Mt. Tabor Conference: 2009
Table of Contents
2 Timothy 3:14 to 4:1
The Gospel
Address—Bob Thonney
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Well, if we start singing, the rest might hear the call to come in, so let's.
Thing #328.
Down Latin America, we sing four or five or six at the beginning of a meeting, but the brethren don't limit us to 45 minutes, so that's a little different. We'll have to just keep it to one him this time.
#328.
Lord Jesus, I stood down.
Why are you here for July and July?
Yeah. I mean, it's still working. Maybe it's still there. Let me go on.
There and go by and let's read uh.
Rain for the great time. I'm going to save it.
I'm really sorry staring at.
Oh.
It's down there, so.
Light and clouds go from the glory in the blood.
Let's pray, Father, we're thankful for another opportunity to open Thy precious Word.
And would ask for help.
As we speak about it, give us direction and clarity. The message that has put on been put on the heart might get over the channels to the hearts of our dear brother in here. Father, we just lay it all before the asking for blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
This afternoon.
Going to read a good bit of the chapter, but I'd like to say this before we do that.
There's a verse in the chapter that we have taken up in our readings.
That has provoked my thinking in this direction, or at least encouraging it. Encouraged it.
Paul tells Timothy.
Do the work of an evangelist.
That's what I have in my heart this afternoon.
Encourage us to get out into gospel work, seems like.
In many areas.
We're letting that slip.
There's nothing more happy than gospel work, but it does take real spiritual energy and decision.
Some have debated whether Timothy was an evangelist. It really doesn't say.
It says do the work of an evangelist. What does an evangelist do? He evangelizes. He gives the gospel out. And we need to be encouraged to get into that kind of work.
Really think it is extremely important for the ongoing of the Christian testimony.
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Young people.
Older ones too. Are you involved in gospel work?
Getting out the message that Christ died for the ungodly.
It's a happy work, gospel work. Somebody says if you want to be happy, do gospel work.
Do you wanna have heartbreak? Be a help to your brethren?
And so gospel work is a happy work.
I must say I have found it so, but it does take real spiritual energy to get involved and I look at you young people and I think.
Wow, I wish I could get into your heart and encourage you.
To get off that seat and to go after souls.
Must say I was encouraged by others in my youth to get into gospel work.
Used to do St. preaching in Chicago. I mentioned Chuck Hendricks. He used to have a microphone.
And we could preach on the street because it was Skid Row downtown Chicago.
And a lot of drunks around.
And it took a little bit of wisdom to know how to deal with a drunk when he came around. Remember when he came around and he wanted to preach?
Is a little bit soused.
And Chuck Hendricks handed it quite wisely. He just went over to the microphone and switched it off and let the man speak all he wanted to when he got done and went on his way, Why We switched it back on and kept on preaching.
So it does take some.
Energy and take some decision and take some wisdom too, but there's so many opportunities all around us. I know where we are. We have opportunity to go into a youth village, kids anywhere from 12 to 17.
Who have gotten in trouble with the law somehow.
And they're not old enough to be treated under the regular Criminal Code.
It's a private institution that keeps them there, and they give us full liberty to go and give them the gospel.
But, you know, it has, I really believe the work in the gospel has a healthy effect on our lives in the assemblies. And I think it's very important that we be exercised in that direction. Sometimes I've heard people say, well, we're more occupied with the assembly side of the truth of God. Let other groups take care of the gospel. I say the truth of God embraces the whole.
Right from the gospel on. And if you ignore the gospel, you think that's not your burden. I say you need to think again. We need to all be occupied in giving out the gospel.
But let's read here a few verses from this 4th chapter of Second Corinthians and like to make some applications to us. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully.
But by manifestation of the truth, commanding ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God noticed that small G the God of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves.
But Christ Jesus our Lord and ourselves your servants, for Jesus sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
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That the Excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in US.
But life in you.
What a wonderful thing, dear brethren, that we have been brought into the knowledge of the true God. It is spoken of here in verse 7 as a treasure.
What is that treasure? The knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Brother Bruce, do you know God?
Yeah. How many of that is our most wonderful thing to be able to say? I know God.
You know what Muslim doctrine says God is unknown and unknowable.
Over a billion people in this world admittedly admit that they will never know God.
And you say you know him.
Isn't that wonderful, you young people? You want me to come back there and start asking each one of you, do you know God? Don't have time to do it right now, but it should really impress you. We have been brought into the knowledge of the true God in the face of Jesus Christ. Wonderful. The God that made this universe is the God that came into this world.
And loved us so much he went all the way to the death of the cross.
To redeem this rebel Sinner that stands here.
It's just tremendously wonderful.
But it says here, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
And there is the danger of hiding the Gospel or hiding the light. Matthew says we can hide it under a bed or under a bushel. Under the bed is just, I suppose, the figure of laziness.
It's easier to be laying down on this bed than to get up and go out and encounter souls.
The bushel speaks of business. Sometimes we get so busy, don't have any time for the gospel.
Oh, what a tragedy if the light he has put into your vessel is hidden from the eyes of man. And I stand up here, dear young people and others, to not as an example because I've failed in this.
Let me tell you just briefly.
Something the Lord used to search my soul. When I was in high school, I had a friend in my class.
He was my partner in chemistry lab.
He was the son of a college professor in that town were always brought up.
One day we were doing some experience, uh, experiments and bending glass tubing. And you know, glass doesn't cool down real fast.
And after a while I didn't know if it was cooled down yet, so I touched his arm with that glass tubing.
Anyhow, he came back a couple of days later and he says, look where you touched me on my arm. I'm going to carry that scar to my grave.
It was just as if the Lord said to me, you'd better tell him about the Lord.
You know what?
I just kind of put it off.
Put it off and a few months afterward we graduated and it was about 3 months after we graduated somebody came up and said to me, you know what happened to Paul Rempel?
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He was sky diving.
And his parachute didn't open in time, hit the ground too fast and was killed.
I never told him.
Lord, glad that to happen in my life. And I've learned, dear young people, that the Lord, put somebody on your heart. Go tell them.
Do whatever you can. If you don't feel like you can tell them, get a gospel track and give it to them.
Their gospel calendar. There's a lot of ways you can do it. I've learned that when the Lord puts on your heart somebody, you'd better get out.
And give them the gospel. Somehow if our gospel be hidden, it is hid to them that are lost. What a tragedy. You have the answer that this world needs, and you're not doing anything about it.
Again, I say I can't take a lot of credit myself. I've been encouraged by others getting into gospel work, but I have, especially in South America, founded a really a happy work to do. We used to in South America when I was still single.
And without hardly any responsibilities. I didn't have a car, I didn't have any house or anything. In those days we used to go off into the Andes of Peru, back beyond the end of the road.
And maybe get a donkey to carry our luggage that we go town to town, we get to a town, we would look for the authorities of the town and ask them for a public place to meet.
And uh.
They would usually give us the stool.
Of the town and then we would go around in the afternoon when the people got in from the countryside and leave a piece of literature in their homes, invite them to the gospel meeting. At night. Generally 25 to 30 people would come out and we were able to give the gospel very interesting responses. Things from 1 village to the next, it was totally different.
Still remember going across those High Plains one time and.
Way off in the distance, here comes three people running at us towards us. They thought we were prospectors looking for gold and they wanted to come and offer their services. The brother that was with me, he spoke Quechua, the Indian language that they spoke, and he started talking to him and I of course didn't understand Quechua.
But all of a sudden, the woman just starts crying.
Anyhow, afterwards I understood, she said. We live like animals up here. Nobody cares about us.
He has given her the gospel, then the gospel. What a privilege to give the gospel to people that have never heard. But whether they have ever heard or not, I say it's our responsibility to carry it out.
You know the scripture is very clear when the Lord Jesus before he went back to heaven, he said go into all the world, preach the gospel to every preacher, he that is, he that believes in his baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.
Pretty clear, isn't it? Go out.
Doesn't mean that all have to leave the country, but when there's so much need in this world, I challenge you to put yourself before the Lord and ask him what she wants you to do with your life. We're not down here to make a big mark on it down here in business or in any way to make a comfortable life for ourselves. That's not the purpose he's left this year.
For one of the purposes is to give out the message of the gospel, and there's crying need in every corner of the world.
Oh, I long to see you, dear young people, exercise.
They say you can't be me and I'm not you, so you be yourself, but you put yourself before the Lord. You ask him what he would have you to do.
That's the secret, just like Paul when he was arrested on the way to Damascus, said Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
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There is so much need everywhere you look.
Just want to give a few examples.
Examples here or speak a little bit about these verses we've read first of all and then.
Speak some practical.
Councils about giving out the gospel. Notice in verse two says we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
Bruce, you were mentioning of what's that man's name, Mahatma again? Gandhi. And that's the reason he didn't become a Christian was because of Christians. Is that is that it?
Inconsistencies of Christians so it shows that.
Our practical life is what commands the gospel, you know. Sometimes the illustration is given.
Of.
Gideon. Gideon.
When he surrounded the Midianite host to fight with him, had two things he had a.
Light a torch in an earthen vessel and he had a trumpet.
That's the two forms of our testimony, the light and the voice, showing and speaking. Does your life show the gospel?
Remember one of the old church fathers, I think it was said, preach Christ always. If necessary, use words.
And that's important that your life commend the message of the gospel. And sometimes we allow in our lives things that we know are not right.
Do you think you're gonna be prospered in the gospel effort if you do that? I say we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
The Lord help us.
Dear brother, dear sister, in this I remember the testimony of a sister in another part of the country.
Who was quite timid.
And in the office, she worked quite a few other secretaries there.
She didn't say a whole lot, but one day one of the other secretaries came up to her and said.
You've got something. Will you please tell me what it is you have?
I can see it in you. And she was able to tell him, tell that other secretary about the Lord, and she got saved through seeing the gospel in that particular sister. It's important. Another thing here in verse two that I think is important in gospel work is commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. In other words, aim at the conscience.
Sometimes there is the desire, when we give the gospel, to make it an intellectual thing.
It's not a matter of being intellectual, it's a matter of the conscience.
And the Lord Jesus and his life down here aimed at the conscience.
So often when he was asked questions in his life here, he did not answer the question, he answered the conscience.
Remember when they brought that woman taken into adultery? What a shameful thing, that poor woman, standing in the midst of all his men accused of adultery. Such an horrible sin.
And.
The people around him said Moses in the law said we should stone this woman. Woman, what do you say?
Was a question.
He did not answer that question. He answered their conscience. He said he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.
And they got up, and one by one they left that place until it was only Jesus and the woman who were left.
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Aim at the conscience.
So brother, I know who has his doctorate in.
And, uh, I forget what you call it in studying insects.
But he often gets in conversation with other intellectuals.
Who want to confirm to him that evolution is true?
He said he's learned to simply say.
I'm not going to debate the question of evolution with you. I just want to ask you what about your sins? What about your sins?
He says they turn on their heel and walk away pretty fast.
We don't have to address the thing intellectually.
Although Christianity is very sound to rationalize, but if you get on the basis of one mind against another, they might be more bright than you are. So keep to the Scriptures. When you present this gospel, aim at the conscience, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. You know why?
Because the conscience of man, that is, the knowledge of good and evil, tells.
That person that what you are saying is right.
That's what it is. It's the knowledge of good and evil conscience, and it tells them that what you're saying is right. So aim at the conscience.
Just, uh.
Verse 6 here again for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I love this.
Where does the glory of God shine in all its fullness?
In the face.
Of a man.
Who is Jesus Christ? That face was more marred than any man's. He hung there on that cross, His head crowned with thorns.
His face had been beaten by the Roman soldiers. They had spit on him.
And then, in three hours of darkness, in a sight too awful for us to see, God laid on him the iniquity of us all, and the full force of divine judgment fell on Jesus in those three hours of darkness.
His face was so hard, more than any man's. It isn't that face that the full display of the glory of God shines.
Look at Jesus.
That's where you see the testimony of who our God is. God is love and God is light was shown at that moment more than any other time in the history of this world.
In the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. On that Christian. What a precious thing to be able to know God. You know what really concerns me, brother?
Is that they say the Muslim religion?
Is the fastest growing religion on the face of the earth?
Not that I.
Think there's any reason to apologize? The reason they are growing faster is because they're allowed to have four wives in most parts of the world and that's why they grow as fast as they do.
But it is now a fact that if we were left here, a question of 20-30 years, the Muslim population is going to overrun Europe and even in this country I don't know.
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Because they are decided.
And I see Christians that don't seem to be decided.
Please don't think I'm pointing a finger at you. Pointing a finger right at me. You know what's?
What's been the death blow to our Christian testimony?
Wanted to be comfortable, wanting to have things really nice down here.
We're not called to have things nice down here.
And I want to get to this in the last part of this portion we've read.
Verse seven says we have this treasure in earthen vessels. You remember how Gideon?
Fought the war with the Midianites. He instructed his 300 men to stand around the camp of the Midianites at night, and at a given signal they were to break the vessel and the light would shine, and they were to blow the trumpet, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And God gave the victory over the Midianites.
The Midianites rose up and they killed each other, and then getting in his men finished off the stragglers.
But what is this? The breaking of the vessel?
And he explains, I think, what it is in verses 8:00 and 9:00, Speaking of some of his.
Own experiences.
