Montreal Conference: 2014
Table of Contents
1 John 1:1-4
The Written Word of God
One Place
God All Powerful - He Spake and It Was
Choosing a Life Partner
1 John 1:5-10
Reading
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141.
Nothing done. We're ready.
All the girls have done for that man and he told me to see him again from.
Kill your hands to live crying for a man when we get our correspondence wrong.
And then we're paying to die.
No, it's damn cool now we're just in touch. I'm sorry. I'm fine right now. I'm gone.
Bartell, Brown. Gray.
Memo, I've been.
On.
The road now it shall be.
Uh, the grain of power and glow for me and which shall win in the.
Lord continue to come out against the Lord.
Of the tree, who else will come please, by the soul of the dream, and run again, and we.
Going to explain to him and then he's going to be there. I'll be all right. Now I'm down to the ground to come to the end of the world.
Uh, but the greatest thing for?
I want to speak with friendly shuttle flow.
Start with five.
First John chapter one, starting at verse 5.
This then is the message which we heard of Him. And declare unto you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. We say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in US. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.
From all unrighteousness, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in US. I'm gonna go on in the second chapter a little while.
My little children, these things right I unto you, that ye sin not if any man sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Whereby do we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments?
00:05:20
He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keepeth his word in him, verily is the love of God perfected, whereby know we that we are in him.
He that saith he abideth in him ought also himself so to walk, even as he walked.
Brother and I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which he had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past.
And the true light now shineth, he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness. Even until now he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
We were talking this morning about fellowship.
With the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Now in this fifth verse.
This then is the message that we have heard of him and declaring to you that God.
Is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. You're gonna have fellowship with God. It's gonna be in the light.
And the light is that which exposes everything.
You have a definition of light in Ephesians chapter five. I think it is helpful.
Verse 13.
But all things that are reproved.
Are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Oh brethren, it's searching to my own soul.
Because we have tendencies, each one of us are different.
And the Lord has shown me sometimes tendencies in my own character.
That maybe I like to try to kind of keep covered up.
But in the light, you cannot cover up anything. In fact, if you try to cover up in the light, you only make yourself that more conspicuous. People are going to look at you and say, what's he trying to cover up?
You remember the woman whom the Lord met at the well of Samaria.
And offered her the living water and she said give me this water.
The Lord Jesus said go call thy husband and come here.
And she I suppose that just to kind of cover up.
The history of her life was just saying I don't have a husband.
So the Lord said.
You said that truly because thus had five husbands. The one you now have is not your husband. That said, you said truly.
All of a sudden she realized she was in the presence of somebody that knew every detail of her life. You cannot hide things in the light. Trying to hide things.
Only hinders fellowship with God. Don't do it.
And it seems like in our culture that we live in, we try to maintain the status quo between the before others, before our family, before our brethren. And many times the reality is something else.
Rather than let's not try to fool ourselves. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. You cannot mix light and darkness. Doesn't work.
00:10:12
The very first chapter of the Bible, it says God divided the light from the darkness. You cannot mix them up. And so it's searching. I can't point the finger to anybody else. I have to point it to my own.
Life, we have a God who is light and there's nothing hidden there. But you know what, to me is so beautiful in the history of that Samaritan woman.
Was that when she got out into the light, when there was no longer any need or any purpose to hiding things?
She was at liberty. It gives you real liberty to get everything out into the light. Don't try to hide it. You know, I noticed people that tell lies. You tell one lie, a little later on, you're gonna have to tell another lie to try to cover up that first lie and then maybe another lie. Cover up that lie. And then you don't know which lies you've told and what you haven't told. And so it gets pretty complicated.
That's not where there's gonna be fellowship with God.
Oh brethren, may the Lord help us in our walk with the Lord.
To walk with him, be willing to judge things that come to light in the light of His presence. God is light, and if you profess fellowship with God, you cannot, you cannot hide anything if you try to. Again, I say you only make yourself that much more conspicuous.
You know, I go to prison with Doug Buchanan in Lawrence County, Illinois, where we live, and we have a meeting in Spanish, first for the Spanish speaking inmates and then the English speaking inmates. And I like to stand at the door and greet them as they come into the meeting. And it's interesting because some of them, as I take their hand, shake hands with them, they have their head off to one side.
I don't know, maybe they're just timid. Who knows? I'm not a judge of that. But sometimes it makes me wonder if there's still something that hasn't come out to the light. They're not at liberty that way.
Lord, help us brethren not to hide anything in our lives. The Lord knows every single detail. If you want to have fellowship with Him, remember it's in the light you have fellowship with Him.
That thought in First Corinthians 11.
Verse 28 Let a man examine himself, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup, that self examination of the judging herself.
Perhaps, maybe that's why I say this and love new young people. You're not at the Lord's Table. There's something in your life that you know is keeping you from it. Judge it. Go on, Lord. Once you're there, the Lord expects you to be there. Be there in the loaf. Every one of us is represented there.
Let's seek these partakers of it.
In verse six we have a test.
If we say.
Notice verse 8.
If we say.
Notice verse 10.
If we say.
It's easy to talk, brethren, talk to talk without walking the walk.
And chrysanthemum is filled with that kind of thing, and sometimes we are guilty of that too.
May the Lord help us. The Lord puts tests here, and so if we say that we have fellowship with Him.
Yeah, I'm alright. I'm in fellowship.
00:15:01
And walk in darkness. We lie and do not the truth. You know, John speaks in blacks and whites. He doesn't speak in Shades of Grey.
And so the position of a believer in the Lord Jesus is in the light.
Somebody has asked the question, what happens when a believer turns his back on the light?
And the answer was properly given. I believe the light shines on his back.
And so if we say that we have fellowship with him, so easy to do to keep up and outward form of what is acceptable amongst brethren or what is acceptable in our family circle without reality.
It's not gonna last long. It's just an empty show. Let's not do that. We lie and do not the truth.
Put it in black and white so we can tell just where we are, brethren.
The desire of, uh, the apostle John was that the Lord's people be happy. Where do you get that from?
I think that the apostle John was a man around 85 or 90 years of age. At this time is one of the last books written in the Bible.
And, uh, he's telling the first part of the chapter about the ground of our relationship with God.
And then in these verses that we come to now, he's speaking in terms that he knows that any believer who is not walking with the Lord is not happy. You know, in verse four, it says these things are written that your joy might be full.
And our joy can't be full. We all know this, where joy can't be full when we're walking to please the Lord. But there is a path for a believer. And if we get out of the path, there is a way back. And that to me is the message that we have in this this chapter along with the with the first part particularly.
Of the next chapter and the ground for, for uh, being happy in the Lord is to go back to the Lord. So we have that brought out in the uh, in the seventh verse, or if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sins.
So the way for a believer to come back to the Lord is now being brought before us by John. And then we get it in the first part of the second chapter, which I know we're not 2 yet.
But is the ground that we rest on is the blood of Christ? So John takes us back to that where our sins were all dealt with.
And that, uh, then he, he, so he goes on, he says in that seventh verse, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Well, I've just particularly enjoyed this chapter having an overview that way.
Brother Dave, you speak about the joy that is absent when we are out of communion, and I think David realized this and his confession in the.
51St Some.
And we have that confession given in the earlier verses, but in verse 12 it says restore unto me the joy of my salvation. He didn't have that joy when he was out of communion, did he? And there had to be the acknowledgement of the transgression, as we see in verse three. And he was also cognitive of the tender.
00:20:01
Mercy of the Lord. So that comes into place too, doesn't it? It's just looking at a verse also in connection with the 8th and 9th verse and Jeremiah chapter 3 I believe it is.
We have similar sentiments expressed in the 31St Psalm as well.
Verse 13.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity.
Then we have one word brought before us in verse 14. It's turn so.
Confession involves attorney. It involves an acknowledgement, doesn't it?
We we think of the Thessalonians that said they turned to God from idols. Well, that's in connection with the blessing to their souls, but here it's in connection with the restoration of communion.
That verse, the end of verse 7, is a verse we use in the gospel.
And it's a wonderful verse to give in the gospel. But it's not written here to unbelievers. It's written to believers.
Like we were mentioning in the first meeting, John speaks of that which is characteristic.
And so.
What takes away that which hinders fellowship? What takes away sin? Only one thing, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
It's a once for all cleansing that a person receives when he becomes a believer in the Lord Jesus. God, at all costs to himself, has laid the groundwork by which that can be removed that hinders fellowship.
If there's something hindering fellowship in my life.
Who's at fault, me or God?
Necessarily me.
Brethren, let's not let things hinder our fellowship with God.
God has made such a tremendous sacrifice that sin can be put away completely.
And I'd like to say that sometimes people say this is the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing once we have been cleansed once for all.
Then we need the washing of water by the word. That's what cleanses us from day-to-day, and we need that. But here he's talking about what's characteristic of the blood.
It's what can remove that which hinders fellowship.
And as Bruce was saying in verses 8-9 and ten, we have the way that sin is to be dealt with when it comes into the life of a believer.
These are really important things. Verse 8 and verse 10, if you notice, are quite similar.
Verse 8 says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
Verse 10 says if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in US.
What's the difference between those two verses?
I suggest, brethren, that in verse eight we have the root of sin. In verse 10 we have the act of sin, just like you have an apple tree.
And what does it produce? Apples. So the sin nature in US produces sin. And if there's going to be restoration, it's through confession. The confession means?
That we recognize not only that we've done bad stuff.
But the reason we did it?
Because of the sin nature that is in us, you know, it's so easy to blame somebody else.
00:25:01
And sometimes that's the way we react when we're faced with the sin we've committed.
Yeah, I know I did bad thing, but I wasn't at fault. It's not my fault, it's his fault.
That's what happened in the Garden of Eden.
When the Lord faced Adam, Adam said, the woman whom you gave me.
When the Lord turned to the woman, the woman said the serpent beguiled me. We like to pass the blame on, but if you're gonna get restored, you have to put the accusing finger back at your own breast. If you sin, you are responsible for your sin. There might be others that are responsible too, but I can't blame it on them. I have to recognize what I've done, how important these principles are. They're simple.
They're so important that maintaining fellowship, you know, it's a continual exercise, the matter of self judgment in our lives.
Remember.
Brother Steve, you gave an example last year that was very helpful about driving down the road.
As you're driving down the road, you're always correcting little by little. As you're driving, if you don't make those corrections, what happens? You're gonna go out of your lane. You're gonna have a rack, a wreck. So we need those corrections constantly. The Lord help us, brethren, to be in self exercise, to recognize that we've done wrong many times.
And the reason we've done wrong is because that root of sin that's in US, not only to judge the sin we've done, but to judge the root. We don't judge the root. It'll keep on coming up and coming up again and again. Lord, help us to walk in self judgment. It's the only way we can keep maintaining fellowship. It's beautiful to see young people come into the joy of walking in fellowship with the Lord.
Sometimes after a while, you see their joy seems to diminish. Little by little they grow cold. Sometimes they wander off in other directions. What happened?
It can. They didn't continue to auto correct. They needed to have that self judgment. We all need it, brethren, because we're in a world of a lot of temptation and that flesh in US responds to those temptations. So the Lord help us to walk in self judgment.
To recognize what we've done.
And then in verse 9 to confess it.
Is there a difference between walking in the light and self judgment?
Tell us what it is, Dan. I'm not sure that's why I'm asking. Yeah, I'm thinking if I'm driving down the road and looking at the nose of my car, I'm gonna do a whole lot more correction than if I'm looking down the road at what the light reveals to me. And I'm thinking sometimes we can be so full of self judgment and self correction that we lose sight of the light.
Another one who is the light?
And that's wrong. That's, that's we're, we're not going to be going in the right direction. If we're just thinking about self judgment all the time and how wrong I am and how bad I am and what I've done. You know, that isn't pleasing to the Lord. If we began to look at the light, we begin to look at the horizon, we begin to look down the road where he is, then that correction becomes automatic and normal and we enjoy his presence and walk in the good of it.
Mm-hmm. That's why we have to have the Lord always before our souls, don't we?
And to correct according to that perfect example.
A good balance is very important. I believe the autocorrection comes into play when we sense that we lost the joy. At that point, we need to examine ourselves and that's where the right balance is maintained and.
For the purpose of preserving, we join a fellowship to join community, Our Lord, our right relationship with them paramount importance, and that's how we keep it.
00:30:02
Well, we have written here can't give us a better standing than we had before God.
All the time. And, uh, by the way, I'm asked to do here.
And give us a better understanding than we already have in Christ. We stand before God and Christ without condemnation.
But I believe that this Britain should be brought up through our standings.
That our daily lives as believers.
Could show us that we are standing before God in Christ and we do fail. And this is what uh, reading before us here are failures that we have along the way to do with our state and we have an advocate. We have a remedy for sin, but we do.
Falls and uh, but.
God wants us to have a state that is, uh, in harmony with the standing that we have in Christ.
Might get our standing in verse.
Six and seven and more of those things, as you're saying, to dealing with the state and maintenance and the enjoyment of that position and the subsequent verses. And that's where we need the advocacy of Christ. We've been brought into the light. We'll never be out of it again. No child of God who are the children of light will ever be in darkness again. And so if we walk in the light.
It's not there quite so much power walking, but it's where we now walk. And then the verses that follow take up more, as you say, the side of things that have to do with our state and maintenance of our souls and the enjoyment of the position we've been brought into. We're children of light. We're never going to be children of darkness again. We walk in the light. We'll never walk in the dark again. He's in the light. We've been brought into that light. We've been brought into a circle of fellowship.
Of unity, that maybe we could look at some verses in John 17 in connection with it. We've touched a little on it before, but we've been brought into a circle of fellowship that's taken up in John 17.
John 17 and verse 11.
And now I am no more in the world. But these are in the world.
And I come to thee, Holy Father, Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me.
That they may be one as we are now here he's Speaking of the apostles.
And he's asking that they would be one, that there would be a unity, just as the Father and the Son were one. What kind of oneness? The Father and the Son were in perfect unity in all their thoughts and in all their purpose and in their aim. And now he requests that the apostles would be one.
And.
Unity, the same as the Father and the Son were one. It's not the unity of the body.
It's not the unity of Godhead.
In that sense one God and three persons, but it's a unity and thought and aim and purpose. Now we come a little further in the chapter verse 20.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word. The apostles were that they all that is apostles, and those who believe all may be one.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou has sent me. So here he's praying for those who would believe. We're among that number who have believed what the apostles have said through divine inspiration as was presented to us, And the Father and the Son are one.
In each other, that is, the Father is interested in the Son, He's wholly occupied with his Son. The Son is interested in the Father, he's wholly occupied with the Father. And now those who believe on the apostles, along with the apostles, are brought into this unity of a common interest in the Father and in the Son. That's their occupation, and it's a unity that has the Father and the Son.
00:35:27
As its center, there's a testimony connected with it that goes out to the world that the world may believe as they look upon this Christian company who have common interests in the Father and the Son. That's their center in this unity. Now you come on down a little further, verse 23.
12 Rivers 22 In the glory which thou gave us me I have given them that they may be one even as we are.
One I and them and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one that the world not may believe, but may know that Thou hast sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me. That's the perfection of unity in coming glory. And now there is a testimony that goes out that has no dependency upon us at all. So it's not may believe that the world is going to believe.
At the coming manifested unity and glory. And so there is this unity that God has formed. It's not the same truth as the one body that we get in John's ministry or in Paul's ministry. This is a unity presented in John's. It's a circle of fellowship, the center of which is the Father and the Son.
He's the center, He's holy, He's light, and it demands that all who are part of that fellowship must be holy. How can He have us there in the light, walking in the light, positionally walking in the light? The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sinners. Our brother brought out was done once.
Or cleanse forever. It's again a positional thing. It's an absolute. He can have us there and that light without sullying His Holiness whatsoever because we've been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. And then He goes on to take up the state of things, the practical maintenance of the enjoyment of that position, that place we've been brought into in the light and fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
It's not pleasant to deal with sin ever, really.
But it's necessary, brethren, and I find that sometimes souls.
In question of fellowship and walking in fellowship with the Lord get away. Sometimes it seems like they don't have a clue as how to get back. But these last three verses are really the key to how to get back. It's recognizing first of all the sin we've done.
And why we did it, The root cause sent in US. But then verse nine is very important too. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So often I've had people say, yeah, I plan to get back to the Lord someday. I'll clean up my life and get back. Scripture doesn't say that. What scripture says is you recognize it and confess it. The Lord does the clean up job.
You confess he is faithful and just to forgive, and this is governmental forgiveness in the family and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
And we've often mentioned, and I think it's very important to see that it doesn't say if we ask for forgiveness.
No, go to the next chapter.
And verse 12, it says, I write unto you, little children, because your sins.
Are forgiven you for His name's sake. We have forgiveness of sins. We don't have to ask for that.
What is it that he wants? Conversion.
And confession goes much deeper.
00:40:02
Than asking for forgiveness.
Sometimes given illustration if.
I do something bad to my brother.
And I say that he is kind of distant with me.
I'd rather he be my friend. So I'm gonna say forgive me when I say forgive me. I'm not thinking of the bad thing I did. I'm thinking of that he's a little bit perturbed at me.
But brethren, that's not what it is, because God is already disposed to forgive us. We don't have to ask for that.
What he wants is confession, and confession goes deeper. To confess, I have to recognize the bad thing I did and to say so that's confession, and that's important. Sometimes we beat around the Bush.
We don't tell them he knows about it, but he wants you to say it to him. This is what I did, Lord, I lied, I got angry or whatever it is.
Lord help us in these things because this is the reason why so many get away and they don't seem to get back. Here's the answer. Recognize what we've done wrong.
Recognize the root of it and then confess it. That's really what David did in Psalm 51. He doesn't beat around the Bush, says I'm guilty.
In iniquity I was formed that there he recognized the root of sin in him.
Oh, how important these simple principles are. They're simple, but they're so important. The Lord help us. Dear young people, I hope you're getting a hold of this, because it's the secret of going on. Don't look at us who are older and sitting up here in the front rows as if we've got it all together. We don't.
We have problems too. We sin sometimes.
And we have to apply the same principles constantly if we're going to walk in fellowship with the Lord.
It's a constant exercise of self judgment.
I'd like to make a comment in connection with the confession. When I was younger I lived here in Montreal and there was a brother whose Sunday school I sat for a number of years.
And umm, he explained something that was very helpful to me when I was younger.
And, uh, he prefaced it by saying this way. How come sometimes when we can discuss, we don't experience restoration?
And he said the reason why sometimes we confess and don't experience restoration is because we mix confession up with repentance.
Confession is not repentance.
Confession is a fact.
Forgiveness is an accident.
Whereas repentance is a process.
And restoration is a process. So we've been brought to the 51St song. If we were to look there, I'm gonna turn to it. But remember, David said, I acknowledge my sins before thee.
And then right after that he says my sin is ever before me.
So how come when he confesses that they still realize that his sin is ever before him? It's because repentance has not worked its proper work, which takes a period of time.
Now we know when we look at the at the time that Nathan addressed David, at that time he confessed, but he did not experience restoration at that time. And that's why you see such a process in the 51St Psalm and such a process in the 32nd Psalm.
And it's been helpful for me to realize that I can confess.
But that does not constitute repentance.
And a person can forget thee, and that does not constitute restoration. And so often we confess, and the word of God in our soul is hindered.
Because repentance doesn't work its proper work and there's not full restoration.
The Lord's desire for us is there would be a full restoration. But I think, Bob, what you're mentioning in connection with concussion, feet and feet, that's really the thought of repentance, because I can confess something. In fact, I can confess something and not be repentant at all.
