Montreal Conference: 2010
Table of Contents
Romans 12:1-4
The Prodigal Son
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.
Maybe we could start by seeing him #283.
Love that transcends our highest powers demands our soul, our life, our all.
#283.
When we serve.
Uh-huh.
It's spray.
There's a verse that was read this morning in the Reading meeting.
John 1225.
He that loveth his life shall lose it.
And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life.
There was an A big art show in Grand Rapids, MI.
And one of the exhibits was a life-size UH coffin made out of cigarette butts.
The handles were made out of cigars and they had a guest book there so the visitors could sign and leave messages.
One lady.
She wrote a message in that book.
And it said only one life will soon be passed only with Son, for Christ will last.
The purpose of the judgment seat.
Is to find everything in your life that will give glory and honor to God.
And it is. And the judgment seat is also to remove anything that would not give glory and honor to God.
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And so the judgment see after the judgment seat of Christ, I want you to think.
What will you have left at the end of your life that will give glory to God?
I want to speak tonight about the prodigal son.
And I want to look at the prodigal son in a little different light than we normally look at him. Often it's with the gospel.
But first we want to know what does prodigal mean?
Sometimes we think it means somebody who wanders away gets lost into trouble.
But the definition of prodigal is one who is extremely wasteful.
Extravagant living, living beyond their means.
The prodigal son. He was extremely wasteful. He lived in extravagant lifestyle.
And eventually, he lost it all.
Prodigal son wasted his time. He wasted his money. He wasted his energy. He wasted his life.
Maybe. Maybe you are looking at this world and think it has a lot to offer and it does. It does.
But when you start to live beyond your means.
You becoming a prodigal?
When you get dead to go into business and debt to buy a car and debt to buy a house, and you and you spend more than you're able to pay and you start living beyond your means.
You become a prodigal.
And then you begin to serve the debt that you're you're building up because now you have to work and you have to work hard to be able to pay the bills.
We're told that no man can serve 2 masters.
You cannot serve God and Mammoth, and so if you are serving to pay off your debts and the Lord asks you to go somewhere to serve Him, you can't go.
Because you have to pay off your debts, the borrower is servant to the lender. Luke 15.
Today we're going to look at the prodigals, the prodigal son as a believer who forgets about God and chases the pleasures of the world.
When the prodigal son returns.
God shows him love and mercy when he returns.
Luke 15 read verse 1112. A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father.
Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he divided unto them his living. The Father gave the Son everything he needed to survive in this world, if he was wise with those things that he had been given.
And the believer also is the same way. We have been given a valuable treasure, a valuable inheritance that we can serve. The Lord God gives us everything required to live the Christian life.
He's given us eternal life. Eternal life is the very life of Christ. It is holy. It is righteous. It cannot sin. It wants to do those things that please the Lord.
It is Christ Himself, eternal life.
We have another blessing. We've been given the Holy Spirit, so now we have the power to be able to live in the new life. We've been given the word of God with instructions as to how we can live our Christian life. And we've been given the example of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, how to live and how to behave in this world. We have these many blessings. What will you do with these blessings?
Will you use them?
Or will you abuse them?
Let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3.
2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 5.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.
The prodigal son had all this sufficiency.
For his life. Yet he turned his back on it. He wasted it. He ruined his life.
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He was enjoying the pleasures of this world and as a young person.
Especially when we're born into a Christian family, we've been raised with Christian values, We've been protected from much that the world has to offer and to destroy us.
We tend to wonder, is the world really that bad?
We want to try it out and see for ourselves and we feel like we're missing out on something because we haven't done those things that seem and sound so wonderful.
But you know what? We really We don't need the pleasures of this world. We don't need the success of this world. We don't need the entertainment of this world.
We our sufficiency is in Christ.
But.
But with capital letters, those temptations of the world, they are there, and they are a temptation.
And we all have a little bit of prodigal potential in each and every one of us.
The Lord Jesus is sufficient for you. He's sufficient for me in this life.
But if we get our hearts lured away from the all sufficient Christ, anyone of us can fall.
Let's go to Second Timothy.
Chapter 4.
You may say, yeah, but I'm not a prodigal. I'm. I haven't gone into any of the depths of things like the prodigal son did. I'm not that bad. Well, maybe you have not thrown away the best part of your life like the prodigal son who is lured by the riotous and the immoral attractions of this world. But I want you to ask yourself.
Is there a part of my life where I am ignoring God and I am serving myself?
Satan knows.
What makes you work? He knows how you think he knows what you do. He knows what you like, and he knows what will bring you down.
Maybe Satan isn't present with you all the time, but he has his demons who know.
How you live and what makes you react.
And Satan is working hard to lure you with the attractions of this world.
And he starts with the little things that spoil your conscience. And if he can get into your conscience.
And mess your mind up. He can get you to fall into some sort of sin.
If Satan can't get you to fall into some sin, he can make you busy with the things of this life.
And He can accomplish the same thing by making you busy as he can. If he gets you to fall into sin, he can make your life.
Worthless.
For Christ.
There's another another prodigal found here in Second Timothy 4.
And he wasted part of his life.
And his name is Dimas.
Second Timothy 4 verse 10.
For demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed.
Dimas had a lot of potential.
He was serving the Lord, he was with Paul the Apostle Paul, and he was a help to the apostle Paul.
As I look around this room today.
I see a lot of potential.
A lot of valuable potential to serve the Lord.
Dimas.
He forsook the ways of God.
He went into the ways of the world.
And he is departed.
I had a lot of friends. I guess you could still say they're friends.
They used to be in fellowship.
But they got occupied with things in the world and success and self.
They have departed.
Had a problem.
We're not told exactly what his problem was.
But he got himself too busy in the world.
Maybe it was his. Maybe he went and found a job that made him too busy so he couldn't come out. So the Wednesday night meetings for the prayer and the reading meetings.
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And he got his priorities all messed up and he wasn't able to be there.
It's important to be at the reading meetings because that's where we are instructed from the word of God, by the Spirit of God. When the Spirit of God has liberty to work in the meetings, we need to be there.
In the prayer meeting.
Is where we get our strength from, because the prayer meeting admits that we are weak. And when I am weak, then am I strong?
And so Dimas was too busy to come to the meetings.
Maybe started to rehab foreclosed houses.
Maybe he started to invest in the stock market.
Or maybe he started to play hockey and it made him too busy because he joined the leagues and he wasn't able to go and help the apostle Paul.
We don't know what Dimas's problem was.
I know what my problems are.
My weaknesses And you know what your weaknesses are and where you need to be strengthened.
I am not saying that is that it is a sin to rehab houses. It's not a sin to invest in the stock market. It's not a sin to play hockey. That's not what I'm saying.
But what I am saying is that it takes a commitment to follow the Lord and it takes a commitment to help the Saints.
And if we get too busy in our activities of the world?
We're not going to have time to put in to our commitment to the Lord.
If we get too busy with our activities in this world, our devotion to Christ will dissipate.
Let's go back to Luke chapter 15.
Luke chapter 15, verse 13.
And not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
He wasted everything he had.
Don't be like the prodigal son. You have been given a wonderful inheritance of Christianity, a wonderful inheritance of truth from the word of God. You've been put into a position of blessing. Don't waste it.
The prodigal son wasted his life, He lost his life, and when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.
This young man, he was looking to the world to satisfy his needs.
For his sufficiency. But the world is not able. The world is not sufficient to suffice your need for sufficiency.
The world cannot satisfy you. Oh, the world has a lot to offer you. We need to, uh, to make a living in this world. We need to do our job and the world and the Satan has. I mean, the world has a lot to offer you. But along the way the world also has a lot to distract you. And the world offers you money and power and freedom to do the things you want and when you want to do them. And you can make your own rules and and live by your own ideas.
The world offers and lures us with the parties and with the music and with the movies and the lottery and the lottery works on our praise, on our covetousness.
The world lures us with a sexual innuendos and the alcohol and the books and the school and the jobs.
In the videos and the Internet, in the iPods and the texting and the list goes on and on, the world has so much to offer.
The world takes up our time, the world takes up our energy, and the world takes up our money.
And along the way, the world destroys our spiritual discernment.
And it destroys our moral integrity.
In the world.
Can destroy our emotional stability.
Let's look at verse 15.
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And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would have fain filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.
What a position this man was in now. He had all he could want, for he had his success in the world.
And this guy wasted his life on the pleasures of sin.
Now he was there with the pigs. He was eating like a pig.
He was in the filth. He wanted to eat the food that the pigs ate.
And now he has nothing left.
He wasted his life. He has nothing left for God.
He doesn't fit into the world anymore.
And he's destroyed his Christian testimony.
Back to that verse we started with.
He that loveth his life shall lose it.
This young man, he lost his life.
And he lost the reward he could have had for service and faithfulness.
To God.
In our reading meeting, we had those verses about our reasonable service.
Young people, older people.
Be faithful to Christ. It is worth it. It is worth it. Verse 17.
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my Father have bred, and enough to spare? And I perish with hunger, I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.
And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of Thy hired servants.
Here is the beginning of repentance.
He begins to see that the life choices that he made were sin.
You need and as you get into your life and you start being a prodigal and you waste your life and your time and your energies.
In this world, you need to see your sin as God sees your sin.
This man had an extravagant life to serve himself.
And that's one of the biggest temptations in this world is this extravagant life to serve yourself.
It's one we need to guard against.
And so you need to see your sin as God sees your sin.
Sometimes God will take you down down to the bottom of life before you are able to see your sin. Just like the prodigal son he had to go down to the bottom, down into the pig pen before he found.
And recognized his sin.
Maybe you need to be taken to the bottom of your life to see your sin.
Maybe you are getting to the bottom of your life.
But what do you do when you get to the bottom? Where do you go to for help when you get to the bottom?
I've heard of three people in the last couple of weeks who got to the bottom of life.
And they committed suicide.
They did not get help.
When you get to the bottom of life, you need to get help. The prodigal son. In our story, he turned to the father for help.
You need to turn to someone for help and when there's no one else to turn to.
You can turn to God. God is there.
God is always there.
God is the Father in our story.
I want to make an important point here.
In the process of these prodigal pleasures, we see that this young man's spiritual discernment was affected.
He thought. He thought that he could work his way back into favor with the father. Look what it says in verse 19.
The boy says I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
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Make me as one of the hired servants.
He thought he could work his way back into the favor of his father. He thought it might take away the guilt of the position that he had taken and run away and wasted his life. But doesn't matter how guilty you feel, you cannot work your way back into God's favor. God will not accept your good works. He will not accept your good intentions.
If you are doing your good works to gain favor with God.
Maybe you're not a prodigal.
But you are serving the Lord.
And you're doing a wonderful work.
But if you're doing that work in order that you might gain favor with God.
God can't accept those works.
God wants our fellowship. He wants our hearts. He wants a response to his love.
And God wants us to give him the glory and the worship and the honor and the praise and the Thanksgiving, all that's worthy to him, all that's due to his name.
Our fellowship with God is by grace alone. It's not by our works.
We cannot work to gain acceptance with God.
We just need to enjoy the position that we have with the Father.
Through the Lord Jesus.
Let's go to verse 20.
And he arose, and came to his father, But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.
And had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
Oh, he was glad to see his son coming home. He was there, waiting for him to come.
He was waiting for the for his son to come for help.
God wants to help you.
His ear is waiting to hear your cry.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. Psalm 3415.
Repentance is necessary, but if you are not repentant, God will not hear your prayer.
You may pray to him.
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you.
That he will not hear.
Isaiah 59, two.
Let's go to verse 21.
And the sun said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and I am no more worthy to be called thy son.
This man, he felt his sin, he recognized his sin and he was sorry.
When you have sorrow because you have offended God with your sin.
You must confess your sin.
You must repent from your sin.
There must be repentance. There must be confession. First. We need to confess and repent to God first. John 19 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We need to get right with God.
Then we need to repent and we need to confess to the one that we have offended.
James 516 says confess your faults to one another.
And pray for one another.
That you may be healed.
The repentance must be real, and if there is going to be restoration, there must be evidence of a change in your life.
I want to make another important point.
A repentant person.
Will get completely out of the circumstances of his sin.
And he will stay away from that sin. He will stay away from it so he doesn't fall back into the same sin.
And so a repentant person will get completely out of the circumstances.
Of his sin and he will stay away from it. Verse 22.
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But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand.
Ensues on his feet.
We see the father did not accept the son's attempt of reconciliation by works.
The Father saw repentance. The Father saw faith.
The Father saw the righteousness of God in this repentant son, and so he says, bring the best robe. It's the robe of righteousness.
The best Rd.
We're told in Philippians 3, verse nine being found in him not having my own righteousness.
But the righteousness which is of God by faith.
The sun was clothed in the righteousness of God.
God sees the believer.
As perfect as his Son Jesus Christ.
And so the father says here in verse 22.
Bring forth the best robe.
Then he goes on to say put a ring on his hand.
To wear a ring, I guess they're not use my finger. I don't wear wear a ring but.
To wear a ring on a hand.
Was one of was a mark of honor and dignity, and here it expressed the favor and the affection of the father. The father never stopped loving his son. He never stopped looking for him to return as a repentant son, a repentant Sinner.
The repentant son did not need to do good works.
For him to gain the favor of his father because he was already in the favor of his father.
Because he was his son.
He wasn't able to show the favor to his son because he was.
In a bad way.
But you.
You are in the favor of God because you are his child.
The fellowship of the Father and of this Son was broken.
Through selfish sin.
But when there's repentance and there's confession, the fellowship can be renewed.
And the favor can be shown and bestowed upon the sun when he came back and confessed to sin.
Next the father says in verse 22.
Put shoes on his feet.
The servants, they would often go barefoot.
But the shoes were a symbol of freedom.
And the Father commanded them to put the shoes on him.
And this expressed his wish that he would not be treated as a servant.
But that he would be received as a son.
If there if there is a little bit of prodigal in you.
God offers you complete forgiveness.
God will take away the guilt of your selfish sin.
He will take away the guilt of you getting involved in the world.
If you will confess.
Your sin, repentance and confession. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Let's go to Romans chapter 8.
I have a question for you.
Have you failed in your Christian life?
God will treat those who return to him with kindness and affection.
God will treat returning backsliders with mercy and with love.
As we see in this story, the Father dressed up his son in this manner and to be able to dress his son up with the best robe and the ring on his hand and the shoes on his feet. It was proof of the Father's love and affection, and the God wants to offer that love and affection to you if you return to him.
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He'll receive you.
With kindness Romans, chapter 8, verse 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Verse 38.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature.
What's he saying here? He's saying that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He's saying that you can never lose your salvation when a prodigal son, when a when a believer goes off in a prodigal life and living extravagantly wasteful.
Nothing.
Can separate you from the love of God.
You can never lose your salvation. Satan can't take you out of his hands. You can't take yourself out of his hands. There's nothing you can do to lose your salvation.
Let's go back to Luke 15.
Verse 23.
And bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it.
And let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.
The fatted calf that was killed. It reminds us of the death and the judgment of the Lord Jesus that saved us in the first place.
It is on the basis of the death of Christ that we have been brought into fellowship with God.
It is through the death and the blood that was shed.
That the Lord Jesus can say that we the verse that we read in UH or or quoted in first John if we confess our sins he is faithful and just how can God be just to take away?
To to we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How can God be just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from unrighteousness? It's because of the blood that was shed at the cross.
It never stops.
A believer who has fallen into sin does not need to be saved again.
The death of Christ is sufficient to cover that sin even after you are saved.
And so when the prodigal repented.
And he confessed he was able to immediately enjoy fellowship with the father.
And you too, You too, can be received back into communion with the Father.
If you have fallen into a life of sin, the Lord is waiting. He's ready to receive you.
If you come in repentance now, I want to make a point very clear here.
Some people think that because they will not lose their salvation, they can go on and do whatever they want in this world and be occupied with sin or anything else.
Because they can never lose their salvation.
If this is the way you think.
May I suggest that you are not saved?
May I suggest that you do not have eternal life?
Because the eternal life does not sink in that way. The eternal life is the life of Christ.
And you have that inside of you. It's not going to want to do whatever sin you think would bring you pleasure.
And so the eternal life.
Wants to live to please the Lord.
If you are not saved.
You can talk to me after the meeting.
If the Lord hasn't come by tonight, listen to the Gospel message.
Verse 25.
Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing.
And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
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And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and he would not go in. Therefore his father came out and entreated him.
And he answering his father.
He answering said to his father. Lo, these many years I deserve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, And yet thou never gave us me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots?
Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
Man, what an attitude this guy has.
The older son he represents a proud.
Overbearing, bitter believer.
Who does not understand the love of God?
He has no grace and he has trouble showing love to his fellow believers.
The older son.
Is a Christian who finds fault with everyone that does not live up to the standards that he has set for everybody.
The older son is also a prodigal.
In the sense that he wastes his life.
In the mire of self righteousness.
An Unforgiving.
But with God.
There is forgiveness. There is forgiveness for each and every prodigal if you come to the Father.
In repentance, go back to Romans 7.
Romans 7.
The problem with the older son is that he did not realize how sinful the old nature is.
Each and everyone of us has an has the old nature, and when you're saved, you receive the new life, but you still have the old nature. You will never get rid of that old nature.
Until you die, or until the Lord comes. And so we each have that old nature within us. And so we need to realize how sinful that old nature is and stay away from it. Romans Chapter 7, verse 18.
For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
Some of you.
May think.
That you would never grow up to be self-righteous and to look down on other Christians.
And perhaps you detest people who you think do that to you.
But it is possible for you to grow up and become that way.
If we never realize that there is naturally no good in US.
We in we are in danger of becoming like that older son.
Enclosing.
I want to encourage each of you to take a step of faith.
I want you to take up your cross and follow the Lord Jesus.
You may suffer for the Lord. You're not promised an easy life, but if you take up your cross, you may suffer for the Lord.
But are you willing to follow Christ anyway?
You have only one life to live.
Don't waste it by suffering in this world the way the prodigal son suffered.
It's only those things that you do for Christ.
That will survive the fire in the eyes of Jesus Christ.
At the judgment seat.