In His service for the Lord, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed. It's going to be easy. No, it's not going to be easy.
You want it easy, go and lay down on your bed.
But that vets going to hide the land light.
What a tragedy. What a tragedy.
Don't let that happen.
Now notice verses 10 and 11. This is what comes to me as such a tremendous challenge.
Dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus.
Says always.
Varying about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus.
The life of Jesus might be made manifest in our life.
This is something we should always do, always, he says, varying about in our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. The life of Jesus is life and resurrection, but it won't be evident unless you know what it means to have died, because resurrection takes place after death, and if you do not put this principle of death to work in your life practically.
The life of Jesus will not be made manifest.
So if I live down here to please myself, have the nicest car, the color I like.
And all the other things.
Dealing with clothes and whatever else it might be in your life, that life of Jesus will not be made manifest.
You know, verse 11 is kind of similar to verse 10, but there is a marked difference.
Notice verse 11 for we which live are.
Alway delivered unto death.
Doesn't say always bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus. Now here it says we're delivered to death.
For Jesus sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our and notice what it says, mortal flesh.
You know what happens?
In our lives, God allows.
Trials, not something we choose, were delivered to it.
We heard about dear Nancy going home this morning.
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The way that dear girl lived allowed us to see something of the life of Jesus.
She struggled to stay as long as she could.
But it wasn't for her own sake. It would have been easier for her to go a lot. A lot.
The time before.
And God allows struggles like that in our lives.
Dear brethren, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
And who of us don't have troubles and problems in life? Things that we don't enjoy were delivered to it. God allows that. It's God working in US. Why? Because he's put a treasure in that vessel of yours and He doesn't want it hid. He wants it to come out into the light. And so sometimes he breaks the vessel, especially when we do not carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
In obedience to him.
He allows us to be delivered to something that is very unpleasant.
Why does he allow that? So the light can shine.
Nancy's dear children.
There is another family out West that went through something of the same thing, perhaps not so long protracted.
There's, uh, Lundin family.
Jeff Lundin and Joyce. She got a brain tumor and struggled for a while.
But my brother told me that they decided when they got the news that it was terminal. She was a beautiful woman, Joyce was.
But when they got the news that it was terminal, that she would only be there for a little while longer, they decided as a family to live life just as normal.
But letting the folks around their neighbors see the joy and the hope they had in the Lord Jesus.
And the testimony was tremendous.
I think at her funeral there showed up about 800 people.
There were some saved because of her testimony.
Why did God allow that to happen? Is that what God wants in our lives?
I don't think we have to say that the Lord does it, but He allows it. Why? Because He wants that light that He's put into the vessel to shine. And if you don't allow it shine on your own, He will allow circumstances in your life.
So that you will let that light shine.
There is a brother back out in West, I don't know if you ever met him, Brother Bill, uh, Albert to you as a man who was in the hospital in Gresham, OR do you remember hearing about him?
He was a man who was paralyzed from his neck down from the time, I guess after he was born, the doctors wanted to do some kind of corrective surgery on him and they accidentally severed his.
His spinal cord at his neck and so he was completely paralyzed. He only had the control of his face and he didn't have much control with that because.
The muscles in his face were ******* which means that he didn't control him very well.
And remember Oscar Frazier out there taking us to see him in the hospital. He was only in the hospital. That I know.
Because it required constant care. But Albert knew the Lord.
He took us to this stretcher that was wheeled around.
Almost made you ashamed to have to look at him and he was so twisted and his face was so contorted when he started talking about the Lord Jesus.
The light shined out of that face.
And everybody in that hospital knew about Albert and about Albert's Savior, the Lord Jesus.
That vessel is so broken the light shined up pretty freely.
Dear brethren, the Lord has left us here to carry out the gospel.
We mentioned this morning that Timothy or Paul in second Timothy was writing his last.
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Directions to his son in the faith, Timothy and he said.
Do the work of an evangelist. Timothy was a timid young man. I take it he was told by Paul, Let no man despise thy youth, which gives me the understanding he must have been fairly timid.
And yet he was to do the work of an evangelist.
I'm convinced, brethren, that there are unused gifts sitting here.
Maybe you have a natural gift in some area where you're earning big money.
But I want to encourage you to use that spiritual gift that has been given.
And even if you say you don't have the gift of an evangelist, how are you going to know it unless you start doing the work of an evangelist?
Her brother, Albert Hayhol.
Charlotte's dad telling about trying to encourage us young brothers to get on our feet and give out the gospel. He was a good gospel preacher, but he said.
When he first got up to preach the gospel, it was in Toronto and Toronto meeting was fairly large at that time I think.
And there must have been some pretty serious looking old men sitting out there. And so he said when he got up to preach the gospel.
His mouth went all dry and his hands were trembling so bad he had to take the cup with both hands to make sure it got into the mouth.
That's the way he started. You gotta start somewhere.
Let me encourage you, open your mouth.
Speak about the Lord. You don't have to start by giving an hour's length sermon, no.
Let me just encourage you to in speaking the truth of the word of God.
Use the Scripture. It's the sword of the Spirit. It's that which God uses to impart life to dead souls, and it's important. Use it, but speak of the person of Christ. Speak of the work of Christ. So often we get on a story like Blind Bartimaeus, which is a good story.
Right out of the scriptures.
Nothing wrong with that story, but get back to the cross, get back to the person of Christ, because that's the central part of the message of the gospel. And we're living in a culture, as we've mentioned this morning, that is denying the very basics of our Christian faith. And that's where you find them in the gospel. You deal with The Who Jesus is.
And what he did on the cross.
You deal with the question of sin and the importance of repentance.
Those are issues that need to be pressed on people's conscience, and that salvation comes through faith in Christ alone. All those are important points. We don't have time. Time's up right now. But let me encourage you, dear young brother.
Dear young sister too, don't think you're gonna be left out here. I don't expect to see you getting up on the platform preaching, no, but I know a lot of sisters down in Bolivia.
That take a handful of tracks and they go to the hospital and they're giving them out bed to bed. Who knows the fruit that will come from such efforts? You can do something such a tremendous opportunity to to get a handful of the gospel calendars that they're producing now.
Go around home to home.
Their people.
Not everybody is gonna listen to you, but their people waiting to hear knock on their doors.
Give him a gospel calendar. Maybe they'll open up. Maybe they'll be an opportunity to speak more. The Lord help us, dear brother, sister, and the Lord Jesus to the encouraged to do the work of an evangelist. Let's pray.
Father, bless thy precious word. We pray, Father, that we might be encouraged that there might be more of our dear young, especially that would rise up. In whatever way Thou hast show them to do the work of an evangelist. Pray thy blessing. Father, rest afternoon, and the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Same as though.
2 Timothy 4:1-8
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.
So we sing 168 #168 the night is for sale.
In the extension to the light of the world.
Don't blast your head off.
What can't run by the way again?
I won't forget everything about that.
All right, I guess. What's wrong?
Nsnoise.
OK.
Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee again, and we have sung together words which at the same time are most encouraging and yet most searching and solemn.
We do realize, on the one hand, that the night is far spent and the day is at hand.
But on the other hand, our God we trust that we mean it when we own our coldness of heart.
And when we pray to kindle within us a holy desire, we look to thee then, as we have Thy word again open before us, that Thou wilt speak of us from its pages, not merely to impart truth that may be held in the head, but rather that Thy truth may have its effect on both our hearts and our conscience.
Before we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
We begin at the 4th chapter again. Then I think it would be nice to start at chapter 4, verse one, and maybe begin to comment a little bit on verse 2. But I know our dear brother Bob brought much before us in connection with the work of evangelism.
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And so perhaps we can lightly touch on versus UH-2 and umm 3 and then a little further down the first five, but it's, there's a lot of instruction here and, uh, Paul was very detailed in his instructions, so it's good to go over it.
Second Timothy, chapter 4. I charge thee, therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom?
Preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables.
But watch out thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them that also.
That love his appearance, do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, or Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, crescents to Galatia.
Titus to Dalmatia only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me For the ministry and to ticket Anticheus have I sent to Ephesus.
The cloak that I left at with carpets when thou comest spring with thee.
And the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the copper Smith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou where also for He hath greatly withstood our words.
As my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.
I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by the that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly Kingdom.
To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Ona Cypress, Erastus, abode at Corinth. Petrophemus have I left at Militum 6.
Do thy diligence to come before winter.
Uvulis Creedacy and Feudans and Lioness and Claudia and all the brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit, grace be with you. Amen.
Paul was really seeking to stir up Timothy, wasn't he? It was a really an impassioned plea to Timothy in the last chapter that he, uh, is used of God inspired to write to this young man. And, umm, he had a sense of the urgency because he was about to pass off this scene and he longed for Timothy to, uh, be stirred up in his soul and to take up that work. And so he says in verse, uh, six, I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure is at hand.
He felt it keenly, and he longed for the truth to yet be ministered among the Saints. And so This is why.
In verses two to four, he really, umm, tells them, tells Timothy that there's going to be a time when, uh, sound doctrine isn't going to be re received. But the time right now, it's still being received. There's still time to minister the truth of God.
And while the in second Timothy chapter one and verse 15 already mentioned in the last meeting.
Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are fidelis and homogeneous. There was a great departure, but there were still those that were faithful that wanted to go on in the truth. And he said, You give them the truth, you minister the truth.
And umm, he says, in order to preach the Word, that's what they need, the Word. And so it wasn't ideas or as our brother Bob brought before us at the last meeting, stories, good stories and those sorts of things. But they needed to be.
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Timothy needed to be acquainted with the Word. He needed to preach the Word. Give the Word of God out. It's going to have the power with souls and it's going to have the power with your brethren if you just in love and affection for them, seek to bring Christ before them.
What does it mean in season out of season?
Sometimes the Lord seems to open up a beautiful opportunity, doesn't he? Sometimes the Lord just makes something so easy for us and so clear that there's a tremendous opportunity to bring the gospel before someone. Just as that girl you mentioned in your meeting, Bob, that was quietly going on for the Lord in her work, in her office. And someone comes to her and says.
You've got something and I want, I want you to tell me. But there are other times, perhaps when the opportunity isn't so easy. And I don't mean that.
How should I put it? We can be rude in presenting the gospel, and that's not what is implied here. But at the same time, sometimes we can excuse ourselves by saying, well, there just wasn't a good opportunity or there wasn't a good season. Sometimes we need, would you say, to go on the offensive with the gospel. Is that the thought?
Would there be an example of the in season in connection with the Apostle Paul on Mars Hill as we have in Acts chapter 17?
And verse 22 it says, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him, declare I unto you. Then he went on to say, that God that made the world in all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven, and.
Earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands and then?
Uh, he continues there. That seemed to be a ready made opportunity, so to speak, didn't it?
We connect that first verse of chapter 4.
With the 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
And verse 11.
Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
There's judgment coming.
And men are going to stand before the Lord. He's going to judge the living.
And the dead.
When he appears in glory, he's going to judge the living, and in his reign he's going to continue to judge the living and at the end of his reign.
He's going to judge the dead.
And they're going to stand before that one that we know who wanted to be their savior, who could save their souls.
And we were depositors of that light.
So I beseech you before God.
That we preach the gospel, we preach the Word, because there's judgment coming for the living and the dead. And if we share.
In our hearts, the compassion of God is mercy and desire for blessing. We can't know of such judgment.
Coming upon the living and the dead, and not tell them.
They don't. It might be impolite to tell someone. The Gaza can't be impolite, you know, If you're concerned about someone's soul, it's nice to do it quietly and in a nice way and you know, but if the house is in fire, you might have to scream.
And scream if you have to, but you have to tell them.
There's, uh, another nice person that same chapter in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
It's the 14th verse 2. There's two aspects that are brought before us in this chapter. It's for the love of Christ constraineth us. So we we have to know something of the love of Christ too. And both aspects have to be stressed and brought out in the gospel to get a a balance.
The import I suggest is brought more clearly before us in what you get in the 3rd and 4th verses, because.
Paul recognized. And I believe it's fair to say we're certainly living in the days when this has occurred.
The men have turned their ears away from the truth and turned unto fables. And sometimes it's necessary to try and breakthrough all of that. And in order to do that, it may take a little more energy than to speak to the one who willingly comes and says, I want to know more. And as Bruce points out, it can't be with the energy of nature. It can't be with the energy of the flesh. It must be with a sense of God's love for souls and the love of Christ constraining me.
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But it may have to be, as Michelle points out, with real vigor sometimes, and perhaps with an attitude. Listen, do you realize the road that you are on and where it ends?
God uses all certain side, uh, all sorts of means, doesn't he?
Remember Brother Ramon Alarcon telling a story of a man who got saved down in Mexico?
And he was so desirous of his one of his friends to get saved too. He took his machete and he went to his friend's house and brandishing his machete, he says.
Get saved.
Get down on your knees and cry to God for mercy.
And he did it.
Under that kind of pressure.
So he went back and told the brother that had given him the gospel, what he had done. He had gotten his friends saved this machete.
Says that's not the way to do it. Don't ever do that. You need to go apologize that you did it that way. So he went back and he apologized to his friend and his friend says don't apologize to me. I got saved. I really got saved. It's amazing what God uses at times. That's not the way, That's true, that's not the way to do it, but.