00:45:16
In a courtroom, a person confesses to a murder and they're not at all repentant.
And that's because it's a different work than repentance. So confession is an act, forgiveness is an act, but repentance is a process which.
If the process goes through to the end, then there is the full process of restoration.
Is the cleansing spoken of here that restoration?
John is different than Paul.
There's a difference in between salvation and the work of a soul. As the Lord desires to restore a soul. When it comes to salvation, a person confesses their sins and their forgiveness.
There clenched by the blood, as we, as we had earlier, everything that's a light that makes manifest the blood cleanse. It doesn't matter what it is, the blood cleanses it. But sometimes.
And I've experienced, I'm sure, and then you've experienced it too that we, we desire to have that, that.
Close walk back with the Lord that we once had and it was not there and we've we've had the confession. It's because God is faithful and if confession constituted restoration, we would treat communion like the taps in our kitchen.
We turn it off and we would turn it back on again and we would be fluctuated, but God is faithful. We can turn the communion off, but it takes a process to get it back.
And I think that's why it says, wouldn't you say, Brother Dave at the end of verse 9?
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sometimes that cleansing takes a little part of time. And I agree that repentance is necessary. Sometimes people don't know what repentance means, but it's a word in the.
Latin root means to think.
Rethink to change your thinking about it.
To see it as God sees it, that's important to repent, and sometimes that takes a little while, but God is able to work that in us to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And we don't see the intricacies or the details of our own personality that like to hide stuff and maybe don't get it out into the light properly.
And so the Lord works with us to bring about repentance and full restoration.
You know, for me to, uh, think of this forgiveness that is mentioned in the ninth verse as restorative forgiveness. Uh, you know, there's so many verses that we have that didn't like in Acts 13, why this man is preached unto you, the forgiveness of sins. And then we have an Ephesians, one in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
I would say that in both of those verses the thought is in connection with those that are unbelievers coming to Christ and receiving the forgiveness of sins. In this verse here and in this chapter, the first part again of the chapter is referring to the relationship that we have and the second part of the chapter is dealing with communion or fellowship.
That we might enjoy the relationship that we have. It is there.
Throughout the whole chapter, but it is not enjoyed in the second because of sin that has come in. And so the Lord is telling his people through John, I'm not happy when you're not happy. I want you to be happy. And so he says in that that ninth verse, the pathway so that the relationship can be restored again, they are communion can be restored, I should say.
00:50:00
The relationship never changes once we're saved. We're children of God.
That can't change. Is a father happy if his child is not happy?
Neither are happy and so God wants His children happy. What is a relationship cannot be enjoyed unless there is The Walking with the Lord and sin is dealt with.
And so he says there's a pathway back. And what is the pathway back if we confess our sins? He is faithful. And just on what ground? The work of redemption.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We may, because in the case of David, it's not like if he had a bad thought that broke his fellowship with God. He had. It happened, he followed.
And restoration has to do with that.
But if you during the day, you have, uh, you get upset a little bit, you can just confess, right?
To the Lord, because you feel that this is not adequate, that's because God has grieved and I I.
Process. But if we do that.
If we confess those little things, I mean, in fellowship, we won't follow that path that leads us to or that that need of restoration and grievance and deep sorrow. And so these verses, like he says in verse nine, if we say we have not sinned, but we have perhaps not sinned like David and I trust not, but perhaps today, whatever thought, word or thing that wasn't, uh, convenient for a child of God and just be confessed.
Restoration and fellowship. And if you do that regularly, you can go on in that sweet fellowship and keep it clear conscience. If you don't, then you accumulate and you accumulate and you accumulate. It just gets worse. And then there's really needs to be a walking back that on that path that you went down maybe 5 kilometers, well, you gotta come back. That's a process.
The, uh, the way we've been taking these verses up is very practical and it's.
Helpful, but I don't want to pass over them without looking at them in a little different way.
It, uh, probably was a time when the perhaps the mind of man was never so active in introducing evil doctrines into Christianity. When the apostle wrote and he speaks of Antichrist later in the book. And if we look at these verses that we've taken up in the end of the chapter, there are those who.
Walk in the light and there are those who walk in darkness, and it's one or the other. For those who walk in the light and have fellowship one with another, their fellowship is with the Father and the Son. There are those who say we have no sin.
There are those who say we have not sinned. There are those who never have confessed.
Those who make God a liar, those who do not have the truth in them, those are things we could never say of a true child of God.
We could never say of a true child of God. There's no truth in Him.
And that way, so we need to not I don't want to Passover these verses without saying I think is the apostles thought and that he's addressing this difference between those who are in the light and those who are in the darkness and who were coming into Christianity with false doctrines, those who said we have no sin.
The count was told me I don't know. It's details of Brother McDowell and Brother Gordon Hayhoe on the street.
Uh, giving out the gospel name and a man who said I have no sin. And, uh, Brother McDowell, Brother Gordon didn't know what to say. Brother McDowell had something ready to say. He said, well, we'll have to ask your wife about that. Well, those who say they have no sin, they only deceive themselves.
That's all.
And the truth isn't in them.
Those who say we have not sinned, those sins that are the fruit of that root, they make God a liar.
00:55:01
His Word is not in them, that word by which we are born of God, that seed.
That remains in the children of God, it's not in them.
And so though we enjoy the very practical application as to fellowship and restoration and those things, I don't wanna take a bit of that away. I would not want to lose what is being taught in these verses as to those who are in the light and those who are not.
3rd Pistol of Jock, verse four. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
It's bruised.
The 28th of Isaiah is a woe chapter.
It's time when second Peter, you might say when the Lord is going to come, and woe is the first verse to the crown of pride.
And uh, verse four and the glorious beauty, let me destroy and he's going to come in. He's going to clean, you might say the garden. But uh, in verse five, it makes exception for those who are the residue. And that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty. The Lord opposed for those who would be.
As they were experiencing this.
'Cause even though it's a woe chapter in verse 23, Isaiah and.
Our our listening this morning about the ear and listening. He says this give ye ear and hear my voice. But he goes further than that except to say don't just simply hear my voice but hearken and hear my speech. He has something to say as to those who are the residue.
And so he gives us a little illustration of the ploughman.
Who is going to plow the field and remove everything He says, Verse 24. That the plum and flow all day to sow that he opened and break the claws of his ground, when he hath made plain to face thereof? Doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the common, and cast the principal wheat? Cast in the principal wheat, and the appointment barley, and Ryan their place. The Lord is going to come and prepare the ground, as it were, for that.
Today, when there will be wheat and barley and rye? Only in the coming days.
But when he does, as we know, when that happens for the people in the, in that seven-year period, they're going to be affected by it. And so we have the fitches here and the common that's, uh, removed. And notice what it says. We're 27 for the features are not fresh for the threshing instrument. Neither is a cartwheel turned about upon the command. But the fitches are beaten out with a stab and they come in with a raw.
This is the key point I believe. I've enjoyed this thought that.
The pictures are kind of corn, like spilled hard corn, shorter hairs and it's not tossed away, it's laid aside. And the common is a aromatic plant that gives little black seeds that's used in condiments and in the medicine, maybe for the taste and things and so.
These are taking the side and they're not.
Dress or put under the wheels of the cart and there's a reference here because notice verse 22. He says at the end of verse 22, he says, well, I have heard from the Lord God of hosts that consumption even determined upon the old world. This is what's coming. But the pitches and the common are the residue that won't go through this threshing. And he makes a reference in verse 21 to David in Mount Pearism and in the valley of Gibeon.
That's when the Philistines came against them and ruined great victory. They sound in the bulrushes.
And the Mulberry trees rather going forth. David was one that.
Was not.
01:00:00
Thrown to the treasure, he did not go under the wheels of the cart. It's not like it's going to what he's going to do when he comes and cleans house. David was one of his own. So what do you find David needed, as it were? Fitches are to be beaten out with a stab and they come with a rock. And so with David.
He understood but the pictures and the common because in Psalm 23. What does he say? The Lord is my shepherd, thyroid and thy staff.
Comforted me. It's a comfort. So it's the Lord dealing with his own. He makes a difference with the residue. He makes a difference of those when he comes and makes the plain, the field plain, you might say. And so it is here in verse 28. Bruised corn. Oh sorry, bread corn.
Is Blues and sometimes we have to go as if we're individually. It's an individual thing, bruising. It's like right through restoration. The Lord has to do it, but it's not Thresh. We are the Lords, never to be lost.
But we may have to go be beaten as it were, beat up with the staff because that's food, corn and the coming with a raw by Rod and thy staff. You could say they comfort me.
So it's the Lord is for us in every case and bring us back to himself to enjoy that that fellowship with him. I've enjoyed a little thought.
174.
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Phone number.
Of.
400 million behavioralities and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Will Your Anchor Hold?
Gospel—David Mearns
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You know, dear friend, if you've just come in.
So the gospel meeting tonight.
I don't live here, I live about 3 hours away.
That was a young boy here in the city Of Montreal and I heard the gospel message and it changed my life and I can now stand here as a happy man.
Because my soul has been saved.
My sins have been washed in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, and I can stand here as a happy man, knowing I'm going to spend all eternity in the presence of the Lord Jesus. Are you able to say that tonight?
You know, I wonder if we could start our meeting tonight by singing a hymn.
On the little hem sheet that you are given if you came in the door.
And it's #11.
#11.
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life #11?
Oh, will your anchor hold in the storm of.
Rain.
And umm, God, I have left, I have been able to pray. I'm going to look at your mind and go on together. Lord Crown Reigns and 19.
Nsnoise.
Wow.
Umm.
Nsnoise.
00:05:29
Call.
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both shore and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, dear friend, tonight.
While we sang that hymn, 800 people passed into eternity.
800 people.
150,000 people every day pass into eternity.
Someday, perhaps tonight.
You are going to be one of those statistics.
Do you have an anchor for your soul?
Do you have an anchor for your soul?
Let's ask the Lord for His help.
Turn with me please.
To the book of Luke.
Remember a number of years ago, before I was married, I took a boat trip with a number of young men.
We rented a sailboat, seven of us. One of the brothers is here tonight.
And we went from.
Fort Lauderdale, FL.
And our destination was the Bahamas.
As we are crossing the Gulf Stream.
You know, none of us had ever been at a site of land before we rented this boat ourselves.
And.
We got into bad weather.
Wasn't very wise of us to to rent this boat. It's a little bit scary when you're in a 40 foot boat and you're going up a wave like this and then you're going down the wave like this.
It was a little bit scary.
After 24 hours, we hadn't seen land. We finally did see an island and the wind calmed down some and we got close to that island and we cast our anchor out and we thought we had a bit of reprieve. And then the storm came up again and a ***** and there was perfectly horizontal rain.
And it dragged our anchor. Thankfully the wind was blowing out the sea instead of into the island.
So instead of us being dragged into the rocks that were on the island, we were dragged out to sea. But our anchor dragged. We've just been singing a hymn. Will your anchor hold?
Will your anchor hold? It's been impressive to me, a young man asked me. You know, we all get asked this question many times, perhaps in a day. How are you? And we answer, I'm fine. Maybe you've had that question asked you many times today. Maybe you've answered that way. Young man answered, asked me that question this past week. How are you doing? And I answered this way, my anchor holds.
Do you have an anchor for your soul?
Do you have an anchor for your soul?
I want to turn to Luke's Gospel Chapter 10. We're going to re. We're going to spend most of our time in Luke's gospel tonight, Luke's Gospel Chapter 10.
We're going to read 2 little portions here.
One in Luke's Gospel, chapter 10 and verse 38.
It says an account that passes. They went, He entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. And Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Bitter therefore that she saved me.
I read this portion because it's interesting to me that this woman comes to the Lord Jesus with a question, and I'd like to ask two questions tonight. One is the same question that this woman asked. The other question I'll ask towards the end of the meeting. And this question that this woman asked, she asked of the Lord. She said, Lord, don't you care? Don't you care?
00:10:18
Does God care?
We're sitting here in this room, You know, we spoke today, today a little bit about some of the scientific things that we find.
In the Word of God, that's not my line of things, but I'll tell you tonight.
That it takes an awful lot more faith.
To believe that you and I.
Evolved from some green scum.
10 million years ago, then it's us to believe that the heavens were framed.
By the word of God.
I'm thankful to believe God. What about you tonight? And does God care? Let's turn over. I said we're gonna spend our time in Luke's Costa. Let's turn to Mark's gospel for a moment. Chapter 4.
The previous book, another little incident.
Mark's Gospel, chapter 4.
And verse 36, it says that when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and they were also with him other little ships. And there grows a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in behind their part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him, and say unto a master, We perish. You know that's not exactly what it says. It's Master Carousel not that we perish. And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the we the wind ceased.
And there was a great calm, here's the disciples of the Lord Jesus, and they're in the boat. And what is the question that they ask the Lord Jesus?
They said, Lord, don't you care? It's not that we're just going to perish. It's don't you care?
You know, perhaps this woman that we read of in Luke's gospel and also these disciples.
Perhaps they're not unique. Maybe that's a question in your mind. Does God care about me? Does God care about this world? Does God care about the details of my life?
You know, I believe we'll turn to some scriptures that show that God cares, that God does care. Let's turn now to the book of Luke and chapter 19. We're going to look at a little portion here.
Luke chapter 19 And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.
Which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich, and he sought to see Jesus, who he was.
And could not for the press because he was a little of stature and he ran before.
And climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up.
And saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house.
And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a Sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord.
Half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day his salvation come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Oh, I'm thankful for this little portion that we have in the book of Luke concerning Zacchaeus. We find that the Lord cared about Zacchaeus just as the Lord cares about you and me. And here we find that there was a desire in Zacchaeus's heart to see the Lord Jesus who he was. As we have here in verse three. He sought to see Jesus who He was. Is that a question in your mind?
As to who the Lord Jesus is.
You know, I think if you, you and I had any idea just exactly who that blessed man is and the desire he has for us and the care that he has for us.
00:15:07
It would get our attention.
You know, sometimes we go through this world and we bump into people and we've got no idea who they are. Any interesting thing happen some time ago. You know, there's a lot of ladies here and you don't shop at a place called Lee Valley Tools, but some of the men do. There's a lot of Americans here. They wouldn't know much about Lee Valley Tools, but those of us who are Canadians, that's a place that you shop for tools.
So in my place of business I needed a certain router bit and I drove the hour and 15 minutes from my house to leave alley tools and I got there at 7:00 in the morning and got up and went to the door and.
The sign said opened at 8:00. So I went back to my back to my truck. It was winter time and I thought well I'll do a little paperwork. And I left the truck running and after a few minutes there's a knock on the window and I rolled down the window. There was a man there said can I help you? I said while I was here for a a rudder bit and.
Umm, I realize you don't open it until 8:00, so, uh, I'm just gonna wait until you open. He said, oh, come on in, we'll see if we can get for you. So I followed the man in and, uh, he kind of, I showed him what I wanted and he kind of knows around a little bit. And, uh, he got the rudder bit and then he went over to the, to the cash and he was trying to figure out the cash and he's obviously not, wasn't very familiar with the situation. I thought this is very nice for this clerk to go through all this process for me. And when it was all said and done, uh, we've made the transaction. I reached into my pocket and I pulled out a $20 bill and I gave it to him and I said, you know, umm, I'm really thankful for that. You did this for me. Just, uh, here's a $20 bill. And he looked at me, he said, umm.
My name is Norman Lee.
Uh, I probably don't need your $20 bill.
You know, I have no idea in whose presence I was the owner of this corporation who's got stores all the way across Canada.
Zacchaeus Here he sought to see Jesus, who he was.
No, this one, there's a reason why Zacchaeus wanted to see who this man was. There's a reason it says here in verse two, it says, behold, there was a man of Zacchaeus, which is the chief among the publicans and he was rich. And I'm going to tell you why I think I believe that he wanted to see Jesus because if we were to go back in Luke's Gospel.
Actually, let's do it.
Let's turn back in Luke's Gospel to umm.
Might have to get someone to help me here. Looking for the portion that takes up where, uh, Levi gives.
Gives a feast. Oh, here we are, Luke's Gospel chapter 5.
Whose Gospel chapter 5 and verse 27 it says after these things he went forth and saw a publican named Levi now.
If we were to turn to the other gospels, we would find that the other name for this man was Matthew. So this is Matthew.
The disciple and it says he saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, Follow me.
And we read here in Luke's Gospel, we don't read it in Matthew's Gospel. He doesn't say that about himself, but it says here he left all rose up and followed him. Now that's remarkable to me and I'll tell you why, because the Republicans in the Bible times, they were hated by everybody. And the reason it's interesting because every time you read Republicans in the Word of God, it's usually in connection and it's usually associated with sinners and with harlots.
That was the life of a Republican, and what they did was as a publican.
They bought a franchise from the Roman government which gave them the privilege to be able to collect the taxes of the Jews.
So here they have this, this franchise. It's interesting because that's why when the Republicans come to John the Baptist, they they said, what are we supposed to do? And John the Baptist says to him, well, make sure that you don't collect more taxes than you're supposed to because that characterized them.
So here's Matthew. He's got this.
Umm, this franchise and you know, he's hated by the Romans because they just drew and he's hated by the Jews because he's, uh, he because he collects their taxes. It's interesting, isn't it, that that's The Who the Lord uses to pen the Lord Jesus as the rejected king. Who would know that better than someone like Matthew the publican? But anyway, here we find that.
00:20:11
The Lord Jesus says to this man, follow me. And it says He left all, and he rose up and followed him.
Now what that means was he dropped that franchise that he had like a hot potato and he went and followed the Lord Jesus.
And I believe it didn't make any sense to Zacchaeus, who was the chief among the the Republicans, how one of his under publicans would take this franchise with all this money that's to be made and drop it and go and follow this man, Jesus.
You know when Zacchaeus heard that, he says I've got to see who this man is and so on our portion it says here he sought to see Jesus, who he was in verse three and he could not for the press because he was little of stature.
So here's this man and he comes and it says, and when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he saw him. You know, I've looked at that portion and I believe tonight we have a similar scenario. You're here in this room.
You're not here by accident. We think everything happens by chance. You've been invited into this room.
I have the sincere responsibility to portray as the most piece of God. I don't say that arrogantly. It's very humbling to take this precious book and to present the gospel of the grace of God tonight to you sitting there in your chair and you've been invited here.
And here we are and you're hearing these words just like Zacchaeus, he sought to see the Lord Jesus. In verse five it says when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he saw him. And he said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down.
You know if any one of us is going to come to the Lord Jesus.
We have to come down. We have to recognize ourselves as a lost, guilty Sinner before God. That's not easy for us. That is not easy for us. If you've.
Received this invitation, the first verse that is that caught my eye here as I read this. This invitation is for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then it goes on to say and says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What a marvelous message to me who is a Sinner. And then it says Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life.
What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And then it goes on, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life. What a message we have here. But what a plight for us to realize that we have at some time to face God.
As I said, 150,000 people a day.
Leave this world.
You're going to face God someday. Does God care? Does he care? Are you ready to meet God? How can we get ready to meet? Get ourselves ready to meet God? There's something I can do.
So that I can meet God so they accept me. You know, we have this concept that when we get to heaven, there's gonna be a scale and there's gonna be our good point put in the scale and there's gonna be our bad points put in the scale and, and they're gonna be weighed. And if our good points outweigh the the bad points.
We're gonna be in good shape, and if it's the other way around, uh, we're not gonna be in good shape at all. You know, 'cause the justice system in Canada.
Look at that in the courtroom.