He that loveth his life.
She'll lose it.
But he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life.
Let's sing #21.
Have a father. We are from seeing our danger.
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Day where you know how to help us on your hands and we can't give you a lot of time. It's not time for anything. You need to have blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah crawl.
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For There to Be Fruit Christ Must Die
What Are We Building Our Life On?
The Lord Will Reveal His Way to Us If We Will Walk in It
Seven Purchases
Gospel—Stan Allan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We'd like to welcome each one to the Gospel meeting this evening. We thank you for accepting the invitation to be here. And I wonder if we could start off this evening by singing #32 What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
#32 Perhaps we could stand.
Umm, so I already know that.
Why I'm going home.
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14, 10-4 2/5 Oh must be black for five years.
9.
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Yeah, yeah. Oh my God.
We just ask God blessing our God and Father, we come before thee this evening and we think of the solemn responsibility we have of proclaiming the gospel message and we thank thee at the beginning of these this meeting that we can sing. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, we pray blessed God for any here in this room tonight.
Who have never accepted thy Son, the Lord Jesus, as their personal Savior.
That they might come tonight acknowledging that they are sinners and Lord Jesus, that they might put their trust.
In thy finished work on Calvary, and thy shed blood that thou had shed for sinners.
And for each one of us. And so we pray for thy blessing on thy word, not only here.
But in the French gospel and wherever blessed God, the Lord Jesus is being proclaimed as the Savior of sinners, we ask thee for thy blessing.
We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
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Then you could sing one more hymn #22 The heavenly bridegroom soon will come to claim His bride and take her home to dwell with him on highs. Trim your lamps and be ready. Maybe we'll just sing the first, second, and last verse. First, second, and last verse of 22.
The Heavenly.
Faith of the Wildlife.
Out of the water because I have been eating 305901800000.
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I don't know and.
About four years old, they're having a little Oklahoma Highlands and Mahabaleshwar.
And your five times and you've already.
Had your life, so I have to have you.
If you're welcome, 708405025.
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Well, this evening it's been on my heart to speak on 7 purchases that are found in the word of God.
And I'll be turning to several scriptures. And if you are here visiting and you're not too familiar with the Bible, I know many here are, uh, just try and ask the person beside you just where to turn. I would first like to turn to the book of Jonah. It's in the Old Testament and umm, if you want to help some help finding it, it's Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. So if you just turn to the book of Jonah for a moment.
I intend to speak on, uh, several stories, but I'm not going to speak in detail about them. And so the first one here is Jonah, and we'll read from the first verse. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of a meteorite, saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it.
For their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee from Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord, And he went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Well, here we have the first purchase that I want to speak about.
Perhaps we could call it a useless purchase. Jonah was given a very.
Solemn responsibility. He was to go to the very largest city in the world at that time.
The city of Nineveh and he had a message and the message was cry against that this city for their wickedness is come up before me.
Well, that was a very solemn responsibility, and I want to say at the beginning of this meeting that I have a very solemn responsibility because God is looking down here in this world and He sees the in the wickedness increasing day by day.
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All we have to do is take the newspaper or open the Internet or whatever, and we can easily see that violence and corruption are increasing every day. God's judgment is going to fall on this world. But how wonderful. God has made for each one of us a way of escape. And Jonah, here, he had a similar responsibility, but you know, he didn't want to go.
And so we find here that he purchased a ticket.
Not just to go for a maritime trip, but he purchased the tickets to get away from the presence of God. And you know, I feel that there are many people today who are trying to do that very same thing. They're trying to escape the presence of God. One way they do it is to tell themselves that there is no God. Or perhaps they invent some so-called scientific theory of evolution that more, more or less explains away the existence of God.
But you know, no matter what we do, we cannot escape God's presence. You know there are some verses, uh, David says in the book of the Psalms, he says, whither shall I go to flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in she all, thou art there. Another verse says, behind the eyes of the Lord are in every place.
Beholding the evil and the good. And so, dear friend, tonight you cannot escape God's presence. He's right here in this room, He's over in Istanbul, he's in Israel, He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. You cannot escape from him. It says the eyes of the Lord.
Are I'm sorry, all things are naked and open unto him with whom we have to do so. We cannot escape.
But you know Jonah here, he thought he could escape.
And so we find here that he goes down to Joppa. You know, I understand the word Joppa means pleasant. And I suppose he thought he could get down there and get on a boat and he could literally escape from the presence of God. And so he got on this boat hoping that everything would turn out all right. But you know, where did it end up? Where did he end up? He ended up in the in a storm in the middle of the sea. That's where he ended up. And you know, sometimes when we try to get away from the presence of the Lord.
God has to bring some serious circumstance into our life.
That we wake up and realize that we cannot go against him. And Jonah here, we find that he was thrown overboard. And you know the story very well. A whale came along and he was swallowed by that whale. You know, some people think this is a fairy tale, but there are genuine cases in history, not just this story here, but others of men who have actually been swallowed by a whale and lived to tell the story.
But you'll notice after he was swallowed by this whale looked down in the second chapter.
And we'll just look at one verse, verse seven, it says when my soul fainted in me, I remembered the Lord. So here he was inside this belly of the whale, this mucus membrane, pitch dark, couldn't see anything. And all of a sudden he remembered the Lord. And dear young people, tonight I want to say the Bible says, remember now thy Creator in the days of thy use.
You know, a good time to come to the Lord is when you're young because you know, as we get older, we get hardened and uh, uh, we umm, start using our minds to explain away, uh, things that God would have us to know. The best time to come is when we're young. And so we find here Jonah, he says, my soul fainted with within me when I re and I remembered the Lord, But then it says.
You know a little fur further down that he cries out, salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish, and had vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. And I want to say tonight, dear friend, that salvation is only of the Lord. You know there are many religions in the world today. I suppose there's more almost umm, a yearly. But salvation is only of the Lord.
00:15:09
And tonight we want to present to you the Gospel message. And so we find here.
The Jonah He made a useless purchase.
It didn't do him any good traveling on that ship, being thrown overboard. He couldn't get away from the presence of God. But let's look now at another.
Purchase this time in Matthew chapter 25.
We sang about it in the Gospel hymn.
Again, it's not my intention to, uh, go over the whole story, but I'll read, uh, one verse, Matthew 25. It's the first book in the New Testament and verse 10. And while I went to buy the pride, the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. Well, I think that many of us know the story. There were these 10 virgins.
They were all invited to go to this wedding and ten were, I'm sorry, five were wise and five were foolish. But the five who were foolish, they didn't have oil in their lamps and they didn't bother getting oil for their lamps. They just sort of wasted their time. And if you read back a little further there in the fifth verse, it says while the bridegroom tarried, they all.
Slumbered and slept.
I suppose they thought there was no real reason to rush or hurry to get the oil for their lamps, and so they put it off. And you know, tonight, dear friend, you might be here. And you say, well, I know that.
Perhaps it's important to make a decision, but I have lots of time. I'm young and I can wait till I'm on my deathbed or I can wait till I'm 65 or 70 before I make a decision.
Well, we find here that these.
These virgins here, they, they all slumbered and slept. They didn't take seriously that the bridegroom was coming. And you know, the Lord Jesus has told us in his word that he's going to come and he's going to take all the believers to be with himself. And he says, behold, I come quickly. And we know that time is drawing very, very near.
There's a day coming when the Lord Jesus is going to say come up, hit her, and every believer is going to be caught up to be with him. But you know, the time to be saved is now because we don't know when he's going to give that shout. Well, we find here in this tenth verse it says while they went to buy the bridegroom cave, they finally neglected to the point where they decided they would go out and buy, but the bridegroom came.
And what does it say? They that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. The door was shut. You know, there's tragic finality with that expression, isn't there? The door was shut. Dear friend, tonight the door is open. God is offering salvation to whosoever will. All you have to do is accept that you are a Sinner. All you have to do is acknowledge before God.
That you're unworthy and accept Jesus as your personal savior, believing that he died on the cross and shed his blood.
That's all you have to do. But are you going to be like these, umm, these virgins, these foolish virgins who neglected, uh, to buy oil until the door was shut? Oh, friend, the door is open tonight. It might be shut before this gospel mean is over. Will you not take Jesus as your savior? You know, we sang that little hymn, umm, that uh, 22nd hymn. Oh, Sinner Eret, be too late.
Uh, flee thou to mercies, uh, open gates. Welcome to Jesus tonight before it is forever too late. Well, here we have what we might call the tardy purchase. Yes, they intended to buy oil for their labs, but they put it off. They put it off. It was a tardy purchase. So we have with Jonah, a useless purchase trying to get away from, uh, God. These people, they put off the purchase of the oil and they were left out.
00:20:05
Outside the door. So let's look now at another one, this time in Luke chapter 14.
Luke, chapter 14.
And here we have what we might call a careless purchase again, we'll just read a few verses. Verse 16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bad many, and he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready.
Umm, and they all with one consent began to make excuses. Now I was thinking particularly of the 19th verse, and another said, I have bought 5 yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. Well, we find here a man who made a great supper. I suppose the Lord Jesus had before him some great man.
No doubt he's a picture of God himself, and he has prepared this supper. Some have said, you know, the supper was the very last meal of the day. It was the very last opportunity and people were invited to come. And we find that this farmer, he was invited and you know, he didn't seem to want to come. You know, I've often told this story before, but.
My wife and I, we were over in England several years ago and I was on exchange over there as a teacher and, umm, one day I got an invitation in the mail and I was quite taken aback. It said the Lord Chamberlain invites Mrs. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Allen on behalf of Queen Elizabeth the 2nd to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Well, I must say when I got that, I was sort of overwhelmed.
But you think we just took that invitation and threw it in the garbage or just put it up on a shelf and forgot about it? No, Uh, we were very happy to go to Buckingham Palace and there meet the Queen. Well, you know, someone far greater than the Queen of England has invited you to a supper. He's invited you to obtain salvation. And, uh, we find here that this farmer.
He was invited to this great supper and he said I'm sorry but I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I have to go and prove them. Please have me excused Now you know there was nothing wrong with going and buying 5 yoke of oxen. He was no doubt needing them for plowing and for carrying heavy loads or whatever it was.
But you know the problem was his priorities.
He put his oxen ahead of accepting this invitation.
And so, you know, there are many people that have heard the gospel and they recognize that perhaps they should accept the invitation to come to Jesus.
But they're too busy. Perhaps they're involved with their business, or perhaps they're involved with their sports or whatever it happens to be, and they Simply put it off and they say, well, maybe a little later, thank you very much. And no doubt there were many people right here in Montreal who were handed an invitation in the last three or four days. And many probably said, well, you know, it would be nice to go, but I got a party tonight or I got this to do and so on.
They all make excuses. And I want to say, dear friend, if you've accepted the invitation to come here tonight, we appreciate it. But you know more than that. God has offered you an invitation. He's offered you an invitation of eternal life. You know, we often forget that we're only here for a very short time. You know, I, I have to say that I'm coming up. Umm, I'm in my 70th year now. I can hardly believe it. It seems like yesterday that I was with.
Our brother Ken Harmon here and Norm Hebert at Otter Lake and I was 15 years old.
And uh, it just seems like yesterday, life goes by in a second. But dear friend, you have a soul that's going to live for eternity, for eternity here. This man, he was concerned about his business that was going to last for maybe 10:15, 20-30 years, but he was neglecting his soul. God was offering him an invitation to come to this supper. He neglected it.
00:25:13
Dear friend, are you neglecting the issue of your soul being saved?
For some small thing in this world, that's only going to last for a moment.
Well you know another thing about this man, he not only made the excuse not to go, but he said I bought 5 yoke of oxen and I must needs go and prove them. In other words, he didn't even check to see whether these options were worthwhile buying or not. He went ahead and bought them. Now he had to go and prove them. What a foolish thing to do. How many of us would go out and buy a car and after we buy, go and find out whether or not we should have bought it?
You think that we would check it out first and then buy it. So this man here, he made us an excuse that was really quite foolish. And so I say here, this was a careless purchase.
Well, let's go on now to Acts chapter 22.
Acts Chapter 22.
I don't intend to keep you very long here tonight.
And again, we're only going to read a verse.
And uh, this is umm, a Roman soldier, a captain, and he's speaking to, uh, Paul and knows what he says in verse 28. The chief captain answered with a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, but I was free born. Well, here we have now another purchase, this Roman soldier he had purchased.
His citizenship. His Roman citizenship.
And it was a very costly purchase. I like to think of this as a costly purchase. Why would the Roman soldier want to buy his Roman citizenship? Well, you know, back in those days, if you weren't a Roman citizen.
Someone could come knocking on your door, arrest you, take you off to prison, dump you there.
And leave you there for the rest of your life.
In other words, uh, a Roman citizen, uh, could not be arrested without a fair trial.
And he couldn't be scourged without good reason.
And so this Roman soldier felt it was very important for him to purchase his Roman citizenship so he couldn't be taken away and put in prison without a trial, and it cost him a great deal of money.
And uh, so this umm Roman soldier then he was telling Paul that, uh, he says with a great sum, obtain I this freedom.
And, uh, I want to say tonight that, umm, it's very important to realize that.
Uh, we cannot purchase our own freedom. You know, you might say, well, umm, I'm not a slave. I don't need to be, I don't have to purchase my freedom from that. I don't have to purchase myself from a, a tyrannical government. Uh, I enjoy the privileges of uh, Canadian citizenship. Umm, I'm not interested in any other citizenship.
But you know something? God tells us that we're holding with the cords of our sins.
In other words, you might think you're free tonight, but you're really not. You're holding with the cords of your sins. God tells us there is no difference. All have sins and come short of the glory of God. And dear friend, it's so important to realize that we're sinners. We cannot purchase our freedom. We cannot be delivered from these sinful bodies that we have.
Without the Lord Jesus. And you know, if we really want freedom, how do we get it?
You know our brother, this afternoon he quoted that, that verse that I was thinking of, it says if the sun shall make you free, you shall be free. Indeed. There's only one that can release you from your sins, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever come to him? Do you realize that He can free you? I know a man in our town, I won't mention his name, but before he was saved, I knew him by his reputation.
00:30:00
Uh, he was a womanizer. He stole money from the local dairy. Uh, and I knew these things. I heard about it through, uh, various people in the town. But you know, one day that man phoned me up and he said, Mr. Allen, I want to tell you something. I have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I tell you, I almost fell off my chair when I heard it. To think that this man who I heard about so many times had accepted Jesus as a savior. And you know, something, he was totally delivered from that life that he wants.
Held and he delighted to go around and tell people about the Lord Jesus and how he had been delivered.
And all I want to say to you tonight, dear friend, there's someone who can deliver you from your bad habits, from your sin.
He just simply wants you to come to him and acknowledge that you're a Sinner and take him as your personal Savior. And so we find here this Roman soldier. He obtained his freedom and it cost him a great sum of money. But I want to say something else. There's one person who can deliver you. We've said it. It's the Lord Jesus. And you know something, It cost him his life.
It doesn't cost you anything to come to him, but it cost him his life. He had to go to Calvary. And there in those three hours of darkness, he took all that judgment that you deserved and that I deserved.
So that we could become free.
Well, he's asking you tonight to come to him. He says come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Well, let's go on now to another purchase, this time in Mark Chapter 15.
Mark, Chapter 15.
And umm, I like to think of this one as a loving purchase. A loving purchase. And we'll just read, umm, from verse 43.
Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited for the Kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And at this verse I was thinking of. And he bought fine linen.
And took him down and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre, which was hewn out of a rock, rolled and rolled a stone under the door of the sepulchre. Well, here is a man whom God had touched. His name was Joseph of Arimathea. It was a very rich man, and you know he had come to know the Lord, and no doubt he felt terrible what had happened that afternoon.
As he looked there on that cross and saw the broken body of the Lord Jesus hanging there.
In shame, dead on that cross. And you know, God put it into his heart to go and purchase some fine linen. So with a heavy heart he must have gone and he purchased this fine linen. Why, That he might wrap the body of Jesus. You know, it was a very fitting thing to wrap the body of that blessed One who hung on that cross. Why? Well, that's fine linen, you know, was clean and white, the Bible tells us.
And certainly it speaks of who that person was that hung on the cross. He was God Himself who had come down into this world to proclaim salvation. What happened? He was rejected, He was spit upon. They put a crown of thorns on His head. They sat away with Him, crucify Him. And yet that blessed One, He knew no sin, He did no sin, and in Him was no sin. And yet this world wanted to get rid of Him.
And here was Joseph of Arimathea. He takes that.
Fine linen and he wraps the body and you know, we know that he was placed there in that tomb and this giant stone was rolled across the door. I wanna say to you, it's very impressive to go to Israel and see that stone. It's very large, I suppose as tall as I am. Giant wheel that was rolled across in front of the door. And you know, the the Romans I would take, they took cement or something and they sealed the door.
00:35:00
So that stone would not move again. And they said that's the end. We'll never see that man again. He's gone. But I wanna just, uh, have you turn now to the 24th of Luke for a moment.
Where this fine linen is mentioned again.
Luke chapter 24, And we'll just read one verse, verse 12. Then arose Peter, and ran under the sepulchre, and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wandering in himself of that which has come to pass. Just think this, seal this.
Sepulcher had been sealed on Friday. Peter comes on Lord's Day morning, very early in the morning, and what does he find? The stone has been rolled away. He Stoops down, He looks in the sepulchre and he sees those linen clothes just lying there and nobody. What happens?
All the wonderful thing of the Gospel. Jesus not only died on the cross.
But three days later, he rose from the dead. He broke the power of death.
All I want to say here tonight, dear friend, that everyone of us are going to die one day if the Lord doesn't come.
Will be buried and you know, I think there's only two people in the Bible that ever rose from the dead and that was Enoch and umm, uh.
My.
Trying to think here, Elijah, uh, rose from the dead. They were, they were raised from the dead, or at least they went to heaven without dying. I should say that's what I'm, I'm sorry I'm getting confused here umm, but anyway, umm.
Man dies a Enoch and Elijah. They went to heaven without dying. That's what I wanted to say.