God is that sometimes things that we don't, we shouldn't do, but he uses him and it's it's wonderful to see how God uses different means to to bring the word home. The important thing I think in season and out of season is to use every possible opportunity. This is a season that we could say is in season. We got the word open. We're talking about it, but there's other seasons we might visit in the person's home and sometimes it grieves me brother, and we get together as believers, but it doesn't seem like the word has hardly any party in our conversation.
Let's be instant out of Season 2. Let's mention some verses. Let's get the conversation turned in the right direction. We can do that. I think that's what it means here, doesn't it?
There was an urgency that the apostle is pressing on Timothy because it was the very last day, which we're still in today. And the, the, uh, deterioration of all that had been, uh.
Built, you might say, by the apostle and his laborers, and yet.
As a servant of God, he was going to have to have a right spirit and what he did, and he was going to have to have a right foundation and so.
There was a need, an urgent need for reproof and, uh, that the Scripture was profitable for, for rebuking, for exhortation, but it had to be with the right spirit. It had to be with all long-suffering, and it had to be based on the word of God, because that's what commands the conscience of Sinner or St. And it was the maintenance of the truth of God. Really, I think among professing Christianity, that was the, the main part of the charge that was laid upon Timothy and the first epistle. He was sent to Ephesus.
That he might make sure that no one teaches taught any other doctrine.
And that which the apostle Paul had brought before the Ephesians.
And certainly as we have later on, evangelization, uh.
Was part of his ministry and he needed to make sure he didn't neglect that, otherwise he wouldn't make full proof of it.
But the burden of the charge was the maintenance of the truth of God among the Saints of God. And it was rapidly coming to the day when that would not be suffered by the Saints of God. And I would say we're in that day.
When the Saints of God.
We meet brothers and sisters in Christ in our own hearts. I have that same tendency to want a Christianity that's just not based on the sound doctrine and teachings of the Word of God, but good feelings and whatever it might be. And if the Word of God is brought to bear for reproof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness, it's not wanted. You're interfering with with these.
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Things that we want to go on with in the name of Christ it might be, and with all good intention, but don't let the Word of God interfere with it.
And he was rapidly coming to that day. And so there were itching ears that were going to refuse sound doctrine and wanted to receive anything else, something that would tickle the ear, something that would satisfy the 1St man. You know, when the children of Israel came across the Red Sea and Moses went up into that mountain and after a while they became discontent, they.
Press Darren to make them gods and he said give me your earrings.
And out of that itching ear, you might say that golden cap was formed.
And became an idol. And so these things that come in that aren't based on sound doctrines, they really become idols.
To the Saints of God that take the affections away from where they should be. And that that was the day, Timothy, that was just rapidly coming in. It's the day that we're in. And so that solemn charge to maintain the truth of God in a day like that, there's an urgency in season and out of season.
Before us in second Kings Chapter 7 in connection with the leprous men, uh, outside of the city of Samaria, and we read what had happened in the early part of the chapter. But verse nine was a verse that uh came to note says then they said one to another. We do not well.
This is a day of good tidings.
And we hold our peace.
If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now, therefore come that we may go and tell the King's household. So they felt an urgency, didn't they? Some mischief, uh, might be come upon us.
And they realized that they had something worthwhile to proclaim.
Timothy was raised up of God, wasn't he? It says in second Timothy chapter one and verse 6. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is indeed.
By the putting on of my hands. And so Paul had been, uh, instrumental in, uh, recognizing this, uh, young man of potential. And he had been trained especially in the House of God, in the school of God that he might be of use after Paul was taken. And so the, uh, he tells him here in verse 2 to preach the word and so on. And with, uh, all long-suffering and doctrine and umm.
Because he gives them the contrast that if he doesn't do it, if he doesn't rise up in the energy of faith and in obedience to the word of God, and umm, exercise his gift, because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. It says then there would be others that would rise up and uh, they would rise up anyway. And uh, they would, uh, rise up, not being sent of God as it were, but they would not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
And so they wouldn't be, as it were, sent out with the, umm, the blessing of their brethren, but it would be, there would be, uh.
Just a desire to hear things that are comfortable, smooth words and they wouldn't want to hear the sharp edge of the word of God. And so Timothy was to use the word with the sharpness, as it were, in season, out of season, but it was to be in love and long-suffering. And he was going to, if he did it, then there would be that, umm, I don't want to say, uh, defense, but there would be a defense in some way.
Against the enemy, the work of the enemy among the people of God. And so those that are taught of God, those that have the energy of faith that know the word of God ought to exercise their gift and to use it to be able to teach the truth. That's what it means at the end of verse five. Make full proof of thy ministry, doesn't it? And it really is exercising when you think of it. Timothy had a gift was given to him.
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By prophecy, with the laying on in the hands of the presbytery, which is the elderhood or those he had the fellowship of his local brethren, and use of his gift, but he had to be told to stir it up. Spanish translation says wake up the gift of God.
Means the gift is dormant and I really think that we are guilty of that a lot. What are we going to do when we stand at the judgment seat of Christ and the Lord says I gave you a specific gift to use for my purposes down here.
I'm going to say I didn't have any clue what the gift was, Lord. I'm going to say that to the Lord. It's very clear in Scripture that.
Every member of the body of Christ has something to use for the benefit of all your sisters as well as your brothers. You young people, it's time to wake up. It's time to use what we have. We don't have too much more time left down here. And I love what he says in these verses to follow. I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. What beautiful statements that Paul could say.
I think of the only perfect servant of the Lord there ever was, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says in John Four, my meat is to do.
The will of him that sent me and to finish his work. Then in John 17 he says I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Paul couldn't say exactly that. He could say I've finished my course, I've kept the faith.
But it really exercises my own heart, brethren, to think the Lord has given something to me to do for him. He's given something to you to do for him.
When we get called to the judgment seat to give an account of our lives.
What are we going to say in that day, brother? It's gonna happen, and not too far in the district.
It's gonna happen. The Lord encourage us. Paul could probably the servant of the Lord after the Lord Jesus, perhaps one of the most devoted, but he can say I've finished my course.
But couldn't say I finished the work that thou gave us me to do, not even him.
In the book of Ezekiel, there were those that were called to be Watchmen. And I was just thinking of a verse in the, uh, 33rd chapter of Ezekiel and verse 7 which says, so thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the House of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. And let's just turn to, uh, another.
Verse back in Proverbs chapter 24.
In connection with responsibility that we talked about earlier.
And verse 11 Proverbs 2411 Says, If thou for bear to deliver them that are drawn unto that death, and those that are ready to be slain.
And I have a note in my Bible concerning that word for Bear, and that is to neglect to perform a known duty. And so that was the duty of the Watchmen, wasn't it? That was the work that was given for him to do, to sound the warning and to the evangelist to deliver a message. And to those that are called to any work of God. God.
Has given them a plain word, and again as our brother Bob has brought before us.
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Uh, there's the end of the course, uh, to be taken into consideration as well.
Timothy, you know in Acts chapter 16 did a work which was close to home. It says in Acts 16 and verse 2, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. So we don't need to go very far away to do a work for the Lord. We need to do a work first in our home assembly and in the local area. If we're going to give out the gospel, we don't need to go to a far off place. We just need to exercise our gift in the local.
Uh, area, I just, uh, I'm burdened as I think of, uh, I was just, uh, you know, an assembly and not a small assembly. And I took, uh, time we went to lunch with, uh, a brother there and he was, uh, burdened, very burdened in his soul. And he said, you know, just recently, in the last few weeks, uh, three brothers have come to him in that assembly and he's the one that asked to take the, asked different ones to take the gospel and he says 3.
Brothers, older brothers, like in their 50s perhaps if I, I don't know exactly, you didn't tell me exactly who they were, but he said three brothers have come to him and said don't ask me to take the gospel anymore. I don't want to. I think it's the younger generations that that should take it and so on. And oh, he was so burdened. You know, brethren, if the Lord allows that a brother asked us to take the gospel meeting, we need to exercise our souls. He exercised in the presence of God as to why the Lord allowed that brother to ask me to take the gospel and I ought to get into the word.
And, uh, just seek to exercise the gift that the Lord has, uh, given me for his glory and not sure that responsibility.
In that same connection, I would point out, and I know you'd agree with it, Robert, that while it's very nice to see a gospel testimony connected with the local assembly, wonderful. Yet let's never forget that Scripture does not present gospel work primarily as an assembly responsibility. It's an individual responsibility.
This epistle is individual to Timothy at this point. In fact, I think it's fair to mention that in this whole epistle the assembly or the church isn't even mentioned because it's failed. Now I'm not suggesting that God hasn't in a wonderful way restored to us the precious truth, but when we speak of the local assembly, we really ought to say the local representation of the assembly, because every true member of the Church of God in that locality.
Is not likely there. But the point is gospel work is an individual responsibility. I can't let myself off the hook by saying, well, it's younger brethren that ought to be doing it, or younger brethren say, well, I don't have the gift or whatever it might be. Yes, it's nice to see those that have gifts, It's nice to see them exercise it, but it's an individual responsibility that we all need to feel.
You'll pardon a personal story, but uh, my father-in-law, Alan Hammer, Umm.
I met him really for the first time on May the 7th, 1979 and umm, the umm, weekend of the, uh, Canadian Victoria Day weekend, uh, 30 years ago. He asked me if I would take the gospel there in Hammer Bay and I said, well dear brother, there are others that are older and much more experienced and so on. And he laid his hand on my shoulder and he said.
We're on your side. When you stand up at the front of the room, your brethren are on your side. They want you to do well. They want to see you speak well of Christ and they want to encourage you. You stand up and you give the gospel well. That was an encouragement to me. And I would just say that those of us that are older in the room and we see our younger brothers studying the Word and desiring to in some small way do a work for the gospel, encourage them.
Strengthen them, encourage them, and not only, as you say in the gospel meeting, in the assembly, but gospel work is done on an individual basis 1St and then there the Lord can use you in the assembly or other places.
Well, this expression in verse seven, I have fought a good fight.
There are many in this world that are fighting a fight, aren't there?
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And we sometimes speak about somebody even though they lose, and we say, well, he put up a good fight.
But the sense of what we have here is not that I choose the kind of fight that I'm going to be involved in. We could read this, perhaps this way. I have fought the fight, the good one.
I have talked to individuals who have sometimes spent their time and energy, even those in military pursuits, and who have been very embarrassed and ashamed later on in their lives when they realize.
What they got taken into and what they were fighting for and how that they were fighting for a 'cause that was really a wrong one and now they're embarrassed about it. Wish they had never done it. There is a good fight to be fought. There is a place for your energy and mind to be used. And so Timothy Paul says to Timothy, I have fought, as it were, the fight, the good one. Had Paul been fighting before he was saved? Indeed he had. He had been fighting very vigorously.
And he was now ashamed of all that had gone before he was.
He was saved but now he can talk about the fight that he had fought since he was saved and he says that is the good one and then he says I have finished my course.
What course was that? Once again, I believe here it is not the course that I choose. In fact, I was very much struck, and I'm not in any way finding fault with those who have quoted the verse because I have done it myself. But in Acts 20, Paul says that I might finish my course with joy.
But if you notice in the Darby, he leaves out those words with joy that I might finish my course. And I've asked myself why that is, because if I finish the course that the Lord sets for me, it won't have to be a question of whether it's with joy or not. It will be with joy. And then he says I have kept the faith. How many, sad to say, have started out well in the Christian pathway and have had.
An understanding of the things of God. But then things have come in and it's easy for anyone of us. And then it's all too easy to say, well, that path is too difficult. That course is too much that Paul could say. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. And as Bob says, that is probably the most that any believer could ever say. But how wonderful to think of the one who could say all alone.
As no other could I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
That fight, could we consider that to be the fight of faith?
Someone made shipwreck concerning the faith we have in the Jude chapter one.
There's only one chapter in June, so that's easy. Jude verse 3.
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend or fight or combat for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints. The Apostle Paul, he had kept the faith that he had received from the Lord through the difficulty he'd gone through, and at the end of his course he still had that same faith that the Lord had given him. It's not the faith of trusting the Lord rather than the things that were committed to him to teach the faithful men.
So just so we're clear on it, the word or expression, the faith here really is, you might say, the whole body of revealed truth, isn't it? We speak of the Christian faith. That isn't necessarily a scriptural expression, but the thought is the same. It's the whole body of truth that God has revealed to us.
And he says in Ephesians chapter 4, there is one faith.
Has been delivered to us now.
The faith once delivered to the Saints.
But there was a motivation here in connection with uh, umm, Timothy and, and Paul presents himself as an example. And he says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day. And not only not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. And so he presented the fact, fact that there was a crown of righteousness.
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And it's really perhaps in contrast with the unrighteousness of how he had been treated by the Roman government.
And how the enemy had stirred up those that hated the gospel and hated the truth of God, wanted to extinguish the truth and to obliterate the word of God. And so the Lord knows and there's a crown. Paul was going to have a crown of righteousness and it was going to be to the glory of God. He kept the faith.
It's for those who love his appearing.
We look forward, brethren, to the Rapture.
But we also look forward to the appearing.
Remember, my late uncle Clem Dear used to say that Christian can rightly pray two prayers.
One Lord Jesus come.
And two, thy Kingdom come.
And brethren, as we look around and see all the confusion.
All the disorder even in the Christian testimony.
It's discouraging at times to look that way.