If you lend yourself in court for doing some crime, so they look at all the good things you've done in your life and say, oh, you know that's going to cancel out this crime that you've done. No, it's not different with God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, you and me.
Every one of us has sinned.
We have all come short.
What do we do?
You know there's nothing we can do. And God knew that. And so God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus. God sent his Son the Lord Jesus.
I'd like to turn a few chapters over now in Luke's Gospel and we'll see what man did to the Son of God. Luke's Gospel, chapter 23.
00:25:06
This takes place.
Some 2000 years ago verse 33 of chapter 23 and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary.
There they crucified him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
That's something taking the Son of God and crucifying him.
How would you like to be one of those soldiers that drove those nails into the hands of the Lord Jesus at the time that he died and he stood before God?
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they parted his raiment and cast lots.
And the people should be holding and the rulers also with him derided him, saying he saved others.
Let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him the vinegar, and saying.
If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew.
This is the King of the Jews, and one of the malefactors which were hang railed on in saying, If thou be Christ saved thyself.
Enough. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God?
Seeing ours in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Fairly I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise?
And it was about the 6th hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in.
The myth, you know, we've read through that portion quickly, but what transpires here, you know?
It's not something we see done today.
Back then, when you saw someone carrying a cross, they weren't making preparation for the next day. It was the Roman form of execution. It was a horrible form of death. And this was what this world allotted to the Lord Jesus, my precious Savior. Think of God sending his Son down here.
So that he could save us and being treated in this way.
You know, if we were to turn to the Psalms, we would find some of the thoughts that went through the Lord Jesus.
As he was here at Calvary, you know, just prior to this, we find that that UMM pilot took the Lord Jesus and scourged him.
He took a Roman scourge and he whipped them.
No, we re read the thoughts of the Lord Jesus in the Psalms as he was scourged and we hear.
Him saying, the flowers they plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows.
You know, we see that cross being put on the ground, and Lord Jesus laid on that cross.
And they took those nails, and they drove it into his hands and into his feet. And we hear the Lord's thoughts in the songs, as he says, They pierced my hands and my feet.
And think, think of them taking that cross and raising it up with the Lord Jesus on it. And there's a hole there, and I drag it over to the hole and they drop it into the hole.
And we hear the Lord Jesus saying, oh, my bones are out of joint.
What a horrible death. But you know, friend.
They were things that were physical sufferings.
But those physical sufferings did nothing for atoning, for my sins, and for your sins.
That was done.
As we read here.
It was about the 6th hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour, and the sun was darkened and the veil rent into the midst. You know, if we were to turn to Mark's Gospel, and we were to turn to Matthew's gospel as the sun was blotted out.
It's withheld from us. It was withheld from anyone.
For being able to see what was done, what we can hear. And it's there we hear the Lord Jesus saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, dear friend? Tonight the Lord Jesus was forsaken of God so that you and I would never be forsaken. I'd like to turn to the Psalms for a moment. Psalm 22.
00:30:09
The 22nd Psalm.
Because here, as I mentioned before, we have some of the thoughts of the Lord Jesus in the Psalms. Here's another one. In Psalm 22, we read these words. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Now, dear friend.
I'm next going to read a quotation from the word of God that we hear more every day than any other quotation.
From the Word of God that we ever read, and it's this. Notice verse 2.
Oh my God.
You've probably heard it a million times.
Maybe some here have even flippantly used those words. Oh my God, how often do we hear that? How often do we hear that? And to me, it's such an incredible thing to look at this verse that is quoted so much.
Its representative of such a solemn time in the history of this world as the Lord Jesus was indeed forsaken of God as God.
Took my sins and laid them on the Lord Jesus and yours, if you'll believe on him, so that I can be free of my sin totally forevermore and spend eternity with the Lord Jesus.
What about the burden of your sins?
Isn't this an incredible quotation that we hear so often? Oh my God.
Friend tonight.
I said at the beginning I was gonna ask 2 questions.
The first one.
We heard the disciples asked the question. We heard Martha asked the question. Lord, don't you care? Don't you care?
Now my question is, dear friend, do you care?
Do you care?
Do I care?
Do you care? It's very evident that the Lord Jesus cares after all he has done to see him lay down his life through to turn to gossip. John's gospel after the Lord Jesus bowed his head in death and we had it this afternoon. That soldier, he takes that spear and he plunges it into the side of the Lord Jesus. And we read forthwith came there out blood and water and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Do you care?
You know, I'm thankful.
I'm thankful to stand here. As I said, happy man.
Because I realize the Lord Jesus cares for me.
And I came to that point where I realized in my life I needed to care too. And you know, here in this portion in Luke's gospel.
We read concerning Zacchaeus. We could turn back there for a moment.
In Luke's Gospel chapter 19.
It says about Zacchaeus in the sixth verse when the Lord Jesus said come down and says he made haste and he came down, he received them joyfully.
And in verse eight it says in Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold Lord.
You know, that's a marvelous part of the gospel where we read in the book of Romans, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved, Zacchaeus. Here he owned Jesus as Lord. And then we find in verse nine it says Jesus said unto him, this day is salvation, come to this house. For as much as he is the son of Abraham, I thought that's an interesting thing for him to say that why would he say the son of Abraham?
You know I'm going to take my place here.
I trust humbly, not arrogantly, beside Abraham.
Because we read about Abraham, it says he believed God.
For a return to Daniel.
And do the same thing. Take my place beside Daniel humbly, not arrogantly.
00:35:08
But Daniel said I believe God.
Turn to Act 27.
Acts 27.
I'm gonna take my place beside the Apostle Paul, as many here in this room have.
Acts 27 and verse 25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God. Do you believe God tonight?
As I mentioned earlier, you're going to pass from this life into eternity.
Where are you going to go and on what do you face it?
If you don't base it on what we've had before us.
Tonight, on the Word of God, there is no hope for you.
There's nothing else to base it on. The only thing else for you to base it on is your own thoughts or the thoughts of man. I'm thankful to stand here and say I believe God. God has made the provision for me and I've accepted it. My sins are gone.
Can you say that tonight? No, God wants you to be able to say that. You can have full assurance tonight that you're on your road to heaven itself to be with the Lord Jesus. Why? Because of anything you've done? No, simply by believing God as he was the son of Abraham here. He believed God. Zacchaeus believed God.
So many we read in the word that believe God. Think of rehab in the Old Testament and how she could say that same thing. I believe God.
Think of the woman at the well.
What does she believe? She believed God tonight. What do you believe?
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Just think, friend, he walked in those doors this evening. Perhaps no knowledge of the Lord Jesus. And here a full and free salvation is being offered to you, not by me, but by God Himself. And all you have to do is receive it. All you have to do is to recognize that you need a Savior.
Recognize your loss and in your sins, and recognize that the price has been paid already.
And just accept it all. We trust there's someone here tonight in your loss. That tonight you would be saved. Let's pray.
A Dirty Diaper Is Nobody's Friend
Children—Bry'n Ross
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.
Good morning.
All right, everybody's awake, I trust, and had a good sleep.
Yes, OK. Just wanna make sure that we got people out there to sing. Perhaps we could open to the, uh, look at the last page on our sheet here.
And uh.
Start with umm.
Number 42, A little child of seven, or even three or four. How many are 7 here?
How many are 70?
OK. So we got a good range here. That's good. We can appreciate that.
A little child.
There is a little 195601.
Oh, OK, so traveling, we're available right now. That's the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
What a wonderful thought that the Lord reaches out in His great love not to ones who are.
Have great understanding of things, but he makes his message so clear that even the smallest child be able to understand it.
Seven or three or four or maybe even 2.
It's a wonderful message of God's love that he has for us, and hopefully we'll hear a little bit more about that as the day goes through. So perhaps we could also sing number, uh.
43 The next one down.
One door and only one.
1900 and $1000 and all the same. One thing that I think is why I am going to go ahead and call you make it in all right and I'll call you back. Bye bye. How are you doing?
That's a song that asks a question on which side are you? And that's the most important question that I could ever ask you or anybody else, or that you could ask anyone on which side of the door are you? Do you know your sins forgiven by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? There's many ways to phrase that question. One of the brothers that I know always ask someone, if you were to die tonight, where would you go? Are you sure?
That you would be in heaven with the Lord Jesus and many people have to answer sadly.
I'm not sure. And that opens the door to preach them the gospel of God's love and grace to them. And it's a wonderful thing to be able to do. And we have many in this room that have had the great privilege of speaking the the Lord's love to others and watching the Lord work in their lives and have them receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior. And I trust that each one of you little ones have come to that point. And if not, perhaps very soon, because we don't know when the Lord will come, that your lives will be changed by the marvelous grace of a God who loves us.
And cares for us.
OK, how about?
Does anyone have a favorite of all the ones that are left here? Yes.
#30 Oh, OK.
All right #30.
Weeping Will.
Experience.
But it was not lost by the mirror wishing him well, not very confused.
00:05:21
Oh yeah, fine. Thank you. And.
A lot of work, my soul. And you were getting well, not very, very, very, very.
Quiet and die for me.
355753.
253.
And I love to come back and see.
When you say, well, I'm not very many around, like you know anything about my life here in my hair and probably.
It's not like it's $102,000.
We can't really, not very inconvenience.
They extended pride. Well, they had made a million for God's family and goddamnit standing plants right now where I can see any eyes on.
Little bit of oil and body now I'm trying to take around and they they crying. Well they have a heavy headache and they continue and even if it's not my last time I'm going to be in the middle of the cloud for a minute and so on and 335.
It tells us all these things that we can do.
But yet not one of them can save us.
No one can save himself by doing anything.
And God, in his marvelous grace, has provided salvation once again through the work that Jesus did for us.
And what a comfort it is once you come to know him as Savior, to realize what a work He has done, what a marvelous, marvelous work He has done on our behalf.
And how grateful we should be for that, because there is really nothing that we could do to please God.
In any way?
Anyone else have another one? Yes Sir.
14.
Give it a try. Have you been to?
Water on the ground from the bumble bee and rustic hands and his grave and her eyes didn't allow us and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
In January, by the standard of the sun, I knew was in front of us.
It was a little crowded. It is no one's been left brilliant than any.
Wise thing of love and all of the land.
00:10:16
No, hard to do while and not on the line.
A ride and grown comet will be a rumble of being in life, no rest life and blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Red Oak Hill, Columbia Rd.
I don't think it was getting done.
Why are you?
Not so crazy by all the time.
Oh yeah, yeah. And then, uh, let's call it a lot of these thousand. No, I think it's a lot in front of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, as I stand here and I watch all the young people come in, it's a it's amazing to see the looks on their faces when they see their friends. Do you ever notice that? They come in and they look for a place to see now there's so and so and there's so and so. They get so excited about beside each other and just reminds me of the time that we're gonna have in heaven. What a wonderful time that's gonna be, isn't it, brothers and sisters, to be able to.
See those that have gone before us and to be united with them in the presence of the Lord who loved us so much that went on before us to make a place for us in heaven. And what a joyous time we'll have there, singing and praising Him for his goodness and grace to us.
They make another one, yes.
32.
Alright.
#32.
What can?
You.
Call.
And thus long as far as I'm going to fall off and I'm going to give you crying and no, no, no.
Now it's not.
Oh crap, John's against all the problem now. I can't hear you I thou snow.
Oh God, there comes by. Ignore nothing, not the world being held.
Another thing and more things are called nothing but the bottom of Jesus. Come on girl, that's not gone now. Nothing like the law in his heart. Woah O grass Joyce and fumble and drink me while I'm.
Alone.
Nsnoise.
00:15:25
What a wonderful thought. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Thank you for your singing.
Now we're going to do a little exercising. Everyone could stand up. We'll sing a song that we all know.
Because you said you were awake. So now we're gonna test you and see if you're awake. All right? We're gonna sing a song that says why. Why does the ocean? You know that song? Everybody know that one? Are you ready? Get your arms limbered up. Get ready to roll.
I am not having trouble.
Dealing with her feeling from being.
Uh.
Last year.
All right, and my sister may die and properly just ignore it.
Thank you, I hope nobody got damaged during that performance.
Before we listen to the message, let's look to the Lord in a word of prayer.
Many times as we walk along the streets or especially in parks and things like that, and many parents have felt this feeling.
And perhaps you as young people have felt the feeling of having your parents, probably your dad, lift you up and put you on your shoulders, put you on your shoulders and walk around. It's a marvelous feeling to be able to be so high and seeing you feel so big and strong. And you look around and you see bigger and better views of what you could ever see if you were down here where your normal height is, right? You ever had that experience, some of you?
And all of a sudden you imagine your father is walking along, and then he goes.
What's that smell?
What's the smell? It doesn't smell too good. And all of a sudden he lifts you off his shoulders and he goes, oh.
It's you. You are smelly and I don't want to have anything to do with you right now.
We've all been there, haven't we? Even from the oldest of us realize what it's like.
To be wearing one of these.
And to have dirtied in it. A dirty diaper is nobody's friend. Nobody wants you when you have a dirty diaper, do they? No. Although they love you and they care for you. But it seems that they want to hold you out in an arm's length and say, do something with this, this smells and I don't want it. So they quickly take you out to the garden, turn on the garden hose and hose you down.
Is that what they do? No, no, they don't. Do they usually they go, OK, I won't do the job. And they put you on a picnic table sometimes and they unwrap you and clean you up nice and, and then they put a nice clean diaper on. And that's a wonderful thing to have a nice clean, fresh diaper on. And I say each one of us from the oldest to the youngest have been in that experience where we've put our parents through that, having a dirty, soiled, smelly diaper.
And the reason I say that is, you know what the thought of that.
Carries through in the sense that if you think of a dirty, smelly diaper.
As a picture of sin.
Nobody wants it, but we all have it in us. We all have the capacity to do it. And especially think of God the Father who loves us and cares for us so much.
Who cannot have anything to do with us if we have sin in US.
And like the scripture says, all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Which is what the word of God says. But we all know that all of us have had dirty diapers too. And if we think about it, like I say, 30 diapers are a picture of sin. But yet thankfully we have loving parents that clean us and care for us. But then our diapers get dirty again and they have to do the same thing over and over until we grow up out of diapers.
00:20:03
And that's fine as far as diapers go, but what about sin in our lives? How do we deal with that? You know, the Lord wants to hold us and keep us close. And there's some scripture verses I want to share with you that will tell us that. But first, He has to deal with the sin in our lives. And I think we sang many scripted, many verses about what that is. How does he deal with sin in our lives?
How does he clean this up?
Do we know? Yes.
By the blood of Jesus. That's right, we sang couple songs. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from our sins.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, had to come down and die.
And take the sins, the wrath of God's hatred against sin.
And he had to put himself in our place and take what was right for yours, because you know what the Scripture says? The scripture says that the wages of sin is death. What we deserve is death because we sin.
Because we're sinners, but yet the Lord Jesus loves us so much.
That he took upon that price of sin for you and for me.
And there's nothing we can do. Have how many of you changed your own diaper recently?
No, we can't do that. So that's why somebody had to do this for us. So the Lord Jesus took it upon himself. Now the Lord like I say.
There's a little story in the book of Luke. Luke chapter 15.
That I want to read.
It tells of the Lord Jesus and how he tells a parable of a shepherd, you know.
The Lord Jesus appears in Scripture many ways as a shepherd, because a shepherd is one who is kind, who is tender, who is a care for the flock that is in his charge. And the beauty of it is that the Scripture also tells us that we're like sheep.
Anybody ever farm sheep here?
Yep, sheep are dumb, aren't they? Yeah, they're very mild and meek animals, but they're very dumb. They need to be guided, they need to be shepherd, they need to be fed. They need to be looked after. They need to be. They're very needy. Very needy animals.
And that expresses what we are too, right? We're very needy.
The moment you're born, you need your parents to look after you until you're so old and then you have to get a job and all the things we're needy, we need things, we're like sheep. But most of all we need the love and guidance and care of a father who loves us. And he sent his son to be your shepherd. So in Luke chapter 15 it says this and verse three, and he spake this parable unto them, saying, what man of you having 100 sheep? If you lose one of them does not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost.
Until he find it, And when he had found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, and saith, And then rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven.
Over 1 Sinner that repenteth more than over 90 and nine just persons which need number repentance. You know the Lord loves to carry us on his shoulders.
And when we receive them as our Savior, He loves to put us in that place where He can carry us.
So we don't really have to carry ourselves because we're very weak and we need help. And so he loves to rejoice and put us on his shoulders and carry us in a place of strength. And for, like I say, when we're in the natural sense, we can see further because we're on our Father's shoulders as we walk through the woods. And the same with the Lord Jesus. He wants to lift us up, even us older ones. Sometimes we, we don't think of ourselves as sheep, I suppose, or as lambs even. But the Lord loves to put us all on his shoulders and hold us up in a place where we're lifted higher than we could lift ourselves and we could see things in a deeper, richer meaning and the way.
And he can walk with us, and as he walks with us, we walk in the way that he wants us to go.
And we're attached to him because he's holding us with his ever loving arms. And you know, sometimes a shepherd, what a shepherd will do in the case of a sheep that strays is sometimes, and it sounds very nasty, but sometimes a shepherd will actually break one of the legs of the sheep.
To keep it from wandering. Because some sheep just want to wander. They don't care to be.
With the shepherd, but they don't know that that's not that's the only way that there is to live. Because sheep are dumb and they get it in their mind that no, I want to be out there. I want to go out into the world. And we think as Christians, how many of us know brothers and sisters in Christ who have that thought in their heart and mind and say, I wanna see what's out there. I'm not satisfied with just knowing the Lord is my savior. There's a whole world that awaits me out there and I want part of it, something in me driving me to go and enjoy the world.
00:25:28
And yet we see what happens to their lives. Some live very miserable lives.
And the Lord constantly is calling them back to himself, and sometimes like the picture of this little lamb.
He has to break their legs to bring them close to himself because it's just like having a dog on a leash.
He wants him close to him so he can not only control him, but give him the kindness and love that he deserves.
But to keep them in a place where he's safe and secure. And that's what the Lord wants for you and for me, a place of safety and security. And he loves us so much that in order to give us that place, he had to die and free us from our sins, that we would in turn love him and care for him. You know the other time it mentions the shepherds in in the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 40.
One of the things that astounds me and, and has for a while is the fact that when I asked if anybody had any dealings with sheep, it is really, uh, interesting. Perhaps the older people will appreciate this a bit more, how there's a, a real lack of knowledge of farming and even fishing in people nowadays. Umm, when I was younger and perhaps many were younger, that's where you got your food was from the farm and farms are a little bit closer to the town and the, and you had markets and you'd buy fresh food.
And there was nothing to see cows and, and, and butcher shops where meat was hung up and, and the cuts were made right there or fishing villages where you go in and buy fish from the fisherman right off the Wharf. But nowadays we have super stores and Kmart and Walmart and you just go and buy things and it's all there for you, packaged and pretty. And because of that, we, I think we've lost a lot of the, the things that we find in scripture. The Lord often used very simple illustrations from what he saw around them, like fishermen and.
And umm, shepherds and things like that. And I think we lose an awful lot of that. And it, uh, in some ways I think it's a tool of Satan to remove us from these things so we don't grasp the, the truth of what God has for us. But anyway, and Isaiah chapter 40, it says he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.
A shepherd really is very concerned with this flock, especially with the young ones, the lambs. In fact, in the story of Jacob and Esau, one of the things that, uh, Jacob tells his brother, when Esau says, welcome with me and we'll go to my place. And Jacob says to his brother, no, we'll have to leave the lambs and the, and the children very gently because they're very young and we don't want to overtire them. We don't want to overburden them. So they, he used that mainly as a deception, but there's a truth to that.