Uh, but here, the Lord Jesus, he rose from the dead. And I want to say tonight that I am proclaiming to you a living Savior, a Savior that's high on the glory in the glory. He looks down here tonight. He sees every one of us. He's a living Savior and he's offering you salvation tonight. Will you receive it?
He says, as we said before, come unto me all either labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Will you not come to him? Accept Him as your Savior. Well, we find here that Jesus rose from the dead, and now he's on high in the glory. Well here we find then Joseph of Arimathea, He made that loving purchase.
Well, let's look now at the greatest purchase, this time in, umm, uh, Matthew chapter 13. I think you know what verse I'm going to read here? The greatest purchase.
Matthew 13 and verse 46.
Well read verse 45 again. The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one Pearl of great price whence and sold all that he had and bought it. Well here is the greatest purchase that was ever made. Who is the merchantman who sold umm who who found this Pearl of great price?
It's the Lord Jesus. He looked down in this world and he saw men and women, boys and girls, that he desired to have with them in the glory for all eternity.
And in order to have them, he had to sell all that he had. Can we comprehend the cost? Can we measure it in dollars and cents? No, we can't. That's a purchase was so great, none of us can comprehend it. And yet the Lord Jesus, he sold all that he had to purchase us, to have us with himself for all eternity. You know, sometimes when we make a, a purchase, we have to consider the cost.
Maybe it's, umm, a car or something, and it's gonna cost us a lot of money and we have to give it some very serious consideration. Well, the Lord, he certainly counted the cost. It tells us in Matthew that he sweat as a word, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. And you know, he said it would be possible. He's speaking to his father. He said it would be possible. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will.
00:40:08
But thine be done, No, the Lord knew exactly what it was going to cost, and yet he didn't shirk what his Father wanted him to do. It says, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written to me to do thy will, Oh my God. And so the Lord Jesus, he went on to the cross, and there he made that greatest purchase in those three hours of darkness, you know.
I've enjoyed the thought that when he made that purchase, it was he was under the cover of darkness. Why was it that God shut out the light for those three hours when the Lord Jesus was purchasing us, taking that judgment that we deserved?
Why did he do it? Oh, it's because he couldn't allow man to view the transaction that was taking place.
In those three hours, Jesus took upon him all that judgment that I deserved. Why is it that I'm going to heaven someday? I know I am going. Why? Because Jesus took the judgment that I deserve. He took the punishment. And everyone here in this room that has put their trust in Jesus, their sins are forgiven them because he has taken the punishment. Oh, dear friend, tonight will you ask him to save you if you do?
You'll know that that same question has been settled and that you are free now and on your way to the glory. All you have to do is bow your head and say, Lord, I'm a Sinner and I accept you as my Savior. I believe that you died on the cross to put away my sins. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans us from all sin. Well, the Lord Jesus, he purchased us with his own blood. And you know, I enjoy that verse that we have in.
In Isaiah 55, I'll just read it briefly. Hoe everyone the thirsteth, come ye of the waters, and uh, he that has no money, come ye buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. I want to say tonight you can accept the offer of salvation without money. It's not we're not here to ask for money. God doesn't want your money. But the Lord Jesus, he paid the price.
With his own blood to purchase you and me that we can be with Him for all eternity. That was the greatest purchase. Well, there's only one other purchase I wanna mention this time in, uh, Genesis chapter 44.
Some people might be wondering just what purchase this is going to be, but I'm going back to the story of Jacob.
We all know the story of how.
There was a famine back in this day and Jacob and his sons, they were living in in the land of Israel. There was no food to eat. They were on the verge of starvation. They had gone down to Egypt to see the governor, and little did they realize that the governor of Egypt was the very son of Jacob, that his.
Sons had sold as a slave into Egypt.
And uh, so we find here that the brothers, they had gone down to Egypt, they had purchased, umm, they had purchased food from the governor who was their brother. They didn't recognize him. And they came back and told their father and that they were able to purchase the food. But time went by and the famine still was bad. There was no rain. And Jacob, what's he say? Notice here the 25th verse of Genesis 44.
And our father said go again and buy us.
A little food, that's what they wanted. A little more food. Just enough to keep body and soul together a little bit longer. As long as this, umm, uh, this famine continued.
But you know, little did they realize the heart of Joseph. Joseph was their long lost brother that they had sold as a slave into Egypt. They didn't recognize him. And you know, Joseph there, he had power, he had riches, he had everything. And he knew exactly who his brothers were. And here were his brothers coming to get a little bit of food. But let's look at the 45th chapter for a moment and just read a few verses, verse 18.
00:45:00
In a chapter 45, it's well read verse 17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Take unto thy brethren this do ye laid your beasts. Go get you into the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Now thou art commanded this, do ye take you wagons out of the land of Egypt.
For your little ones, for your wives, and bring your father, and come and regard not your stuff, for the good of all. The land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.
And to his father he sent after this manner 10 Athens, leading with good things of Egypt.
And 10 Shias is laden with corn and bread and meat for his father. And by the way.
Why did I read all those verses? Well, you know this I would call.
A purchase refused. Here was Jacob saying to the boys, you go down to Egypt, you get some food for us to keep us alive a little bit longer. They go down there, they offer them the the the money to Joseph. Does he take it? No, he doesn't take it.
You know, Joseph was the great giver.
He didn't want the, the, the, the brothers money. Instead, what did he do? He offered them wagons. He offered them 10 changes of raiment or changes of raiment and to Benjamin, 300 pieces of silver. In other words, he was the bountiful giver. He wanted to give, He didn't want to receive. He didn't want their money. And I want to say tonight that God is not just interested in saving your soul from eternal hell.
You know every one of us here tonight who don't know the Lord as your Savior? It means to spend an eternity in hell. It's a solemn thing. But God is not just interested in delivering your soul from hell. Jesus died on the cross to put away your sins and to bring you into a place of blessing so that you could be with Him for all eternity. That's what He wants, and that's what He's done. He's given us everything He says in John chapter 14.
We know the verses so well, he says. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I'd go to repair a place for you.
So where I am, there ye may be also. Oh, the Lord isn't content just to rescue you from hell. He wants to give you everything he wants to. He wants to look after you here in this life and then take you to be with himself for all eternity. Oh, I want to tell you as someone that said he's an all the way home savior. And oh, tonight, dear friend, He's offering you salvation without money and without price. Will you come to Him?
Will you accept them as your personal savior? Oh, he loves you. We often used to sing that little hymn. He loves you. He wants you. He died to to redeem you. Only believe his word. There's nothing to do. There's nothing to buy. Remember that for you. He left his mansion in the sky. And now he's ready. He's willing. He's able to save you. Only believe his word. Oh, tonight, dear friend, come to him. Accept them as your personal savior.
We're going to pray and you know, as we pray, just bow your head, acknowledge you're a Sinner.
Ask Him to save you. And you know, if you don't really understand the gospel message, just stay behind and speak to someone. They'd be glad to help you. Let's just look for the Lord.
Things That Keep Us From the Lord
Children—George Covell
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, everyone.
Good. Happy Lord's Day.
Happy Lord's Day.
Thank you. We're going to start with singing this morning. You have a song you like to sing. Just raise your hand. Go ahead, Noah #41 #41. I'm going to let you give a few songs out today, this morning. And if you give me the privilege, I might give out a couple too. Is that OK? Sounds good.
Round up.
Bring them to the thyroid.
We're always experienced and joy as a lot of alternatives, but still friends, drivers and everything. And all our dreams glow our dreams.
And the rest of the gods of Allah.
Thank you Noah, someone else had a hymn.
Who else has a favorite? They like this thing.
Yes, 44. Thank you.
Into that.
Nobody. Ever.
Then he played by the round squirrels around his grasp of tea and grasses and thousands of how many thousand grandma's? Thank you.
00:05:22
Oh.
Yes #40 Thank you.
Jesus loved me.
Yeah, she didn't cry mildly.
Yeah, no, she didn't even drive along with me and 1000 lbs remained alone.
These are the main proof of life that was one day through the puzzle of the man's life he gave him without watching the Lord and his mind stands by the end of the month of the death of the children's forgotten venomous. And you know, you're not you're not. It's a lot of experience. You're just you're not you're not.
You're not strong and communicating.
Yeah, she's right along.
Oh my God.
Oh, you need not to fight being no more than five hours. I don't know if you need to be in the morning. We're ready. We're at we're not doing the whole thing. You're good and everything and heart.
Give me a second.
It's not all right, and then you're right.
You can be wearing your eyebrows. Did you know how that happened two years ago? 1,000,000 times upon the community.
Yeah, it's really time to fly to you. The House of Hearts will come to me.
Before we sing the last verse.
I'm gonna ask the boy who gave this him out.
A very simple question. And you know what? We're gonna open up the Bible, the word of God this morning. And with the Lord's help, he's gonna be able able to read it in our own language. And we're going to understand how God wants us to know the way of salvation and how much he loves us to be in his family. And you know, it's simple. So he asked his boy a question, a simple question.
We sang it over in the chorus. Jesus loves me. He's gonna have to forgive me because it's a really simple question, but who's me?
Go ahead. Me. He pointed to himself. You got it. So now we're gonna sing the last verse and we're gonna sing the chorus, and we're gonna point to ourselves and no one is to sing me. OK? It's gonna be really quiet when we sing me. You ready? Last verse.
It has my crust and shilling the light by.
Oh my, my, yeah, it's not too long.
00:10:07
Yeah, you can make your drive in the front.
You have to do that.
On the ground.
Thank you. Let's sing a few more.
Yes.
#5 what's that?
Very good, very good. Oh, happy day. And what was your choice going to be?
Mine was 4646. Thank you. So we'll sing #5 first.
Uh, we're gonna change the words just a little bit in the course, OK?
I won't sing at all, but the tune just changes a few words.
Oh, happy.
He surprised, by the way.
Yes, and everyone else. It's all going to happen from 5 over the apartment where it's getting on the bed. I'm going to use the rest of the bedroom. Oh my God, Oh my God.
It's time to be in time to be in the house in the middle of the life and breath. And I'm in America's dietary and I haven't forgotten it for all the whole time. We've done everything else. So perhaps we don't have to be united in class and to be fulfilled by the end of the world and everything.
Turning to the Backpage #46.
Have you been almost trying to take a call?
And give us a call to take you offline during the two days because I have to give you anything, you know, I haven't I haven't got anything. I don't want to go away and.
OK, Noah.
#13.
Man of Lords.
00:15:01
It's UH-055.
Can I get a little watermelon? Umm.
You don't want to see everything so high. It's a nice.
Thing, well, I don't feel like I'm not going to go on like a bottle of medication. You're busy for all of those five months or something like that and I have anything. I can't see you. I'm glad you're looking for a job.
OK, we're going to think some more before we do.
Let's talk to the Lord Jesus.
Lord Jesus, thank you for each soul in this.
OK, let's stand and sing a song that's not in the book.
It's wide. Why is the ocean OK?
I'm not on my way at the beginning. They don't have my style on this guy.
Long I guess my 373585373737324.
Thank you.
Well I have a few little things I would like to.
Let you know this morning.
One of the things that we're gonna open up the word of God and we're gonna read a few passages.
But I also have a few things here.
Few cups and saucers.
And we're gonna try filling them, too.
Now in filling them, often they've been filled up by moms and dads with coffee, but we're going to fill them with something different this morning that you get to take with you, OK?
The first thing I'm gonna need is some volunteers to help me reading.
And, umm.
I'm going to need two volunteers, maybe 3.
3 volunteers.
I have two volunteers so far.
This is a children's meeting.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
And I want everyone to feel included because the word of God says.
Behold, I in the children whom thou hast given me.
And so this morning, if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I want you to be included in the children because you're part of God's family and part of the Father's heart. He wants to bestow a lot of love for you today.
So we have one volunteer, second volunteer in Sofia. So could you all stand up please?
And come out here and we're going to let you read this loud and clear.
What is that you've got in your hands?
Could you say that again?
What you have in your hands a Bible. And what did you think your Bible looks like? Bible.
Looks like it's torn up. OK, how's that look?
Much better.
Is there anything wrong with it? Is there anything wrong with it?
It's kind of ripped. It's a good used, worn Bible. Yeah, but it has a nice leather cover on it. And would you like this one? Does that one look good? I'll trade you.
Well, we'll, we'll stay for that for now. So I'm going to ask, uh, Sophia to read Genesis chapter starting in chapter 45. Noah, I want you to find one of my favorite verses in the New Testament. It's in first Timothy chapter one.
00:20:09
OK, First Timothy, chapter one. Now I think it might be helpful if they had someone a little older, one of the teenagers, come and help them too. OK, because finding the passages for some of them, it's hard to find the books of the Bible. So who do we have for volunteers here?
Yeah.
Well.
I'm going to pick.
Yeah, I think maybe, uh.
I think maybe, uh, Dana, could you come up and help NOAA find First Timothy? Well, thank you. Can you help, uh, Sophia find Genesis 37, please? OK, this one, you're in First Timothy.
Yes, OK. And you're going to read for me.
What's your name?
Max Oh, Max Hi, Max. OK.
Max, I'm going to have you read a verse for me.
Chapter One.
You're gonna read John 8 and 21, but we'll let Sophia go first. Sophia, go ahead.
Well, it doesn't have Genesis in it. OK, well, you can sit down then, sorry.
OK, Noah, I think, uh, have you found First Timothy chapter one?
Unfortunately, it doesn't have First, it doesn't have chapter.
Oh, here it is. It's torn.
I'll check. There's no first thing to check in. Thank you. There's no First Timothy chapter one in this file, but it did look a lot better. You know, you can have a seat, too. OK, Matt, do you want me to hold the Bible? Would you like to try reading this one here then?
Said Jesus.
Thank you.
Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, ye cannot come. Thank you.
Let you sit down.
OK.
Let's go back to the first reading in Genesis 37.
I want to thank Matt and Noah and Sophia.
And everyone that came up to help.
We're gonna talk about what happened.
But in sorry, Genesis chapter 45.
Genesis chapter 45.
We're gonna read from the first verse.
And we're going to go all the way down to the 15th, 1St Genesis 45. OK, this is going to be a long time reading.
So let's go everyone Found it. Genesis chapter 45.
It says Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, 'cause every man to go out for me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians in the House of Pharaoh heard.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, thus my father yet live. And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom he sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me. Hit her, for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Verse seven And God sent me before you.
To preserve your prosperity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hit her, but God. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
00:25:08
Hastie and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph. God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen. Thou shalt be near unto me.
Thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast there will I nourish thee. For yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty.
And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that is my mouth that speaketh unto you.
You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen. Ye shall haste and bring down. My father hit her, and he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them. And after that his brethren talked with him. Let's hold that place, and we'll go to First Timothy. Chapter one.
First Timothy, Chapter One.
And verse 15.
Hmm, OK.
Can I get Isaac or Aaron Sacks to read that for me?
First Timothy, chapter one and verse 15.
The faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am she.
OK, and then I read a verse in John's Gospel, chapter 8 and verse 21.
Then said Jesus again unto them.
I go my way. You shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whether I go, you cannot come.
This morning.
The thought came to me.
About being in the presence of God. Have you ever thought about it?
Being in the presence of God. And I want to just mention a few people.
There was a man by the name of King. He had a brother, Abel. He found in the first few chapters of this special book. And in this special book we read about Cain.
That he went out from the presence of the Lord.
There is another gentleman that we can read about, and I know there's a boy young man here by the name of Thomas. And if we read in John's Gospel chapter 21.
That when his friends and his disciples who were friends got together one morning.
He wasn't with them.
And after the event, his friends, the disciples came to him and said, Thomas, we have seen the Lord, we have seen the Lord.
So you know, if someone came up to you and said we have seen the Lord.
Do you think that was good news?
For Thomas.
Sort of, sort of. Why was it kind of good news?
And he had mixed feelings. What do you think?
I think the reason why Thomas with good news is because his Lord was seen by somebody. He wasn't dead. He was alive. And that's good news. You know, if you have something, get hurt, you feel bad a little bit, but if it gets all better again and you feel better, yeah, Well, Thomas, best friend, the Lord was risen, but he missed him. He missed seeing him.
And so that was the sadness is because he missed out. And I want the boys and the girls and all of us as children here this morning.
To not miss out on appreciating.
God who sees us.
OK. And watches over us.
And God, that looks right in, you know, you might have counted all the seats in this room in the last day or two.
But did you know that he's actually counted every one of your hairs this morning that you had to comb?
00:30:00
He did. So you see, God knows all about us. He knows our down sitting and our uprising. He knows our thoughts are far off. He knows what you're thinking about. You know, the feeling is very attractive. And so if I don't see your eyes, you might be attracted to the ceiling. That's OK. We have a lot of things to attract us. But this morning I want to attract your hearts to Jesus, the Lord Jesus. And that's why I picked the story of Joseph, because in the story of Joseph.
He's the type of the Lord Jesus, and in this chapter I thought it had something very special because God has a big heart, He really does. And in God's heart he wants you to be in his family, and that's why he sent Jesus to die.
And if you don't know Jesus, there's probably two things that are preventing you from knowing Jesus right now.
One of them.
Is your thoughts?
Your ideas?
Because in Isaiah chapter 55 we read about the Lord. Jesus says my ways are not your ways. Neither are my thoughts your thoughts.
And in John 8 and 21, where you read how the Lord Jesus said he was gonna go his way, and the religious people of his day, the Pharisees, said he had to say you're gonna die in your sins.
So you see, it might be that our thoughts are not Jesus thoughts and that's why we don't appreciate who the Lord Jesus is and his presence, his person. You know, when you get to know Jesus and realize that he's a heart, a God that really loves us, it really changes our focus on a person. Uh, I always ask you at your home.
Umm, are you glad that you have a? Let me see, I have to be careful who I ask. Please forgive me, but uh.
Noah, you like it? Umm, are you glad you have a dad at home?
He's right here.
OK.
OK, you gave me a full answer, but are you glad that your dad is here with you?
Yeah, that's an honest opinion, OK. And you know, if you were to ask my children that, they would say that I'm glad you didn't show up at the young people's last night.