But we love his appearing, and we recognize that only in that day of his appearing, when he comes back to reign and righteousness.
Will things be sat right according to God?
And we should love that day we have.
Nature's divine, Nature's now.
We should feel.
The disorder, the.
Injustice, the suffering that's going on in this world.
I sometimes think that when we speak about the fact that the Christians should not get involved in political movements, we leave the impression that we are insensitive as to what's going on in the world. We should not be insensitive.
But we should long for that day. There is no other answer to the confusion.
To the question of abortion, that seems to be on the slide now in the wrong direction.
Question of homosexuality. It seems to be going the wrong direction. What are they going to do, get involved in political movements on it?
That won't remedy the situation.
What we need to do is preach the gospel, get those people saved, then they'll change. But it's not a political movement. And as to a global answer, there is only one answer. That's when Jesus comes back to reign supreme from sea to sea in righteousness, then there will be righteousness then. Do you love that day?
We should long for it, brother. With all our hearts we should long.
And for those who love his appearing.
There's a crown of righteousness.
The end of revelation the Lord presents himself.
In two characters.
Revelation 22.
Verse 16.
I, Jesus, have sent mine Angel to testify unto you these things and the churches. I am the root and offspring of David.
And the bright and morning star in the spirit and the bride say come.
So he presents himself as the true.
Air and the one who's going to come and sit on the throne, Great David's greater son and set all those things right.
And he's going to sit on the throne of his glory. And he presents himself, too, as the bridegroom, the bride. And Morning Star. And her responses come.
You know, was impressed on me recently and the man's name goes through my mind. But there is a man who was appointed.
To a particular political office and as he was being grilled by, uh, different members of Congress and, uh, the cameras were on him for the news event and he was being rather abused by.
00:45:07
His interrogators, as it were, as to his past conduct.
It seemed to be going badly for him.
Until the cameras focused in to the audience behind him, and his wife was sitting in the audience behind him and, uh, she was crying as she felt the dishonor to her husband, whose conduct she knew had been upright.
And it turned the whole tide as to the appointment of that man to office.
And in that same way, there should be a longing on our part to see the man.
Who is?
Coming for us and who is the object of our affections to see him justify vindicated by God himself in the very place where he was cast out. It should be the longing of our hearts to see him on the throne in that day and that really too, You know, there's many thoughts in Isaiah 52. His visage was so marred more than any man.
I think it takes in not only what he received from the blows of men's hands, for he felt what was in their hearts, and it takes in what he endured in those hours of darkness on Calvary's cross, For no man ever suffered like he is.
But whose visage for these last 2000 years has been more marked, Whose form has been more marked than the man Christ Jesus in this world? The visage is what is seen outwardly, like the storefront sign. Whose visage has been more marred? Kings shall be astonished at him. They'll say, This man. This man is sitting on the throne of Jehovah.
This man has been exalted head over all things, heaven and earth. That man, there's going to be astonished at him because his visage was so marred. More than any man we should feel that. And in that way too long for his appearance, he's going to be vindicated.
Is there a thought in the question of the crown of righteousness that in the apostles finishing the course and keeping the faith that he had behaved in a way and his conscience was void of offence between before men and God, that he'd been himself instructed in righteousness by the Word of God? And I lived that out, presenting an invisible Christ to the world and being valuing that privilege of being his representatives here, not only in Word, but in our behavior too.
If we are not looking forward to that man, the Lord Jesus, if we're not looking forward to his coming, we don't love his appearance. It's going to be difficult for us to go out and fight the battles.
Of faith, the Lord Jesus has given us all that we need.
We need to have a love of souls, a love of the people we're going out to speak to.
But the Lord Jesus has given us the resource that we need to go out and and give the gospel back in verse 17 of chapter 3.
We find that the Lord has given us His words in order that the man of God or the person of God.
Maybe, may may be perfect or complete. You're complete. You're complete with the Word of God.
You have the Spirit of God within you. You have Christ.
What do you use? You have all you need to go out and serve the Lord. Now, sometimes we think, oh, it would be nice to go on a mission trip or have someone else organize it, but you have all you need to serve the Lord as an individual.
On your own, it's nice to have fellowship with others in the gospel, but God has given you all you need, the serpent.
And we read the only the Gospels and we read the account of what the Lord Jesus passed through. We would wonder, and we at times still do wonder, what must that have felt like as as Stephen?
Related to a minute ago, but we have the book of Psalms which when we compare we put the two together, we are told in in the most profound language that pierces our hearts.
What it really felt like when he, you know, they, they pierced my hands and my teeth and there he was looking out upon them.
00:50:08
And so we have a look by the Spirit of God into.
Into the heart of one that was like no other.
In the book of Hebrews in the 11Th chapter that we all enjoy so much, we we have another divine exposition. And it's wonderful when Scripture helps us understand other scriptures. And there we see the motive that many of the Saints of old have. And we might have suspected that they had that motive when we read the account in Genesis or in, in in the books of Samuel or the kings. But we're told by God himself in Hebrews 11, he looked for a city.
That's what motivated him. Uh, we're told of, of Moses that he endured. How did he do that as seeing him? It wasn't visible. And here we have this letter that was written to uh, uh, uh, uh, a son in the face, umm, a letter from 1 soldier, warrior to another who he mentored in modern language, whom he loved, we brought up in the faith. And it's an opening up in a precious way of Paul's heart. And it indicates to us what really sustained him.
This wasn't just a vain patting himself on the back at the end of his course as I know everyone understands when he when he does a self-assessment and says I have kept the faith, I have fought a good fight.
To say well you know, let another, let another man praise you and knock thine own lips. No, this was lead of the Spirit of God to give an assessment and it's an opening up of his heart to pass on to Timothy, not just what he did, but how he was able to do it.
And he had the vision to look beyond. He had the vision of the fact that there was an accountability and the affection that he had to. Stephen and others have indicated looking forward to the time when the Lord Jesus would be vindicated here.
Because it wouldn't just be enough, speaking reverently, it wouldn't be enough.
Just to take the Lord Jesus and raise him out from all the rest of the dead, which God has done.
And and caused him to ascend and given him a name above every name in the highest place in heaven. He's done that already.
It wouldn't be enough still to rapture all of us out and to raise those that sleep in Jesus. That's still not enough.
Because God has said in his word he must reign.
And it's an essential thing with God as that man who was, who was hated without a cause and who was spit upon him, all the rest, it's essential. It's imperative for God and for God's glory. That same man as the, as the angelic testimony said, this same Jesus, same man is going to come back here. He's going to be extolled and exalted and be very high. He's going to do that in this earth and the the renewed heart and every believer just looks forward to that day and makes your hair stand up.
To think about what it's going to be like to stand there and to be able to see him finally given the place and the honor that he is so worthy of.
Verses in, uh, Isaiah 2 That speak about that day. Bruce, I just revel in this. It's just so beautiful. We don't have time to read very much, but verse 10.
Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord.
And for the glory of His Majesty, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled.
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord.
Alone shall be exalted in that day for the Lord. The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up. And he shall be brought low. And upon all the Cedars of Lebanon that are high, and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of basin, upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up. Verse 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down.
And the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Verse 22.
Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for weary. And is he to be accounted of? That's that day we're looking forward to, Brendan.
00:55:00
And would we want to be vindicated in any way then, before he is?
Apostle Paul, as you brought out earlier, remember Jesus Christ of the seed of David raised from the dead.
Content now to go on the day of that crown of righteousness given was not going to be until the day when he's vindicated he has the preeminence.
#40 in the appendix.
Umm hum, that's the Cathedral Creek.
To go to the earth and come away and fell and throws the storm.
All right.
I'm going to try.
And consult you. I don't know why I'm ready to drink glory, so I'm going to be.
We shall come down all the way to the world.
Up on the end of all the travels, all right. And the follow up, all right. No, I'm sorry. So I'll hold my hand.
Really. I'll I'll give you a call on.
Yeah, I don't know if I'll do that. I don't want to experience.
Wrong. Anything else and I don't know why I would be blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Maybe we could.
Stand for the last two reasons.
For you.
And all the Champions. And Craigslist.
Fallen haste and shallow us all my life here.
OK. Or anything else because you're getting.
Uh.
We also want.
Send in the last verse of 295.
When I gave it to her and run problems and deliverance and pray.
01:00:07
God.
Very thumb boy and he's gravy when you're grilling and you're starting to sound dangerous when you're graveled. Colorful. I have and.
Revelations chapter 19.
Verse 11.
I saw heaven opened. Behold the White Horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness.
He does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vestige dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Not of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations.
He shall rule them with a rod of iron.
And he tried at the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he asked on his vesture and on his thigh, My name written King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
For loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for these minutes that we've spent together.
And for this hymn that we've sung, and we thank you that we can praise.
Be and honor my beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we do look forward to that day.
Whenever knee shall bow, please.
When every heart will be smitten.
When his greatness will be known, yes.
We long for that day.
We pray that that day would reign in our hearts even now.
As we wait for his coming.
So would you mind the rest of this day if your right hands?
In the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Consequence of Disobedience
Gospel—Michel Payette
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We'll start our meeting this evening by singing together a hymn from the hymn sheet.
If you don't have a hymn sheet, put up your hands. Some brethren are giving them out #9.
We read the hymn says come every soul by sin will press.
There is mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His Word.
Only trust Him, only trust him, only trust him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now, for Jesus shed his precious blood rich blessings to bestow. Plunge now into the Crimson flood that washes white as small #9 on the hem sheet.
Come here.
Umm.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for this hymn we can sing. We thank Thee we can open thy word together too. We thank Thee that there is such good news.
From my heart of love to us poor creatures, we thank Thee that so patient and long-suffering, our God and Father, not willing that any should perish, that at this late hour still the message of Thy love and mercy and grace can go out. We pray Thy help tonight, Father, that Thou wouldst be with the speaker's lips and work in our hearts too, that we might understand something from Thy heart of love, and if anyone here in the midst of us.
Still is a stranger to such love and grace. We pray tonight that they would come.
They would not tarry, and they would come to night to know Him and trust Him only. We ask these things with confidence, Father knowing not us here, and answer prayers, because we ask these things in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
2 words in his hymn.
00:05:02
They don't want to draw attention to.
And perhaps you could remember as we.
Speak this evening for a few moments. The first word is mercy, and in connection with mercy I'd like to read a verse in the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2.
And the fourth verse Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 2.
And verse 4.
But God, who is rich in mercy.
For his great love wherewith he loved us.
The God of the Bible.
The God who made the world is a God who is rich in mercy and has great love, love that he has proven beyond the shadow of any doubt.
That he has proven to this world when he sent his Son the Lord Jesus.
The manifesto's character, God himself, manifests in flesh.
And when you let him bear our sins in his own body.
On the tree.
We could say this world is a godless world.
But we'd be wrong. This world has a God, but the God of the Bible.
Hasn't given up. He's still acting. He has acted in the past, he's going to act in the future and he's acting now.
We pray tonight that you will act in your soul.
And do something.
Make you responsible before him.
Mercy.
There are different words used in the scriptures that are translated mercy and in this passage in my French Bible and other passages the word is.
Miseriquard, which is really a word that means a heart that is sensitive to the misery of another.
God can see the misery of his creature, and he's not indifferent.
And he doesn't say good for you, you should have behaved otherwise. God is not like that.
He has a heart that feels for us.
He feels tonight for the sorrow.
That's on the face of this planet and so many of his creatures suffering.
And he doesn't say good for you.
He's rich in mercy.
His heart is sensitive to our sufferings and our misery and he has a solution. He wants to come in for us.
And he wants to come in for us and do what's best for us.
So sometimes we find ourselves in situations and we have an idea of what would be best for us.
We're not all wise, we don't know the future. God knows the future, and if we let him, you'll do what's best for each one of us.
And what's best for you? What's best for me, if you don't know the Lord Jesus your Savior?
Is to come to him right now.
Nothing better for you to do than to come to him.
Right now.
Maybe this is the first time you hear about the Lord Jesus. Maybe you've heard many times.
But I trust, with the help of God, that when you leave this room tonight, you'll be a responsible person before God. Perhaps you are already and you've just been careless.
That you'll be a responsible person before God, knowing from God's Word what God expects from you.
And I trust that as you go out this door tonight, you will say, oh, I know the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior.
And if you can't say that right now, I say please pay attention.
You know it says in Romans Chapter 11. Turn for a verse there for a moment.
Read verse 32. I'll just make a few comments on there. That's Romans 1132.
Did the apostle Paul is explaining a little bit of what God has been doing?
00:10:02
Through the ages with his people, Israel, and now what he's doing through.
The Gospel with other nations, and it says in the 31St verse.
Verse 32 Rather, for God hath concluded or enclosed the mall, that's Jew and Gentile. Doesn't matter which nationality you are, God has concluded them all in unbelief, or we could say disobedience.
That word translate unbelief here. It means someone who willingly refuses.
Willingly refuses to believe, to submit, to accept what God says, what God commands, what God requires.
And that's a trait of natural men. He's dead in trespasses and sins, and he's an enemy of God.
And God says, well, this is what the Jews have been, and this is what all the nations have been.
Disobedient and the reason God has put the mall together.
In this clump of disobedience is in order that he might have mercy.
Upon all.
Not that he will have mercy upon all. He wants to have mercy upon all. There's no one in this room tonight God does not want to have mercy on.
