We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves. He expected at any moment would be his last.
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We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead. He thought he was going to be martyred and he says I'm looking for the resurrection when I'd be.
With the Lord again.
Who delivered us? He didn't. He wasn't martyred. Who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.
So he was delivered, he was being delivered and he trusted that he would be delivered yet.
Turn to the 11TH chapter of Two Corinthians.
The 11TH chapter.
And verse 28. This follows a long list of the things that he went through in his service for Christ.
And he says, besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily.
The care of all the churches.
I want to ask you. I want to ask each of us my own heart.
Do we have that?
Came upon him daily. These are daily things.
The care of all the churches.
He was concerned.
I want to ask you, young brother, young sister, do you care about how the assembly that you attend gets on?
Paul says about Timothy, he says I have no man like minded who will care with genuine feeling how you get on.
Timothy was one that had a heart, just like the Apostle Paul.
Do we care?
If we do, we won't miss meetings.
Our chair will not be empty.
Normally.
I'm not talking about some terrible sickness or an accident or something that is unavoidable that you can't get out. I'm talking about.
Not being there when you could be.
Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.
As the manner of some is, he says they had that problem back in the 1St century.
I think the most discouraging thing to me as I travel around from meeting to meeting are the empty chairs.
The poor attendance.
You go to a meeting on Lord's Day morning and the place is pretty well full.
Well, there's a meeting in the evening.
You can count them on one hand some places.
What's happened to us?
What kind of a spirit of latitudinarian indifference has settled upon us that we can say, well, it's.
Doesn't matter if I'm there or not.
It does matter.
Your presence there, if you don't say a word, the sisters say no. Nothing. But their presence there is such an encouragement.
I'll go to a meeting and I look for sister so and so and she's not out and after the meeting I said where is so and so and and well she's sick or something like that, but you know that she would be there.
Others you don't even ask.
Why they're not there? Because that's common.
I want to ask you this question. Is that you?
Is it common that your seat is empty?
In many of the assembly meetings.
Something wrong?
Denying self.
Bearing the cross daily.
Daily. They met every day of the week in those early days.
There were none missing.
Unless it was unavoidable.
What has happened?
Amongst us, Laodicea has settled down.
The spirit of indifference.
Young person.
Your presence in the meeting.
Is very important.
To hear your voice in the prayer meeting.
Just a word. Just.
An expression of thanks.
Or a request.
For someone else.
So refreshing.
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And the older ones.
Will appreciate it.
More than that, the Lord will appreciate it.
If we really believed, if we really believed, the Lord is there.
How could we ever entertain the thought?
I won't be there.
I really believe he is there, but I won't be there.
Well.
If it's possible.
We should be. Sometimes it's not.
Do we encourage one another?
In these things.
The burden, the care of all the churches.
Do you have a burden?
You pray for the assembly where you go. You pray for other assemblies that are nearby.
You pray for.
How the Saints get on.
Epiphress Colossians 4, who was one of you, prayeth daily for you that ye might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Do we pray that prayer?
That the Saints might grow, you know, in large areas of Christendom, they talk about growth as an as an increase in numbers.
But I'm not talking about an increase in numbers. I'm talking about growth of the soul.
Growth in the apprehension of truth.
Growth in understanding the mind and will of God.
I didn't touch that verse, but it says the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the scriptures.
Daily.
Whether these things were so there's another daily.
They searched the scriptures daily.
You do that.
Is this book to you more than your necessary food?
Thy words were found, and I did eat them. Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.
He has communicated that God of the universe.
Has communicated to us.
And what would we, what would we feel like when we get home?
And were asked the question.
Did you enjoy?
The book that I gave you.
But I didn't read much of it.
Well, I gave it to you.
So that you would know my heart, my thoughts.
And that you'd know me better.
I gave it to you.
For that reason.
I want you. I wanted to take you into my innermost thoughts.
Share them with you.
Well.
There is a moral side of things which I illustrated with David.
Let's just look at a couple more scriptures in that connection and.
Second Festival. First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
First Thessalonians, chapter 4.
Verse 3.
Verse 2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
Well, I got to read verse one. Furthermore then we beseech you brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus.
That as you have received of us, how ye ought to walk.
And to please God.
So you would abound more and more.
For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.
That ye should know that ye should abstain from fornication.
That everyone of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor.
Not in the lust. His vessel means your body.
Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God.
That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.
Because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such as we also have forewarned you.
And testified for God have not called us.
Unto uncleanness.
But unto holiness.
Well, that's so important.
That we have these instructions from scripture.
But I don't want to leave it just there. I want to say, what if you have fallen into sin, moral sin?
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There's a way to be restored.
Judge yourself.
Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.
What if you've?
Gone too far.
And what if you're a sister?
Young sister that loves the Lord.
You love the Lord.
You really do.
And yet you've become pregnant.
I have deep sorrow in my heart for you.
I can enter in just a little.
Of what you may be going through.
And what your parents may be going through.
When they find out.
But I just want to say this to parents.
That's when your daughter needs your support.
That's not when she needs your rejection.
Or what if you're the young man?
And you learned.
That the young lady is pregnant.
These things are happening.
Does that mean your life is over? No, it doesn't.
No, it doesn't. I want you to be encouraged.
To press on, don't leave the meeting.
You'll have to sit back for a time.
They are the consequences of what you've done. I know a young lady.
That went through that.
Her husband. Her.
Lover didn't assume any responsibility and she had to raise her daughter.
Who is now a beautiful young lady.
Has been raised for the Lord.
A child in the mother's womb.
Is a living human being.
Of God.
Don't kill it.
That's murder.
Raise it for the Lord.
There's so many injustices, so many evils.
So many things that.
We just don't know how to address often times.
But cleave to the Lord.
In all these things.
He'll bring you through.
Restore you.
Use you.
Peter denied the Lord with oaths and curses.
Though all deny thee, yet will not I. But he did.
The Lord appeared to him in resurrection.
He restored him.
And he?
Said I'm going to use you in a mighty way.
Just like he took David's sin and.
Through Solomon. Through Bathsheba, she had a Solomon.
The grace of God.
Is greater than our sin.
I heard a brother once speak on them.
Discipleship. And when he was through, I was so discouraged.
Because I said I'll never be a disciple.
I just don't measure up.
I don't measure up.
And it left me very discouraged.
Because when you read it.
When you read.
Except you deny yourself, except you hate your mother and father and your own life also, you cannot be my disciple, I said.
I just don't measure up.
What is the Lord saying? He says, I want every part of you. I want you all.
I want you.
To be totally mine.
I died to save you and I love you.
Don't ever let any circumstances that develop in your life, no matter how horrendous they may be.
To think make you think he doesn't love you.
He does.
It's time to.
Well, I didn't do a very good job at this, but.
Let's close by singing 76 in the appendix.
Vine, Jesus, Vine.
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No more this heart of mine.
Shall seek its joy apart from thee.
The world is crucified to me.
And I am Vine 76.
By Jesus.
Thine no more.