So I think I've, uh, they're very happy with me this morning.
OK, that's the way we think. But you know, that's a really special and really important and, you know.
We have a Father in heaven and the Father in heaven He looked down upon us and there was a problem when Adam and Eve came into the world were made.
God made them.
It says that they sinned and God had to put them out of the garden.
And you know, it's our sins that keep us from understanding God as our Father in a relationship, just like you can enjoy your Father.
But in a greater relationship, because God our Father is always the same. He's always caring, He's always loving, He always has a heart towards us that wants to give us something really special.
And so the good news is that a little sin came into the world. In First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse four, it says Christ died for our sins, and so it's possible for us now to come to the Father.
Through having our sins forgiven, asking Jesus to wash them away. And that's why that verse in First Timothy one and 15, it's really important because although it's not in this one, it's in God's book that's complete. OK. And so there's two reasons why you may not be saved this morning. It's because you're leaving out some of those scriptures, some of the passages in the Bible. This book here starts in Exodus chapter 5. It's just fallen a few too many times and the cover came off in some of the pages.
This one here has been well used, but I think it must have the binding got a little loose and it's missing First Timothy. It only comes to first Timothy chapter six. OK, so I didn't rip it. Actually it came that way or it's uh, over time, It's this is all that's left. OK. But it's wonderful that God wanted us to know his thoughts towards his Son. And so he's given us all of the word of God. He's given us all of the word of God.
00:35:06
And so I want you to rest tonight, this morning, with joy, with joy, because God wants you to rest with joy. He wants you to know, as he told Mary in John chapter 20.
My father can be your father and my God, your God. You know, it's a wonderful thing to know God as our Father and to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior because.
How can I explain to you about the Father and about His presence, how He really wants our presence?
What do you know?
One thing I I have here, we read it yesterday in Luke chapter 15.
Who can tell me about the chapter in Luke 15 that we read yesterday? The Sun was a what?
A prodigal, yes. One who is wasteful, One who was wasteful. But you know what was really encouraging?
That that whole, that whole story, you know, why is that story so special?
Why would we want to read it all about just because we like prodigal sons? Because the prodigal son came back.
Well, the product of some came back, but you know, if that's all he came back to our house and he wasn't welcomed by a father, would it be the same story? No, it wouldn't be the same story at all.
Yeah, he came back and you know, I have something in this bag, you see.
Chocolate. Umm, these are you might. Some people might call them chocolates.
Yeah.
OK, I have.
What does that say?
Say that a little louder.
Kisses, kisses good.
What does this one say?
Hug. Now how do you know a difference between a hug and a kiss? Valerie, can you help me? This one is a kiss and this one is a hug. What's the diff?
The one that has like.
Yes, the hugs have stripes or they have lines that wrap around them. OK, now.
What's those things called? Smarties. OK, I started by saying that we have two things that might keep us from knowing God. One is our thoughts. Do children here you have a lot of thoughts. OK, is that Smarties?
Yes.
Are those smarties?
Yeah.
Marty seemed pretty good to taste, don't you think? But you know what? They're just Maybe Smarties could speak to us about our thoughts.
And then we have hugs and we have kisses. And then John chapter fif 15. That's a father. What did he do when he first met the son?
What did he do?
NOAA, you've answered a lot.
He did. He did. He gave him a hug and a kiss.
He gave him a hug and a kiss. That's what the Father did. And so we read in Genesis 37.
About a man by the name of Joseph, who is the type of the Lord.
Jesus.
Our SAP. Sorry, Genesis 45.
And Joseph came onto his eleven brothers.
And did they sit up with a big smile on their face in in verse 3?
Aaron, can you answer that one for me to Joseph's brother? Sit up with a big smile on their face, really glad that they were in Joseph's presence.
No, no. What does it say about his presence in that verse, Aaron?
00:40:07
What's the word that God gives us in verse 3, Aaron, that tells us how his brethren felt in Joseph's presence? Troubled. Troubled. Oh, I hope all you boys and girls are really upset right now and trampled, shaking. Why would I want to wish that for you right now? Why won't I see boys and girls not very happy?
Because if you don't have Jesus in your heart.
Why is it so important to have Jesus in your heart?
Because you get to know the Father, you get to enjoy the hugs and the kisses that he has for you. See, his brethren hadn't under seen Joseph for a number of years in this chapter. And then we read he says what's the first thing he did? It says come near to me. They didn't even want to get close. They were still troubled. And you know, maybe the Bible is like that to you in your life and in my life. How do you feel about picking up the Bible in the morning?
Is it one of those things that.
I have my thoughts and I can hit the day. Or do we take it a little reading in the morning? Enjoy God's thought.
It's important that we have a bit of got stocks.
Are there some packages in the Bible maybe that you'd like to pull out like Noah suggested I did in some of my old Bibles? Is there some of those passages where, where the father wants to give you hugs and kisses, but you have kind of declined to say, I think thanks. But, uh, my nights are kind of full. I have a lot of, uh, a high, a big agenda and I would just prefer to, uh, keep my agenda and, you know, I, I like the father.
And I'm a Christian, but.
I just don't have time to be in the presence of the Lord this week. How is it? How does the Lord Jesus feel about that? You know, the Father has given a special provision to this side of heaven for us to enjoy. And so first of all, we have to come near. If we don't come near, we're not going to understand the Father's voice and the Father's heart. And So what was it when Joseph came near? When Joseph came near, it says.
Down in verse.
14.
And as he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck, moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept over them. And after that his brethren talked with him.
What was the thing he did, Joseph did with his brothers, it says.
He fell on their neck and wept. Says he kissed all his brother.
You know if all we leave in the morning.
When we leave our day.
Is our own thoughts. They seem pretty good.
Don't they have a lot of smarties?
You're welcome to take some if you like them.
At the end of Sunday school.
But now I need 4 different volunteers to come up. Three. Sorry, three other volunteers to come up.
Who is the other volunteers that haven't come up already?
Sure you can come up.
You'd like to come up? Sure. You both can't come up. OK, You just have to stand behind the cup.
Now.
You can stand over here behind this one.
OK, I can bring this one over. There you go.
Your aim?
Pardon, Abigail and Naomi. Nice to meet you. And your name, Oscar. Thank you. So what I have, Oscar. Do you like kisses or hugs? Sometimes both. OK. How about you, Abigail? Hugs or kisses?
Kisses. Let's see here. I've got kisses. You can have as many as you can put in the cup.
00:45:00
How about you kisses too? You can have as many as you want in the cup and you can have as many hugs.
And as many kisses, so you can actually just take some out of the bag and put them in your cup and put as many as you'd like in your cup.
Or you don't have to take any. If you don't want any, you can just sit down too.
And you know, because you're just you're having a a big cup, like an older person, you can put as many in the cup and O outside of the cup, as many as you can take back with you. OK, So if there's some fall on the side, you can leave them on the side too.
You know, if it was your turn up here and you had the opportunity to fill a cup, I wonder how many you would put in.
Let's see how many Abigail is going to put in.
Remember you can put as many in the cup and some of the sides too, whatever you can carry back.
And when you're done, you can take it back with you and sit down.
They're putting a bunch of hugs and kisses in a cup.
Right now.
Will they get to keep them? That's a good question.
Oh, eat them.
Hmm.
OK, well, I think we're going to let their parents decide whether they can eat them or not. How's that?
Good for you.
OK, when you've, uh, got as many as you want, you can go and sit down and take it back with you. Maybe put it on the chair beside where you're sitting so you don't have to hold it the whole time.
And if you don't wanna take it back with you, you know you can leave it there.
Or do you want someone to help carry it back for you?
Yeah, you can put some back.
This is a lot. OK, very good. So what you want now?
Good, good.
Good. Thank you. OK, so we had some that only wanted kisses. We had some that just took the saucer and they made it level with the top. There's others that have kisses and they're heaped up a little bit. Oscar, he has them not just in the cup. He has them on the saucer. You remember the illustration I was trying to make with the hugs and kisses?
You know, Luke 15 isn't much of A story if it doesn't have a father's heart in it. I want to say to each one here, if we don't have the father's heart, we don't have much of A story of a life. OK, I'm sorry I've gone into overtime, but I want to close by summarizing a little bit what we said.
You know Oscar example makes me think of the Father's heart through another type of the Lord Jesus.
He said to David, he says my cup runneth over. Is that what we want from a father's heart in your life? Do you wanna have a father's heart that says my cup runneth over? That's what he offers us. You see, we have unlimited supply for those three people. Unlimited supply? I'm not sure we have unlimited for all the boys and girls to fill all their cups. But after a Sunday school year, we'll, we'll make sure that you all get some. I'll. I'll hand them out. OK.
So I want you to understand the Father's heart. It's really big.
Well, I want to know God as your Father. Do you want to come? You have to come and accept Jesus as your Savior. And when you accept Jesus as your savior, you get the Father. A father has a heart of love, OK. And I want to encourage you that to have the Father's full hugs and kisses.
You know, make sure you have the complete word of God, leave the Smarties behind and just take the hugs and the kisses that He wants to offer. Take your thoughts, leave them behind and just enjoy the Father's heart of love. That's what warmed the heart. And you know what, it's an unlimited supply because it says about the Father and the son of Luke 15, they began to get married to be married. It was a very happy occasion and you know why they were together.
00:50:02
While the sun was with the Father, I don't think the Mary ever stopped. How is it in your life and in my life? Are you ready for the Father's heart? Are you ready to enjoy your Father? I'm speaking about the Father in heaven.
And through that we get to know through the Lord Jesus. You know He has a heart that wants to fill us and save my cup overflowing.
Well, it's very important, children. First of all, to get it, we have to know Jesus as our Savior.
I remember that either Jesus says in Acts 8 or John 8 and 21 he says I go my way and you die in your sins, or the other one as you can say Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures. Let's pray.
Escape from Prison
Address—David Mearns
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.
Could we begin our meeting this afternoon by singing the 1St 3 verses of #16 in the appendix?
#16 in the appendix.
The first three verses. Could somebody please start that?
Unbelievable.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
We ask the Lord for His help.
We had some things brought before us yesterday.
Which touched my own heart and some of those things I have on my heart.
This afternoon.
And, uh, it's been the exercise of the brethren here in Montreal.
Two in this address, address those who are younger in the faith.
And I would like to read some verses. We had a verse read to us in John 12. Our brother Bob spent some time on this verse, the 12Th chapter in the 25th verse.
And in the morning, our brother John mentioned that this verse is.
Found six times in the New Testament.
I would like to just read those verses.
Umm, before I take up what I have in my heart.
Because those six verses, each of them has a little different emphasis.
In the part of the verse. And so here we have in John.
Chapter 12.
And verse 25.
He that loveth his life shall lose it.
He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Eternal. The emphasis there is on loving his his life now in Matthew's Gospel chapter 10.
00:05:05
Matthews Gospel, chapter 10.
In verse 38 we read, And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. He that looseth his life for my sake shall find it. The emphasis being is not worthy of Me. Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew, Chapter 16.
And verse 24.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.
The emphasis being on deny himself. Mark's Gospel, chapter 8.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 8.
In verse 34.
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake. Now here's the emphasis, emphasis and the Gospels.
The same shall save it. Luke's Gospel, Chapter 9.
Lux Gospel, Chapter 9 and verse 23.
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. Here's the emphasis now daily.
And follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life, for my sake, the same shall save it. And then in Luke's Gospel chapter 17.
Gospel chapter 17 and verse 32 we read Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life, little different wording now shall preserve it.
That's being the emphasis. Now turn with me to Mark's Gospel, Chapter 7.
Marks Gospel.
The 7th.
Chapter.
And we will read.
From verse 24.
And from fancy arose and went into the borders of Tyre, and Sidon then entered into a house, and would have no man knoweth. But he could not be hid, for a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. You know we sparted our meetings.
Umm, on Friday night, by having that scripture before us, how Mary came and sat at his feet, here we have another one. And we find that she came and fell at his feet. And the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, And she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. And Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not me to take the children's bread as it cast it unto the dogs. I just appreciated considering this dear woman.
That we have before us this afternoon.
And if you have those verses that we read.
Dear young person.
Wherever you are sitting in your chair this afternoon.
If you get nothing else from this meeting this afternoon, get what I'm about to say.
This dear woman, she came to the Lord, She came to the Lord in her need. And perhaps, young person, this afternoon you're sitting here in your chair and you're sitting there in your need.
She came to the Lord in her need, and she made a request.
And the Lord responded to her and then she also responded, young person, the pathway to blessing in my life and the pathway to blessing in your life is found in her response. And let's read it verse 28. And she answered and said unto him, Yes Lord, yes Lord.
00:10:00
Dear young person, this afternoon, have you said that to our blessed Lord? Have you said yes, Lord?
Is there that in your life that the Lord would seek to speak to you about and there's a reservation in your heart or are like you like this woman who said simply 2 words? She said yes Lord, Yes, Lord. Oh, it's the pathway to blessing for each one of us and you dumb person this afternoon as I stand here this afternoon.
That which I have in my heart is for my own heart, and I trust that you perhaps.
As you listen to that which I'm bringing before my own heart, that you can benefit from too, and what I would like to do this afternoon if we could turn, uh, to John's Gospel Chapter 8.
John's Gospel, chapter 8.
We had a portion brought before us earlier.
And we read in the eighth.
Chapter.
In verse 31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word.
Then ye are my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make.
You free? I was considering this scripture in connection with the truth making us free, that in the word of God we find a number of people that we find in prison houses. We find in prison houses.
And it's been my privilege to look at those various ones that found themselves in prison and came to that point in prison where they could say, yes, Lord, and they were set free. They were set free. You know, I was struck by a story I read a couple of weeks ago where there was a young man.
And he had gone off a ship and he was in a harbor.
And in that harbor there was there was a market, there was a bizarre where there was various different vendors that were selling various different things. And one of those vendors was selling wild birds that were in cages. And this young man, he, he bought a cage of birds. There was a bridge there over a Causeway. He took the cage up to the top of the Causeway. He put.
The the cage on the railing of the bridge. He opened up the cage and he let the birds go.
He went back down.
He bought another cage.
And he did the same thing. He came up the bridge, he put the cage on the railing. He opened up the door to the cage, and he let the birds go. He did this cage after cage after cage. Well, you can imagine it drew a bit of attention.
And so someone went up to the young man and he said, why are you letting these birds go?
What is it that would make you let these birds go?
The young man said, you know, I had a desire in my heart to go to sea and I spent some time at sea and when we were, when we were docked in another land, I got off the boat and.
I was with my friends and we got into trouble and I was thrown into prison and I was there for quite some time.
And I was released out of prison and when I got off the boat here and I saw those birds in those cages.
It's so wonderful to be free from prison. I wanted to see and I wanted to experience the very same thing as when I was let out of prison, to have those birds let loose. Well, I have it on my heart this afternoon to look at some of those that found themselves in a prison. A young person this afternoon, you too might find yourself here in some sort of a prison. There are various different circumstances that we find ourselves in and we seem bound.
Perhaps there's someone here and you have ill health and you find it's a prison.
Can there be deliverance?
Perhaps there's someone here and you find yourself in a relationship. Perhaps you're not married and you're in a relationship and you may you may want to be out of that relationship and you find yourself in prison. Is there a way out?
Perhaps there's someone here?
You find yourself in a marriage.
00:15:03
And it's less than good.
Is there a way?
Is there a way?
Perhaps there's someone here and you find yourself in tremendous financial stress.
So that you feel like you're in prison.
Sir Wendt.
Let's look at some of those. They found themselves in prison. It might be prudent to look. Seems we had Joseph before us this morning to first look at Genesis chapter 39.
Genesis chapter 39.
For times sake, we'll look at the seventh verse. It came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast their eyes upon Joseph and she said, lie with me.
But he refused, and said unto his Master's wife, Behold, my Master wardeth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
And it came to pass, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth.
That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, He hath brought in Hebrew unto us to mock us.
He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out. And she laid up his garment by her until her Lord came home.
And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou hast brought unto us.
Came in unto me to mock me, and it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled. And I And it came to pass when his master heard the words of his wife.
Which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant unto me, that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the King's prisoners were bound.
And he was there in prison, but the Lord was with Joseph.
Now turn with me over to Psalm 105.
Psalm 105.
And I'll turn to this song because we find the facts in Genesis chapter.
39 But we find the feelings that Joseph went through in the Psalm here.
Sum 105.
Verse 16. Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land, and he break the whole staff of bread, and he sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron until the time that his word came, the time of the Lord tried him.
You know what? I'd like to draw attention to the marginal reading.
In the 17th verse.
Rather the 18th verse he sent a man before the even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. They heard his whose feet they hurt with feathers, and it says his soul came into iron.
Now turn back with me to.
Genesis.
Chapter 40.
Is in of interest for me to consider the life of life of Joseph.
And the time that he spent in prison.
If ever there was a man that found himself in prison wrongfully.
It was Joseph.
And you know, I believe it rankled Joseph a little bit.
00:20:04
Because we find in the 40th chapter here when he speaks.
To the Butler and the Baker.
We find a little discourse that's much different than when he speaks to his brothers.
In Genesis chapter 40, notice what Joseph says here.
When he's speaking.
To the Butler and the Baker.
In verse 14.
It says, But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me and the Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. I'm going to read this a little differently, with some emphasis where I believe Joseph put it.
And so we read here, but think on me, when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.
Her eye was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews. And here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
You know I believe that the Lord's desire as he looked at Joseph.
And I so appreciated the resilience that Joseph had when he was there in Potiphar's house, you know, when Potiphar's wife sought to entice him.
We read that the Lord was with Joseph, and Joseph's life was such.
That he had spent time with God and it just would seem that there was such a resilience there that as the enemy came and tried to break him down as we see others in the word with Joseph, it just didn't happen. I don't know if you've ever tried this or not, but tried to take a match out of a pack of matches. You take out a couple of matches and I've tried this and take the the pack of matches and dip it in water and then take those dry matches and try to light them on the pack of matches.
You just cannot do it. There just seems to be absolutely nothing to respond to those matches as you strike them on that pack of matches when it's wet. And that just seems to be the state that Joseph was in when he was enticed. Now, how could that be?