So He offers you tonight to be reconciled to him.
By the death of his son.
There's no other way to be reconciled to him but by the sacrifice that He has provided himself in the person of the Lord Jesus. And I know many in this room already have come to know the Lord as their personal Savior. They can call God their Father. They know. They know they're on their way to heaven. They know many things from this precious book that God is pleased to reveal to them. And God would have you each one tonight in this room to be in that same position.
Because he wants to bless you. He wants to know you. To know that he's rich in mercy, that He loves you so much.
That he gave the Lord Jesus for you on the cross.
See, I've heard that before. It's good.
You might hear it again if God is patient with you. Have you believed it?
You know, in the news recently I was reading.
There's a woman in, uh, Quebec somewhere, I believe was in Quebec, she got a hind. She was going down an escalator, all these electric stairs there, she was going down the escalator and she had partials in her hand and there was a, a policeman there and he told the lady says you have to hold the ramp.
And she didn't obey. So he told her again, lady, you have to hold the ramp. And she said, I only have two hands. You know, she had all these parcels in her hands. I only have two hands. And you have to hold her out, lady. And she didn't. So she got arrested and she got a fine. She had to pay. I was $420.00. We're not holding a wrap on the escalator. You say, boys, that's terrible. You didn't hold a wrap on the escalator. You had to pay $420.00 fine.
What do you think she's gonna do next time she goes down the escalator? She's gonna hold her up or she'll get broke in no time.
This other man, he was arrested and fined for feeding the squirrels.
It was a science that do not feed the squirrels. Jesus loves squirrels. He just loves animals. He brought these nuts and all the squirrels would come and go on his head, in his pocket. They arrested him, give him a fine.
He went to court.
He lost.
The sign said do not feed the squirrels and he fed the squirrels. He read the sign and he didn't believe what he read and he did it anyway and he had to pay a fine.
The other lady paid a fine too. We're not holding a handrail.
Want to show you something?
What are these, 646? If you go out the door there when we're over, when we're done, you can look on the left at the pile of sticks there. I got them out of the dormitory right by the door. A lot of sticks. I was picking up sticks there.
00:15:01
What day are we?
What's today?
What day are we? Sunday? No.
Saturday. That's right, Saturday. And you know, Saturday is the Sabbath for the Jew.
You come up here next time.
Numbers, Chapter 15.
You know, I could have gotten into real trouble, boys and girls, picking up these sticks.
You say no, you can't get. Is there a sign says not to pick up sticks out here? No, not here. But in the Old Testament times in Israel, you were not allowed to pick up sticks on the Saturday which is today. Had I been living in Israel several thousand years ago and done the same thing I did today?
I might have lost my life.
See. That's not fair.
Well, that Lady who paid $420.00 for not holding the ramp.
The policeman told her three times.
Lady, hold on to the map. What did she do?
She disobeyed.
This man, he got charged for feeding the squirrels.
Was he ignorant? No, he disobeyed, and this man in Numbers 15 will read about that.
But let's suppose before we read that we're going to read two accounts there. But let's suppose that I didn't know it was Saturday, and I didn't know that you weren't supposed to pick up sticks on Saturday. I saw no sign. Nobody ever told me. And somebody found me picking sticks up on a Saturday. They said, what are you doing? I'm picking up sticks.
What would I have done? Who won anyway?
With my sticks, do it anymore because sometimes you can be doing something wrong and you don't know you're ignorant. Once you know then you're not ignorant anymore. So that had made a provision in the Old Testament. Some people might do things out of ignorance. They didn't know and they did the thing that we're supposed to do, but they didn't know and sometimes we do that too. Well, God takes into consideration if we're responsible or not and if you're not responsible because you were ignorant. So Numbers chapter 15 and verse 27 it says.
And if any soul sinned through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sends it by ignorance before the Lord to make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.
What's interesting here is that it's not like it never happened. It happened, but there was a provision for that person to be forgiven because they didn't know. So they had to offer a sacrifice for him and God accepted the sacrifice and he forgave him. And then it says verse 29, you shall have one law for him that sent it through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel and for the stranger that sojourn it among you. So whether you were a Jew.
Or just a visitor. You weren't allowed to do it, but there was provision for ignorance. And once you knew then you were ignorant anymore. But then it goes on and it says.
But the soul that do it ought presumptuously whether he be born in the land or a stranger. The same reproaches the Lord, and the soul shall be cut off from among his people, because he had despised the word of the Lord, and had broken his commandment.
That soul shall utterly be cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him.
There was a difference there. Somebody did the same thing, but they weren't ignorant.
That Lady, she was some three times to hold a handrail and she kept on not holding it. That other man, he had a sign there. Don't feed the squirrels. He went ahead anyway.
But there was a consequence. They had fines. Well, here's this man now numbers 15 and 32. He knew.
What God had said, and he despised what God had said. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. Just what I did a few minutes ago. This is what this man did. Didn't rob a bank, didn't stab anybody.
00:20:16
Didn't hurt anybody else.
Uh, from our standards did nothing wrong, except God had forbidden that to happen and he went ahead anyway. He despised the law of the Lord. When God says something, he means what he says.
And he means business. And that's what happened. They found him gathering sticks, brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation. Verse 34. They put him in war, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death.
Wasn't Moses said, oh, that's bad? No, the Lord said to Moses, put him to death.
Is that the thing God that's rich in mercy, Where with the great love, Where with his love that same God?
Numbers.
Greeting this man according to his responsibility, he knew.
And he was willfully disobedient.
He went ahead and did what he wanted and disobeyed the Lord.
And he did get what he deserved.
Some people listen to things like that and say that's not fair. We're not to tell God what's fair and not fair. We're to listen to God to obey what he says.
No, I don't know what happened the Saturday after the next Sabbath, but I presume there weren't too many people of Israel out gathering sticks on that Saturday.
People still notice and perhaps they started having the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This world has no wisdom because it has No Fear of God. They blasting God's name day in, day out.
And he despised the name of the Lord Jesus. They have No Fear of God.
Before their eyes, and they are all the more guilty because before the Lord Jesus came, it was the condition of men not having the fear of God before their eyes.
And now he has come.
And he has manifested the heart of God.
He died on the cross and he's risen again. He's in the glory now, and the Gospel is being preached across the face of this earth.
And God is patient and long-suffering, and maybe he's waiting for you.
Tonight.
Because he is loved.
He is rich in mercy and that's why we have subsisted.
As his creatures before him, defiant as we are.
He is rich in mercy, slow to anger.
But you know, in the end, it's going to be his way.
It's gonna be perfectly in accordance with this book that we have in our hands. There's a man who's going to reign supreme. His name is Jesus Christ. He is Lord of Lords and King of kings.
Now I don't know what's in your soul tonight. I can't see in your heart tonight.
I don't know if you hold a handrail when you go down the escalator.
Or if you feed the squirrels. Or if you pick up sticks on Saturdays, or whatever else you do.
That God says you shouldn't be doing.
But God says you have done things you shouldn't have done.
He knows, he says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Now one gotta find the other one. How to find this man lost his physical life?
Anything worse than that? Losing your physical life? Oh.
Something so terrible.
His perishing forever in torment away from God.
It's in this book from the God who is rich in mercy.
Because of the great love wherewith He loved us.
This same God will send men in eternal torment and damnation.
Why is that?
00:25:00
Because they are willfully disobedient.
Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10.
Let's read verse 28.
Hebrews 10, verse 28.
He that despise it, Moses Law, died without mercy.
Under two or three witnesses.
This man who did what I did in Israel way back in Numbers 15.
He died without mercy, Moses said. Put him to death, and they put him to death. He died. That man died that same day.
Because he picked up sticks.
That's what it says here.
What have you and I done?
Well, here's something that was done.
And I don't want you ever to do that. Don't do that tonight.
Verse 29.
Of how much sore punishment suppose ye? Shall he be thought worthy, Who hath trodden under foot?
The Son of God and had counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing.
And I've done this fight unto.
The spirit of grace.
Here's a question.
A question for you and I to think about.
Here's this man. He just picked up a few pieces of wood, lost his life.
What about spitting in the face of the Lord Jesus?
Drawing under foot the Son of God.
By seeming his name.
I think God is indifferent to that.
What do you think the punishment's going to be?
The one who picks up the sticks. He died without mercy.
And there's a time coming where there will be no more mercy on the part of God for those that are guilty before Him, who will have rejected or neglected.
The callings of His heart of love, His offer of grace and mercy and reconciliation.
To this guilty world.
When the Apostle Paul wrote these words, he was referring to those Jews who were going back to Judaism and.
Dissociating themselves in every way they could from the testimony of the gospel, perhaps, that they'd embrace before.
And in the year 70?
Titus and the Romans, Roman armies, they came to Israel.
And 1,100,000 people were slain, children, women, old men, soldiers.
I'm sure they must have cry to the Lord for their children, for their wives, for their husbands, for their sons, for their daughters.
Nothing stopped it. There was no mercy.
My friend, tonight God is calling you in love.
To consider.
That when the Lord Jesus was on the cross.
There was no mercy for him.
He cried. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
There was number answer to that question.
You despise tonight the Son of God. You want to put off trusting in the Lord Jesus.
Not important for you to get saved. God thinks it's so important for you to get saved now, not tomorrow. We don't know about tomorrow. The Lord Jesus might welcome tonight.
And when you stand before God, are you going to say?
I've never done anything wrong. Well, Romans 323 says you have sinned.
And you come short of the glory of God, You calling God a liar when he says you've sinned and I never sinned.
You're gonna tell I never heard about the Lord Jesus?
Well, do I have to say it again? In other words, we've been talking about the Son of God all day. Perhaps you've been here before. Perhaps you go to meetings and you hear about the Lord Jesus.
00:30:03
Have you given in to him and say Lord?
I don't want to be rebellious and disobedient anymore. I don't want to be unbelieving. I want to submit. I want to accept this offer from God to be reconciled to Him by the death of His Son. It cost God so much.
I can't imagine what it was for God the Father not to answer.
This blessed One, who only did those things that pleased the Father, look like you and me.
We do things that provoke God. He always did those things that pleased the Father. There was no reason for Him to be there saved that He wanted to do the Father's will. And the Father wanted to have sons and daughters in heaven. That's you and me. And that's why you have to give Him for us, because He couldn't have us in heaven unless He could take our sins away. And the only way to take our sins away is for sinless sin bearer, the Lord Jesus.
To be on that cross, to be judged, to receive the chastisement that we deserved. And God gave that to him.
For all those that believe.
And for those that believe not, not that haven't heard. Those that have heard and believe not.
If it was me.
It won't be me because I've accepted the Lord. I would be getting what I deserve.
I would be getting eternal separation from God in torment forever from the God who is rich in mercy.
Because of the great love wherewith He loved us.
Which I put on refused, neglected.
And the time passed, and I crossed into eternity without the Lord Jesus.
You know the time in my life I could last see in the name of the Lord. 3 * a minute. Never think of it.
Probably wouldn't even notice myself that I was using in the Lord's name in vain.
Did God hear that? Oh, he did.
I'm so thankful I'm never going to stand before God to answer for my sins because the Lord Jesus, he was forsaken on the cross for me. He was the one who did not receive mercy.
So I received mercy.
Have you received mercy from the Lord, dear 1:00 tonight?
Why are you going to stand before him when there is no mercy?
You know what it says in ROM in John chapter 3.
Verse 36.
You know, I, I just just like using judgment in the gospel, you know, I'd rather just speak of love and grace and forgiveness and heaven and all these things.
But I'd have to skip some verses from this book.
John 336 it says he that believeth on the Son. That's the name of the Lord Jesus the Son.
Half everlasting life.
Wonderful John 647 Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, ha.
Have everlasting life. Oh wonderful.
But this verse keeps on.
And if tonight you can't say, oh wonderful, I have everlasting life, This verse keeps on, and it speaks about you.
And he that believeth not.
He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God.
I buy this.
On him.
Luke, chapter 19.
The Lord Jesus says in Matthew's Gospel Chapter 11.
Come unto me, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
If possible, as the Son of God who loved me and gave himself.
For me, I have loved you, saith the Lord.
God is rich in mercy.
God commanded his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
What wonders of God's love, grace and patience to give that one for guilty ones such as us who deserve the punishment for our sins being castaway forever from Him.
00:35:03
And you would not have that he pleased with us. He long suffers over this world, not willing that any should perish.
Is anyone in this room tonight?
Perishing.
Is anyone in this room tonight still past the wrath of God upon them?
Because it has not fallen for them on the Lord Jesus on the cross, they won't have them yet. They're putting it off their reasoning in their minds, thinking the other side when they're they're done doing what they want to do.
Bad decision, very unwise.
Luke chapter 19, verse 27. The Lord Jesus.
He's the one that gave this parable.
Resign enemies which would not.
But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them.
Bring hit her.
And slay them before me.
Or slay them in my presence.
I believe this parable was a prophecy of what happened to the Jews because not only was the Lord a testimony among them, and then the apostles came and gave them a testimony of a crucified and resurrected Christ who was willing to forgive.
And they rejected that too. And they stone Stephen, the Lord's messenger.
And God said, what if you don't want them?
I'll offer them to other people, and I saw you and I weren't Jews and hurt the wonderful news of the Lord Jesus.
I trust you have heard it tonight, my friend.