We can walk sometimes. I, one of my sons were younger, we would walk with them and, and sometimes I'd get walking and, and I'd be almost dragging them because their little feet couldn't keep up with me.
And that's not the way to guide and direct. That's not what a shepherd would do. A shepherd usually walks before his sheep and he calls them by his name. It tells us in the Gospel of John.
And you can see how wonderful that is, that the Shepherd would call you, and how you could walk with him, and he would direct you and guide you, and that you would walk in in the way. And he loves you and cares for you so much that he gave his life. And he shall gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom.
Isn't it nice to know as young people when you were younger that your parents would carry you?
I remember many times walking, rocking my children to sleep in a certain manner because they would uh.
They were kind of fidgety sometimes and and.
Sometimes it was a burden to my my wife because I was would go away on a course and the and the children expected a certain way of me rocking them and going to sleep and they wouldn't go to sleep properly sometimes. So it became a bit of a burden. But in that way, many of us probably have experienced that, that with our children, there's a certain way to rock them to sleep. There's a certain comfort that they find of being in the arms of their parents.
Is that right? Is that good? You like that? Be held and hugged and held, held close and that way you can hear what your mom or dad has to say to you. And sometimes it's a nice, quiet, peaceful time, isn't it? Maybe before you actually go to bed. They hold you nice and close and they say how was your day? Your day was good and it was fine. And they talk about things and plans and dreams. Well, that's what the Lord wants to do to us. He wants to carry us close to His bosom.
00:30:19
And hold us close so we can hear what He has on his heart for us to do. And we can talk to him like a friend in love and in care, so he gathers them in his.
Arms. The other thing he does, it tells us in a little bit further in the book, chapter 49.
And it should give us great comfort in the read of this verse. In a sense, it's a sad verse.
But it should give us some comfort. In Isaiah 49 it says this, Behold, I have grave in thee upon the palms.
Of my hands.
Thy walls are continually before me. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.
And I often think of this in the sense of how the Lord Jesus died on the cross of Calvary.
And you know the names of each one of us. You know the wonder of God's love.
Is that it tells us in the book of Jeremiah. It says, I have loved thee with an everlasting.
Love and though each one of you may be, however old you may be.
Do you know that before you were born, the Lord knew you? Before you were born, the Lord had already laid out a plan for your life.
Did you know that before your parents were born? He knew them. Before their parents were born, he knew them.
And the Lord Jesus died to save each and everyone of you, and each and everyone of them.
He died on that cross of Calvary, knowing you and your sins.
And he died to pay for the price for those sins.
So wonderful thought that nothing escapes the heart and mind of God.
In our lives and we can never ever hide anything from God.
It's like that old smelly diaper.
You can't hide that smelly diaper.
We can't hide our sins from God. We might be able to avoid them for a short time, but God sees and hears everything.
And before the eyes of man, we might be able to sin and do things, we might be angry with our brothers and sisters, we might want something that perhaps we shouldn't have, right? Those things are sins. And even from the youngest of us to the oldest, we all suffer from them. But yet maybe we don't know that their sins, or don't call them sins because we hide them or guide in some way. But yet the Lord knows them all. But because of that, He's graven us upon the palm of his hand.
And his feet were pierced by nails. Cruel nails held our Lord to the cross of Calvary, but it was his love that actually held him there. Man nailed him to the cross.
But it was his love that nailed him, that kept him there. Because he loved you and he loved me.
There's another scripture verse.
That I want to think of, and it's Psalm 40.
Psalm 40, and it's a wonderful thing to know.
As I mentioned, the Lord's love.
He knew us before we were born.
And he loved us in such a marvelous way.
But in Psalm 40.
Verse uh five it says this.
Many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts.
Which are to us word. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. And in verse 17 it says but I am poor and needy.
Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Imagine from the youngest one here to the oldest, that the very God of glory, the one that created all the universe.
And maintains it, looks after it, controls it, that God thinks upon you.
And you and you. And you.
He thinks about us. He thinks about us. Can you imagine as we run around on this earth amongst so many billions of people, God looks down and says, I see him and I see her. And I'm interested in what they say and what they do so much. And my love is so great for them that I sent my son to die for their sins so that they could come and be with me. They could be cleansed from all their sins and they could be.
00:35:17
With me and spend time with me.
Isn't that a wonderful thought, to think that God himself?
Thinks of us as a parent. I had to think of my children, and I still do, and most parents here.
I trust think of their children and their welfare and they look after them as best as they can, as the Lord provides for them. So you have to think that the God of glory, the One who created and sustains the entire universe, has a heart and a mind towards us in such a way that he thinks about us that we're on his thoughts.
Isn't that a wonderful thing? How many of you have friends and all of a sudden you say, Oh, I'm thinking of my friend. Maybe I'll write them a letter. Or nowadays I guess maybe I'll text them or Facebook or whatever it is. But in in the old days it was write them a letter. I'll just write them a letter because I think of them and you'd write them a nice letter. Say, dear friend, how are you? I, I was thinking of you and hope all is well and all these things. Well, God has done the same for you and I in this book. He's written us a letter, a love letter from his heart to us.
And it's a wonderful love letter that I would encourage you to read constantly and learn more and more about that one.
Who loved us and gave himself for us, the Lord Jesus his Son.
God loved us and cared for us ever so much.
But sin gets in the way, the sin in our lives. He cannot have sin in his presence because he's a holy God.
So he sent his son to pay the price for our sins.
So I trust that this is a little message. It might not have been the clearest that you've ever heard, but the message I think, was even clearer perhaps in the songs that we sang that there's nothing but the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from our sins. But there's two things I want to do before I close. One is for the children.
And one is for the adults, for the children. I want you to remember three things.
And it's in light of the UMM, the meeting, the next meeting that we have is going to be a, a wonderful meeting, a privilege that we have to remember the Lord Jesus in his death, that death that bought us and brought us back to God, where he shed his blood on Calvary and paid the price for our sins. That we could actually meet like we do and have fellowship one with another as we've been reading in our, in our reading meetings. And that is 3 actions. I want you to remember these three actions based on what I just spoke of. Are you ready?
The first action is hold your nose.
Hold your arm out and say PUPM, that stands for our sins. Our sins think. Now the other thing I want you to do is go like this.
I've been cleansed.
Can you say that I've been cleansed? And the last one is this? Give yourself a big hug and say I've been loved.
Right, that's the story of God's grace PU that's our sins. Christ died on nothing but the blood of Jesus and we are loved by a God who thinks about us constantly. All right now for the adults. It's been my privilege in many ways to umm have written many songs and one of the ones I'd like to share with you today in light of the message coming up and I'll I'll tell you what, though it's very simple. It says.
All I am, you have made me. All I am, all I was. You forgave me all I was by the blood of your son. It is finished. It is done now, just like him.
I will be just like him. Now if you could repeat that with me once or twice and then I'll share the tune with you and we can sing it a couple times and we'll end in prayer, OK? All I am you. You have made me all I am. All I was. You forgave me all I was by the blood of your son. It is finished. It is done now, just like him.
I will be.
Just like him, OK. And the song goes like this.
All I am, you have made me all I am.
All I was, you forgave me, all I was.
00:40:02
By the blood of your son, it is finished. It is done now, just like him.
I will be just like him.
All I am, you have made me all I am.
All I was, you forgave me, all I was.
By the blood of your son, it is finished. It is done now. Just like him. I will be just like him one more time.
All I am, you have made me all I am.
All I was, you forgave me, all I was.
By the blood of your son. It is finished. It is done now. Just like him. I will be just like him.
Our Father and our God, we do indeed give Thee thanks for that marvelous privilege. How we fail to understand and comprehend the measure of Your marvelous love and grace to us in providing Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that willing sacrifice who died as a substitute for our sins. Father, when we look around, all we see is the evil and wickedness of this world, and we thank Thee that Thou has given us protection and care and a heart that thinks of us.
Constantly to guide us, to direct us, to hold us close when we need the comfort.
And peace to put us on the shoulders of One who loves us and cares for us and carries us above the filth of this world. We thank you especially for that marvelous love and grace provided such a depth of mercy to provide for our sins. To be so we would be able to once again to be like Him. It astounds us, Father, that that would be. It would be enough to be saved from our sins. But to be like Him, to have an inheritance in heaven and all those other blessings that we receive is just beyond us.
We thank you once again for this time, thanking you especially for the upcoming meeting. If the Lord doesn't come, we just pray.
For a true spirit of Thanksgiving for what He has done in each and every heart here from the youngest of the oldest. We just trust this message may have touched the heart of the young and also the old. And just ask Thy blessing to continue upon us.
As we continue on our journey, pray that the Lord would be our guide in all things and thanking thee for thy Spirit to give us wisdom and guidance to continue on. Also in Jesus name, Amen.
Enjoy the Eternal Life That Is Now Have
1 John 2
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Umm.
And you're really well. And with my fault, there's a name for everyone.
Again, I'm hard. We're just gonna go.
I crawled and made them sleep.
On the shedding glory to grace.
Room 3 1000 drive by. Crying out loud. Ah.
During the past has been.
The ringing well.
By for every need, and that's prosperity.
God, don't worry.
Though, uh, whatever.
Right, shall we go on this Chapter 2?
Yes.
First John, chapter 2.
My little children, these things right unto you, that you sin not if any man sin. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep his commandments. He would say, if I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. The truth is not in him, but whoso keepeth his word, and him verily is the love of God perfected.
Here by know we that we are in Him, He abideth in Him. Ought himself also to walk, even as He walked, rather than I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which He had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word which he have heard from the beginning, and again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother is in darkness. Even till now he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hated his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth because of darkness.
Has blinded his eyes.
I read unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him, that is, from the beginning. I run unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked round one. And I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I've written unto you, fathers, because you have known Him, that is from the beginning. I've written unto you, young men, because you're strong, and the word of God abideth in you.
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And you have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the loss thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Little children, it is the last time. And you have heard that the Antichrist shall come.
Even now are there many antichrists, whereby we know that this is the last time they went out from us, but they were not of us, For if they had been of us, they would have no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest, that they were not of us. But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. I've written unto you, because you know not. I've not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lies of the truth.
Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also.
Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning, that if that which he have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the sun. And.
In the Father. And this is the promise that He had promised us, even eternal life. These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduced you. But the anointing which He had received of Him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is in truth, and is truth, and is no lie. And even as as it has taught you, ye shall abide in Him. Now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming, for you know.
That he is righteous, For if he know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.
It's helpful to see in this chapter.
In, uh, Mr. Darby's translation.
Verse one when it says my little children.
He puts it my children.
In verse 12 I read unto you children. In verse 28 and now children.
And the words we have used as children in verse 13 and then again in verse 18 is a different word in the Greek. It's so the ones in verse one and verse 12 and verse 28 include the whole family of God.
In verse 13 when it says little children and in verse 18 it's talking about those who.
Our newest in the family of God and it's a question of growth. So you have in verses 13, uh, in that center section, fathers, young men and children. It's different measures of growth in the family of God. I just wanted to point out that verse one, verse 12 and verse 28 is children. It's a different word and it includes those 3 verses the whole.
Family of God, I think it's helpful to see that.
Deuteronomy 22.
Connection with that verse that says, If any man's sin, we have not located the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and in Deuteronomy 22 Thou shall not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt in any case bring them.
Again unto thy brother. And I would just like to extend that thought to how the Lord in his advocacy. I'm not sure if that's pronounced properly, but.
I mean you would use also.
Others believer other believers to, uh, carry out what we have in tightness 22nd chapter to be concerned one for another. That wouldn't be one of the ways the Lord who is our advocate would uh.
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Bring us back.
There is no excuse for sin in the life of a believer, is there?
It's the result of giving the flesh a place.
And responding to it when it should be kept in a place of death. But we sent. That's the reality of the matter. And when we do sin, we have an advocate. And that's the word. It's the same word that's used in John's Gospel chapter 141516 as the comforter. Same word. It's the one who represents us.
Before God. You know in Revelation chapter 12 it says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. We sin and he flies into the presence of God to accuse us.
And if it were not for the presence of the Lord Jesus there.
Who knows what would happen, but there is one there, God's right hand whose hands were pierced, and he's interceding for us. He intercedes in two ways as our great High Priest to help us in our infirmities and weaknesses.
So that we would not sin. But when we do sin, then he intercedes as our advocate to restore us to communion. And so the Lord Jesus basically says Satan accuses us, and perhaps what Satan accuses us of is true. The Lord Jesus says, I'll take his case.
And I died for him and I'll work with him. So it's interesting what it says here. Jesus Christ the righteous doesn't say the merciful, the righteous.
And I think the reason why it says that is because of what we have in verse two. He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
Propitiation is not part of the work of Christ, that is towards God.
And in the work of Christ, he is so satisfied God's holy character that God is not compromised in his character when he comes to deal with us in view of the fact that we may have sinned, He's not compromised. Why? Because the one that's interceding our cause is the propitiation for the whole question of sins.
That's wonderful, brethren, to realize his presence there.
Resale Should we get discouraged? We need to be humbled and not discouraged. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Be good to consider that.
That first verse says, my children, I write unto you these things that ye sin not because he has been speaking about the fact that we have sin in US and that we need to confess our sins. So this is something that happens to believers that they sin, but it should be considered an uncommon thing. So it doesn't say when we sin as if that is the regular thing, but if we sin, so there's provision on God's part for us to never sin. We read that yesterday in the he that is born of God cannot sin. That's the life that we have a life that can go on without sin.
And as everyone of us need to confess, we we, we don't go on without sin, but so if we sin, but these things are written that we might not sin. And so let's.
Uh, deal with that too, that provision of the Lord for us to go on for him without grieving his Spirit. And if it happens and we know it happens, there's that provision, but let's not.
Stop looking at that provision that's available for us to go on and on and out says, well, it's a common thing. No, it's an uncommon thing. It's an unnatural thing for a believer to sin.
On the great Day of Atonement, 2 goats were taken.
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And the first goat was killed, and his blood was taken into the holiest of all and sprinkled on the mercy seat.
That's propitiation, those two cherubims that look down at that golden plate. The mercy seat saw blood sprinkled there.
God's holy character was satisfied with the blood that the Lord Jesus shed. That's towards God.
Then the high priest came out, and he.
Took the other goat, which is called the scapegoat, and put his hands.
On the head of that goat, and confess the sins of the people. And that goat was let out into the wilderness and let go.
That's the Lord Jesus as our substitute and I think it is shows the beautiful and and perfection of the work of Christ. Brethren, He is the propitiation for our sins towards God. He is our substitute to take away our sins and sometimes we're not clear in how we express the truth of God.
Never says in Scripture Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
Connection with substitution.
If that were the case, God would not be righteous in putting the Sinner into hell if he died for the sins of the whole world. How could he do that if the Lord Jesus has already paid for him? But it says he died for the sins of many, for those who would trust in the Lord Jesus, And God knew who they were, and those he died for them as a substitute. But here we have the propitiation sometimes given an illustration.
What would you think of a judge who every time a criminal was brought before him, said?
We're going to just forgive you.
What was your crime? Murder. We'll just forgive you. What would you think of that judge Say that's not a good judge. Why not?
He doesn't respect the law and its consequences.
And that's why it's so important, this question of propitiation. This is the part of the work of Christ that is towards God. God's holy character has been vindicated, fully vindicated, so much so that God is not compromised in his character when he comes out.
To forgive the guilty Sinner. Like it's so beautiful to see the perfection of the work of Christ. In that way, brother, Lord Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.
He also is our substitute. Just give you a verse for that in Hebrews Chapter 9.
Verse 28.
So Christ was once offered to bear.
The sins of many doesn't say at all.
Of many to them that looked for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.
I trust that's clear. I think it is helpful for young people to see the difference between the Lord Jesus as our propitiation. The Lord Jesus is our substitute.
Maybe others could help on that too.
Romans chapter 3, verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation.
Delete that word. There can be also translated mercy themes.
Through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
So God can be just in connection with our sins as a result of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus and that connects closely with first John chapter one when we had yesterday in verse 8-9.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just just and forgiveness our sins and cleanse us from all our history. The reason that God can be just in forgiving our sins is because of the shed bloods of obesity work of the Lord Jesus on the top.
You have it in Romans 3 also I believe in.
Verse.
22.
The righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all.
And upon all them that.
Unto all, for the whole world.
The the cover of the ark is, is, uh, in French, it's a propitiatory same. That's the word really. It's called mercy seat in English, but that's what it is. It's a covering. So here's the Lord Jesus. He's a covering or our sins and not for the sins of the whole world, for the whole world. It's available. It's unto the whole world.
But it's only efficacious for those that believe, and so the value of it is applied to those that believe. But it's available for all. And I believe it's part of what ha God has as his motive for patience towards this world is that he has a sacrifice that has satisfied him and He has a provision for this whole world and he can afford to wait as he strives with the spirit of men to bring them into blessing.
Because he has a propitiation for the whole world, the Lord Jesus himself.
So we can say to the whole world you can be saved. The bloods on the altar, there's a way to come and there's no excuse for anyone. Nobody will be able to say in that day I was one of the elect, I couldn't be saved. Nobody because the blood's on the altar and anyone can come. Whosoever will may come.
I've enjoyed it this way and I've been accused of thinking outside the box a little bit, so I've been inside the box.
In that in Romans chapter 15 right next to the verse 3 which says Christ pleased not himself, this verse that says that things written a fourth time were written for our learning. I've enjoyed the thought that the Lord chose the people of Israel.
A little nation to show, indeed. The whole world.
What He has done with them is doing and will do is for all mankind. So I liken it this way and please correct me if I step outside that box and get myself in trouble with it and, and I'll come back to appreciation and salvation. Umm.
Umm Israel and Egypt.
Under Joseph and the first Pharaoh was in a sense like Adam in in creation. Adam and Eden was perfect, you might say.
But then there was another pharaoh. Something came in and spoiled their time in Egypt.
And that's sin. Sin entered the world, as we know, in Adam's day, and so there is need of deliverance in Egypt.
And you're under our ******* taskmasters. We know the 2nd Pharaoh's a picture of statement. I believe the picture of Egypt in that situation, the picture of mankind after sin came in needing deliverance but no way of escape.
And we know from Romans 6 that the wages of sin is death. The reporter could be deliverance. There had to be death. The Angel of death had to come in.
And so the Angel of death does come in before there is deliverance, and he speaks to the land, and it's the eye of God looking at one thing, the blood. The Lamb was slain, but the blood was on the outside.
Doorpost was for the eye of God. God was now looking on the inside for individual faith.
It's not individual faith.
His propitiation.
His propitiation.
They could be delivered until the Angel theft came in, but the Lamb was slain and the love was put on the door as I understand it, and that after that they could be delivered.
They would come out and go to the Red Sea, and the Red Sea is a picture of now the power of sin is the sin question being dealt with. They're not sins, the sin question and now.
The Red Sea deliverance. From that the enemy comes, you might say, but he has no power. He's he's dies in the sea. Sin has no more power in that.
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Thought as that has been put away. Now they come through the Red Sea into the wilderness, but what comes out of Egypt is everyone. It's not it's it's the males, the females and women, it's the children, it's the cattle. It's all deliverance. Just as so I have gone, but the Lord has done for propitiation is cleansed everything.
In the wilderness, some fall. They all don't make it.
Hebrews tells us they die because of unbelief. They don't cross the Jordan. The Jordan is the death and the burial and the resurrection. They don't get into the promised land as many have not the faith.