Those of you who are here who are young men.
Those of you who are older men.
We know what that takes.
I believe with Joseph there was such a saturation with the word of God that he was able to act in such a way.
That he didn't respond to that which was brought before him, but we find that he lands in prison.
You know the Lord had for Joseph a great work to do.
And I believe after Joseph spelt this out to those that were there in prison, that the Lord realized in order for there to be the fruitfulness in Joseph's life that he desired, that he needed two more years in the prison, two more years in the prison.
You know, sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances.
And they're less than good. And perhaps we seem to be in those circumstances wrongfully, you know, we find in the 105th song.
That which has been very searching to me.
It says whose feet in the 18th verse.
They hurt with feathers. He was laid in iron, or his soul within iron, until the time that his word came and the word of the Lord tried him. The word of the Lord tried him. Here's the man in prison. He's in prison wrongfully, and yet the Lord is seeking to work with his soul.
A young person this afternoon, wherever you find yourself, in whatever circumstances you find yourself.
I believe the word is seeking to try you with His word.
How are you responding?
How are you responding? Turn over to the the the 40 umm, the 44th chapter of Genesis.
Rather the 45th chapter.
When he comes to his brothers and he makes his no his.
Himself known unto his brothers.
Notice what we read.
00:25:01
Verse 4 Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near unto me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor ang with yourselves that ye sold me. Hit her, for God did send me before you to preserve life. Now this is after two years in the prison.
It was gone that sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years have the famine been in the land, and there have been five years into which there shall be neither earring nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you of prosperity in the earth, and to save your lives by a greater deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent me hit her, but gone. And you have made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Oh what a what a change there was between these two little speeches that we hear from Joseph.
And you know what I believe the difference is when Joseph was there in the prison and the Lord saw to it that he needed two years, two more years in the prison, what happened between those two points, I believe was this 2 words? Yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord, let's turn to the Book of Judges.
The Book of Judges.
Judges, Chapter 16.
Simpson.
Was a Nazarite.
Unto the Lord.
And we read that in the 17th verse of the 16th chapter.
I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb.
Now let's go back to the 15th verse.
And it speaks of Delilah here.
And she said unto him, How canst thou say I love thee, when thine heart is not with thee? Thou hast mocked me thee three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him.
So that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head.
For I have been an unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent.
And called for the Lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for ye have showed me.
All his heart send the Lord to the Philistines came up under her and brought money in their hands, and she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man.
And she called him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before.
And shake myself. And he whisked not that the Lord was departed from him, but the Philistines took him and put at his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind.
In the prison house.
What a solemn word.
To my own soul.
You know, if we were to go back.
The 14th chapter we would find in Samson's life and Samson did not have good friends and in Samson did not go to the right place to find a wife. We find in chapter 14, the 15th verse.
It came to pass on the 7th day that they said unto Samson's wife, enticed by husband, that he may declare unto thus the river, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire.
You have called us to take what we have. Is it not so?
Can we find an inkling here?
I was struck yesterday when Tim was speaking a little bit about and how the world seeks to take our discernment away.
And we find that what the Philistines in Samson's life and he says here.
Or rather, he's here in this relationship. And this woman says to Samson, enticed by husband. Now let's go back to the 16th chapter.
And, uh, we find a similar umm, expression in the 16th chapter of Judges, the fifth verse. The Lords of the Philistines came up under her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see where in his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him and afflict him. And we will give thee, every one of us 1100 pieces of silver, and delivered some of the Samson, tell me, I pray they were in thy great strength life, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict him. And Samson said unto her, Now you know what Samson should have said. He should have said, no, I'm not going to tell you. This is a secret between me and God.
00:30:01
But no, he says, if they bind me with seven green wives that were never dried, then I shall be weakened as another man.
Well, we find in the 10th verse says unto Samson, Behold, thou was mocked me and told me, flies, now tell me, I pray thee with thou mighty speed bound. And he said unto her, If they bind me with fast, with new ropes that were never occupied, then shall I be weak. You know this is a picture of someone that's just tampering with the world. They know where that line is that they shouldn't cross. And Samson knew where that line was that shouldn't cross. But you know, when we're just approaching that line, what we find is the line is back here. We've already crossed the line.
And we find that Sampson tampered with that. And so we find in the 13th verse the line of seven to Samson. Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou weaveeth the seven locks.
Of my head with the web, you know, he's getting closer and closer to the truth. Now he's acting with his hair. Now he's saying they suggest that they put the web in his hair. Well, that's still not the answer. But then we find in the 17th first he tells her all his heart.
And the end result is two things.
He lost his eyesight and he's grinding in the prison house.
You know, this afternoon, maybe there's someone here.
And there's been failure in your life.
There's been sad failure in your life.
And like Samson, you're finding that you're in prison and you're grinding in the prison house.
And you don't have discernment, you don't have eyesight.
It's a solemn thing, but is there a way out? Is there a way out?
Now let me turn before we go on here to umm.
First Corinthians, chapter 10.
First Corinthians, chapter 10.
And verse 13.
Read the 12Th verse.
Wherefore let him that thinketh the standeth take heed, lest he fall. There hath no temptation.
Taking you, but such is his common demand, that God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape.
That he may be able to bear it.
There's always a way, there's always a path for the believer, regardless of where, when we where we find ourselves or or for what kind of circumstance we've got ourselves into. I was speaking to a brother the other day and he said, you know, we reap what we sow and that's true.
And God will save an alcoholic. He'll give them a brand new life. So he's a new creature in Christ Jesus, but he doesn't give him a new lover.
He does not give him a new liver. And we find here in Samson's life that he lost his eyesight. He didn't get his eyesight back. But was it all over for Samson? You know, we find here in the 22nd verse and perhaps there's someone in here in this room tonight or this afternoon and you find yourself in a similar situation to Samson. And it says here, how be it? The hair of his head began to grow again after.
T.
Was shaving.
You know, here's Samson grinding in the prison house after there's been so many victories in his life and he's grinding in the prison house, and we find his hair starts to grow and it's a picture of the Spirit of God seeking to reach Samson.
And perhaps there's someone here this afternoon and you find yourself in a prison, experience grinding, and there just seems to be absolutely no hope whatsoever. Oh, the Spirit of God this afternoon would seek to touch your heart just as Samson's hair began to grow. And I believe.
That from the time.
That Sampson gave his secret to Delilah.
And to what we find in the end of the chapter, we find that Samson also said those two words.
And so we find here.
In the 28th verse Samson called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, just picture the scene here. Here he is a man without isolate the Philistines, making mock of him, making sport of them.
Horrible position to be in. Remember Me, I pray thee, and strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood.
00:35:13
And on which it was born up of the one with his right hand, and the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Celestines. And now notice this expression. And he bowed himself.
He bowed himself.
Dear young person this afternoon, are you willing to bow yourself this afternoon and simply say Yes Lord? Yes Lord.
Now, this was the greatest victory in Samson's life. He bowed himself. Oh, might that be my portion? Might that be the portion of someone here? Let's turn to the book of the Acts.
Acts Chapter 12.
Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and he killed James the brother of John, with a sword, And because he thought pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.
Then were the days of unleavened bread, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison.
And delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, and tending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.
And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And behold, the Angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison.
And he smoked Peter on the side and raised him up, saying arise up quickly and his chains fell off from his hands.
And the Angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on my sandals. And he did. And he sayeth unto him, Cast thy garment about me, and follow me. And he went out and followed him, and wished not that it was true, which was done by the Angel.
But thought he saw a vision when they were past the 1St and 2nd ward, they came under the iron gate that leadeth into the city, which opened to them of his own accord, and they went out and passed on through one street, and forth with the Angel departed from him. When Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a Shorty that the Lord has sent his Angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all his all the expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the House of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
I would like to make a comment in connection with.
Peter being found here in prison.
Because young people.
There comes times in our life.
Where we find ourselves in serious trouble.
And when we find ourselves in those circumstances.
What do we do?
I would like to turn and and see a progression here in in Peter's life.
I'd like to go back to Matthew's Gospel.
Because we find there, there was a time in Peter's life earlier.
Where the Lord made a connection with Peter and Peter responded.
Matthews Gospel, chapter 4.
Matthew 4 and verse 18 And Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw two brethren.
Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Luke, chapter 5.
Luke chapter 5.
And we find that.
There's another account here concerning the Lord seeking to draw with Peter, and we'll just read the one verse in the 11Th chapter. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
We won't turn to it, but our brother Ron brought before us another time when the Lord Jesus said to Peter, follow me.
And now here we find another time in Peter's life where he's in prison and the word to Peter is follow me. And he responds.
00:40:09
You know, in between the first time that Peter was called and this time, there was much that happened in Peter's life. And I would like to suggest I was just thinking a little bit of what we had brought before us yesterday. Umm, our brother Steve brought before us a little account of a man that put out the garbage. And I'd like to look at umm, Nehemiah the 4th chapter for a moment.
Nehemiah the 4th chapter.
In Nehemiah chapter 4.
We find in connection with building that Judah says in the 10th verse.
Judah says the strength of the bearers of burden is decayed and there is much rubbish.
So that we are not able to build the wall.
I was thinking about accounting connection with Peter's life because there was quite a bit of rubbish in Peter's life that he had to get rid of.
And I would like to ask you this afternoon.
If there's some rubbish in your life.
Or is there some rubbish in my life?
I mean, you can't build when there's rubbish.
I'm a builder.
You can tear things down when there's rubbish, but you can't build very well when there's rubbish.
And we had before us yesterday in Romans chapter 12, the renewing of our mind. And I would like to suggest that when we have the account in Ephesians six of the armor of God.
It says there to take the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation is armor for the mind, armor for the mind.
If you entertain thoughts.
That which is rubbish, you know, I believe that Peter had to deal with those things in his life and the time came when Peter found himself in very serious circumstances and the word to him was follow me and he was able to respond right away. He was able to a young person, if you don't respond in your early life to the Lord Jesus saying follow me if you don't come to the point in your life at the present time.
Where you bow the knee, it's like Samson did.
If you can't say yes to the Lord when you're young, the time will come when there's a serious circumstance in your life and you know you won't know what to do Here. The words of Peter. And this time it's amazing to me that Peter could be in prison here. You sound asleep.
Do you know after he left this, when he left the scene, he came to his grips, He went to it says here, I'd just like to make a little comment. It says he went to the House of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying. No person if you attend the prayer meeting.
Do you attend the prayer meeting?
It's been my interest to realize that in our home assembly there's a number of young men that attend the prayer meeting.
And see too many of them there last night.
I assure you, if one of them had been speaking last night, they would have been there.
Do you pray that you attend the prayer meeting, you who are younger?
And when you do attend the prayer meeting?
Are you just there on your knees and spend the entire prayer meeting without any praying? I'm not saying that audibly.
You're in the permitting. Do you pray?
It's been exercised to me, the thought of the prayer meeting.
And how you know it's exactly where Peter wanted to go, where prayer was want to be made.
And I would like to say this as an exercise to my own hearts and those of us who are perhaps a little bit older.
That it's a bit intimidating for a young brother who pray, perhaps maybe has a 32nd petition to make to the Lord, and maybe there's a brother that prays for 10 minutes and he prays for many, many things. It's kind of hard to have a real serious burden for many, many things.
And I would suggest that perhaps.
The reason why there is not so many younger brethren that pray in the prayer meeting is because of the way I pray in the prayer meeting. I would just like to suggest.
That we save perhaps our lengthy prayers for the closet.
And that there would be urgent prayers, perhaps short prayers, that it would be an encouragement to those who are younger brethren, that perhaps just have a short little petition to make.
00:45:06
But what a marvelous thing to see Peter here and how he went where prayer was once to be made. Let's turn now to the book of Jeremiah.
Where we find one other prison experience.
Jeremiah, the 39th chapter.
Jeremiah, the 39th chapter.
And we?
We read in the fifth verse Zedekiah the king said, behold, Speaking of Jeremiah, he is in your hand, for the king is not he that can do anything against you. And they took Jeremiah and they cast them into the dungeon of Malchai, the son of Amalek, that was in the court of the prison. And they let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sunk in the mire. Now when he bit me like the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the King's house, heard that they put Jeremiah in the dungeon. The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin.
Went forth out of the King's house and spoke to the king, saying, My Lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon. He is like to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there's no more bread in the city.
Then the king commanded even me with the Ethiopian, saying, Take from thence 30 men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he died. So even Mila took the men with him, and went into the House of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah, and ebbed me like the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old class clothes and rotten rags under thine our holes.
Under and the iron holes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
I was thinking of this portion in connection of with Jeremiah being thrown into the prison.
And, you know young people.
Sometimes when we've been enjoying the Lord, we find that there are others.
They find themselves in dire circumstances and perhaps find themselves in prison.
The only person I would just like to touch your heart a little bit as the care that you have one for another.
What kind of care do we have? One for another?
No, even Milk here was a caring soul, and he, he.
He cared so tenderly for Jeremiah, who had found himself in the prison.
It's been an exercise of mine in the last little while.
It's been searching for me, rather I should say, as to how little care I have.
I'd like to tell a little story. I was going to take a look at at John the Baptist and maybe a look at the Apostle Paul, who both found themselves in prison. But I'm going to end here with with Jeremiah.
He found himself in prison.
Just before I tell the story, let's go over to the the end of the 39th chapter.
In the 15th verse, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Go and speak to Eben Milik, the Ethiopian saying.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil and not for good, and they shall be accomplished in the day before they, but I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord. And thou shalt not be given unto the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid, for I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword.
But thy life shall be for a prey unto thee because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord, not because he he worked so tenderly with Jeremiah, because he put his trust in the Lord. You know there was a word that Jeremiah little little bit earlier as he spoke to as he spoke to Barrack and he said seek us out great things for thyself. Seek them not. You know there was a couple of years ago I was driving through the town of Smith Falls.
And there's another pass in Smith Falls, and at the bottom of the underpass, there were some. There was a fire truck.
And there was a couple of firemen there, they each had a couple of of of boots and they were collecting money from people going by for the Special Olympics.
People were throwing change in and they were collecting for the Special Olympics and it sort of tweaked my interest. Well, a couple of weeks later.
00:50:03
When the Special Olympics were taking place.
There were three, there was a race that was being run, a foot race.
By some young girls.
And there was 3.
Young girls that were Down syndrome.
They were running together and they were approaching the finish line.
The one that was in the middle.
Tripped and fell down.
And the one that was on either side of her, they ran a few steps and they looked back and they saw the one that had fallen.
And they went back and they each grabbed an arm and they raised her up.
And the three of them crossed the finish line with their arms locked.
Brethren, when we consider the care.
That even me like had for Jeremiah in the prison.
And I would suggest that there's many in this room this afternoon that find themselves in prison of one sort of another.
How are we doing with this care?
How are we doing?
With this care.
You know, I believe that Jeremiah and even being like both.
Said two words.
They said yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
This afternoon, may each one of us here have the grace to say yes, Lord, there was a young ruler that came to the Lord.
And he said yes, but.
There was a man that had two sons.
And the man said go work in my vineyard.
And the one said, I go, Sir.
And he went not.
This dear Saira Phoenicia woman.
She came to the Lord Jesus.
In her deep and her desperate need.
And the Lord tested her.
And she responded.
And she said, yes, Lord.
In your private you look back at that account and see the floodgate of blessing that came into that dear woman's life.
By two words. Yes, Lord, Let's sing the rest of our hymn.
#17.
Or rather 16 in the appendix.
The 4th standard. Somebody please start that.
Nsnoise.
Texas Roadhouse, 919201983865.
Nsnoise.
00:55:37
I was like, I don't know, umm, why?
No, no, no, don't get any better.
Than me, I cry on the floor.
On the street, my friend and the children's Day and everything I don't want to hear. I don't do me.
Romans 12:4-21
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bob Thonney
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.
Let's start our meeting tonight with number 10 on the hymn sheet.
There is a Savior on high in the glory Savior suffered on Calvary's tree, as Savior as willing to save now as ever.
His arm is almighty, His love great and free. A way to stand up to sing #10.
Nsnoise.
Nsnoise.
I don't want to do anything. I don't want to be a while.
890-2586, 747-9735 and 75.
In the hospital around the world.
Oh man, thank you so much.
I'll I'll give you a call if you're free to me. Please be hard to play with your hands that I'm on.
Now you're gonna get rid of your life. But I'd like to hear you.
00:05:11
Sing another song #8 on our hymn sheets. Shall we gather at his coming?
Go away.
Now we hear the sacrifice.
We do not call me on the rise by me.
When one day I saw him down there and something called his bridge and he was a new tree. Lamont Kahn haha.
009.
5 Euphoria.
18.
Right so far in the sun is gone, and what's in the center of love?
But I don't know if I'm pretty good.
And and that's all I'm just getting to know about your life and so.
No, no, no, no, no.
I'd like to turn to start with to a verse that was used this morning in the Sunday school in first Timothy chapter one, well known gospel verse, First Timothy chapter one and verse 15.
This.
Is a faithful thing and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
I'd like to speak tonight about the two Cummings of the Lord Jesus.
First coming is past and the second coming is future.
But they are so important to understand his first coming.
Was over 2000 years ago that he came the first time into this world and this verse tells us the purpose of his first coming. It was to save sinners and it is one of the most amazing things to think about that the God who created this universe that we live in.
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Immense of it just boggles the mind. I understand that now scientists say that there are probably more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the seashores. It is totally incomprehensible to us, the tremendous expanse. And think of the power of God that spoke and it was done. He spoke it into existence.
If you know God as the Bible presents him, there is nothing difficult with accepting.
The fact that he spoke and it all came into existence.
But then the more wonderful thing is that the God who created it all.
Came into his own creation in the person.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I often think of the circumstances of his coming into this world.
Tremendous to think about.
A little town.
Over in what we know to be present day Israel.
That is called Bethlehem is where he was born.
His mother, because he was the Son of God, he was conceived.
Miraculously, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Very important truth that he was born of a virgin because he had no human father. Somebody has put it this way.