I trust you're responsible before God to know that from this book you are guilty of doing something.
And the Lord knows everything about you, something that displeases God and that will have you incur eternal punishment unless you accept.
The richness of God's mercy and the greatness of His love manifested in the Lord Jesus on the cross, whose fraud He did not answer so he could answer your cry tonight.
Have you cried to him yet? Lord Jesus, save me.
You haven't already. Don't put it off.
Tonight, now, so it says, today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of salvation. It's been running 2000 years.
It's still now. I can't say about tomorrow. I can't say about the rest of this evening, but we can be assured from the word of God right now, if you call upon the name of the Lord, you're going to be saved. He's going to save you now. Only trust Him.
Put it off.
Oh serious one verse one John chapter 5.
Verse nine first John 5:00 and 9:00.
If we receive the witness of men.
We do that all the time. We do it in school, we do it in our business. There's all sorts of things that we act upon that we learn from men. We have reports of things, we believe them, and we act upon them.
We believe the witness of men. It says the witness of God.
Is greater.
For this is the witness of God, which he had testified of his Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a lawyer, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
This world is constantly calling God a liar. God has given witness to his Son in this world and the world says that's not true.
God hath given us his word.
And the Lord Jesus says thy word is true, and they say that's not true.
Well, let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, dear ones, tonight.
It is true.
It is true, the testimony that God has given of his Son, it's absolutely true. This is the word of God, it's absolutely true. And if you don't believe it, you'll be sorry forever. So tonight, why don't you give in the Lord? Lord Jesus, you can help me.
00:40:22
You can have my sins. I don't want to go on in them anymore.
You save me tonight, I don't want to stand before you with my pile of sticks.
And then one of them is rejection of the glorious gospel concerning the Son of God who hang on the cross, who hung on the cross to save sinners. And that's what you are, a Sinner before God, and you wouldn't have him.
God has nothing else for this world but the Lord Jesus Christ. May you have Him as your personal Savior tonight. If I haven't been clear, if you'd like to talk to someone else after, please do this bar heads in prayer.
Our God and our Father.
What richness and thy grace and mercy to consider him.
The creator of the world, hanging between heaven and earth on these two sticks of wood.
And we put up for him.
And Father, now this pour out upon him the judgment that so many of us deserved. We thank Thee for everyone that come to the Lord Jesus and knows him, knows him now as their personal Savior. We pray for everyone in this room that none would go out a stranger to thy love and grace, that none would be willingly disobedient, trotting on their foot, the Son of God, rejecting the testimony that given of my Son, rejecting him. We pray that that would not happen to any. We thank you for this time together.
Pray thy blessing on thy word, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.
Darkness and Light
Children—Tim Roach
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Good morning.
Does anybody have a hymn they like to sing this morning?
#5
Transactions done. I am my Lord that he is mine. He should be honest. I followed on.
Two things and the one behind.
Every day happy day.
Lands Vision.
Wash my things up already.
Because to your house to do my temperature.
And flavoring Christ and everything.
Happy to make it easy and happy daily. One Jesus was my true no brain.
Northern.
Ireland Who has been the best grave to the Lord?
Nsnoise.
Every day of a.
99.
99.
Let's ask the Lord's help.
Our God and Father, we give thanks this morning for this time we can come together to sing praises and hymns to the Lord Jesus. And we just give thanks for the death of the Lord Jesus and the blood that was shed to wash our sins away. And we give thanks for that happy day that we can that we have when we are saved, that happiness that goes on. We just ask that if anyone does not know the Lord is their Savior, that they might have a happy day today. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Does someone else have a song they'd like to sing this morning?
Anybody.
OK, that sounds #40. We'll sing the 1St and the last.
00:05:11
You know, one night at our house that we were staying in, in Africa, it was raining very hard. We have a tin roof and it makes a lot of noise and so you can't hear things that are going on outside. Well, that night the watchman, he decided he was going to break into the other house that was on the property. We had bars on the window so you couldn't get in, but he was able to break the bar somehow or cut it, and he was able to get into the house and steal a couple of things.
That the landlord had stored in there but.
He did that in the dark.
We know that people love darkness rather than the lights because they do bad things.
Does someone else have a song you'd like to sing?
Yes, #42. Thank you.
A little.
More.
Surprising.
Open door.
Or light. My heart is away from my point right now. Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God.
I'll tell you a story about another boy.
The mother and the father, they had bought food and they had it stopped put in the refrigerator and they had some bread in the refrigerator. And each day it seemed like the bread was getting less and less well. This boy, he had been getting up at night time when everybody was sleeping and he'd go in and he'd eat the bread and the mother would wonder, where is the bread going. And they couldn't figure it out. And then one night they found that their boy.
Was there eating the bread at night. Oh, so they had to punish their son because he was doing these bad things and he had the that he had to eat bread 3 meals a day for a week. He couldn't eat anything else.
But he did that at night time when nobody else was watching.
Because people like the darkness. Because they do bad things in the dark.
Someone else have a song they'd like to sing? Yes 46.
Glad to hear.
That.
How you can do anything you need to continue, uh, and it's all kind of.
Genuine and you are all you know I am still.
You know man, boys and girls, people, we do bad things because we are sinners. But Satan also makes people do bad things. I know when I was at a funeral once in Africa.
And you see that Satan controls people very much at funerals. And this girl, she was being held by two other people because she was having some fits and uncontrolled and they finally had to let her go and she got down on the ground and she was barking like a dog. She was possessed by a demon and.
We we sometimes call those bad things that this the devil makes people do. We call it spiritual.
Darkness.
Spiritual darkness, or we call it the darkness of the world.
Maybe we could sing one more. I think this little boy had his number.
44 OK, we'll sing the 1St and the last 44.
00:10:03
Into a day where a gifted boy laying alone at the close of the day.
You start salvation with everything Nobody ever has told it to the beginning.
Throughout the night and all that I hear.
No, I don't have any chance for me.
To stand on the children of men nobody ever has told me before.
And you wake up the last word of his breath and your heart, he answered about me until.
Yeah, I can't get time to install everything.
I am sure that I need an important.
One again.
I'll make some story reaping around.
Some of you know a man named Paul.
He was in the Bible and Paul had a friend. His name was Silas and they were out speaking to people in the town and they were telling them about Jesus Christ. And the people they didn't didn't like Jesus Christ and so they took Paul and they took Silas.
And they took him to prison. And before they put them in prison, they took some ropes, some whips, and they whipped them on their backs.
39 times on their back, and their back was bloody and their backs were all sore. And then they took them and gave them to the prison keeper, and the prison keeper took them and pushed them into the prison and took them down into the deepest, darkest prison and put them there.
And left them in the darkness.
It wasn't a nice place to be in the darkness. Then they put their feet in their hands and their feet in the stalks.
It's the in blocks. They tie them up so in chains so they can't get away, and they had to sit there like that all night. They couldn't lay down because their backs were all bleeding and sore and so they sat there. What could they do in the darkness?
And so they started to sing praises to the Lord Jesus, like we have been doing this morning, singing praises to God.
Well, the other prisoners, they heard them.
The jailer, He heard him.
And about midnight, their singing stopped.
Because there is a great earthquake and the earthquake shook the whole prison.
And it shook the doors, and the doors fell open, and their chains fell off of their their stalks, their bonds, and they were able to get out.
They were loose, but they didn't leave the prison. But the jailer, he didn't know. He didn't know that everybody was still there. So he was going to kill himself. And so he got a big sword and he had the sword in front of him. He was going to fall on the sword and the sword was going to go right through him and kill him himself.
He thought life was getting too bad, but Paul and Silas, they called out to him and said, Sir, don't kill yourself, don't do any harm to yourself.
And so the jailer, he called for a light. He's bring me a light. He didn't like the darkness. He called for a light, and he came in to see Paul and Silas, and he fell down, and he was trembling.
He says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
The answer came.
00:15:01
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe how many of you boys, how many of you girls have believed. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It's that easy. Believe that you are a Sinner and that Jesus had to die for your sins and he shed his blood to take away your sins.
I want to talk a little bit about Darkness. Let's go over to to Exodus chapter 10.
Exodus Chapter 10.
In Hindi in these chapters here.
The children of Israel were stuck in Egypt. They were slaves. They were being forced to do hard labor, hard work.
And God found a man called Moses, and he told Moses that he was going to deliver his people Israel. And Moses went to Pharaoh and said, let God says to let my people go.
Because we are going to worship our Lord our God.
And so Pharaoh says, I don't know who your God is, you just get back to work. And so he made them work even harder.
But then God sent 10 plagues to the land of Egypt, and one of those plagues was darkness. And let's read about this in Exodus chapter 10 and verse 20.
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand toward heaven.
That there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
There was a lot of spiritual darkness in Egypt.
They worshipped a lot of different gods. There are a lot of demons in Egypt.
God made everybody to be in the physical darkness.
Darkness that could be felt.
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt 3 days.
And they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
Is anybody here afraid of the dark?
Some of us are.
But we won't admit it. We don't want others to know that we're afraid of the dark.
Well, here in Egypt it was very dark. It was darkness that could be felt, darkness that made the tingles go up and down your spine and make you feel very uncomfortable. It was darkness that could be felt.
And they were terrified. They couldn't even get up out of their chair because they couldn't find their chair. It was so dark in their house. They couldn't get up and go out to the bathroom because they would never find their way back. It was just too dark and they were afraid in their darkness. I used to live in Minnesota and they have big snowstorms and when the snow snows and the winds blows, you can't see anything and people get lost.
30 feet away from their house, they can't find the door to their house.
Because the snow is too much, they can't see and they die freezing out in the snow because they can't find their way to the door. And that's how it was here in Egypt, in the darkness. And they were terrified. They couldn't find their way. And so they just stayed right in their house. But Israel, the children of Israel, in their houses, they had liked in their houses.
How many of you children have light in your house?
We can turn the lights on. We got lights here. We turn the lights on.
But what about spiritual life? Do you have spiritual life in your house?
We're told that God says thy word is light. The Bible is light.
Do you have the Bible in your house?
Does your dad or your mom read the Bible to you?
Uh, you have lights in your house. The children of Israel, they had light in their house.
00:20:01
If anybody has a mom or daddy who doesn't read their Bible to them, you need to ask them, can you read the Bible to me? You need to have the light every morning or every evening at least once a day, because when you go out to school or you go out to work.
Oh, there's spiritual darkness in the world.
Because the darkness of the world, it doesn't like Jesus.
The spiritual darkness of the world hates Jesus, just like they did with Paul and Silas. They took them and they threw them into the prison.
Because they don't like Jesus.
Parents.
You need to read the Bible to your children before they go to school.
You need to give them light.
They need to know that Jesus is the light, that Jesus will protect them because when they go to school they are going to learn all sorts of things.
That you don't want them to learn, and so you need to give them that light in their homes. If you have light in your house, other people can see the light because this world is a dark place. And when you have Christ, your neighbors, they should be able to see that you have light, that you have Jesus Christ.
How about your mom and your dad? Do they know that you have lights?
Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?
You know, if you were to die tomorrow.
Think about that. What would it be like if you died tomorrow? What would your mom and your dad think?
Would they know that?
You are saved.
Or would they? At the funeral, would they say, oh, I really don't know. I really don't know if he was saved. I really don't know if she was saved. They never said anything.
Sometimes they did things that we couldn't tell if they were saved or not.
They would eat the bread out of the refrigerator at night.
Do you know Jesus as your savior? Does your mom and dad know? Why don't you tell your mom and dad? Say mom. I know the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for me. I accepted him as my savior. You need to tell your mom and dad so they know.
We don't want to be in the darkness.
At this time in Egypt, when darkness came over the land that could be felt.
I want to look at a verse in Psalm 78 that tells us more about this day, this these days that were dark.
Psalm, Chapter 78.
In verse 49.
And on that that those three, those days when there was darkness there, it says that God cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them.
Oh God sent the demons.
In the darkness.
And it terrified the people whose darkness that could be felt, and the demons terrified.
The people, they were afraid.
You know when I'm when we go to a funeral in Africa.
It's a terrifying thing. The first one I I listened to, I was. It was frightening to hear them wailing. I'm not gonna wail for you.
But it's allowed shrill wail and they all come from all areas. The wooden little boy, he was about four young men. He was 14 years old. I had taken him up to the hospital up in the top of the mountains in Livingstonia Mountain.
He was sick and we took him to the hospital. Two days later we went back up to see how he was and he was dead.
So we put him in the back of our pickup truck and brought him down the mountain to the village. The mother was in the back of the truck. She was wailing as we approached the village. Everybody knew the boy had died.
00:25:02
They put the body into the house.
And all the people from the village started coming towards the house, all wailing.
And all the women will go into the house and they're all wailing really loud.
And it's frightening to hear that I wanted to get out of that, out of there. The demons control the people.
And they're afraid.
And they're afraid that the spirit of the little boy, of the young boy.
They're afraid the spirit was going to come and get them and so they go into the house.
And they will just try to be at peace with that spirit.
The darkness on this night.
Was terrifying.
Let's look at Revelation Chapter 16.
Revelation Chapter 16 and verse 10.
If any of you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And you die without Christ, you are going to experience a darkness that can be felt.
Revelation 16 and verse 10. The 5th Angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast.
And his Kingdom was full of darkness. And they gnawed, or they chewed. They bit their tongues for pain.