Because propitiation is not salvation.
Appreciation is the ability now for all mankind to come out. All may come, whosoever will may come, but there has to be no individual face. All of that committed peace. Israel and not all Israelis, says the olive red faith and the Oliver crossed the Jordan into the promised land.
They fell in the wilderness like mankind. Now to gospel being preached. All are not coming in, but the olive opportunity.
That's one salvation, that's next. The salvation is the what I see. It's the it's Jordan going into Jordan, the death of Christ, died with him, buried with him and risen the newness of life. So I've enjoyed it that way. Heritation is the offer for all mankind that all may come and that that blood that was there on the doorposts, propitiatory blood, but I have gone and destroyed out of the individual faith afterwards to enter into the land.
Does that make tremendous help?
The blood on the door that protected them from the judgment of God was, was nothing else. Like you say, they were still in Egypt. And so that was the basis upon which then they could proceed out of Egypt across the Red Sea.
And then like you say, there's a lot of different pictures that we have to take one by one, I guess.
The two other verses that are health, one is in First Timothy 2 and the other in Matthew 20.
First Timothy 2.
35 and six.
Where there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom.
For all.
To be testified in due time and then the other one is in Matthew 20.
And verse 28.
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
And so there's that little word for for all.
And first Timothy for many, and Matthew.
And Matthew, the sense of that word for is on.
Uh, or in the, in first Timothy two, it's on behalf of and there it's all he gave himself a ransom on behalf of all.
But in Matthew, where it's just for many, not all, it's in the stead of many.
Instead of many.
And again, there's that thought of Matthew and substitution. He took our place.
He stood in my sense when he hung on Calvary's cross, but he also was a ransom on behalf of all, all mankind. And so the offer can go out freely to all. So don't be afraid when you speak to a lost souls, if you're preaching the gospel, to freely say he was a ransom for you, my friend, because the Scripture said that. But it's good for us as believers to understand the difference between those two things because there are many.
Errors that have come in to Christianity on account of not understanding the distinction between those two truths. And they've divided Christianity into two great camps, and one of which is correct Calvinism and Arminianism.
I'd like to also take up an expression that was used the sin question, a pondering that recently because we use it so often, he answered the same question. What's the same question?
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What is the same question?
The Zen question is that God is light.
And he is holy, and man's sin was an insult against God in all his holy nature.
Of what he is as light.
And it called into question what he is.
What is he going to do? Sin is come in.
It's called into question the very nature of God.
Christ answered the same question on Calvary's cross, and we see God vindicated for all that He was in His Holiness.
And all that he is in light.
Was seen in the judgment of sin when Christ was made sin on Calvary's cross.
And the question is answered, Yes, He is holy and he will not.
Tolerated and He judged it thoroughly in the person of His Son, and He manifested what He was in life and His righteousness and all that He is in perfect consistency with His nature. As light was upheld, righteousness was established. Jesus Christ the righteous is our advocate with a Father.
The sin question is settled forever in the sight of God. All that God is in His holy nature has been.
Not only upheld, but glorified.
Glorify.
On Calvary's cross.
And that forms a wonderful basis then that is presented to us here. We're walking in the light. He can bring us into the light positionally, never to leave it again. Why? Because that question was settled forever.
That the force for this team, would you say?
What John's said and John 129 Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away.
The sin of the world He saw in that person, the one who was going to answer through God above the whole question of sin and our sins.
Yeah. And it is not fulfilled yet completely, is it? That's right. Form the groundwork for the completion, which will be that we find at the, uh, end of Revelation, it is done.
I guess we're getting away from the subject here of just propitiation and connection with with when we sin.
And I think you can take that up with what Brother Michelle said of being a help to those who have gotten away from the Lord in their souls. And sometimes they're at a loss. They seem to be at a loss as to how to return, is that if we're going to be a help to them, we can't gloss over sin. Sin has to be faced. And to just kind of gloss over it is not going to be a help, Jesus.
As our propitiation, he has answered to God fully as to a God's fully character. And on that basis he is our advocate, our righteous advocate. So if we're going to be a help to souls, we should be merciful, but don't do it at the expense of righteousness. That won't help in the end. Cannot ignore that part of it.
You agree with that, Michelle? Yes. It's, uh, that beast has fallen by the wayside, I mean.
It's not by going in with him on by the wayside saying, well, that's all right, you know, that's.
Moses couldn't lead the people into the Promised Land.
Appreciation, as we said, was for those who that all might come out, substitution for those who do.
Moses is the Lawgiver, speaks with the righteous judgment of God, and so he could not lead the people into the land. That would be Joshua picture of the Lord Jesus himself grace. So Joshua the one that leads the people into the promised land.
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And then he passes off the scene if you go back to the book of judges.
For verse.
Early judges.
You get this.
Chapter 2.
For seven.
And the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel, who had seen all the great works of the Lord. And Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old, and buried themselves. Joshua leads him into the land. And then Joshua died. And they went on well as long as Joshua was with them. So with sight, with the sight of the give way. Now the faith just as ours we have, we have never seen the Lord Jesus that we live by faith in that sight.
So they were to go on, they were going to possess the land. But if you look at the chapter one repeatedly in chapter one, as the children now go on to put make possession of this land, it says verse 21, the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites.
27 Neither did Manasseh drive out.
And in general, further 29 either the E3 and drive with the Canaanites, neither Zebulun the novice of kitchen and so on. They fail as it were to drive out those things. So Joshua, we come into the land as a blessing into those in this inheritance that we have. It's ours now because we probably force before it's our it's our standing. We're in the land every one of us in this room that knows the Lord Jesus Christ in the land entitled to all the blessing but.
What prevents me?
From enjoying those things, our Josh was gone back.
I looked at faith to him to direct how I have to put away those things.
And there are six peoples here in Judges that they come across and each one represents a certain thing that will prevent me, as it were, from accessing those crews we're we're talking about in the communion and enjoying those things. So it was Joshua that had to lead them into the promised land, not Moses, because it speaks of the righteousness of God. And that shed blood that was on the door. But it's the the grace of God that would lead us. Otherwise we would never get in as we as we know.
The Lord said to Peter, when he said he would, even if all others didn't, he would call the Lord even to death. He said, I prayed for thee.
05 feet fell out. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Or when he was restored, he wasn't restored. There was he that didn't come till after the cross. But the Lord's advocacy represented in that prayer was immediate.
And I think it's the same with us. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. His advocacy enters in immediately, long before restoration, immediately. He's an advocate and on a wonderfully righteous basis. And so it's maintains us, doesn't it? It's part of that, maintaining us in that place of being in the light.
And uh.
He comes immediately in with his prayer.
Good to notice too, that in the, uh, in that first verse that it says we have an advocate with the Father and.
In other words, the relationship that the child of God is brought into is an unchanging relationship.
That doesn't change. Communion is broken, but the relationship is not broken.
And the and the writing here was that the child of God may be restored to the relations and the enjoyment of the relationship, which really is communion with the Lord.
Verse three we have keeping his commandments.
Verse five we have keeping his word. It's interesting distinction that you have also in John's Gospel chapter 14 and 15.
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There are things, brethren, in Christianity. We have commandments.
But they are commandments given to the new man.
As children of God, we have commandments. I would guess we could say very easily that we have many more commandments in the New Testament than we have in the Old.
The Old Testament the commandments were given to man in the flesh, and he had no ability to keep them.
The New Testament God first gives us a life that can do those commandments, and then he gives us the commandments. And so we have lots of commandments here in this book. We have to love one another.
It's given again and again.
It's not love somebody if you think you can. No, it's a commandment to do it.
And it says here, if I do, we know that we know him. If we keep his commandments, he that says I know him and keepeth not his commandment as a liar, and the truth is not in him. We have a life that is capable of keeping his commandments. Somebody has put it this way, and I like the way.
It was put in the Old Testament. God said do this.
And you will live.
In the New Testament, God says live and you will do this.
That puts it in a simple way. First gives us the life that is capable of obeying those commandments, and then he gives us the commandments too.
So the New Testament is full of commandments.
Keeping this word seems to me.
Uh, something that is larger.
Sometimes give the illustration if a father has two sons.
Maybe both of the boys are obedient to the commands that the father may give.
But there is one of the sons that loves to stick around his father and converse with his father, and he knows his Father's word. The word is the full expression of all his thoughts. So keeping His word is more than just merely keeping His commandments. And so it says here, verse 5. Whoso keepeth his word in him, verily.
Is the love of God perfected? Hereby know we that we are in Him.
Romans, chapter 13.
Versus 8 to 10?
Reads Romans 13, verse eight. Oh no man anything but to love one another, For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandments, if this briefly comprehended in this saying, mainly, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Blood work is don't feel to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
The characteristic of that new life that we've had enough.
Like OK, but he gave commandments of times but there were three of his.
Uh, valiant men that were close to him and one day heard.
David expressed a desire.
Oh, that somebody would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate.
Those three men, it was not a command, it was a word expression of his desire. Those three men, at the danger of losing their life, broke through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well and brought it to David. That's an example of keeping His word. It's been brought out at these meetings how the Lord Jesus has given us a word. His desire is that we remember Him.
In his death, until he comes.
That's a word.
If you really love him, think about it.
Uh, brother Bob, how did they hear? They had to be close enough to.
To the to hear it the desires of his heart.
And it's an exercise for us is how close are we to the heart of God that we can hear even his thoughts or his small, uh, desires? These men overheard it, so to speak.
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But they were listening.
That desire that David had and they obeyed. And it's an exercise process.
Interesting that that woman and John 8.
That was caught in adultery. What? What's your name again?
Yeah, I don't know what her name is. What are the names of those men that gave David the desire of his heart? It's not told us either. Beautiful discretion of the Lord in connection with the covering of sin. Any man's sin, everybody doesn't know, have to know about it. And so.
I think that's very precious in connection with John eight. It was a serious sin, but the Lord doesn't tell us who it was and so.
And in connection with the privilege of remembering the Lord, as I believe really suggested in that desire of David, in connection with the place of his birth, our Lord's desires in connection with the place of his death.
That we don't know who they were. And it's, uh, it's nice for us to consider it. It's not important to be known and recognize ourselves in, in this great privilege. And so the Lord covers what needs to be covered. And we need to cover those things that we might be proud of and elevate ourselves above our brother.
What brother, uh, Bob said earlier, the difference between his commandments and his word. We might say his commandments are certainly His word, but we couldn't inverse that and say his word or his commandments as if his word was limited to the commandments. It's again much broader. I'd like to look at 3 verses. I think they were looked at earlier in the meetings, but just to bring them together in the Gospel of John.
The first one is chapter 6.
John chapter 6 and verse 63.
It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And then Peter says in the end of verse 68, thou hast the words of eternal life. His words were life, eternal life. Now look at.
John chapter 8 and verse 25.
Then said they unto him, Who art thou?
Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning, are absolutely what I speak unto you are altogether what I say unto you. He was exactly what His word set out. And what were His words? His words were like they were eternal life. And who is He? He is that eternal life. He was altogether what His words were, and His words were life and His life.
Now go to the 12Th chapter of John.
And verse 49.
For I have not spoken of myself or from myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. So the words that he spoke were given to him, has been brought out earlier in the meetings from the Father, every word. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. The words that he spoke were from the Father.
Those words were life everlasting. The words that he spoke were life and that they were the exactly what he was.
The eternal life. And then when we come to our chapter.
Whoso keepeth his word, verse five. In him, verily is the love of God.
Perfectness.
He was the full revelation of grace and truth. He was the full revelation.
Of all that the Father was, he was the Word, the full revelation of all that God is communicated the Word to you and to me. And those words that he spoke were altogether what he essentially was. And he is that eternal life, the Word communicated to us and not only revealing all that God is as the Word, the Logos, but God as Father, which is.
00:50:27
Everything that you and I as creatures could ever know.
About God, you can't get past that as creatures. Everything that you and I could ever or will ever know about God as God, as Father. And he fully revealed the Father. The words that the Father gave him were life, eternal life. That words been communicated to you. You were born again by that word.
Its seed is in you. And if we keep that word, those words of eternal life.
The love of God is perfected in us because in those words of eternal life He is fully revealed.
And so all that He is in love and grace to you and me.
The love of God becomes perfected in us. It's far broader than just the commandments themselves.
But it is that divine life communicated to you and I His words, eternal life.
And it has a wonderful result in us that the love of God and the enjoyment of that love and its overflow to those around us is perfected in US.
Is that what we have Brother Steven in chapter 5 or?
12 year verse 20.
After 530 money and.
I believe that it's what you were thinking of and the understanding that we have of God, we have within right through Christ.
Umm.
Adverse and John 1250.
I know that his commandment is life. Everlasting helps us to understand returning returning to our chapter.
Two and verse 7.
Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which you ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which he had from the beginning. That expression occurs a number of times in this chapter.
Notice in verse 13, write unto you Fathers, because you have known him, that is from the beginning. Verse 14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him, that is from the beginning, and it appears in verse 24 as well. Let him that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning.
Eternal life manifested in the person of our Lord Jesus when He was here.
That is the old commandment, the one that was from all eternity. But then come down to verse eight of our chapter again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you, So that the new commandment, brethren, is eternal life now the same life that is in Him.
Is in US, manifested in us now. That's the new commandment. So it's beautiful to see. This commandment is like eternal. The old commandment is that eternal life that was manifested in the person of the Lord Jesus. The new commandment is what is true as well in us now.
John 13 and 34.
John 13 and 34, a new commandment I give unto you.
That you love one another as I have loved you. That you also loved.
And we're not able to do that.
But here's a new commandment. Again, love one another.
And we find the source of that love.
The Lord Himself, that He loved one another as I have loved you. We love because He first loved us. And this verse is beautiful because in the center of it you have it twice repeated that you love one another, and I have loved you that you also love one another. A new commandment. It's true in Him and in us now because as we are the object of His love.
00:55:17
And his lavish shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us, we're able to love.
In the measure that we understand and value his love, we can love as he loves. So it's really a new commandment.
Because it's now true in us, we have the same life that he has and we can love with the same love where with we have been loved.
So we have the question of love in the next verses. I agree brethren, we need to keep on moving here. In verse nine he says he that says he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. This is the opposite of bloody verse 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. I think that's beautiful.
Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.
When you really love a person, you're not going to get offended, brother.
That's what it says here. There is none occasion of stumbling in him when there is that right love, that love that is characteristic of the believer in the Lord Jesus. But as we were saying yesterday.
God John puts things in black and white and so in verse.
9.
You have the black. In verse 10 you have the light, the white, and in verse 11 you have the black.
He speaks of that which is. Sometimes the word is used abstract, but it's it's characteristic.
And it's put there so we can discern, Brother, where do we stand in connection with these verses?
In verse 12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. That applies to all the children of God, the whole family of God and the verses that follow we have the three different groups within the family and he addresses.
Those three groups twice in a brief form in verse 13 and then in a fuller form in the verses that follow.
Can't help but notice as we read down many times it says if we say he, let's say it if we say he doesn't say it. Professional things and so.
It's Christianity profession or doing it.
I can say I love you.
But if I really love you, maybe I'll have to say it because it'll be manifesting however I behave. So he, let's say it, I say I'm a Christian.
I'm a Christian. What am I Christ like? I profess to belong to him. What responsibility? So the Lord could say he was absolutely what he said.
And we know we fail, but couldn't we extend that to say that if we let that life that is in US manifest itself to the extent that it can, and that it made by the partnership of God, we too would be what we say?
Simon, Magus and Axe.
Confessed or made a profession, didn't he? And he was baptized, and then he manifested himself for what he was by trying to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. And he was looked upon as some great person in that locality where he was. And when he was exposed by Peter, he left.
He was perhaps and at least a sample of what developed among what's called Gnosticism, which has its root word that means knowledge, and it's what Paul calls when he talks to dresses. Timothy, Science falsely so-called. Knowledge falsely so-called. And they mixed.
Eastern religion with Christianity, and they preached that, oh, Christianity was just, that was just the beginning. That was just the baby steps. But we've come into polar light. We have knowledge. Paul says it's falsely so-called. We have knowledge. You really aren't perfected yet. You need to learn at our feet. You need to hear the revelations we've been given, John says. They were not of us. They went out from us. They weren't of us.
01:00:13
If they don't hear us, they're not of God. That is us, the apostles, and they didn't hear the apostles.
But they profess greater light, and now John is coming in and he's addressing this and he says no.
U go back to the beginning. That was not baby steps.
He this that which was from the beginning, that which we the apostles have heard, that which we have seen, that which we have contemplated in our hands that have handled the eternal life was manifested. He says you have everything and if his word, that life giving word is perfected in you, you don't need anything else. And you have an unction from the Holy One to show you all things and the rest. Those that profess to have more light, those that profess to have more revelations, they're just Antichrist. What they're professing and what they're saying is against Christ.
And it was, and it manifested itself in all kinds of wickedness. They said they were in the light, but they hated their brothers.
They said they knew knew Christ, but they denied he was the son of the Father.
They deny that he was come in flesh.
And they introduced all kinds of wicked doctrines into Christianity. And the apostle is addressing that. And he says you have everything, you have Christ. You don't need any of what these are saying is new life, additional light. They're just walking in darkness. They don't have light at all. And here's the proofs of it. You can see it in their life.
They hate, they deny who your Savior really is, they attack the truth of this person and He brings them back to the beginning, always brings them back to the foundation that they might not be tripped up into those things that Satan was trying to introduce into Christianity. Where did the Lord find John when he called him as his disciple? He was mending that Saint John and his epistle is mending the Nets that had been broken.
By these false things. And He's weaving it back together, and he's bringing us back to the beginning and giving us that which is foundational and which is true. And he's exposing the character of those who have brought in that which is false. And so that's why he says, I've written unto you Father's because ye have known him, that is from the beginning. You don't say anything else. If you've got that, you've got it all. And he doesn't have any additional exhortation or anything to the Father's you.
Got a full mature knowledge and enjoyment of Christ, You got it all.
You don't need anything else. You've got everything. You have the words of eternal life.
As complete maturity, isn't it? And that's why verse 14 he says exactly the same thing. There's nothing beyond that. Go beyond that is to get into error is to know the Lord Jesus and the full revelation of who God is wonderful, wonderful reality. That's maturity. How many of us get there? I don't think we have to analyze that, but that's what God would have us to be.
Mature as to our apprehension of Christ, so often it happens, brother, and the Lord manifests it, that maybe we get attacked on something.
And we defend ourselves. Well, that's a lack of maturity. Not saying that it's right to attack somebody. Remember a brother, the story of a brother, and I'm not sure who it was, but he was attacked in a meeting one time. Several people really called him down.
And after.
It was over, my brother said to him. The brother in question, What do you have to say about it, brother?
He said, uh, they haven't said anything against the Lord Jesus. I really don't have anything to say.
That's maturity.
So rather than how are we? Is Christ everything to us? It's easy to say, but sometimes circumstances manifest that there's other things that are working inside.
The next group is the young men and the 13. He just says to them, I write unto the young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.
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But in verse 14, he begins after addressing the Fathers in the middle of the verse.
And he says things that are very helpful, especially for young men. Those that are strong, the word of God abides in them, and they have overcome the wicked one.
And then comes the exhortation, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Goes on to talk about all that is in the world.
Very helpful.
I would guess we could say when we look at these three groups in the family of God, we all are little children.
Perhaps, umm, our young men?
Perhaps you said her father's?
When he writes to the father as he repeats the same thing.
It's not as though they had reached a level there was nothing more to learn.