As to his being the Son of God, he had a father, but he had no mother. As Devine, the Son of man, he had a mother, but he had no father. He is completely.
Unique in the history of this world, no one like him. And so one night there in Bethlehem.
Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary the Virgin.
She being great with Child, she came to an end because they were to go to Bethlehem to be numbered, and there came the time for him to come into this world.
There was no room for him in the inn. You know, any royalty has a new member added to their family. It is interesting to see with what, uh, care they wait for the new arrival of a royal member of the family. But here is the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the creator of the universe, and he's coming into his own creation. Were they waiting for him?
Nobody seemed to have a clue as to who he really was.
Amazing. Amazing to think about it.
The religious people could give the answers from the Word of God. Yes, they could tell where the Christ was to be born.
But they had no clue that He was here. Is it possible to be there in your seats with the Bible open and know all the answers and still don't know Him? Yes, that is entirely possible. I don't know where you stand with the Lord. It's way too easy. That's happened too many times that people that sit in meetings like we've been sitting in are not real at all.
I've been amazed recent times in North America how many times I've heard of those who have been brought up in the meeting, so-called, have been taught these things from their youth and they have turned to outright atheism. They deny the very God that they were brought up and taught to believe in. So I say.
It has to be an individual work in the soul of everyone.
Those religious Jews could give the answers from the scriptures. They were very jealous of their scriptures.
And they had the right answers, but they didn't know that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, had entered the creation, the very creation he had made.
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You know, some years ago, I think it was 1994.
My family and I were down in southern Bolivia in a town called Yaquiva, on the border with Argentina, and it happened to be the year that the World Cup was played in the United States. Never forget that evening that we were there, and it happened that time that Brazil won the World Cup and we were there in the city of Yaquiva. It was Bolivia, not Brazil.
But still the people were so happy in Bolivia that Brazil had won the World Cup and that it was going to be in South America that for two solid hours.
Firecrackers were going off. I mean big ones. They were boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom all over the town for two whole hours celebrating that Brazil had won the World Cup.
Just thought.
The creator of the universe entered his own creation.
Does anybody have a clue?
Didn't have a clue. The angels came down for the first time they saw.
Their creator in that little baby that was laying in the Manger. For the first time, they saw him.
And they must have wondered, where are the people? Where are they? Don't they have a clue of who this really is?
And they went off to find somebody to tell him happen to be some shepherds. Some of the lowliness, lowliest people of the land in the countryside were feeding their flock, were taking care of their flocks at night. And they told them they the angels told them about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful, wonderful story. Well, the Lord Jesus grew up.
In relative obscurity when he was perhaps a little less than two years old.
There were wise men who came from the East to seek for him. I guess it must have taken them quite a while to get.
To the land of Israel. We don't know how far from how far they came, but they came and they found him. He wasn't in the Manger when they found him.
And he was in a house, and they came, and they bowed down, and they worshipped him. Isn't that amazing? People of Israel didn't have a clue. Some wise men from the east had more understanding of what had taken place. And they came and they offered him gifts. Anyhow, the Lord Jesus was taken for a while into Egypt.
By his mother, and we would say his stepfather, but then they came back and he settled in Nazareth. His stepfather, Joseph was a Carpenter. And so the Lord Jesus is called in Mark's gospel as well. The Carpenter, You know, I find that very interesting to think about. For the major part of the life of Jesus on earth, he was in a carpenter's shop.
And that kind of blows my mind.
Who is that in that Carpenter shop? Who is that Carpenter?
You won't believe it. Who's the creator of the universe? What is he doing in that Carpenter shop?
Well, I suppose he's making doors and windows and other things that carpenters make out of wood. Useful things. Isn't that amazing to think of it? Until he was approximately 30 years old, that's where he spent his time, evidently.
And then he came into those years in which he was.
A public he went into public service for the Lord, for his father, and he went through the land of Egypt or through the land of Israel, preaching the gospel and feeding the poor, the hungry, raising the sick and the even the dead, and restoring sight to the blind.
00:20:06
You would think people would want that kind of a person around. He could have gone into our hospitals and emptied them out.
But you know, after 3 1/2 years of public ministry, the people, the religious ones especially, first of all.
Rose up in rebellion against him. They did not want him.
They wanted to get rid of him.
Our hearts naturally are at enmity with God. Hard to believe it, but you and I naturally our hearts, our enemies of God, we show it by our wicked works.
We're enemies of God, naturally, and so they rejected Him.
Jewish people were not in political control of their land, so they had to take Jesus before the Roman governor, which was Pontius Pilate in those days, and after a series of trials, Jesus was condemned to death.
The Rome, the Jewish leaders, they came up to him and they spit in his face. I can think of nothing so despicable as that. I've had people spit at me, but never anybody come and spit in my face. But they came up to Jesus and those religious leaders, they spit in his face.
Awful insult done to the Son of God. The soldiers took him, and they crowned him with thorns, and they took sticks, and they whacked him over the head.
I've lived in Bolivia where we have thorn trees, big thorns, 3 inches long, and they are so hard. They go right into your tire. One time some people that didn't seem to appreciate us being around decided to do something to us and they sewed the road where we went down on a Sunday evening with those thorns.
Next morning, all four of my tires were flat on the ground. It went straight in. There's no way I could salvage those tires. They had too many thorns in them.
But just think of the Son of God, they put those thorns on his head and you can imagine how when they hit him on the head, how that must have ripped open his scalp.
They took him and they scourged Him. I've read accounts of the Roman scourging. It was called the Living Death and criminals often did not survive the scourging that took place. Terrible ripping open of the back. Then they let Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem as a lamb to the slaughter he was led.
The glorious Son of God.
Remember Jesus.
Came to save sinners. His life, as beautiful as it was, could not save us. Really. It only condemns us because we're so different, so given to sin in its many.
Faceted forms.
But you're, the Lord Jesus in his life, did not save us.
Could not save us, you know.
Sin is a very serious thing with God. We tend not to take it as serious as it really is, but God takes sin seriously. Every single sin that has ever been committed on this planet by man, woman and child will receive its just penalty from the hand of God.
There are no exceptions.
If one little white lie could escape God's notice, it would call in question His holy character. It cannot be. It won't be. Every sin that has ever been committed on this planet must and will receive It's just penalty from the hand of God Himself.
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No exceptions. No exceptions.
And that's why it is so important to understand the work that the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary. They took him outside the city of Jerusalem and they nailed him to that cross. Those hands that had done so many miracles, a blessing. They were nailed with cruel nails, and there they hung him between heaven and earth.
The glorious Son of God.
And for three hours, because he was crucified about.
9:00 in the morning the way we calculate time.
He died about 3:00 in the afternoon.
For six hours, he hung there in life.
First three hours, from 9:00 to 12:00, people passed in front of him and mocked him and jeered him, spit on him.
But then something took place at 12 noon. Everything got dark. And for three hours, the scripture tells us it was dark. Nobody could see what was transpiring on that cross in those three hours. But this is the important thing for us to understand if you want to have peace with God. What took place in those three hours?
Sometimes say faith in the person of Christ gives life.
Faith in the work of Christ gives peace.
And So what took place in those three hours of darkness is very important for us to understand. The prophet Isaiah says about those three hours. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord Jehovah has laid on him.
The iniquity of us all.
Within those three hours since God cannot allow any sin to pass unjudged.
There was going to be any hope for me as a guilty Sinner. Somebody had to pay the account for me. And that's what Jesus did in those three hours on the cross. Every single one of those sins that I've committed in life were laid one by one on Jesus.
And then the storm of divine judgment broke in all its fury.
On his head.
Too awful.
To imagine, for three solid hours he hung there while the waves and billows of divine judgment rolled over his soul.
No complaint.
Well, he suffered in silence to save my soul.
Till those three hours were over.
The end of those three hours, At the 9th hour, there's a cry.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The God that was his strength and stay, the God that he wanted to do, the will of God.
For certain.
It was necessary that year's sin and mine could be purged.
That propitiation could be made.
Propitiation is that part of the work of Christ that satisfies all the holy demands of God's righteous character so that He is not compromised when He extends forgiveness to the lost Sinner. He made propitiation for our sins on that cross.
And then he cries again.
Said it is finished.
The Spanish it it is consumed.
I like to think of it in this way, that in the Old Testament there were thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands of animals that were killed because of the question of sin, and the flames consumed their bodies.
00:30:17
But this sacrifice of Jesus was different in this way.
That in this sacrifice.
The flames were consumed by the sacrifice.
There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment to them.
That are in Christ Jesus. The fire fell on him and exhausted itself.
And now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, the wonderful must have understanding that full redemption has been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he gave up his Spirit, he bowed his head, and he died.
Jesus, the Son of God, hanging dead on that cross. You know, we sit in a nice room with nice chairs to sit on. Everything's real nice. I don't think we really grasp the awful gruesomeness of crucifixion. If you study the ways of capital punishment in the history of this world, it was the most awful.
Way of capital punishment and Jesus.
Who chose to come exactly in that time frame when capital punishment was by crucifixion? Why did he do that?
We wanted to show you just how much she loved you and that nothing was too terrible to suffer to redeem your soul.
After he died, the soldier came and took a spear and pierced his side.
And out of his side flow of blood and water. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
That word remission means forgiveness. In other words, if God is going to forgive you your sins.
There has to be a basis upon which God can do it justly.
And it's through the RE, through the shedding of blood. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the very Creator of the universe, is the one that paid the price in full for my redemption. Can you understand how grateful I feel to Him for saving my soul?
Oh, it's the most wonderful story.
Ever, ever talk about we should never get tired of it.
Jesus died. They took down his body. They wrapped him in linen. They put him in the grave.
The third day, Sunday morning.
As an Angel came down and pushed the stone that was over his grave to one side, not to let him out.
Simply to show that he wasn't there any longer.
He was risen from the dead. Thank God we know a Savior that is living.
And for 40 days he was down here appearing to his disciples one time and another.
To show that he was really alive. One time they thought he was a spirit, he said handle me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have. And he took a piece of a fish and a honeycomb and ate it in front of them. Yes, he was a very real living human being of flesh and bones.
After 40 days, he led his disciples outside the city of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, and while he was speaking to them, he was lifted up and taking up into heaven.
There is a man in the glory of God tonight, a real living.
Human being of flesh and bones, not thrill. Your soul is at the head of all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come.
The Lord Jesus Christ and through His name forgiveness of sins is being preached.
00:35:07
Through the whole world. Wonderful to be able to speak it to those who have never heard. I would guess everybody has heard in this room this message before.
Last trip to South America there was a wedding in Argentina.
End.
A sister from Chile got married to a brother from.
The city of San Rafael, Argentina. And so they had the wedding in the hall there in that town, and the relatives of the brother came and filled the hall.
It's a precious privilege to be able to give the gospel of why Jesus died. Oh, the importance of understanding not only who he is, but what he did on that cross, His work of redemption. Now that we can say forgiveness of sins is offered to every single human being on the face of the earth.
Propitiation has been made for the sins of the whole world, but it is necessary on your part, if you want those forgiveness of sins, to identify yourself by faith with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Extremely important. If you do not, you will answer to God for your own sins. No exceptions. No exceptions.
Well, that was the purpose of his first coming. Jesus came and he's gone back to heaven. And before he went back, he told his disciples, I will come again. And now I'd like to speak about His second coming. You know, his second coming has two parts. The way we have been brought to understand it in the Scriptures, there's one part that we are expecting at any moment.
And what we call the Rapture.
There is absolutely no sign to indicate when that will be. From one moment to the next. It's going to happen. And let's read in First Thessalonians chapter 4 about that part of his second coming, the first part of his second coming.
Verse 14 First Thessalonians 4 and 14 for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again.
Even so, them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent an old English word that means shall not go before.
Them which are asleep are those that have died with faith in Christ.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
With the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Here we have what we believe that I'm going to take place.
At any moment, again I say there is no outward sign to indicate that this coming.
When it will be Remember speaking to a young man who said he was a Christian down in Bolivia, but he is walking pretty carelessly. In fact, he was so carelessly that it made us wonder whether he was really real with God or not.
Or whether it was just an empty profession that he was making.
And I said to him, supposing that the Lord had said, I'm going to give you a 5 minute notice.
00:40:02
Of my coming to rapture my people home.
And supposing that notice took place 5 minutes, I'm coming, what would you do? I said to him.
Oh, he said.
I'd have some repenting to do.
I said, you know what, it's not going to even be 5 minute notice, not even a one minute notice. One moment to the next, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. In the picture of that shout is a military. I understand it's a picture of a commander coming out of his office and giving a shout and all over the military base, the soldiers jumping to attention.
So the Lord Jesus is going to come out of heaven with a shout, the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God.
And all over the globe, those that have died with faith in Christ, the first to die with faith.
Was able. Don't know where his bones are today, have no clue.
Walk through the Andes of South America, sometimes through villages that are totally abandoned. Now go through the cemetery outside there. There's bones scattered on the ground.
Often think I wonder if some of those bones belong to people who were Christians who had faith in God if that's the case.
Wherever they are, it doesn't matter. God knows where they are.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first. It's not instantaneous, no. There's a sequence here. Interesting to see it.
The dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive, and remain till the coming of the Lord.
Shall be caught up together. Isn't that wonderful? Remember a brother who used to.
Say that that brief moment there will be the recognition of those that have gone before. There they are, and we're going to go together to meet the Lord in the air.
It's way too wonderful for our bodies to be able to comprehend, but I've tried to imagine it, brother. What is it going to be? What am I going to do that first moment I see Jesus?
Don't know they're fallen asleep saying thank you so much, saving me.
That's gonna happen one of these days, at a moment's notice. Doesn't that have an effect on your life?
How it searches my own. How easy it is to get caught up in the affairs of this life.
Running down the street to catch that office before it closes.
Pick up my foot to take one more step, but his step, instead of stepping on the ground, step into his presence.
All the glory of that moment we need to live in view. The fact that it could happen at any time. That's the first part of his second coming.
We're going to be taken into the glory, but then after a period of seven years in this world.
Of the most awful time of trouble this world has ever seen, Jesus is going to come back in person to set his feet down on this planet once again.
You know, when he comes to rapture, his redeemed people whom he's only going to come to the clouds and we're going to be caught up. That's the word. Rapture comes from being caught up. It's the root word.
And so he's not coming to this Earth, but when he comes back again at the end of the Tribulation period.
To reign supreme in this world, he's going to set his feet down on the place where he went up from the Mount of Olives.
Tells us that very clearly in Zechariah 14 his feet shall stand.
00:45:00
On the Mount of Olives I have a picture at my house.
Of Jerusalem taken from the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives is from the Temple Mount to the east, and outside the Temple Mount there is a valley, the Kidron Valley. On the other side is the Mount of Olives, and the picture is taken towards the West from the Mount of Olives of the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem there.
That's where Jesus is going to come back again with his people. He's coming back to reign supreme. And, you know, I don't think people have too much of A clue as to the awful changes that are going to take place in planet Earth. People kind of have the idea, even sometimes Christians have the idea that things are going to kind of go on. Yeah, we're in an economic downturn right now.
Things are kind of bad right now, but they'll pick up and it'll go back.
Oh, wait a minute.
The Bible doesn't teach that. It teaches that the most awful time of judgment this world has ever seen or ever will see afterwards is just ahead.
And at the end of that time, you know, people complain sometimes that if God is a God of love, why does he allow the awful things to take place in this world that are taking place?
Quite a quest.
Quite a question, but I say because God is a God of love, He's not going to allow man to continue his rebellious course against him forever. The time will come when he will say that's it and he will directly intervene. He will send the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory. The last time this world saw him, he was hanging dead on a cross.
Next time they see him, he will be coming in great power and glory. Let's go over to his Second Thessalonians chapter one to read what it tells about that part of his second coming. Second part of his second coming. This part of his second coming is accompanied by many signs.
Some of which we're seeing the start up today. That's why we believe the time to be very near can't set dates like some people are doing.
**** the time is getting close. Second Thessalonians chapter one and verse 7.
To you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.
And from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day, Here's the day of judgment when God is going to directly intervene into the affairs of this world.
Democracy.
Is not going to continue in this world. God is going to replace it with theocracy. God himself is going to establish a Kingdom in this world. And it will not be a rain. It will not be a day of grace. It will be a day when righteousness will reign supreme.
People say they do bad stuff and they say, well, we'll fix it up later.
God's a God of grace. Heal, forgave us.
Careful.
Careful.
There are people that are gonna be saying that when Jesus comes again, they're gonna just disappear.
You're not gonna appear any longer.
He's going to gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend. He's going to send out his angels to gather.
00:50:05
Those things that offend talks here about his mighty angels. He'll descend from heaven with his mighty angels, with the millions upon millions of his Saints.
Yes, I plan to go to Israel.
Via this means.
I think it would be interesting to go now before that pay comes, but I'm planning to go.
And I think everybody else who is a believer is planning to go. This is going to be the most tremendous, most dramatic display of power and glory this world has ever witnessed when God introduces his Son to reign supreme from sea to sea. And nobody is going to escape that day.
Yes, he comes.
To it says in verse 8, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel commands for you to repent and to believe.
And if you do not obey the gospel, that day will be the reckoning day for you, and that will be it for you. We don't. I'm not gonna go through it now, but we have a greater picture painted for us in Revelation chapter 19, when the heavens open and Jesus comes out on a White Horse symbolizing total victory. And it tells us there that the kings of the earth.
And a man called the Beast, who will be the head of the Western.
Eastern Europe.
They're G he's gonna have his armies there out in force to go against him. That sits on the horse and against his armies.
Imagine the tremendous display of glory because.
You and I, who are believers in the Lord Jesus are part of the armies that come out of heaven.
But we will not need to fight the Lord Jesus with the sword of his mouth. One army after another, Wang Wang Wang totally leveled. People will get the message that we cannot resist here.
Then he's going to set the throne of his glory in this world and all nations.
Are going to be gathered before them, and he's going to separate between those that are the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left hand.
He's going to establish his Kingdom in power and great glory. These are things that Scripture speaks very clearly of. These are things that are just ahead. These are things that what we see in the world today indicate we're getting close.