In hell.
It's not a happy place. There's sorrow, there's pain, there's fear, there's wailing, there's crying, there's gnashing of your teeth. There's anger and hatred toward God. There's a conscience that you have that you know you sat in this room this morning. You know you have an opportunity now to accept Christ as your savior. But in hell you will know that you refused and you will be in darkness for eternity.
When I was living in Nebraska.
There's some terrifying moments when you live in Nebraska or Kansas when the Tornadoes go through it gets you can see it coming along the horizon it gets very dark.
And when the wind blows and the hail blows and it gets dark in the middle of the day, it can be terrifying. While I was driving a truck and you're in, when you're in a truck, you're way high above everything, above the road. And I was driving when one of these storms came by, and it was in the middle of the day. It should have been bright and sunny, but it got dark. We couldn't see it. I couldn't see a thing. And I'm driving along the road. I'm up so high I can't see the road. It was too dark.
And too much rain and too much wind and the whole truck was just shaking. I was afraid the tornado would pick it up and flip it over. And so I just sat there in the truck in the middle of the road.
Hoping that nobody else would drive into me.
It was a fearful thing. It was frightening.
To go through a tornado.
The Lord Jesus, he went through a storm that was worse than that.
He went through the darkness on the cross of Calvary because he wanted to take the darkness away from you.
He doesn't want you to go into that place of hell, where there is darkness, where you will know your tongue for pain.
Where you will have no hope of getting out Jesus Christ. He loves you and He took the darkness, He took the pain, He took the punishment for your sin. In Hebrews chapter 2, verse nine, we're told that Jesus tasted death.
For everyone. That means he tasted death for you.
You don't have to die the death of hell.
You don't need to be punished for your sins.
Jesus took all the punishment for you. His blood was shed to take away every sin.
But when Jesus was hanging there on the cross.
All my sin was laid on Jesus.
And Jesus took the punishment. He took the suffering Jesus suffered.
For my sins.
During those three hours of darkness, sometimes we we talk about the sufferings, the physical sufferings of Christ. When he was beaten, he was whipped, he was punched in the face, and they put thorns in his head and they took a stick and they beat him on the head. And those thorns were pressed into his head and they spit at the Lord Jesus. And we can get some idea of how that might feel.
00:30:25
It gives us an idea of the suffering of the Lord Jesus.
Because without that, we would have no idea of what suffering that he went through. We don't know what Jesus suffered when he was on that cross during those three hours of darkness.
He suffered in the darkness.
Because God put our sin on Jesus, and Jesus tasted death for everyone here. He tasted death.
For you.
Sometimes people think that it was those sufferings, the beatings, the cruelty. They think that was the suffering that took away our sins. But it's not. It was during those three hours of darkness that was the suffering that God put on Jesus Christ. Our sins, our punishment. That was the suffering that took away our sins.
While Jesus was hanging on the cross out of the darkness, he suffered more than any man.
Out of the darkness, his visage, his countenance, his appearance was changed more than any man.
And out of the darkness Jesus cried. He says. My God, my God, why hast thou hast forsaken me?
Well, how are you so far from helping me?
Jesus was nailed to the cross, his hands and his feet.
He could not get down.
He was held there.
By love. By love for you. By love for me. Because he does not want us to go through that darkness and he could not come down. He was held there by His love.
Maybe you have some problems in your life.
Maybe you don't.
But when you have some problems in your life that are very big.
You feel like you are stuck and you can't get down. You can't get away from your problems. You see no way out of it and you can't endure it anymore.
And you feel like a basket case.
Jesus knows exactly how you feel suffering in the darkness.
What is a basket case?
Well, the definition of a basket case is a person who has no arms and no legs.
They can't walk, they can't do anything, they can't go anywhere.
One day in Malawi, I saw a man like that. He had no legs, he had no arm, and he was tied on the on the rack on the back of a bicycle. They wrapped up these rubber cords, wrapped and tied them on the bike.
And all you could see was his head there, looking around.
That man can smile. He had a dark life.
Sometimes we go through darkness in our life.
In the Lord Jesus, he wants us to be a light in the shining darkness.
Can you smile in the darkness?
Let's go to John, Chapter 8.
John Chapter 8.
And verse 12.
Then speak Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
If you walk in the darkness of your sin.
If you live your life in this world in the darkness of sin, you will suffer the darkness of hell for eternity. But Jesus doesn't want that. He wants you to be saved today.
And so we have the verse we started with. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Confess to Jesus. I am a Sinner. I can't save myself. I trust you as my savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus wants to give you a life so you can be a light in the world, so you can tell others about Jesus.
00:35:23
So you can do the work of an evangelist and tell people about Christ.
Who is crucified for their sins? Tell them about his blood that was shed to wash away their sins.
You can be a light in this Dark World. Let's go to Matthew 5.
Matthew Chapter 5.
Jesus said in John chapter 8 verse 12 we read Jesus said I am the light of the world.
Now in this verse verse 14, it says you are the light of the world.
Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Then you are a light. We need to let our light shine in the darkness.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, Neither do men. Light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a Candlestick, and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
Now this verse says to let your light shine.
Boys and girls.
How can you let your light shine?
What can you do?
So your light will shine.
I know one thing that the Bible tells you to do. You don't even need to think about it, because the Bible tells you what to do.
It says children obey your parents.
I like that verse.
I didn't like it so much when I was a child because I like to do my own thing.
But that's something that you can do to be a light when your mom asks you to do something.
Do it because.
It can be a light, but when we say, well, I'll do it later or we just ignore it, well then our light isn't shining. But when we can obey our mom, we obey our dad. Ah, then our light shines.
And then our and then our parents can see by the way we live our life. They can know that you are saved because your light is shining.
Do they see light in you? Ask yourself this question.
Ask yourself, does my mom or does my dad? Do they see light in me?
Do they know that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
I want you to do 2 Things.
After this Sunday school.
Number one, let your light shine.
#2
Tell somebody that you know Jesus Christ as your Savior.
If you can tell me, you can tell your grandma, your grandpa or your mom and dad. But tell somebody. Tell somebody I know Jesus Christ as my savior.
And then let your light shine as you go through your life. I think we have time for one one more song.
Who Who has the song you'd like to sing?
#4
We'll sing the 1St and the last.
Christ is the Savior.
Of course not by him praying, by embrace.
Say your love to him and turn your heart, Stay your hearts and grandfather like me.
00:40:57
That's bright.
Our God and Father.
Thank you for your son, the Lord Jesus.
We give thanks that he went through death and darkness and suffering and punishment on the cross for us. We just pray that the children and the older ones, that we'd all let our light shine.
And tell others about Jesus and Father. If there's anyone here who doesn't know the Lord as their Savior, we just ask that there would be conviction in their hearts that they might come to know Jesus.
As their Savior, we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
The Cross of Christ
Address—Bill Prost
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.
Gracious Lord, my heart is fixed.
Sing I will, and sing of thee since the cup, that justice mix.
Thou hast drunk and drunk for me, great deliverer. Thou hast set the prisoner free.
Many of you probably recognize this verse from the 57th Psalm where it speaks of the psalmist's heart being fixed and he would sing praise unto God. So let's sing number six in the appendix together.
Gracious Lord, my heart is fixed, saying I will and say.
Since I got.
When all broken, drunk all over the sea, bring the land, deliver.
What happened? That's the prisoner praying.
My life is cold, I did life before I go together and I want to hear.
What I'm doing?
Why is my God all the time?
I'm sorry I didn't feel.
You're just wrong.
Should I get from death so I can tell them that we saw?
Him.
All of your friends like, uh.
Blah blah blah blah.
Oh my God, I found uh.
We pray together.
Our loving God and our Father.
We look up to thee this afternoon and thank Thee for the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we thank thee for that one who hung on Calvary's cross in order that we might be brought into the most wonderful blessing. And we thank thee, our God too, for the bright hope that is before us of being with and like that one.
Whoever was, and is, and ever will be the Object of thy heart.
But we look to Thee now for help as we open Thy word together, and we do praise especially our God, that Thou wilt speak to our hearts.
We are still here in this world.
And we recognize the temptations that are all around us. We have sung together. Savior, guard me, lest I grieve thee, lest I cease to love Thy cross.
00:05:08
And we do trust that we sing from our hearts. This is treasure. All the rest I count but dross.
So we commit our time together to the our God and do so independence in the precious and worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
What I have before me this afternoon is to speak on something that I will admit to you that I have spoken on at least twice within the last few weeks and I didn't come to the meetings with the intention of speaking on this subject.
But in thinking and meditating a little before the Lord, and in keeping with what we have had before us in our readings.
In keeping with what our brother Bob brought before us yesterday afternoon, I trust I have the mind of the Lord in speaking a little on the cross of Christ.
The cross of Christ.
Now we know that.
That cross as we sometimes sing together in a hymn in our hymn book.
Was indeed, and is indeed, as the hymn writer said.
Center of two eternities, which look with wrath adoring eyes, onward and back to thee. Henry read in Colossians one those wonderful words, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, we read in Ephesians chapter 2.
That through the cross.
Christ slew the enmity that existed between Jew and Gentile and brought both together into one body.
How blessed to think of what took place at that cross.
But there is an aspect of that cross that I believe God would bring before us in a way I speak to my own heart that would search my heart and would make me realize that as.
Well, I don't think it hurts to name a brother in whose presence I learned much and in whom I hold in high esteem, even though he's with the Lord. Our late brother, **** Gorgoth, he used to remind us, he said, remember that salvation is free, but discipleship has a price attached to it. So turn, please, with me, first of all, And these are.
Well known verses, but turn to Matthew chapter 10 for a verse.
Matthew 10 and verse 34.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword, For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foe shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me.
Is not worthy of me.
Ye that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake.
Shall find it.
Now these verses are repeated in other places with slight variations, but this will do for our purposes.
Hear the Lord Jesus was speaking to his disciples.
And at this point in Matthew's Gospel, it was becoming plain and evident, not only to the Lord Jesus, but perhaps to his disciples too, that their Lord and Master was being rejected. The one who had come offering himself to Israel as the rightful king was not going to be accepted.
Now we know that the disciples and Israel in general had a very hard time coming to grips with that, because that glorious Kingdom that they had so looked forward to, that wonderful time of blessing, they just could not imagine that it was going to be postponed for a time.
00:10:21
But it was, and the Lord Jesus was making it clear to them here that.
It was not going to be an immediate display of power and glory, but rather that they were going to have to follow.
A rejected Christ.
And I say to you and me here this afternoon.
Let us never forget that things have not changed since the Lord Jesus was here.
And if he was rejected, you will be rejected. If he was hated, if he was cast out.
And you and I follow him faithfully. That will be our portion, our lot in this world.
What did the Lord Jesus mean when he said take up the cross and follow me?
We often speak of a cross and say how that someone has a very heavy cross to bear, perhaps referring to some severe set back in their lives. At least as we can see some serious illness, some long term financial problem, some series of health difficulties either in themselves or a family member or perhaps some members of their family going into some serious sin in their lifestyle.
That causes a lot of grief and we say, and it's not a misplaced term, he or she has a very heavy cross to bear.
But I suggest here in the framework in which this expression is used in the Word of God.
It has a far deeper meaning.
If you saw a man in that day being LED along the road with soldiers accompanying him and he were carrying a cross on his shoulders, that meant only one thing. That man was going to die.
And as we have often said before, that was the way that the Romans had ultimately of driving the point home very brutally, not only to the individual in question, but also to everyone around. Don't mess with Rome. Crime does not pay.
But what does it mean here?
It means, I suggest that in order to follow the Lord Jesus, you and I.
Are asked to die to all of our own ideas, all of our own ambitions, all of our own.
Wishes in this world, and that's why it goes on to say he that findeth his life shall lose it, but he that.
Lose of his life for my sake the same.
Shall, for my sake, shall find it.
Christianity is not all about immediate gratification, it is about present denial in order to have a gain in the future.
We all understand in the natural realm what that's like, don't we? Some of us here went to university and we had to deprive ourselves at the time and work hard during the summers and perhaps live on a shoestring, as we would say, in order to get through. But there was a goal in mind. There was something at the end of it. And I know others here who, not particularly having sought for higher education, have deprived themselves in other areas and for other reasons why?
Oh, because they said it's going to be worth it when I get it.
There are athletes today who deprive themselves of the normal pleasures of life in training for the Olympics. Why? Oh, because that gold medal shines very, very brightly before them, and they want it very badly. The prestige, the praise, the acclaim that goes with it. It's worth the sacrifice in the present time.
But God is calling you and me to look far beyond all that. He's calling you and me to look far beyond this world.
And he's calling you and me, as it says here, to take up the cross.
Now, I don't wish to be misunderstood because I don't want to give the impression that following the Lord is an unhappy path.
00:15:05
If someone were to ask you or to ask me, and somebody did this to me once, they said who was the happiest man that ever walked through this world, It caught me by surprise for a moment because I never thought of that question before.
But all of a sudden the answer came of course. How could I even have to think twice?
Who was the happiest man that ever went through this world?
The Lord Jesus Christ, and yet we sung it in the last hymn that we sung this morning, it says the Man of sorrows Once that's what he was in this world and that's how he was known and now he's the man of patience.
And only in a coming day. The Scriptures speak of him as the man of joy.
But was there joy in his heart?