But they had their gaze fixed on the person whom to know is like eternal. And so the apostle Paul says that I may know him and the power of his right direction. I doubt not that he was a father, and so was John, and so it was Peter, growing grace and in the knowledge of him.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ, so this is the object in God's heart, and this becomes the object in the hearts of the Father.
Everything else is accessory to the person of the son and the knowledge of him. And it's something that you just keep growing in. You might say it's not a level that you've attained and you're, and you've graduated, you're, uh.
The person of the Lord has become what the Father wants Him to be before your soul of mine and will. Eternity will not suffice for us to to know Him more and more.
So we've had about.
Commandment to love one another. Here's another commandment. Love. Not the world. That's a commandment too. What is the world?
Soon as Joshua passed off the scene, they raised the question about.
Who shall go up first?
Ask the Lord, he shall go up first, and the answer is the pattern I believe and Judah.
I'll go 1St and it says Judah Prosimian when you go with me. And in those two I believe is and is the pattern for us.
I sense that the floor wants to bring us from Romans to Ephesians when the Ephesians would get to a place where he is made, is raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places.
And I think that's the highest truth, isn't it? In the land anyway, Judah speaks a phrase and Simeon hearkening with obedience. So trust and obey is a secret of patterns seems to be possessing the land and so, but in going from Romans to Ephesians as it did for them. I just want to mention them really quickly. There's a number of peoples that think they have to overcome. One was the one was the Canaanites.
Canaanites are traffickers, Speaking of merchandise. So this is the thing that.
Really involvement, I might say we get sidetracked. And so they were captive by that for a period of time, 18 years or so. And that would speak to us of one of the traps that peep sauces that were from accessing the heavenly truth and enjoying those things. And we need to book a job for that. Love, not the world, but we're in is the answer to that. But the first group was the Mesopotamians.
And they speak of exaltation.
Idolatry.
And so it's.
You need the book of Romans so that get back as a work to a place where they, uh.
Where we see ourselves as we're in Gilgal, but there's others as well that came along the, the, uh, Dominion Heights, for example, speak of, uh, stress or striking contention.
Attending and, uh, they were captive by that for quite a while. And so it is with us too, in accessing these things here, this truth that we're trying to appreciate. It's we need the book of Philippians.
For this mind me and you which is in Christ Jesus. So it's patterns. Therefore us and so your father mentioned that because things to overcome and we might come together to sit together and enjoy those seventy places together in Christ Jesus.
01:10:09
We have we need that advocate because we.
Cannot do it on our own. So it's Judah praise and Simeon willingness to go with true trust and obey. I think the, uh, the burden here of the apostle in this chapter is that the world interferes with communion. And so he says here in that 15th verse.
Love not the world.
Neither the things that are in the world.
The, uh, the world is.
Is everything that is that with God left out?
And that's the world you and I live in. We go away from these meetings and we go back home and we face the world. And John says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And I enjoy in my simplistic way. And just like this, you can't enjoy the world and enjoy the love of God at the same time.
It's impossible. You can't enjoy the world all week long and go to meet meeting on Sunday morning and express and expect to just enjoy the presence of the Lord like turning on the tap. It doesn't work that way. And so it tells us in Jude, keep yourselves in the love of God in the day of apostasy that we have there in the book of Jude. That's a burden of the apostles to keep yourself in the love of God.
So you know, it's it's interesting the way he puts it here. It's all all that is in the world is only three things appeals to three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, not of the father, but is of the world. And someone has put it this way in connection with that verse 16 that the lust of the flesh is the desire to have.
For possession and the lust of the eyes is the desire to see, and the pride of life is a desire to be.
That's all the world is about, it's put.
Broken down into those three classes, it has nothing else to offer.
3 verbs we use all the time be, have, and do.
And that is what the world has for the natural men. We have the same apostles as God so loved the world. It's not in the same sense as we have it here. God loves the world of sinners lost. He loves the human beings in the world, but he doesn't love the world system and all that is in the world a caters to the flesh and leaves God out as you suggested.
I've enjoyed a verse recently in, uh, first Peter.
But it encouragement first Peter chapter one and verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath.
Regardless, again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the dead. This is the verse I was thinking of. Notice there's three things here to an inheritance incorruptible, so I believe answers to.
Opposite of the left of the flesh, undefiled answers to the opposite of the loss of the eyes, and that fades not away. Which has to do with time, which is the opposite of umm, the pride of life reserved in heaven for you.
That's what our portion is and I just enjoyed getting the world offers the opposite of that. It offers what crops, what defiles and what's and what fades away with time. So we have been given the very opposite side, a living home, an inheritance incorruptible and defiled, and a faith not a way deserved in heaven.
11/17 and shot. So it says there the world passed away and the lusts are out, but either doeth, the will of God abideth forever.
The thought there, I think in connection with doing the will of God and abiding forever.
Whatever we do to please the Lord has an effect that will last forever and forever.
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For him in the back of the book, have I an object, Lord below. And then verse three says, be thou the object, bright and fair to fill and satisfy the heart. This is the object of the Lord Jesus. He wants us to be occupied with him. Perhaps we can sing that hymn 46 to the back of the book.
I've got my heart and a breath through the bird.
May I know this tomorrow 1934?
We're asking you to go ahead and let me do anything. By the way, I really have a together.
Whatever you want to do, you don't know.
Call 05780 17830.
All right, I say to the color of. That's the difference.
And mom and boy, are you Singapore homework or something?
Sort of in connection with the with the him, we just saying First Thessalonians chapter one.
And verse 9.
Where they themselves show of us what manner of entering in.
We had unto you, and how these three things Here ye turn to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the coming wrath of prayer.
Flee From the Wrath to Come
Gospel—Mike Campbell
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Good evening, I see by the clock it's 7/15 time to begin our gospel meeting. I wanna welcome everyone here this evening we're gonna begin by singing hymn #25 life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheath The entire #25 life at best is very.
I don't know anything very blood cells any time that's reliable. I was doing things that are and thus there's no lying beside between you thighs and good evening you'll come to give me the power.
Of the boy's country that's probably free and umm.
Yeah, that's what we're going to do on the airway. Did you ever go back to 512? Umm.
Umm.
Umm, they're probably not doing anything.
Umm.
A lot of your heart is going to come back and we have been so hard to believe in time.
Uh, we're on our next game feel like umm, on Friday, it starts to be a good time for all the highlights, umm, and starts going to come through now, all right.
And, umm.
It's about.
Three days time for all of the boys and drinks the flow of nuclear.
Yeah. Can you change your lungs around the way it's a little bit. I do not follow up with you.
And you provide anything else you look like a.
Look to the Lord in the word of prayer. Our Father, we come now at this time.
Knowing that it's beyond our human inabilities to ever do anything that would point a soul to heaven, all we can do is preach thy word. It's thy word that has the power. It's thy Spirit of God which will come and convict and convince the Sinner of their need. Father, we think of that statement that Richard Baxter said a long time ago. I preach as I'll never preach again, as dying man to dying man. That's what we hope to do this evening to impress upon someone here that doesn't know Christ.
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The seriousness and to be sure that they'll be in time. We thank thee for this wonderful message of the gospel that we have to preach. We thank thee for our wonderful Savior. Truly, we can say with the hymn writer, Hallelujah, what a Savior and how wonderful it is to preach about him this evening. We pray this in this precious and holy name, Amen. If you'll turn with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 3.
My text is going to be verse 7 but I want to begin reading a chapter or verse one just to give you the context.
And I want to look at flee from the wrath to come. Matthew chapter 3, starting at verse one. And those days came John the Baptist.
Preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camels hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild hunting. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism.
He said unto them, O generation of Vipers, who hath warranty to plea from the wrath to come, I want to read verse seven again. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism.
He said unto them, O generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the raft to come? Many years ago in an eastern state there was a railroad wreck. And this was account was given by Harry Ironside. And he said that back in those days they didn't have all the computer gizmos and machinery that they have today to warn. And they didn't even have, you know, the ability to call one another. What they had to do was they would have stations along the line and if there was a problem.
They would Telegraph that station, say you need to go out and wave the red flag to tell the next train to stop until we can get the other train going. And as it happened this fateful day, there was a train full of school children that had just come back from a trip and the train broke down on the track. And so, as was the emergency custom, they telegraphed the next station down the line. And because there was an incoming train to bring out the red flag and to wave it and to wave it and to wave it, tell that train to stop until they could get the other train going again.
And then it could go. Well, the man that was at the station ran out, grabbed the red flag and he waved the red flag and he waved the red flag. But the train kept coming and he's waving the red flag and he's getting more frantic waving the red flag and the train kept coming and, and sadly smacked right into that train full of school children.
Well, of course, the engineer of the train, he managed to jump out before it hits. And of course, trying to figure out what happened, they brought him into court. And so they put him on the witness stand and they said, didn't you see the the Plagueman waving the flag telling you to stop? And he said, well, I saw him waving, but he was waving a yellow flag. And so he said, I took it for granted that everything was all right. And the yellow flag meant that things are well, but you might want to slow down a little bit.
And he said, I slowed down. So they took the flag men, the guy that was waving the flag on the stand and they said, did you wave a flag? And he said, yes, what color of flag did you wave? He said, I waved a red flag. And he said the guy never paid any attention to and he kept on going.
And they said, Are you sure it was red? Because the other guy said it was yellow. And he said I'm sure it's red. And so both insisted that they were cracked. One insisted the engineer that he saw yellow flag, the other insisted he saw a red one.
Well, they tested both men. They weren't color blind, so they both saw saw a different color. And so finally someone had the wisdom to say, well, go get the flag and let's take a look at it. And so they hold it the proceedings and went and got the flag. And when they brought in court, it turned out that the flag was originally red, but because of exposure to the sun and everything, it was like a dirty yellow color. And so that man had been so used to that flag being read that he grabbed it, thought he grabbed the red flag and was waving it.
And in turn, he was waving a Yelp like saying go on, it's all right, go ahead.
And Ironside had these words to say about that incident. He said all the lives eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of the day, the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward Rd. You know, the Bible tells us that there are two roads and two destinies for men, and that there is a road that's broad that leads to destruction, and there is a straight Rd. that leads to everlasting life. But you see the problem that we have today, as many are waving yellow flag of their good works. They're waving the yellow flag of their religion. Saints, all's well, head down that road. You're going to be all right.
00:10:35
But they're heading to their destruction, just like that train was.
And John the Baptist here is preaching a message of warning to his listeners, telling them to repat John the Baptist is the forerunner, the one that was prophesied that would come and to preach, prepare the way of the Lord, make your path straight. And so he's preaching this message, but some individuals come that he gives this very powerful warning to when he asked them this question. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the rest to come This evening we want to give you a warning. We want to warn you and tell you what the Bible says about your faith and what will happen to you, dear friend, if you disregard.
God's Son, if you reject that One who loves you and died for you in the cross and shed His precious blood there, if you spur Him and go on your way into a lost eternity, what will happen to you? But you know, you don't have to do that. That's the wonderful beauty of this message that we share. Yes, it's a serious message. Yes, it's a sole message, but it's also a message of salvation for you if you will accept it. And I want to look at this question which John the Baptist asked the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
A generation of Vipers who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come. And I want to know five things about this question that, uh, John the Baptist asks. The first thing I want us to notice is that how he begins this question. And I call this a question of uncompromising honesty. Notice how he begins. Oh, generation of Vipers. Now that sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? That sounds like he's name calling or.
As some people try to do cast aspersions on the other person to make them look bad so you look good. It sounds like maybe he's vindictive that he has something against them, but in a rally he doesn't. He doesn't have anything against them. In fact, what he's trying to do is to call to their attention what their true character is like. And the reason why we know this is because the Lord Jesus and facing a similar group of individuals, specifically the Pharisees makes the same statement. Matthew chapter 12 verse 34. You don't have to turn there. I'll read it to you. Jesus says to the another group of Pharisees, he says, oh, generation of Vipers.
How can ye, being evil, speak good things? The abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the Bible is clear. He did no sin. There was no sin in him. He was without sin. And so Jesus when he said, oh, generation of Vipers was making a true statement about their character. And John the Baptist is doing the same. He's making a true statement about their character. Let's just consider for a moment these two groups. You have the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the most influential Jewish act.
They were very strict in their observance of the law. In fact, the Pharisees believed that their interpretation of the law was even as authoritative as the law itself, as the law given by Moses in the first five books. They believe what they added to it was just as authoritative. And so, for instance, they took the 10 commandments and made them 613 commandments. They added a whole bunch of things to the scriptures, and they were a very religious group. We read in the Scripture of the Pharisees who says, I thank God, I'm not like that man. I give all my money and I pray and I do all these things. They were very religious. They had this outward show.
I'm looking good.
Or at least what they thought to impress other people that they look good.
And then you have the Sadducees. The Sadducees were largely from the priesthood in the upper classes. They denied the truth of future punishment. They denied the truth of the resurrection. You may have heard that old joke that the Sadducees were sad, you see, because they denied the resurrection. And that is pretty sad when you deny something so clearly taught in the Scriptures.
But both groups were opposed not only to the Lord Jesus Christ's teachings, as we see later on, but they are opposed to John's teaching. Why? Because John is calling people to repent. He's calling them away from the systems of men, away from the ideas of man to what God has for the human soul in preparing for the Messiah. And they don't want to hear that. They don't like that. So they probably come to kind of check it out to see what they can do to throw the monkey wrench in to things or whatever.
00:15:13
And you know in the scriptures the Viper or the snake is a picture of the lost person.
In Romans 313 it says their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used to see the poison of *** or snakes or Vipers is under their lips. And you might say well OK that's fine, that's the Pharisees, but that's not me. Wrong my friend, wrong because the Bible declares that the human heart apart from Jesus Christ is a lost, unregenerate, hell bound Sinner that you are.
You know dead and trespasses and sins that there's nothing good in you. In fact, let's read it. Turn to Romans chapter 3.
And we'll read it for ourselves in that section that we read one verse for Romans chapter 3, starting at verse 9.
Romans, chapter 3.
Some people call this section God's X-ray of the center because you see all the different body parts and things that are mentioned there. Uh, starting at verse 9 says what then? Are we better than they? No one know why.
For we have before prove both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As is written. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together, become unprofitable. There is none to do with good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used to seed the poise of *****. Under their lips, as we've already mentioned, whose mouth is full of cursings and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways, in the way of peace. They have not known. There is No Fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things so ever the law say that say to them who are under law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty for sure gone. Dear friends, that's God's description to you. You are guilty before God, and you will remain guilty unless you do something about it, and then the only thing that you could do is fly to the One who hung on the cross and died for you.
You can't do any good work. You can't go to any church service. You can't do anything like that. Nothing will save you. We sang that song this morning in high school. Weeping will not save me. Working will not save me. Nothing that you can do that man thinks is important will ever save your soul. But there is one that down in Calgary that can do that.
And as long as you're holding this pretense set, I'm better than everybody else, just like the Pharisees. Thank God I'm not like him or not like her. And you see, the problem that people have is they make comparisons. You know, if I compare myself to you, I could probably find something to make myself look good. If you compared yourself to me, you could probably find yourself to make yourself look good and to say, well, I'm not that bad because look at that character up here, He's pretty bad. But guess what, people? The comparison is not between me and you.
The comparison is between each of us and God's precious Son. And the Scripture says for all have sinned and come short. We missed the mark of the glory of God. And it's not like we missed the mark by a little bit, you know, and maybe we can make it and maybe we could get there. We missed it by an infinite degree. So great and so infinite is that one that loved us and died for us in the cross. We fall so far short. There is no way in 1000 lifetimes we could ever reach it.
That is.
Doing our own work that is trying in our own effort that is trying to be the best so-called that we can be.
But you know, we don't have to do anything.
You know why? Because he did it all. He came to that cruel cross, any blood for you, and he died for you. And he made it possible for you so that you don't have to have instead of you, a generation of Vipers, you snake.
But you can have it set of you that you're a St. not because of anything you've done, but because of all that he has done.
You know, many of us are like a man. His name is George Gordon. He was a well known preacher of his day and he tells about going across the Atlantic in a passenger liner.
And in those days, sometimes you had to double up in the cabin. So he ended up sharing a cab with somebody he didn't know. And the man he shared a cabin with was a crippled hunchback, uh, dwarf kind of guy. And he looked kind of sinister looking. And so the first thing George Gordon did was he took all his belongings and he went to the person and said, could you please lock these in the safe? And the person said, you know, that's funny. Your roommate came here just a few minutes ago and did the same thing.
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You know, we all think when we compare ourselves to others that we come out better. But remember, the comparison is not between you and me, comparisons between you and I and God's Son.
So we'll never come out of that comparison. We'll never fare well unless.
We accept Him unless we come to trust Him, unless we come to see that we are a lost Sinner, that we are a generation of Vipers, that we don't deserve heaven at all. But he loved me and gave himself for me. What a wonderful message it is. And so, first of all, we see this question and I have to move on. It's a question of uncompere. It's a question of uncompromising honesty. He's being honest with them, telling them exactly what they are. They're sinners. They're not as righteous as they think they are.
Well, let's move on next part of the question, he says to them. Oh, generation of Vipers knows the next part. Who hath warned you?
So we see, not only is this a question of uncompromising honesty, it's a question of uncomprehending motivation. He's saying to them, who told you to be here? Why are you here? Why did you come? And obviously he knows or has an idea why they came. Now, no one knows the motivation of another person's heart. I don't know your motivation, why you're here this evening. I don't know if maybe you've been invited and we're thankful if you have and you came because of that. Whatever the reason why you're here, I don't know. And John didn't know, but he had a suspicion that they were here for a bad reason and not a good one.
But you know, God knows why you're here this evening. God knows what's going on in your heart.
Sometimes we like to think that we can, you know, hide what we do and that no one sees but says the eyes are lower. Run to and throw over all the earth, beholding the good and the evil.
There was a man named Anna Nice and his wife, and they thought God didn't see, and they thought they could get a spiritual pat in the back for selling a piece of land. And, uh, you know, they'll give most of it away, but they'll keep apart by themselves and people will think, hey, yeah, and a nice and so far, what a great thing you've done. But when they came before Peter, Peter said, why did you lie to the Holy Spirit? How did Peter know that? The Lord showed it to him. And the Lord knew that Ananias and Sapphira died. And that day they both went out into their eternal destiny.
Because they thought they were hiding from the Lord.
And so you're not gonna hide from him?
Well, you can try it, but you won't be successful. But you know, even though we don't know why you're here this evening, and we, as we said, we're glad that you're here, there is one thing that is important for you being here and that is that this message that we're preaching, if you're here for any nefarious reason, why just like John suspected, these Pharisees for being there doesn't matter because the message we're preaching is more powerful than any evil motive that you might have or any reason that you might be here. This message can take and reach the hardest of hearts.
And turn them from a road leading to destruction to the road of life.
There's a famous atheist in the 1800s in America named Robert Ingersoll. And Robert Ingersoll would travel the country, you know, promoting atheism and trying to get people.
To turn away from the Lord. And Robert Inger saw a friend named Lou Wallace. And Lou Wallace was a well known lawyer. He was a good writer. And Ingersoll said, you know, Lou, you and I believe that there's nothing to do with this Bible thing. It's all a bunch of fables and fairy tales. But he said, you know, we've got to get rid of this whole resurrection deal. The problem is people still hold on to the Bible because they believe their resurrection is true. So he said, I want you as my friend and fellow atheist, to go out and to write a book showing that the reverend, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a bunch of hokum.
And Lou Wallace said, well, you know.