You're here and you don't have it straight with God.
Get it straight tonight.
Don't fool around any longer if you have questions, we're glad to talk to you, but it's way too important to leave.
Unsettled in your soul, Jesus is coming again.
Coming 1St to take his people out of this world and then coming to.
Establish His Kingdom in this world, and he's going to reign for 1000 years what is called the day of the Lord in righteousness for 1000 years.
Tremendous changes just ahead per planet Earth.
You know, sometimes I read about these things and I say, is it possible? Is it real? Is it real what we're talking about? Do I really believe that? I can't see any other option available. It's gotta be real.
God is true to His word.
And it's going to happen.
Are you ready for that day?
If you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus.
With all those who are believers, I want to say to you.
00:55:00
Get ready.
Tonight, don't wait any longer because Jesus is coming at a moment's notice.
And if you don't accept Him as your Savior, you're going to have to meet Him anyhow. There is no way to escape Jesus. If you don't accept Him as your Savior, you will meet Him as your judge, no exceptions.
The pay picture the Word of God paints to us faithfully.
Oh, brethren.
The Lord help us to awaken in view of the fact that we're right on the edge.
This time.
Right on the edge. It amazes me how people go to sleep.
Course the world around is asleep, but even those who say they're Christians are asleep. Am I asleep brother or sister? If I'm asleep, please come and give me a shake so I can be awake. Way too momentous these times we're talking about. It's going to happen. It's going to happen at any time now.
Let's pray.
Open Mtg. 3
Open—R. Thonney, K. Harman, R. Tasse
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Uh, if you don't need anything else.
I'll give you a call.
Bit.
Of all the money.
I don't know.
Like to go back this afternoon to the verse that was referred to in the reading this morning in John chapter 12 and read the context of that scripture.
Her brother read verse 25 and it was quoted in the last meeting as well.
I'd like to go back to verse 20.
Of John 12.
There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. Same came therefore to Philip, which was a Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. And again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except that corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it.
He that hated his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal. Any man serve me, let him follow me. Where I am, there shall also My servant be. Any man serve me, Him will my Father honor. Now is my soul troubled? What shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
We'll pause there for the moment.
But uh, verse 25 was referred to this morning and this afternoon as well. I'd like to focus more on verse 24, which goes just before it and I think gives the proper context to what we have in verse 25. There we have the Lord Jesus and there were Greeks that came up to the feast. And for there to be blessing for the Gentile nations, the Lord Jesus was going to have to.
00:05:18
Go into death.
And that's what's referred to in verse 24. The Lord Jesus refers to himself as a corn of wheat, and he says, except it fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Anybody who's a farmer knows the truth of this verse.
You can have some corn seed in your hand. You can keep it in your house where it won't get moist, where it won't rot, where it'll be preserved. And you can keep it there perhaps for many years. But there's one thing certain that there will be no fruit from that corn.
It is only when that grain of corn is put into the earth and what happens there?
The moisture softens it and the microorganisms start to work on it. And that corn of wheat.
But that's put in the ground dies.
Isn't that a waste?
In its death it gives birth to a new life, which there is much fruit. This is the principle that the Lord is bringing out here. And of course the Lord Jesus is.
The corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died.
Like we were mentioning in our reading reading this morning, brother.
Sacrifices a principle of Christianity that I am increasingly impressed with the fact that our culture that we live in directly contradicts it.
It is a culture that we live in and I like to focus on it a bit because I really believe that we are being robbed of true blessing from not realizing just what our culture is doing to us.
In the simple principle of self pleasing, self pleasing on one side.
Self sacrifice on the other side, and I have to confess for myself because I don't want to speak for anybody else, that I'm terribly affected by the current of this culture, which is self pleasing. It's so easy just to kind of go along with the stream and not realizing we are being robbed blind.
Brother, I'm burdened that we might understand this better, especially our dear young people. I must say that there been individuals in my life the Lord has used to challenge that principle of self pleasing.
And make me realize there is another way of living.
There was a dear brother.
Who ended his days right here in Montreal a number of years ago, I don't remember how many years ago. Eric Smith. Many of you knew him.
He was a man that came from New Zealand in his youth.
He was from a family that was fairly well off, he's told me. He used to tell me story of his youth. His father was a personal friend of the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
His father was well off in business. He had opportunities to become at one time captain of a ship.
But the Lord had impressed him with the need of souls in Bolivia, and he made-up his mind that he was going there. When he made-up his mind, his father, who was still a man of the world, not a believer, said, Son, if that's your decision, out of my house. And he threw him out of the house. So Brother Smith had to go and make his own way through some college. He did some medical studies, he was called in Bolivia, he was called.
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The doctor, El Doctor. But I must say, brethren.
It impressed me tremendously the first time I went to Bolivia with him. It was 1968. We went through the Andes on the back of a truck. Brother Eric Smith was sitting in the cab of the truck with Brother Alarcon and we got to the place where he started his work amongst the Indians in southern Bolivia and the little town of Ulo on the side of a river about dusk.
And there the brethren were waiting for him, standing around in a circle to welcome him. And they started singing When we came to stop there, and I wasn't sitting, I was standing in the back of the truck, so I couldn't see Brother Smith. But I looked through the little peep window and there he was, tears streaming down his face. And it just came to such a challenge to my own soul at that time.
He could have stayed in New Zealand, he could have had life his own way, nice, comfortable way of living, but he turned his back on it all. He lived by a different principle, the principle that we have here.
Except the corner wheat fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone. And what was now the results of making that decision? Many souls brought into blessing. It had a tremendous impact on my life. And I must say brethren, as I passed through the culture that we are all called to live on. We can't extract ourselves from the world, but we can realize the principle that should guide us as believers in the Lord Jesus.
Principle of self sacrifice and I wanna challenge you dear young people.
Please consider this seriously, because if you love your life, you're gonna lose it.
And the word uses a pretty strong word here in verse 25, he that hates his life.
That's pretty strong word, isn't it?
But it simply means you're going to love your life here. You're going to give yourself to what's here in this world. Somebody who hates his life here is one who doesn't take advantage in the way a worldly might do, but lives for something future.
He keeps his life.
For life eternal, Brother Eric Smith went into the Lord's presence. I think it was two days short of 103 years old.
I've often thought of all those dear brethren, those Bolivian peoples that heard the gospel through his means and the welcome there must have been for him there.
Oh dear brethren, I can't put myself up here as an example, but I say I do want to live. Not for a few brief advantages of life down here, but for what's coming. This life is way too brief. As much as you might get up to 100 years old, what's life down here in comparison with what's coming? It's not worth loving your life in this world. It's a principle of living.
And I wanna challenge you to search your soul in the Lord's presence. What is it that drives your life? Is it some earthly advantage down here or is it something that is forever?
May the Lord help us to live as He says here, and it might seem pretty drastic, put that seed in the ground.
It's gonna die. Isn't that a waste farmers take?
Many tons of seed and sow their crops. Now what's going to happen to that seed that's put out there? Those tons of seeds? It's gonna all die. Isn't that a waste? Wouldn't it be better just to conserve it all?
Well, it might seem better, but you will never get any fruit that way. There will be never any increase. Do you want your life to count? What will count for eternity?
You're going to have to lay down that light. I don't mean necessarily that you're going to have to give it up, but you should be willing to go that far because that's how far the Lord Jesus went for us. There was no.
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Conditions. There was no qualifications to his sacrifice. It was 100% given for us. He gave himself for us, like we were mentioning this morning. The only reasonable thing left for me to do is to do the same.
I've often thought of weddings.
Why is it we love to put away?
Why do we find it so attractive?
You know why? I think it's because a woman.
Makes one man.
Per object of affection, and one man makes one woman his choice of affection.
If a young man wanting to get married to a young lady.
If the young lady said after his proposal, OK, I'll be yours 95% of the time and uh, I'd like to have 5% for somebody else, uh.
You know that wouldn't work.
And even if she upped it to 99% it wouldn't work.
But I fear that's what we're doing with the Lord Jesus. They say, yeah, I'll sacrifice a lot of my life for the Lord.
Not gonna work.
It's all or nothing and I think that's what makes a wedding so attractive to us. We love to see that happen.
Now how about with the Lord?
How about with us?
Are we putting little pockets of reserve in our hearts affections?
Or is the Lord everything to us?
Oh brother, this searches my heart. I know that in so many ways I fail in this.
But may the Lord help us.
That's.
Born of wheat that falls into the ground. It's a total thing. It dies, but it's in its death that there's much fruit. Much fruit. And think of the millions upon millions of souls that have come into blessing because of the death of the Lord Jesus.
It was costly and sacrifices costly. It isn't easy.
It never was meant to be easy. The Lord Jesus here.
When he contemplates it, he says now is my sole trouble.
Chapter 14. He says to the disciples.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Isn't that wonderful? But what was it that troubled his soul?
It was the thought of the cross and what that would mean.
That awful cross.
The time when it would get dark.
And our sins were laid on him, and the full fury of God's wrath fell on him.
In all the ways and billows of God's judgment poured over his soul for three solid hours.
No complaint to you here during those hours until the very end. And he cries in one awful anguish. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He shrunk from the thought of contact with sin.
It had to be that way because of who He was as the sinless, spotless, holy Son of God.
Couldn't be otherwise.
But in the perfection of his submission to his father's will, he says, not my will, but thine be done. And he gets up and goes to the cross.
Oh, a tremendous example. Every one of us fall short, but brethren, this is the example that's put to us here for us to follow. Notice what it says in verse 26. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And I'm looking at a room full of servants of the Lord. Don't look at just a certain group of people and say they're servants of the Lord. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus. You are a servant of the Lord.
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Doesn't matter what you do in life, you are serving him.
In that capacity, whatever it is your mechanic or a farmer or whatever it is, you are serving the Lord.
Let him follow me. Let your life right where you are. Be a pouring out in sacrificial love. You know what has impressed me?
N.
My life is.
Sometimes people ask and my travels What do you do for a living?
An answer I don't really like to give is I'm a preacher or a missionary.
I don't like to give that answer. You know why? Because I can just see them reaching up and turning off the radio. They're not listening any longer after that.
Because those that take that place of a preacher have such a bad testimony in this world that they don't listen.
If you do your work well as a mechanic, the time comes to speak a word for the Lord. They'll listen to you.
So you're serving the Lord and you have an advantage over somebody like me.
You're serving the Lord, never forget that. But it is in sacrifice, and that principle is so important. I'd like to go now to Second Corinthians chapter 4.
That was referred to also this morning I believe.
Read a few verses here verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God?
Notice it's small G Satan of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ is the image of God should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servant, for Jesus sake, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
This is so wonderful, brother.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that wonderful that we can say we have been brought to know God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ? So many people in this world that don't know him. The Muslim religion says God is unknown and unknowable, and you and I can say we know God. Yes, this is Christianity. We've been brought into the knowledge of the true God.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And notice what it says in verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
The earthen vessels is definitely our bodies, which are made of the dust of the ground.
And the treasure that's there is this knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's a treasure. And we need to consider that you and I have a treasure that so many in this world don't know anything about. A treasure.
But you know, sometimes we hide the light under a bushel or put it under a bed. Bushel speaks of business perhaps, and the bed of Navy laziness. In one way or another. We don't let the light shine, so God intervenes. And notice what it says then following. We are troubled on every side.
Yet not distressed, we are perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed.
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Trouble. Anybody here like trouble in their lives?
I don't think anybody would choose it.
But I would suppose if I had asked one by one, you could tell me about trouble in your life.
Why does God allow trouble in your life? You know why? Because He wants the light of that treasure you have in your heart to shine out to a poor world that's dying and it's sin. Here in the West we have been prospered tremendously and the tendency is.
To cover the light and not let it go out. Oh brother, the challenge in the world that we live in, to let the light shine with all our energies, with all our possessions. To seek to make the message known in this world.
And then he goes on verse 10 and 11. I want to draw your attention to those two verses because they are somewhat similar, but there is a difference.
Let's read them.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our.
Mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. The same principle we were talking about in John 2012.
The corn of wheat that falls into the ground dies, but in its death it gives life.
Too much more fruit.
Here it is.
Fossil Paul says death works in us, but life in you so that there could be blessing to those Corinthian believers. Death had to work in the apostle Paul. But going back to verses 10 and 11 notice verse 10 says always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
This is something that should be the case in our Christian lives at all times, always.
Is it?
Well, you're talking about me, brother. I have to confess that it is not always the case. It is the norm of the Christian life, yes.
And that's why we have verse 11. Verse 11 is circumstances beyond our control.
We which live are always delivered unto death.
Something that I'm not in control with, something that happened that I don't understand why the Lord allows these situations in my life. Why, we ask ourselves.
So that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest. And notice this difference.
Here it is in our mortal flesh, so it may be sickness, it may be an accident, it may be so many different ways we are delivered to it because God is faithful and if he's put that treasure in your heart, that treasure is meant to be shared with a dying world and he's not going to allow it just.
To be inactive there, he's going to put circumstances in your life and mine so that that light would shine out.
You know the life that we have in the Lord Jesus.
Brother and Sister is a life in resurrection.
That's the life we have in the Lord Jesus. Resurrection life. But you can't talk about resurrection unless you talk 1St about death because.
Resurrection always takes place after death.
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And so the first principle that you have to put into action in your life.
If you're going to see the life of Jesus.
Is the death of Jesus always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus?
Are you there, brother?
You know, I know what that means.
Is our life a life of self sacrifice or a self pleasing?
Brethren, I just am convicted that our brother spoke at the last meeting about the judgment seat of Christ.
And I sometimes think of my own life.
When I stand there and see how much I gave in to the demands of the philosophy of self pleasing.
And that's gonna go up in smoke.
It won't have any lasting results.
So I'm going to if the life of Jesus is going to be evident in my life, it will because.
Will be because first of all, the death of Jesus was born about in my body, and that's not easy.
Sacrifice.
But it's a tremendous principle to get a hold of.
And I just want to challenge you, especially you dear young people. But it applies to us all, brethren. And I must say I was tremendously challenged the life of Brother Eric Smith. There have been others who have been a real challenge to me as well, to live life in that way. But it is a wonderful thing to grasp the vision of coming glory.
I think you've probably heard of what William Kelly said when.
Somebody who realized the talent there was in Greek and Hebrew, those original languages in him, they said to him, what are you doing? Doing what you're doing? You could make a mark in this world for yourself. And he simply said, which world?
That's the case, brethren. We want to live for what will last for all eternity.
So there's the life of the there's the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest.
And then if I don't put that principle into effect in my life, brethren.
God is faithful and He delivers me to death.
Something outside of my control, something I wouldn't have asked for. He delivers me to it. Why? So that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Brethren, may the Lord help us not to fall so much under the influence of this present age.
I'm astounded we talk about the question of sacrifice.
Of what is sometimes commented that a believers in North America as far as giving of their material possessions, I know there's those that are give very sacrificially.
But the average, the norm of this pro prosperous culture that we're part of is 2 to 3% of what we earn. That's what is normally given to the Lord.
And I say, brethren, the Lord help us not to fall under the influence of the culture that we live in. We might challenge our way of life here, to live not for present advantage, but what for what will last for all eternity? He that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hates.
His life shall keep it for life everlasting.
I'd like to turn to a verse or two in Matthew's Gospel.
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Chapter 7. Matthew. Chapter 7.
We might begin at verse 24.
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
And everyone that heareth these things of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand.
The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
I know a man who is a believer.
And he builds himself $1,000,000 house.
That house has become a chain around his neck.
To this day we would like to get rid of it, but he can't.
This isn't just talking about houses, this is talking about a life that we built.
And who we build it for and upon which foundation are we building it? We so often use this in our, in Sunday school, you know, and perhaps more in connection with a, with, uh, the gospel aspect of it. But I believe here in this context, if I'm, if I'm right, it's more to do with those of us who have a profession.
Of of Christianity.
And in the context of what we're talking about this last while, and whether we're using this life that God has given us for his glory and for the use of himself, whether we're using it to to build a foundation for ourselves in this life as was brought before us just now, our brother Mr. Kelly said. Which world?
And that's a good, that's a good answer as well as a good question. Which world are we living for? Which world are we building for down here? So here's a man.
Who's building a house and he's building it on a good foundation? Which of us would be so foolish as to build upon the foundation of some beach?
Where where we know that the water is, comes up, how foolish it would be to build it on the beach down at the Bay of Fundy, for instance. Maybe in Manitoba it'd be a little different. We don't have that much.
Rise and fall of the of, of the rain, you know, of the, of the water. But Even so, I would be foolish to build it in a, in a, in a bog refill, even though the view was good. Uh, we might say we, we build because of you, but when the rains come, the view doesn't mean very much.
And, uh, our lives are sometimes like that, that we're, what we have in view is for earthly advantage.
Now, I may be reiterating some of the things we've already said. I'm just using another portion of Scripture here, but we need to think about these things that it's not just for children that we think this, that song. It's not just for children. We read these verses. It's for you and me because we can go, we can get very busy.
In in building our lives down here with earthly advantage in view. I remember when I first when we.
Built our first house. I thought, well, you know what? We can build it and, and, and then it'll be home free. We won't, uh, there, it'll, it'll be a new house And so we can, we don't have any maintenance.
Well, I soon found out that that wasn't true. And you know, after a while some of those things become a chain around your neck, don't they?
And you know, even as young people, you don't have to build a house, but you can get, you can start building your life upon something that is like building it on sinking sand.
And it's not too long. The Lord sends the storms along.
And first thing you know that you're starting to think.
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And, uh, you be, can be, you're beginning, you're beginning to think there's got to be something better than this.
It doesn't take too long for us to realize this, really. If we're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you won't allow it.
Because it says in, in. He says in his word, My son, give me thine heart. That's what he wants.
And so we find here that there are two ways of building our lives the same way, two places building, two ways of building our houses. And one uses wisdom and the other is foolishness.
You may use the, the wisdom of this world, but God calls it foolishness. The wisdom of the world would tell us, build a big house, build a big reputation and uh, umm, get your, get yourself, make sure you get a good bank account. And whatever you do, make sure you have a good pension plan because you never know when you're gonna need it.