I could do that, but he said if I do it, I'm gonna be honest. I'm not gonna try to fake the evidence or anything. He said I'll honestly look at all the evidence. He said I'm a lawyer and I'm trained to do that. He said I'll do it, but he said I'm not gonna try to trick anybody. He said I'm just gonna look at it plainly and fairly. And Ingersoll said that's fine because you and I both know the resurrection is not real. Well, Lou Walsh went to all the great libraries in the United States, and then eventually he went over to the great.
Research libraries in Europe. One day in a lonely library in Europe, he bowed a sentence. Said My Lord and my God, because he realized that the evidence showed conclusively that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He couldn't deny it any longer. You see, doesn't matter why you're here, because God's word is powerful, can reach your heart. So we're glad you're here this evening. So this question that he asked him is a question of uncompromising honesty. It's a question of uncompromising.
00:25:13
Motivation as to why they were there, but it's also a question of unparalleled urgency. Notice the next part of our question. He says all generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Now when you tell somebody to flee, it's not just a casual walk down the street or a little stroll down the lane. When you say someone please, you want them to run. You want them to put all your energy into it to take off, to run as fast, as far and as long as you can.
You only say when the tower's twin towers were collapsing.
And they could still get people out of the buildings that there was a police officer and he was yelling to people as they were coming out of the buildings. He was saying, don't look up, don't look back. Run for your life. And that's what John said. Who told you to run for your life? Who told you to come here? This is a message of urgency this evening.
And we can mention many reasons why it's urgent, but let me just give you a few because I see my time is running and I still have two other points. Umm, first reason life is short. We know that there's that little beautiful little couple that says life is short. Death is sure send the cures Christ secure what a wonderful thing that is. Life is short. We know that it's a point unto men wants to die. But after this, the judgment David said there's about a step between me and death.
This James said. What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. That's why this message is urgent this evening, because you don't know. You could walk out into eternity this evening, and if you don't trust Christ, it'll be a lost eternity.
Life is short. Not only that, the second reason why this message is urgent is because hell is real. There is a literal place called hell. The Bible is clear about that. There is eternal destiny of men. And there are one of two places you will go. You will go to be with the Lord, or you will go to be in the place of punishment. That's it. And it's a real place of fire. The rich man lifted up his eyes. In hell, it says, being in torment, he felt the flame, He felt the the agony of that place.
You know, during the second war, there was a troop ship going over to one of the big battles and the soldiers asked the new chap and they said you believe in hell. And he said, no, I don't believe in that. And they said please resign. They said if there's a hell, there's no how, we don't need you. And he said if there is a how, we don't want to get misled because we might be facing that.
The people think there is no help, but the Bible is clear there is a hell.
It's a real place and your soul will end in eternity somewhere.
Where will you spend eternity? This question comes to you and me. Tell me, what will your answer be?
Where will you spend the last reason that I just mentioned why this is urgent? A message this evening. And of course, the Bible always offers salvation. Not as tomorrow or later or sometime when you feel like it. The Bible always offers salvation as now. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. God wants you to deal with salvation in the present moment, not when you feel like you're good and ready to do so.
But the last reason is that judgment is coming.
You know, there was a young preacher that was preaching to a group of people.
And a skeptic named Burr only came in. He wanted to have this argument with the preacher.
And he said, you know, he said you're a very good speaker. He said, but I don't believe what you say about the Bible. I don't believe it's infallible. I believe it's full of myths and fairy tales. And the young creature said it's a point unto men wants to die. But after this, the judgment.
But he said, I can prove to you that there's no such thing. Bert only said that you know that no judgment after death. And the preacher said, but people do die for it's a point and the man wants to die. But after this the judgment and Byrne only only said, wait a minute, that's no argument. I want to have a real genuine argument with you about these things. Let's get down to business and Scott the Scottish this properly. The preacher said, I'm not here to argue the word of God. I'm here to preach the word of God.
And he said it's a point in A man wants to die.
But after this the judgment.
And he said, you know what only said he got, He was getting annoyed this time, especially after hearing over and over against the point and the man wants to die. But after this, the judgment, he said, I bet you don't even know the Bible. And that's why you keep repeating that one verse that you know.
00:30:11
And he said, well, the preacher, young preacher said, well, you know, you could be right, but it is a point and a man wants to die. And after this, the judgment and only said, well, I had enough of this. He said, obviously you're not very intellectual. And he he went down the road, he left to go to his house.
But only said that night that he said every step he took he heard the word judgment.
Every sound of the crickets in the evening seemed like they were saying judgment.
As he saw, as he heard the stream rippling past his property, it seemed like the water was saying judgment. Everything around him was saying judgment. He couldn't sleep that night. He couldn't rest. And finally went back to the preacher. And he said, I have to know, how can I survive the judgment? What do I need to do? And of course, the young preacher pointed him to Christ.
Well, sinners, seek His face, whose wrath you cannot bear. Fly to the dying Savior's wounds and find.
Salvation there wounded, weak and helpless worm on Christ's kind arms I fall. Be thou my strength and confidence, my Jesus and my all.
So that's the message we have to SharePoint. It's an urgent message, friend. You have to make a decision tonight.
Whether you think so or not, because you could put it off, yes, you could walk out of this room and walk out of this building and go off and do whatever you do from here on out. But the Bible says you have to be careful about that. You know why? Because the Scripture says that my Spirit should not always strive with men and that he is flesh. The Bible also says that God gives up people to a reprobate mind. That the Spirit of God will only deal with you so long, will only present Christ to you so long, and eventually he will rest off his head and say OK.
You want it that way, Go that way.
There was a young girl that.
In her area they were having meetings and she wanted to go to the dance and so she didn't want to go to the meeting.
And she said I don't want to have anything to do with the meeting. I'm going to go to the dance and stay.
But she felt conviction because she had been to a meeting or two and heard the gospel preached. And finally she said, leave me alone God, I want to have fun.
So she went to her dance.
And maybe she had fun, I don't know.
But a month later, she contracted some kind of sickness and was going to take her life.
And someone came to preach the gospel to her and she said, please leave me alone. She said, don't you see? I settled my fate a long time ago when I said, God, leave me alone. She said, I'm dying and I'm going to go to hell because I told God a month ago to leave me alone. See, friend, you don't know tonight. You don't know that this might be the night that you're making that decision. And you say, God, leave me alone.
If you don't say it in those words, but you say it by your choice of rejecting Jesus Christ.
Well, I have to move on. So we see, it's not only this question is a question of uncompromising honesty. It's a question of an uncomprehending motivation. It's a question of unparalleled urgency. But it's also a question of undoubtable fierceness. Notice the next part of our verse. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath. From the wrath.
Scripture is clear, Jesus said in John 336. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but what but the wrath of God abideth on him?
Right now, in this room, in your lost state, the wrath of God abiding on you.
Because unless you accept that one who took God's wrath and you're sad, the wrath of God will continue to abide on you right now.
John Owen said, don't deceive yourself. It's not an indifferent thing whether you come to Christ upon his invitation or not, a thing that you may put off from 1 occasion into another. Your present refusal of it is a high active enmity against God as your nature is capable of.
You know, dear friend, I wish that I had the ability to communicate to you.
What that statement means? The wrath of God.
I wish I could explain it in such a way that you would understand it to make it clear.
But no, I I don't have the capability. It's so solemn, it's so awesome. It's so terrible to think that the wrath of God abides on you and that you could go out into a crisis, eternity lost forever. I wish I could put it in some way that I could get you to understand how serious this business is of your soul. Tonight could be the last night. Tonight you could drop into the pits of hell because you reject God's Son.
00:35:28
And I trust the Spirit of God will do that work for me.
Even though I can't do it adequately.
But you know, the wonderful thing is you don't have to know the wrath of God abiding on you. You don't have to spend an eternity in hell. You don't have to know this question of undoubtable fierceness.
Because Jesus died for you.
During the Watts rides, there was a preacher named Evie Hill, and he would often get threatened because he would preach against the riders and tell them they need to stop their foolishness and so forth. And one day he got a call and the caller said that they're going to put a bomb in this car. Well, the next day he got up and he went to get to his car. His car was gone and he couldn't understand what happened. And finally, after hours, the car came back and his wife had driven his car off. And he said, he said, honey, why did you take the car? Didn't you know that they threatened to bomb it?
And that I, you could have been dead. And she said, I know that, but she said I wanted to make sure that I was the one that got constant of you. You know, it's a beautiful picture of love, isn't it? The love that a husband and wife have for one another. But there's a greater picture of love. And that's the love the Savior has for you and for me. That's the love that he had when he came down to this earth and went to that cruel tree and suffered and bled for you and me. That's the love that is truly.
Beyond description.
I love that little poem that says with the ink of ocean made, and every blade of grass to quill, and every man ascribed by trade, and the sky, a a partial may to write the love of God on high. The scroll could not contain the whole Those stretch from sky to sky. That's how wonderful and beautiful the love of God is.
And dear friend, Jesus took your place so that you wouldn't have to know that wrath, so that you wouldn't have to go through that.
But it said that you could have a home in heaven tonight.
Lastly.
Come to the last part of this question. No, first of all, it's a question of compromising honesty. Generation of Vipers. It was a questioning of uncomprehending motivation. Who warned you? Why are you here? It's a questioning question of unparalleled. Certainly flee. Who wants you to flee? And it was a question.
Of undoubtable fierceness from the wrath. And lastly, we see it's a question of undeniable certainty. Let's read our text again. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
Notice he doesn't say who wanted to flee from the wrath. That may happen. It'll be bad if it does, but it may happen. He didn't say that.
He didn't say, well, there's a bad thing that possibly could come your way if you don't listen to me. No, he said. Who warned you to flee from the raft to come?
He said it's certain it's going to happen.
And who warns you?
And it's certain because the Scriptures are certain. It's certain because the Bible is God's word. And we don't have the time, but we could discuss with you.
All kinds of different evidences and proves that we have that we know the Bible is true. And Saint John, I mentioned the word Bible is an acrostic and I said that we can know the vows, the word of God because of the three C's because of its consistency and its continuance and its claims. We can know the Bible because of of the insurmountable resurrection of Jesus Christ and the wonderful evidence that we talked about there. We can know the Bible's true because Bible prophecy and we could spend a whole message on that alone.
We can know the Bible is true because of the legacy of history and all the historical documented evidence that we have that proves the Bible to be true.
And we could know the Bible is true because of the evidence of change lives. Only this book can take a person down and out in the gutter in the dregs of life and turn their life completely around and make them a person that is on the road to heaven. And like I say, we could spend a lot of time doing that. But we don't have a lot of time this evening because I have about 5 minutes and.
00:40:03
I wish I could spend that time with you. It would be profitable for us to think about some of these things. But the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the truth.
You know, Robert Ingersoll that we mentioned earlier that try to get Lou Walsh to write the book against the, umm, the umm, resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Lou Walsh realized that the Bible clearly is true about it. But anyway, Robert Inglesaw, one time in his life he held up a Bible. He said to everybody, He said, in 15 years I'll have this book in the morgue. 15 years Robert Ingersoll was in the morgue and the Bible is still here.
Men have downs for the years have tried to wipe out and destroy this book, but the Bible still here. This is a certain message. It's the wrath to come. There is a time of judgment coming. In fact, the Bible declares some very important certainties that we'll just touch on right, uh, briefly. First of all, there is the certainty of the uncertainty of life. It says boast not thyself, but tomorrow. Proverbs 27 one for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. The Bible saying you can't be certain about life. Fortunes have.
Have been won and lost within a matter of minutes your house you could be thinking you're a perfect help and go to the doctor in a few minutes find out you have cancer. You know life is uncertain That's the reality We can't pretend that we can guarantee or that we can say we're gonna do this or that the other thing because it says boast not thyself of tomorrow. I know it's not what another day may bring forth We've already talked about the certainty of death. Roberts uh 927 and as there's a point and the men wants to die but after this the judgment and the only thing that is.
That can change that certainty of death that we know, as the Scripture tells us there is an exemption to that.
And that is if the Lord returns for his bride to call up his people to go to be with him, that's those that are alive or make at that time will be transformed. But that is the only known exception that we have to the fact that disappointed as a man wants to die, but after this the judgment.
That's it. That's a certainty.
George Bernard Shaw said that the ultimate statistic in life is that one out of every one people die.
That's true, like I said, there is an exception we know in the Scripture, and maybe some of us here will live to see that. Wouldn't that be glorious? And then there is the certainty of judgment. Want to reach you? Acts 17, verse 31 knows what it says, because at the point of day into which He will judge the world of righteousness by that man whom He ordained Speaking of Jesus Christ, knows what He says, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. God is guaranteed to you.
That you are going to face judgment one day, of course, that is unless you are in the sun, and then you won't face that judgment because he's already bore the judgment for you. But God is guaranteed that you will face judgment because He rose Jesus up from the dead. It's guaranteed. That's what it means. They're what it says. He's given assurance as a guarantee from heaven, and there's no guarantee better than that. It's unbreakable. He says every human being is guaranteed to stand in judgment.
The only way that you can be safe in that judgment is to be in the one who bore the flames and the wrath of God and your sin.
And there's another certainty in the Bible, and I'll end with this one.
And that's the certainty of a sole Savior. Tonight. We've been trying to point you to Calvary, pointing you to that one who died for you there. Here's what Acts 412 Says. Neither is there salvation in any other. And that means there's not salvation in any other. Doesn't matter what you name, doesn't matter what you call upon. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the name of Christ alone. That's where salvation resides.
In his name alone.
This is certainty of a soul saver. Isn't that a wonderful certainty? Tonight you can be saved because there is a Savior. You cannot know the wrath of God because there is One who bore God's wrath for you. You can have heaven tonight if you'll just trust in Him, the One who died for you there.
Let me close.
My time's up.
In the book 13 Days, the Glory tells the tale of the Alamo.
On March 3rd in 1836, two hours before dusk, the Mexican gun stopped firing and William Travis had all the men that were still in the floor line up in single file. And he said to them, Manny, he said, I'm not going to lie to you. Argue, miss certain. Those were the words he used. Our doom is certain.
00:45:08
But he said if you'll stay and stick it out and fight, I'll stay and stick it out and fight. And he drew a line in the sand.
Cross that whole assembly and he said if you don't want to stay, stay where you are. But if you'll stay, step across the line. Every man, the animal stepped across the line, even Jimbo, he was injured. He said tear me across. And they all stayed and paw. But tonight we're not asking you to step across the line to die. We're asking you to step across God's line and live.
But you have a decision to make, dear friend.
And God has asked you a question.
A generation of Vipers who hath worn you to flee from the wrath to come, and have a word of prayer. Then our meeting will be over.
One Place, Choosing a Life Partner
Open—R. Mackewich, M. Payette, C. VanSpengen
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.
218.
Then the.
Desire of the Brethren Of Montreal.
That the young people would.
Get something out of these meetings.
I like to look at a subject that's a touchy subject.
Yeah, that's the subject we find in the Word of God.
Not only is the Word of God inspired, but it's a revelation from God.
And God would not leave us in darkness.
Subject they want to bring before us for a little moment is that which is on one hand despised, looked down upon, no longer credible.
Not relevant.
And it's simply their young people to bring before you the history of why we're here.
And I would like to speak a few minutes on this subject called the One Place.
Is it found in Scripture or is it just the term that's come out of the 1800s? We're gonna trace the Lord's health through Genesis to Revelation, The fact that it is God's Word one place. Let's begin with Genesis chapter one.
Now you may think as we go through this that I'm just playing on a word, but as we had our ears to hear and our eyes to be open, and this is one subject where your spiritual eyes need to be opened to see the truth of the one place. I'm not Speaking of the truth of gathering, as we call it, but this principle.
Of one place, first of all, Genesis chapter one.
00:05:01
Verse one in the beginning God.
Verse three, God said.
And in verse.
Six God said. Verse nine God said.
And then there's another one where he says in verse 4.
God, Salt.
Well, we need to realize that this is a living God that we're speaking about, a living God, one who can hear everything you say, one who sees everything you do, and yet he's interested in you and me. We were speaking about the relationship of you and I being brought into the very family of God and having fellowship with God.
Do you know you read Second Corinthians chapter 6, the last verse, and it's not just young people. Rather than that we have fellowship with God. It is God's desire to have fellowship with you. God's desire to have fellowship with you.
There are some in this room who are parents. We have children. We have sons and daughters.
Let me just throw this out to begin with, young people, when was the last time you had a serious talk with your father?
When was the last time your sister you had a serious talk with your father?
That's what God wants from us, not through fact. We can enjoy the relationship that we've been brought into, but he wants to have fellowship. He wants to enter into your thoughts, into your feelings, into your exercises. And here as we start, it's one place. Let's turn over to verse.
9.
And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, And it was so.
Reference has been made through writings of Mr. Darby. Mr. Kelly, When I was a young person, I read most of Mr. Garvey's. I didn't have any friends like you guys do. I didn't have very many friends in the meeting. So my friends turned to books, and I'm gonna take this meeting as it were. If you're at Mr. Darby's, he assumes you know Scripture. He assumes you know where verses are, so we don't have time to go into every verse.
But I'm just going to quote the verse or tell you where it is. You can look it up and check it out. Would that be alright? During the course of this little talk, it's, it's over your head. Raise your hand. I don't want you to lose anything. It's an important subject because God spoke, God said.
Let all the waters be gathered together unto one place. You know Scripture speaks of waters is either judgment or masses of people, and both of these events took place at this one place.
Moses came into the presence of God with the burning Bush in Exodus 3. He was told to take his shoes off for the place. The place three letter word where thou standest.
Is holy ground and we need to realize that young people, when we speak about the one place.
It's holy ground, and the reason it's holy ground is because of the person who occupies this place, Moses. It was Jehovah. I am that I am. People of God have gotten so far away from the Lord they didn't even know what his name was anymore.
Inside there are many Christians who have gotten away from the recovered truth. They don't even know what it is. You've been brought up in a family. You've been brought up in a home where the word of God is presented.
And have you heard? Has your eyes been open? But here's the first reference to the place. Water was to come. We find where that was Psalm 42.
00:10:05
All thy ways and thy billows.
Roll over me. What we're going to find to your young people is the one place is not only a place, but it's a person. It's a person who occupies the place.
Isaiah 40 who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand. That is a fulfillment of this verse in Genesis. God's faith. Let all the waters be gathered together under one place, and there at the cross, the Lord Jesus.
Bore the judgment of God.
All the wrath of God poured out. All his pillows rolled over him.
Return again to Genesis 22 story of Abraham and his son, and God spoke to him. I want you to go to one of the mountains that I tell you of. Again, God speaking one of the mountains that I tell you of, and it says why I in the lad will go Yonder to worship. And that's the whole point of the one place, brethren, is worship.
Well, largely, we'll see that we're not going to have time to dwell as much as I would like to. It's an open meeting, allowing the Spirit of God to allow others to speak. But I want you to realize that this teaching one place is real.
Moses or.
Abraham, it says he saw the place far off. And that's where you may be tonight or this afternoon. You may not even be breaking bread. You may not have an exercise to do so yet, but you see the place far off. And we're so thankful you're here. We're so thankful you're here to hear the word of God. But there came a time in Abraham's life.
Says he came to the place, he came to the place where God had told him of and friends, their brethren, young people, when you get to that place, when you realize and your eyes are open and you get to that place, you're going to be just thrilled and you're going to bow and worship. The man was born blind. His eyes were open. Who is he, Lord, that I might believe? And as soon as he found out who the Lord was, he says, I believe.
And he worshipped. But again, it's a question of faith too. Abraham was told, and he went by faith. We're told too. Are we not there? Shall a man meet you? Bury the pitcher of water. Follow him.
It was brought out, Lord, to whom shall we go? Whom shall we go? It's a person we come to.
Jacob, he's blessing his children.
Judah.
Shiloh is coming.
And unto him, unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
That's a person.
Don't let the thought of one place scare you. It should be a a thrilling realization, the fact that it's a person, the person of Christ himself is the one place. But again, it's worship. John, chapter 4.
God is a spirit. They that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. And so we find in Deuteronomy that they were to offer their burnt offerings not in every place, only in the place which the Lord chooses. But I don't want to get into that aspect of it. That's what we might call ecclesiastical truth. I'm not. I don't want to bring that part out.
I want to bring out the historical fact that there is a place. In that place is a person.
400 years between Malachi and Matthew, the little babe born in Bethlehem.
The angels look.
The shepherd said let us go to Bethlehem. Let us go see what has taken place there.
00:15:00
Do you know after 33 years, the Lord Jesus presented to you and I the heart of man, the heart of God?
And we spit in the space.
We wouldn't have them.
That's interesting though, when you trace the Lord on the way to the cross says when it comes to the garden, there was a place.
There was a place called Yosemite, and he prayed three times the same words, and he poured out his soul unto death. He poured out his soul unto death.
And then it says in Luke 23 when they came to the place.
Which is called Calvary.
There they crucified him.
Genesis.
Let all the waters of the earth be gathered together in one place.
Come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, and over his head titled in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, the whole waters of the whole earth represented. Come there fulfillment of Genesis. God spoke and it was done. And the Lord Jesus could say, I am the man. I have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
By the rod of his wrath.
One place is a person.
Two or three are gathered together in my name. There are my in the midst of them. You've heard that verse, I'm sure. But to realize that it's the person of Christ himself.
Unfolding every grace.
Tomorrow the Lord tarries. There's going to be a table, there's going to be a loaf and there's going to be a cup on that table.
And the Lord Jesus is going to ask us to remember him.
I remember him. There are some in this audience that have a little.
Carnation, I guess it is, and it's a symbol of remembrance, those who have died for this country.
Do you realize young people?
Jesus died for you.
The Son of God who left me and gave himself for me.
The Son of God loves me. We are raiding this morning and John how that John could say that we were eyewitnesses. We saw we heard and as I read that portion, brethren, we kind of read it in a monotonistic tone. I believe in the John wrote that he was just.
Dreaming. It was just so thrilled to think of the very one. We saw him, we held him, we heard him.
And the desire of John's heart was that you and I would enter into that fellowship.
Oh, you ever get excited about anything? This is a living book that was brought before us. It's a thrill that he was speaking about it. He was thrilled with it, excited. He valued this book. A revelation from God.
Those of us who speak, we're supposed to speak is the oracles of God.
Oh.
You go into each one of these aspects of the place.
For the Lord Jesus.
It wasn't a.
Kind place. It wasn't a happy place.
But he came to do the will of his father.
They went both of them together to worship the Lord Jesus. It says in the Hebrews when he offered himself without spot to God.
Pour it out as salt.
That he poured out his soul for you, dear young people, so you can play with the world. Have one foot in the assembly, one foot in the world, one foot in the assembly, one foot in the camp.
Or, like me, sometimes one foot in the assembly, the other foot in my mouth. We need to value the place, but that which gives value to the place is the person, and that which gives value to the person is the realization in your own soul. Your young people died for you. He loves you, cares about you.
00:20:11
One of the exercises I have over the years is the empty chairs.
The empty chairs used to be our children.
Young people, they're gone.
Paul says who did hinder you?
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?
They're young people.
There's somebody here that feels I have offended you.
I'm sorry.
It was not intense.
Don't let somebody drive you away from the very person who wants you to be there, he says. Let me hear thy voice, let me see thy countenance.
Oh, don't take a victim approach to your young people in your lives. The Lord Jesus was the only real victim.
Yeah, we can see his be the victim's name. His be the victim's name. I realize I've gone over this rather quickly, but I want you to go back and I want you to look at the place, Judith. It says of him. He knew the place. And you may know the place but not partake of it. You may know. You may know.
Revelation that says and there was found no place.
So God starts out with.
One place, no place, bridges that gap with the cross. And if you reject the councils of God against yourself, if there's one in this room still lost in your sins, there's going to be a time when God has ever looked through the entire universe, through everything, and says there's no place.
You passed into outer darkness past weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth.
Thing that makes it precious to me. First Corinthians 10. Let's turn to it.
Mansion Lord William. There will be a loaf in the cup.
1St Corinthians 10.
Verse 16.
Kappa blasting, which we blast.
Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
Bible I have.
Has fellowship.
It isn't the fact, brethren, that we have fellowship one with another when we're partaking of that loaf and we're partaking of that cup where we are having fellowship with God.
Concerning.
That sacrifice says here the cup of lesson which we blesses is not the communion of the blood of Christ. Go back to the days of the Tabernacle. There was an ark. On the ark was a mercy seat on the mercy seat with two cherry bombs.
Lori.
One article never separated. You never find them separated. And so here you find the loaf in the cup. You cannot separate them. There's one in the same, and yet they're two distinct things. The body of the Lord Jesus, there at the cross, wracked in pain, bleeding back, whipped, scourge, spit upon, ridicule. The blood from the side, Moses.
Exodus 33 wanted to see his glory. Rather don't come to the meeting young people, just see the loaf in the cup as an institution, but come to it and the the consciousness of I want to see his glory.
Moses wanted to see God's glory. God said, can't do that, but I will make a way. I'll pass by you and I'll put you in a cleft of the rock. Who is that cleft of the rock? The Lord Jesus soldier with a spear pierced his side. You and I are in that cleft, were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. And as we see that loaf and cup, Lord willing tomorrow.
00:25:14
Jesus said Our Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me, that they may be whole, my glory.
God has spoken in His Holiness, and it was at the cross.
And when we come, just don't see it as a cup and a loaf of bread, but see it as glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
He wants us to come before Him in worship. They that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Goes back to Genesis 22, doesn't it? The Father and the Son. But there may be somebody here who perhaps sees the place afar off. Oh, I'm so thankful you at least you see it. There are many who don't. Oh, but that day it comes when you see the place, your eyes are open and you realize.
Jesus, It's the person of Christ himself.
That's who I'm gathered to. I'm gathered around him because he asked me to. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me.
Not only have we been brought into the family of God, but we've been given as a gift for the Son and we're going to be all gathered around him in the coming day. That's true. But today Scripture shows I'm very.
I'm not adequate as such. And actually I have to confess, sometimes it's intimidating for young brothers to go up here and see all these older brothers. And I just hope you don't say the wrong thing.
Rather.
You can't go wrong with Jesus.
He is the way, he is the truth, He is the life and he wants you there. Don't become an empty chair because somebody said something Julie or didn't say something to you. They'll become an empty chair because you don't feel there's anything for you in the meeting. Be there because Jesus is there. And if you ever get discouraged, young people, because of the maybe you're from a small meeting, remember the words of the Lord Jesus.
Behold.
A. Greater than.
Jonas here and then he says, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. So again, as I said, I didn't want to go into the ecclesiastical aspect of it. A lot in Deuteronomy, a lot in the tavernal aspect. But sometimes we lose sight of the fact that the place and I wanna use just simply, but the place is a person, the person.
My Savior, your Savior. And he says this too.
In remembrance of me. And when Jonah was in that way, I was kind of touching to me, he says. When everything is just falling apart, he says I remember the Lord.
Have you remembered the Lord, dear young people?
If he told you to climb Mount Royale and use a skateboard and go down, would you do it? Uh, how much better if you just simply say go wash and be clean? A large Jesus says, come this do in remembrance of me. But just a little thought, brethren to exercise their hearts. Don't let anybody ever tell you there's no such thing in Scripture as one place. God says there is. It's up to you and I to find it. It's up to you and I to be exercised about it.
One of my sons always throws things in my face and he says he can't force an exercise on your brother. You know, it's not a question of forcing an exercise on you at all. The problem is that so often we don't have an exercise period.
We're not concerned about what the Lord might say about it. We wanna do our own thing. We wanna have our own way. It's about me. Nothing is about me. Nothing is about you. But it's all about him that in all things he might have the preeminence. And so I challenge you. You wanna use a concordance? That's fine. Look up the place. You'll find that. The place. One place. A place, No place.
Thank God, by His grace, at least for myself, I know I am in the right place and I trust you can say that too.
00:30:08
Genesis 1 verse one in the beginning God created the heaven, the heavens and the earth. Many of you young people school, university, college are exposed to claims of science, claims of science that often challenge the affirmations those things declared or written in the word of God. I will exercise this week. I had been reading something and in the past that I was reading.
Was referring to the views of evolution and the views of Christians, some who believe that the universe is old and others that believe that universe is young.
I was actually having my soup at the kitchen table, having these thoughts in my mind. I was praying, you know, just talking to the Lord. You know, the Lord is wonderful and His grace, you know, maybe if I fasted 5 days and get on my knees so my knees bled, maybe he would answer my prayers. He's not like that. He, this answers your heart when you speak to him plainly and simply and trust him. So I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, I don't want to be a challenger of anything.
These different discourses that we hear.
Are they important? Maybe not. But I asked the Lord, I said can you? Can you help me with that? Because I wouldn't want to say things to others that are wrong. And as I gave my soup, I had a pile of Bibles in front of me. I was bringing to the meeting for a brother.
And the Lord kind of, I didn't hear a voice, but he kind of said in my heart, I've already told you, I've told you already in my word. And so I thought of that when God is going to destroy the universe, we read in second Peter chapter 3. Let's read that second Peter 3 and verse 10.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away.
With great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth also that the worst herein shall be burned up.
My French Bible it says the Evans will pass away with a a whistling sound. Galaxies, the universe, billions of light years, a dimension beyond our ability to.
Understand.
God, how's he gonna do that? By the power of His word. The question that came to mind is, is creation a process or an event? It's a process. Then God could create processes that develop and produce in time, over time, the universe that you observe. The first word recorded from God speaking in the Bible says God said. Here we go.
Genesis One and three let there be light, and light became no, there was light. I mean, that's past tense. You just said it and it's already in the past tense.
How can that be? How much time between?
When the Lord said it.
And for the thing to be well as soon as he said it.
Say what pretty simple makes God big powerful to be reverence considered in our inability to take him in because he is so powerful.
Psalm 33, verse 6.
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them.
By the breath of his mouth simple for one who accepts God is all powerful by the breath of his mouth. Verse nine for his faith and it was not it became he spake, and it was he commanded.
And it stood fast.
So when the Lord Jesus, the one by whom all things were created, he created all things invisible, visible, all those things. Colossians chapter one, that same one said to the wind and the waves be still. Was there a process? Everything calmed down? No, things didn't calm down. It was a call that was he commanded and it was like that.
How?
Long did it take him to make 4995 loaves minimum? If they all had one 'cause they had five, there's 4995 missing.
00:35:07
How did you do that? Jesus, the Lord Lazarus, come forth.
What process? No process. He said it and there it was. Come up, Heather. Oh, he's gonna come from heaven. The one who spoke worlds into existence and a twinkling of an eye in a moment. It's not a process. He's gonna say it and it's gonna be. And you and I are gonna leave to be with the Lord Jesus. Genesis one, it says and God said.
Can you follow the request? And it was so God said. And it was so I so enjoyed my brothers I brought before the young people. As to having in our hands the Word of God. Let not science challenge the word of God.
Do not doubt that the God of the Bible made the world the way he says he made them.
And by faith, we understand that the world were made.
Were formed by the Word of God. Hebrews 11 answers all questions. In the beginning, there's God.
In the beginning, the Son of God, he was there by whom all things were made. That's Jesus, my Savior. His name wasn't Jesus then, but he would come into the world.
And he wouldn't say things, but you know God says something and there is resistance with one of his creatures only that is mad. Jesus says come unto me and some won't come. We had that this morning. Some saw and they heard and they contemplated and they wouldn't come to him. What? I trust you've all come to him. Now the Lord doesn't command as their brother was suggesting there. The Lord doesn't command, just do in remembrance of me.
It's a request of his heart.
And I trust if we respond to his heart, we want to do that for him. Well, I just had these thoughts in connection with Genesis chapter one we had.
That which was from the beginning in first John, and I'd just like to impress this upon our souls, that this book is the word of God. God said this is how he did it. Science calls it The Big Bang. You think God said bang? You think he said boom? Maybe he said let the heavens on the earth be.
Saddam, I like that, just appears all of a sudden. Let God be God. Let's rejoice, dear brothers and sisters, and the greatness of God. We can worship him as a creator God and a Redeemer God. He's worthy of that.
Could we turn together, please, just as an opening verse to the subject?
That I want to introduce.
To the young people.
And this could apply to younger, younger people.
This could apply to the marrying age. That could be anywhere from 22 and up.
And let's turn, please, to Ecclesiastes 12, verse one.
First of all, I want to give the introduction to this topic about being saved. That is the most important thing that I'm going to be talking about with the subject that I have on my heart. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
While the evil days come not, nor the years drawn nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them, The subject that I have in my heart.
And I pray that you're praying with me now, because I need the Lord's help in this.
I feel very inadequate upon this subject. I'm sure there are many brethren here who.
Perhaps are more eloquent or more knowledgeable and subject, and that is the young people the question of looking for a meat.
Looking for meat?
The last year we've had the privilege of traveling to a number of conferences.
And I'm always encouraged to see young people.
I'm glad you're here.
But this subject needs to be addressed because it's very important, especially for the rest of your life.
00:40:07
This last year I've been asked by a couple of younger brother Mary J.
They said pray for me, I'm looking for a maid.
I'm not gonna give any names. I'm not gonna embarrass anybody.
Now I can talk for the men or the young boys, but I can't talk about the girls because it's just not done. Perhaps Tim Roach.
I'm sure you've probably had a number of young ladies ask for a little wisdom and guidance. Probably it's not my place to begin with.
The thing I these things are earnest. These are expressions of the heart that the young people have. And I wanna be practical in what I'm saying because what I pray I'm saying will be the subject of that.
Marriage is something for life.
Marriage is something for life.
Today's standards in the world and in Christendom included.
Is the fact that I'll see how it goes.
I'll see if we get along. I can see if we can agree with each other to disagree. That does happen. Marriage isn't a road bed of roses. Far from it. I'm not perfect, my wife isn't perfect, and I'm pretty well sure everybody here isn't perfect.
The question I want to bring before the young people is the fact is, what is it that you're looking for in the mate?
First of all, when we're younger and are probably early 20s, we sort of fantasize.
What would Who would like to marry? Somebody handsome, Somebody smart?
So forth and so on. We can go down the line.
And this is natural.
Let's just turn to uh.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse one.
I want to take it a little bit out of context. I know this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and his relationship.
To his beloved church.
Remember now that creator? Oh, sorry, no, I'm sorry. I meant Song Solomon. I'm sorry I got it wrong. Song Solomon.
Chapter 4.
Now when it's taking a little bit out of context, because I want your young people to realize that.
What we see, what we feel, what we know, and what we need to know in the long run is beauty isn't everything.
It says here they hold Thou art fair, my love, Behold thou art fair. Thou hast doves eyes within thy locks. Thy hair. Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead, you young men.
I can only speak for the young man.
You look for somebody who's pretty.
It's natural and that's OK.
Not saying you have to get yourself made-up to look like somebody else because that's not the real you. Marriage is a long long term relationship.
We learn as we were married 43 years before married.
I hope I am.
You know, you get a little older, you get a little see now.
But The thing is this, that I'm not the same and Marie is not the same as we were when I was 24 years old.
I've changed.
I don't look as pretty as I used to be.
I've changed. You know why I'm.
Getting old. I turned 70 last May.
How do I change?
First, first of all, I've only got half my teeth.
My wife tells me. She says I can't understand you if they haven't got your teeth in.
That's very nice.
Later on down the road I had to get glasses.
You look around and see that most of the majority of the people that are 45 to 50 are all wearing glasses.
So there's another problem.
This is something you have to think about.
00:45:02
It's getting to the point now where I can't hear.
My wife is in another room and she tells me something and I yell back I can't hear you.
Where I say to her, wait until we're in the same room so I can understand what you're talking about.
Now, these are little things that.
Happen in our life. They're natural things.
At the point I want to make basically is we change. So don't put a set mind on the fact that you look on the outward appearance. It is important, yes, but what I want to get across to you young people is it's the inner appearance.
When I decided to get married or thinking about getting married.
I had to do a little examination to myself and say what is it that I want in a wife? Now I'm speaking to limit. OK young men, what do I want in a wife?
By that time, 22 years old, you, you start to think a little bit more mature. The young ladies are mature earlier, so they are probably a little different level you might say, which is good because we need it. And I started to think, what is it that I want to look for a wife? Number one is yes, she needs to be pretty.
#2.
That's the most important thing and I want you to get this. She has to be.
A willing desire, a mature sister in the Lord.
I wish I could convert to the ladies, but I don't know how ladies stick and I can't speak for them, but I'm sure you all know that.
So I became serious. What am I looking for? I'm looking for a mature, beautiful Christian woman.
Because this is important, because as you go through life, what makes you go through life? First of all, it's the Lord. Second of all, it's relationship.
And what I mean by relationship is just not the natural nitty gritty of life. Yes, you have to go through that, but what is the final road and say, what do I feel now at 70 years old when I did when I was 24?
It's because I felt that my wife was mature at her age of 22.
I felt that she could be a help to me.
I felt that I needed her companionship, I needed her understanding, I needed her guidance.
And this is very important because this is what gets you through life.
I don't want anybody here to be a statistic and say I tried. I'm out of here. I pray that it'll never happen here. Jenny, young people.
No.
I asked myself the question I'm asking you is this. Where do I meet this partner?
I've talked to many brethren my age.
And I asked them to say, how did you and your wife meet?
Especially when you're in their home and you have a little conversation and a great majority of you have been at Gordon's camp, Hammer Bay.
Others have met at a conference.
A young people's group.
And you know this is the best place to find them.
It's not on the Internet.
It's not on Facebook.
It's not on Twitter.
Nowadays you young people are being bombarded with this thing of matchmaking. It's a big deal.
And the Lord, you can say, oh, I'm looking for a Christian girl, so I will go to matchmate or I will go on so-called Christian sites and I'll meet the one I love. Don't go there. Don't go there. That's not what the Lord's purpose is. You don't have to go looking for somebody. The Lord will bring somebody to you. Don't go looking on the Internet to try and find a partner in life.
Ask the Lord to guide you, Ask the Lord to give you that, that principle that will have these values, these Christian values in the home.
00:50:11
For your relationship between you and your wife, and the relationship between you and your children that will come along.
The Lord will.
It's a life experience and I want you to really think about these things.
I know many of you are asking the Lord the question of who your life mate would be.
And I take it very seriously when these young men come up to me and say pray for me, I'm looking for a life mate.
I'm looking for the one the Lord would have me to.
Be with me.
Prayerfully consider these things.
Look down the long Rd.
Wife and I usually have a little joke and say, well we'd be married so many years, I think we deserve a medal. Nobody's giving me a medal yet.
Because it's the long run. I'm sure there's a lot of people here married longer. Thank the Lord for that. The young people be serious about how you.
Have this answered by the Lord as to what He would have you to do to join a life partner.
I pray that.
In weakness, I may have said something that you young people may seriously think about the long run.
Like I say, I'm not as beautiful as I used to be, but hey, we're together.
Vista Spray.
1 John 1:1-7
God Has Spoken
Y.P. Address 7