Well, as Christians, you know, it's how foolish we're using the wisdom of the world if we say if we use that kind of logic.
Because who is our counselor? Who is our guide? Who is where is the wisdom of this world?
Where is true wisdom? Christ is our wisdom. He is made unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We have it all.
But I'm not standing here to tell you and to make you think that I've learned it all. Not by any chance. These things I'm still learning, but I know they're true.
Because you just, all you have to do is see a little bit of it in your life and you know that it's not going to be any different if I try and ignore it because it's only going to get worse because God is in control.
And so I'd like to turn to another portion in the book of Proverbs.
Chapter.
24.
Verse 30. I went by the field of the, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the Stonewall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered. Well, I looked upon it and received instruction. He had a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one the traveleth, and I once.
As an armed man, brother has just been been reminding us of there's there's two ways we might look at serving the Lord and one is not serving him. I should say one is to.
It has to do with, uh, hiding our light under a bushel and the other one of, uh, under a bed. And I believe what we get here is a man who was hiding his life under a bed. Slothfulness.
So here's a man who was a farmer. Evidently he had a field. And you know, if he's a good farmer, he's going to be very, very careful how he runs that farm.
The weeds do not stop growing at all. I always was glad when the winter time came because I couldn't see the weeds and I didn't have to pull them and I didn't have to cut the grass.
But you know in the spring when it when it all the snow goes away and and the weeds start to grow and the grass starts to grow.
If I were just to spend the rest of the year, perhaps like I did in the winter, in the house.
Well, first thing you know, the weeds would, and everything would grow up around my ears. There would be it. And first thing you know, they, the, the neighbors would say, what kind of a farmer is this? And he lets everything grow. And so the nettles covered all over the ground, they start to creep, creep around and cover the ground and it spoils the beauty of it. And there's walls there that keep things out and keep things in. And so the walls, first thing you know, begin to crumble.
And.
And then, uh.
You know the walls.
Talk about separation.
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And, uh, there's another verse in the book of uh.
Ecclesiastes, I believe it is Whoso breaketh in hedge, the serpent will bite him. What does that mean? Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent will bite him.
Well, the serpents would hide in the holes in the rocks of the of the hedges.
And uh, uh, and they, these hedges would keep animals up or keep, keep animals from coming in to spoil the flock, the, uh, the crops and so forth. But, uh, sometimes the serpents are hiding in its hedges. And whoso breaketh in hedge, the serpent will bite him. So you go to break this hedge that is very needful for to the protection of your property. Now let's Li look at this in the light of your life and mine.
This hedge that is built up.
Is that if we break it, the enemy is going to to bite us, we're going to lose that separation and.
So often this is allowed in our lives, brother, if we have sought to walk in a path of separation to the Lord and, and sometimes it happens when our families are small and we walk in that path of separation and then when our families get older, all of a sudden.
Things seem to change for some reason. I'm not saying it always is, but it so often has happened, and it's probably true in most of our lives that you let down. You break that little wall of separation and let the enemy to come in and he bites us and we suffer.
The consequences?
The enemy comes in and and it destroys that.
That which we were building up, the same thing as this farmer here who allowed his walls to break down, what allowed the the weeds to grow and the nettles to grow.
And he first thing you know, the farm became unfruitful.
We've been talking a little bit about that.
And each one of us, there's room for fruitfulness for God in our lives.
And it doesn't take much to lose that.
Am I right?
So shall I poverty come as one that's Traveleth and I want as an armed man.
First thing you know.
We experience poverty in our souls.
And the fruitfulness for God is not there.
Brother was mentioning here about the different ones in his life that he has known they're not here anymore.
I can say the same thing. Why are we here? The grace of God, if any of us are here at all, brother.
But how about the ones those that have?
That are no longer here. What's happened to their lives?
I often think about that.
It brings sorrel.
Is it going to happen to our lives?
Are we gonna go on?
And seek to go on to the end.
And maintain that which God has given us, the truth.
All the truth, nothing but the truth.
Is there a hedge that's being broken down somewhere in your life or mine?
And the enemies come in, and this robbing us of fruitfulness for God.
It's only too true.
I told a story before.
Maybe you've heard it. I it bears telling again. Perhaps the illustration that it gives.
The man went out into his field and he found a.
A young eagle.
An eagle was injured.
So he picked it up, and he brought it into his farmyard.
And he put it in amongst the chickens.
Or the turkeys or whatever it was. And he thought, well, this will be safe enough until it heals. And so he watched this from time to time.
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And first thing in all the, the, the eagle healed and he got stronger and he found, said, well, it's it's time to. Well, first thing you know, he, he, he noticed that this bird was starting to make a noise like the chickens.
Why? So yeah, it's time to get this bird out of here and put him back where he belongs. And so he took it out to the field and he put it up on a fence post and he and he thought was going to fly.
And it tried to fly in a flopped on the ground. Well, he took it again and he took it up to a high hill and it happened again. So he took it to a higher hill and he and he finally took the bird and he threw it out into the air and it had nothing to do but spread its wings and fly.
So what was the reason? What, what's, what's the moral of this whole thing?
There's a saying in the world, you know, maybe I don't mean to funny, be funny here, but.
If you walk with the turkeys, how can you fly like an eagle?
Isn't it true evil communications corrupt good manners?
And Peter, you know.
He was He, it was said of him. Peter, thy speech berethe Galilean.
Yes, we're known by our speech. We're known by the company we we keep. And wrong company can give us bad manners. If we're going to fly like an eagle brother, we're going to have to fly like an eagle. We're going to have to keep our we're going to have to show that we are.
I would like to suggest that if we want to fly like we should, we could read the book of Ephesians and know what our portion is.
And know that we are a heavenly people. You know, the eagle can fly right into the sun. He's got it. I understand he has a double eyelid that he can use so that he doesn't become blinded as he flies into the sun.
Maybe I can be proven wrong in that, I don't know, but that's what I was told.
But we are told that the eagle can fly right into the sun and nothing can follow it.
Nothing could could. I don't suppose anything would want to try and tackle an eagle. But if there was an enemy, they couldn't follow it. And so, brethren, as we fly into the sun, SON, that's our protection. And we can. We can.
We can glorify God in doing this. And so there's one more verse I'd like to read in Isaiah.
Chapter 40.
Verse 28 Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding.
He giveth power to the St. and to them that have no might he increases strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail or fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
I know a man.
Many years ago he has. He was one who in the time of the division amongst the Saints of God, he was one who stood firm, and he came out of it and he went on. And just a few in that little assembly, but he went on.
His family grew up.
And they said, Dad, we need to buy a cottage.
So we can get away for the weekends, so we can go to a lake.
Well, his father succumbed to it. Well, where they lived was a long way from from a lake. So in order to get to a lake, they had to go a long way from the assembly.
Family grew up, they began to go there on weekends and that first day would come back for the remembrance of the Lord, and they would and for the weekend, but little by little.
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It was breaking a hedge, wasn't it?
Little by little.
They began to miss the remembrance of the Lord, they began to miss the midweek meetings, and the first thing you know, they weren't coming at all.
Where's that family today?
I don't even have to tell you that because you know.
And it can happen to anyone of us.
Whoso breaketh an hedge, the serpent will bite him.
So, brother, this eagle.
Took off.
Into the sun.
And he was flying where he was meant to be. He wasn't meant to be scratching around in the barnyard.
The farmer found that this eagle, his claws were all full of dirt scratching in the, in the barnyard, because that isn't where he was meant to be. He's meant to be flying. He was meant to be free. And if the sun shall make you free, he shall be free indeed. So let us keep in mind, brethren, it's not in the barnyard of this world that we are going to get our our, our sustenance and our joy.
We're meant to be a heavenly people. We are a heavenly people.
We don't have to try to be. We are.
And if we're if we're flying at too low A level in this world so we can see what's going on and keep our eye on the world and an eye on other things, it's not going to work.
That's flying with the Eagle and that's that will take us right to the sun, OK.
I would like to.
Read a few words.
John, Chapter 21.
And verse 18.
John chapter 21 and verse 18.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou was young.
Thou gird thyself and walketh whither thou would, But when thou shalt behold, thou shalt stretch for it. Thy hands another shall guard gird thee, and carriage thee with her. Thou wouldest not.
This speak he singing, signifying by the death he should glory God.
And when he had spoken to this, he said unto him, Follow me.
I'm gonna stop here for a while.
What I came for the first time.
In the meeting, I was a stranger.
I was not born again when I was young. I was the day before my 23rd.
Years.
And how was he brought up in their religions? And I was a religious man. I want you to know that I've done everything that the priest told me to do. Never been satisfied. I went to the cage that I called out a cage today to confess my sin. When I get out, I forgot a few sin. I didn't have peace, Never had peace in my life till I come.
There's no Him as my Lord and Savior.
And those of you who are whole new Mr. McDowell and I was there in the afternoon and I didn't understand either. I didn't speak neither understand English, but they had a a brother who's re respond in French. He said God.
And someone had told me before, I said you better come to the Christmas mess. And that person was my first wife. She said, no, I'm not Catholic. I said you're going straight to hell.
And she looked at me with a little smile of shortage.
She said, Ronnie, you tried to do something that you cannot do, it's already done. And when I learned through the time and came to know him as my Lord and Savior, I had to decrease to take away all those 20 some years of.
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Religion.
But I didn't know the Lord when I was saved. I could jump out and say, hey, I'm safe. I'm not going to hell.
How can I'm gonna learn about that person? How can I be a testimony for him? I didn't know nothing.
Except the verse that John. John 316. That's all I knew.
But there's an old brother.
See sometime.
When we are young, we don't listen, but there's some time one could give us a little bit like that and we take it. And he said I and I, I had to have someone to translate because I couldn't speak to him. Mr. Blackwood, an old man who Show me your love.
And he said, Ronnie, I told him, I said I don't know nothing about the Lord. I know I'm saving the Son of God. He died for me on the cross, but that's all I know. He said Ronnie, get early every morning.
Henry, the portion of the Word of God.
And I started that and, you know, we're people of Abbott. If you take the good habit, you're gonna keep it. And now I start to heat every morning. I didn't understand maybe that much, but he said try.
To be an example.
It's easy. One day, one example at a time, young people.
Every day tried to be walking as a Christian.
If you smoke, stop smoking.
If you drink booze, stop drinking.
You stop smoking, stop for a while, you drink stuff and keep it like that and just say, well, I know the Lord gave his life. You've heard about it. The God, the Lord got his life for you, for me and for everyone. He gave everything that he had and we just give a little bit like that. But be a testimony by your walk. Don't walk that quick, Just walk halfway in the Lord's mind and half and read the word and you're gonna grow a little bit.
I didn't grow very fast and I didn't grow very much, but I know him as my Lord and Savior and every day I try. And I my father was so mad at me because I resigned my religion. He didn't come to me to be a witness for my wedding.
But nevertheless.
He didn't bother about my two brothers and my sisters.
He watched watching.
Because I fell and I know the Lord as my Savior, and I was a mirror to Him.
Every spot and even when we had children.
He didn't bother with my brothers and sisters children. He did the check what Louise and Richard do.
And one day, he had to confess.
I love the children of Rani.
Because they hold back.
I didn't use anything wrong for my children, he just learned to hold it.
If you ask me what my father tell me, I may have to tell you 5 minutes and that's all I would say that I what he told. But if you ask me how was this example now you you've got for the afternoon.
Because I looked at my father, he was a policeman. I didn't want to have shoes. I wanted a fair pair of votes because policemen have voted.
Everything I learned, if I walked today is because I learned it from my father. And we grandparents have a high responsibility because our grandchildren will pay more attention sometimes to us and thanks if we want to have a good talk with them, they're open and we're hope we have that responsibility. But touch slowly but strong.
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After I had done have it start, I read the word and I grow a little bit, a little bit enjoying the person of the Lord.
And when you?
See, the brothers said, for sacrifice but their sacrifice that our heart could do, but their sacrifice that are pleased to do.
You tell the truth, you're gonna be respected, but not love with everybody.
But you're gonna be respected and if you say something to someone.
E-mail Listen.
I was not.
In my work I was a travel salesman.
And I was.
Every day.
I asked the Lord, if thou allow me.
To be a testimony, please give me the word.
And my father amounts.
His daughter-in-law prefer my wife.
And my father was a policeman and he would not accept a lie.
But the truth.
And when we had conversation and when she would say to my dad and my dad was a big man, strong man.
And she said the word of God is the open conversation. He would say in the conversation and said, Evelyn, what do you think? What she said, Mr. Tossie, the word of God say that finally at the end of the week, you would say, I'm fed up with that. She said, OK, then you want me to tell you a lie? No, no, no. You don't tell lie here. You do the truth.
And he said before he died.
The daughter-in-law that I love more.
And I'm here today. My God is heaven.
It took a long time, but I had to be.
Completely an example.
And if you start with one way, one thing, and do it for a month, it's gonna become an Abbot. We're naturing up an Abbot. We're people of Abbott. It's gonna come as an Abbot and the next and others. Don't try to do. I'm gonna do everything in one shot. You're gonna leave it. You're gonna do it for two weeks, and that's all over. It's too much work. No one little stick.
And you're gonna be.
Enjoying the Lord, You know those calendar? Good seed. It's so nice.
Will leave me and my wife.
Inexperience.
This is her brother came to living up north.
And we talked to him about the Lord, He said I know God and I believe God.
And he went through a difficult days and he had to go to the operation. And he knew that that time, his time was over. But he had learned things from us slowly and not forcing, but as when he came to the door of the operation, he said, God, I'm gonna go to die. Lord, I put my life on your hand.
He got saved.
We have to be.
Tender life. If you are Christian, walk straight.
The brothers said missionary. We all have to be a missionary in our family, in our neighbor.
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Via testimony. To those who look you around, there's testimony. When we take our Bible and go to our place where we have our meeting, it's a testimony. Be faithful.
Go steady.
And try to walk as a soldier to the Lord Jesus Christ and you're going to enjoy it. You may think you come here to hear the word of God and you may think it's hard, that it's going to be hard to be a, a brother said you have to give your life and so on. It's gonna come with the strength of the Lord. We cannot do without him.
But the Lord will ask, if you take that much of water, the Lord will fill the glass all the time.
You'll never run short.
I was saving 51.
And I feel there's word in the in that word, I said I read it maybe 50 times. Oh, that's, that's what it means today the Lord will reveal to each one of us in a time that we could assimilate it as long as we want to walk in it.
But he said to Peter, follow. I'm gonna read it.
I said unto him, Follow me.
Cheesy.
Yes.
When I receive.
A discipline from the Lord. We all have one. You know why? Because Ronnie is Ronnie. If everything's fine and the business was going everything I begged hold. Even I read the word, I will get cold. And the Lord love each one of us. And if we get told, you know what the Lord do. Hey. Hey, Ronnie. I'm here. Ronnie. I give my life for you.
Oh.
We need it. I'm sorry to say that, but we need it.
And when there is a difficult days in our family or in our friends, what's happened? The thousand of prayer?
Go hang to the Lord. Isn't that true? You hear someone who has difficulty, I have an accident or some people, their house burned, they have 1000 of prayer. If nothing happened, nobody's going to pray. I'm talking about myself, everything's OK. But that's not what the Lord we are walking towards home.
We are Pilgrim and walking towards home.
And it's over there.
Tonight. Tomorrow.
We don't have that much time to be a testimony for him. You don't have to talk, you don't have to say a word if you go straight.
They're gonna look at you. You're different.
Friend.
And look at the there's another part that we like to read, verse 20.
Then fever turning about seeth the disciples whom Jesus loved, following, which also leadeth on his breast had suffered and said, Lord, which is he that betrayed thee? Peter said. Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?
Don't copy me, you're gonna make a mistake.
Read the word and go straight.
Ask the Lord to help you to be a testimony.
He's gonna give you that strength.
And you're gonna be surprised. We went to the hospital, me and my wife, and there's a big fellow pulling his mother who was sick and would give him a calendar. I said you're a Christian.
We had a conversation that give us strength to continue that you do not know where others who are part of the body of Christ like you are in me.
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But there's some there and it's an encouragement. Sometimes you get you don't hear it went to the restaurant and we give them to a young man about 25 years old.
And we are with another couple who they were not saved and we had the breakfast and we gave him and he goes over there and he came back and on foot on his knee and he confessed the Lord right there. He knew him. He said I'm some Christian too, I know him. And because if you stay standing up, well instead to stand and stand up and cabin, he said no, he went on his knee and he said to us and those people who were with us.
They heard the gospel.
I didn't feel they heard the Godfather.
Friend and the Lord, then when he say.
And the verse 22 Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tari still I come. What is that to thee follow thou mean.
To follow someone.
Go slowly, take an Abbot.
I'm not gonna walk this, Lord. Give me the strength. Don't expect to take an avid because you're strong. You're gonna make mistake, said Lord, help me.
Help me and I'm gonna give you another.
Cancel that I've been receiving. I said to Mr. Blackwood. I said I'm saved. But my life, I'm always in the hotel in a in a in a big hotel and so on to as my work. That's where I'm going to live.
How can I measure? How can I say I can't go there and I cannot go there?
With a poop of that council that he gave me.
In my life.
He said, Ronnie, before you go ahead, if you take the Lord by his hand, ask him if he's gonna go ahead. If he says no, don't go.
It sees a you're going to see a place and I'm going to go there. No, the Lord would not like me to be there. And you go back fast. You'll have an enjoyment. You have difficult days. There's no wrong. And I cannot explain to you all the difficult days because I was a Christian. No, no, we're not accepting our brother, Donate said. They don't accept it as much. If you said I'm missionary, nobody's talk to him anymore.
But but what the brother could have answered. I have a community, I have a connection, I could anytime sometime I was driving for a long time and I think about a person I don't know how it was. I just the Lord tell me pray for him and give a little prayer to him. While I was praying I was enjoying.
That I'm a Christian, that the Lord gave his life for me, but I've done for him.
Very, very little except.
I didn't do it by myself.
I do it because.
The direct highlight can help me.
Take a habit to be a testimony by your walk, and after that you'll talk.