Oh, you know very well that it tells us there in Hebrews chapter 12 it says looking unto Jesus.
The author and finisher of our faith, who for what the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and to set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
There, he's an example for us.
And so there is a price to be paid, but it's a happy pass, so let's remember that.
But getting back to the cross for a moment, I would suggest to you and to me, and we don't have time to go into it in a lot of detail this afternoon, but there are different aspects in which the cross of Christ is presented to us in Scripture. And I'd like to bring them before you because it has impressed very deeply on my heart in the last little while. I don't know whether I have experienced it as I should, but it has impressed my soul very much.
What it means?
To take up the cross and to be connected with the cross of Christ. Let's turn over, please, to 1St Corinthians chapter one.
First Corinthians, chapter one.
And verse 17.
Here's Paul speaking.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is for them that perish foolishness.
But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
Why does Paul emphasize the cross here? Why doesn't he say?
Lest the preaching of the gospel should be made of none effect, why doesn't he say the preaching of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness?
Ah, because here Paul was preaching to a very intellectual group of people.
A very well to do group of people, A people who thought they were doing just fine on their own and who took pride in human wisdom. And they had plenty of it, I suppose.
And Paul has to bring before them the fact that what he was preaching.
As an old brother now long since with the Lord, used to remind us, what He was preaching was not an improvement on man's wisdom, but rather it was the exact opposite of man's wisdom.
Think of it for a moment, if I could bring it right down to human terms.
Paul comes to these proud Corinthians who were steeped in paganism and all the rituals that went with idolatry.
And he says to them, do you want to be saved? Do you want to have your sins washed away? Do you want to know the true God?
And I'm going to say something from the human point of view, and I will say it with all reverence.
From a natural point of view, then, Paul says you must have faith.
In a man who, as far as this world was concerned, was a Galilean peasant.
Who was hung on a cross outside Jerusalem and gotten rid of.
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And the world went on without him.
That's the one to whom you have to look if you want to be saved, all the natural man says. I don't want any kind of a message like that. That's not what I wanted to hear. Why?
Because the preaching of the cross reduces man right down to nothing. It makes nothing of man because what did the world think of that one who is your savior and mine? It said that man is worthy to be hung on a cross. It said that man is worthy of nothing but the cruelest and most shameful death that we can think of.
We don't have.
Public executions anymore? In most countries there are places where it is still done.
But in years gone by it was rather common and if someone were considered of sufficient.
Uh, or had committed a sufficient crime to be executed. It was usually public.
And they were hung up there on a rope in front of as many people as cared to gather around and watch.
And it was a very shameful death.
If you were wealthy, you might in some cases get to have it done in private.
But most of the time it was public.
And that's the way it was when the Lord Jesus was crucified. And I say to you and to me, if you and I are going to follow a rejected Christ, it takes away everything to do with man's wisdom. It takes away everything that man naturally can have pride in. So that in the third chapter of Philippians, which also brings before us the cross of Christ, we had this before us in North Carolina. And some of you were there. What does Paul have to say about everything that naturally accredited him in the eyes of the world?
Oh, he says. It was just worthless. It wasn't worth anything.
And you and I are going to find that if we follow a rejected Christ.
Where did the world system start as we know it today?
Started a long time ago, didn't it?
Nothing new about it. It started way back in the time of Cain, when you will remember. Cain, it says went out from the presence of the Lord.
Built himself a city, called it after the name of his son, and then proceeded to surround himself with everything possible to make life as pleasant and as comfortable as it could be, but leaving God out.
And with variations as to the things that go along with that world system.
It is just the same today, and the world has, as it thinks, everything put together in order to keep man comfortable. But please don't bring God's claims in.
If you follow a rejected Christ.
If you preach Christ crucified, you will not be popular. You will not be popular. If you're willing to compromise, if you're willing to mix the gospel up with something that flatters man, something that gives man something he can glory in, that's good. And if I may be so blunt, and I don't wish to throw stones at anyone here this afternoon, but that's partly why you see much worldly Christianity out and about today.
That's why you see diluting the gospel.
I remember a dear Christian, not in North America, but in another land, he said.
Why do people dilute the word of God and why do so many people want to listen to that which is a compromise? Why do so many people want to listen to something that isn't straight from the word of God? Why is error so easily propagated? As someone has said, error will go will go all the way around the world while truth is still pulling its boots on. Why does that happen?
Because error gives something some credit to man. Error gives man something he can take pride in the preaching of the cross says man, this is what you did to the Son of God and you must come as a lost guilty Sinner. Just as Paul reminded us last night. Paul Hadley in reading that him just as I am without one plea and how that Charlotte Elliot suddenly it swept over her.
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Just as I am. That's the way I have to come.
The world is making a pitch for you and me today in many different ways.
And I don't want to get into too many specifics, but if I can be allowed to say a thing or two, and I hope it doesn't step on any toes.
I say to each one of us, be careful that you don't get your heart set on something in this world that takes you away from Christ.
Sports were never a temptation to me. I have to say for one very simple reason, I was no good at them.
And whenever teams were picked up in the corner lot for it didn't matter what we were playing, I had to get used to the fact that I was one of the last ones they picked. That was just the way it was. So take that in context. But be careful, young people, that you don't allow those things to get a hold on you. What about we who are older? Are we immune to the effect of the world? No, it's just different things.
The old saying is still true that the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
And there's truth in that. We can get our hearts set on things and remember this.
It's not what you have that makes the difference, it's what your heart is set on.
Some of us were talking at breakfast this morning and I'm going to read the verse. It's in Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12.
And verse 15.
And he, the Lord Jesus, said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness.
For a man's life consist of, not in the abundance of the things which he possessed.
I'm going to quote that as it is in the Darby translation. It's a little different.
A man does not who's got a Darby here that we could read it so we get it accurate. Has anybody got a Darby translation that would read it for me?
No, Tim, have you got it there?
15 Luke 12 and 15 read it good and loud for us.
Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness, for it is not because a man is in abundance that his life is in his possession.
Did you all hear that it is not because a man is in the in abundance that his life is in his possessions? Don't go around saying, well, I'm poor so I don't have to worry about that. I can tell you without being critical of anyone that I have seen a man in a foreign country more occupied with a mud Hut than somebody in North America who had a three or $400,000 home. It's not what you have. That's the important point. It's where your heart is.
In First Timothy chapter 6, the apostle gives instruction to those that are rich.
That's everyone in this room here, compared to most of the world's population.
He tells them what to do with it because presumably their heart wasn't set on it. But he gives very, very severe warning to those who will be rich. And so it's not what I have, but where my heart is set. And I would say to you, and this is a very solemn statement, but I believe it with all my heart.
If your heart and mind is set on anything in this world.
On which the heart of Christ could not be set.
To that extent, I am not walking in fellowship with the Lord.
Could I repeat that?
If your heart and mind is set on anything in this world on which the heart of Christ could not be set.
To that extent I am not walking in fellowship with the Lord. Now don't look at me, because I have done such things. And my heart does get set on things down here, I have to admit. But I do say with all my heart that that is true. And if the Lord gives you something, use it for Him.
But don't set your heart on it.
But then there's a somewhat deeper aspect of the cross that I believe comes into play, and this is in one sense far more difficult, far more searching, and in some sense harder to bear. Turn to Galatians chapter 5.
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Galatians, chapter 5.
Verse 11.
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offence of the cross ceased?
And then turned to Philippians 3, that verse that I made reference to a moment ago.
Philippians 3 and verse 18.
For many walk of whom I have told you often.
And now, tell you, even weeping now notice the expression that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
And now one more verse at the end of Galatians. Galatians 6.
In verse 14.
But God forbid that I should glory.
Save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom the world is crucified under me, and I under the world.
In these verses, I suggest, and I wouldn't limit them, but I suggest that it's not so much the wisdom of this world.
It's not so much the things that are in the world.
But it is the world's religion.
And I am not speaking here so much of false religions, although that certainly is part of it.
But it creeps right into that which goes under the banner.
Of Christianity.
Why is it? Why was it?
That Paul had to say in Second Timothy chapter one, all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. Why was that? Had they turned away from Christianity? No, I don't believe so. They had not apostatized back into paganism or idolatry. No. What was the problem? Oh, I believe Paul centers it out when he says enemies of the cross.
Of Christ.
What was happening?
All Paul was telling those dear believers in Philippa I and in Ephesus and in.
The assemblies in Galatia and elsewhere, that they had a heavenly calling, that they were in the world, but not of the world, as the Lord Jesus brought before his disciples in John's Gospel.
And they were saying, as it were, Paul.
We want.
If we could use the expression of religion, that is more suitable to life down here. And as a result, Paul at the end of his life finds that the greater part of those for whom he had labored so strenuously and whom he had laid down his life for in that sense turned their back on him.
It records in that same chapter of Second Timothy deem us hath forsaken me. And it doesn't say having loved this present evil world, simply this present world. Somehow it was a lot easier not to go along with a man who was in prison and why was Paul in prison? He tells us there in Galatians 5, because he would not bring down the church and the truth that God gave him to a level that made it comfortable.
With the world.
Has it always been like that?
Indeed it has.
You'll remember from history that very quickly after the apostles left the scene.
The Church began to adopt worldly religion.
And it wasn't long before Constantine in 325 AD made Christianity the the official religion of the Roman Empire and, oddly enough, lifted up the cross as the symbol of it.
But then what happened? That very system that eventually developed out of all of that became, if we could say, at the very antithesis, the very opposite of what the cross of Christ stood for.
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We could name names. There were men, godly men, who sought to stand in what little measure they had. Henry Sousa, for example, in the 1300s.
Who sought with the light that he had from the word of God, and he didn't have anywhere near what you and I have.
But he sought to stand for what he saw in the Word of God, and as a result, he was ostracized. He was pushed aside. Nobody wanted to listen to him anymore because somehow, no, you're telling us things we don't.
Want to hear?
In the 1500s, when the Reformation was dawning and the precious truth of the gospel was coming back.
In order to get rid of that precious truth, the King of France banished all the Gospel preachers from France.
But after a while, excuse me.
One of the princesses who was truly the Lords used her influence and said invite them all back.
And they invited the mall back. Except for one.
William Farrell.
They didn't invite William Farrell back and it hurt. Why didn't they invite him back?
He would not compromise. Others would preach the gospel and allow certain things to go on that.
Not according to the word of God and they made a trade off.
OK, if we can preach the gospel, we won't be too vocal about some of these evils. They were invited back, not William Farrell. No, we don't need that kind of a man. Well, the Lord had a much better work for him in Switzerland, as we all know. They didn't want a man who preached Christ crucified. And it could go on and on. And I say to you each one, it is a day when.
It's a privilege to follow a rejected Christ and to take up the cross.
Let's bring it closer to home.
A few months ago I was reading a letter written by a dear brother, written back in the 1800s, close to 150 years ago.
And he had been one of those who came out very early on when the Spirit of God began to bring back the precious truth.
Of the Church and the truth of the Lord's coming and the imminent return of that Blessed One.
And in commenting on the steps he had taken over 25 years before, he says something like this.
What was it that brought me out of the establishment? Oh, he said, I trust it was Christ, and I trust that is Christ that will keep me there. And he said, not wishing to be derogatory, but he said, I cannot help but feel that those who have left that path have done so because the reproach of the cross was too much to bear. He said I did not come out. The Lord is my witness for anything but Christ, and I trust that if I continue to follow Him, He will keep me there.
But our natural hearts want more.
A dear man called me up some years ago. He doesn't live in our area. He lives a little bit further away just over the US border. But I knew him and out and out Christian and he called me up and he said, Bill, I want to build a church. I want to build a church. I want to get a whole bunch of people. I think I've got something I can preach to them. He said, tell me you've you've served the Lord for a few years, you'll get a rather smile out of this. But he said, tell me what works.
What works? I said, brother, I said, I don't think I can give you a good answer on the phone. Let's have lunch together and I'll come over to you. So I drove over to Buffalo, NY, and we had lunch together. And in the course of that conversation, I said something like this. I said, brother, I don't read in Scripture about anything that works, because if it were working, what happened to the apostle Paul?
If you were to ask the apostle Paul, Paul, you've served the Lord for 30 years, what works? What would he have said?
But I can still see that brother across the table. I said brother. It's not a question of what works.
It's a question of whether at the end of the pathway, the Lord can say to you and me, well done, thou good and faithful servant.
And I said it may not work, and that doesn't mean that I deliberately look forward to being a failure in order to be assured of having the Lord's mind. That's not the point. The point is that it's not a question of what works. It's a question of faithfulness to the Lord. I could see that he felt, to some extent, the impact of what Scripture said. Sorry to have to tell you that he didn't follow it. He didn't want that kind of advice. That's not what he was looking for.
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And so I say to you each one here this afternoon, our time is gone now.
But I want to read one more verse or make a comment on one more verse. The verse we read at the end of Galatians chapter 6 and 14.
There it says that Paul gloried in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did he glory in it?
But because it was pleasant, no.
He gloried in it because.
It separated him once and for all from the world that crucified his Savior and noticed the expression here, it says.
By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
It's one thing for you and for me to give up the world, and May God give us the grace and the courage to do so.
It's a much harder thing to take when the world gives up meat.
Allow personal story.
When I was practicing medicine, I often used to get invited to things, and when I was back in medical school, our medical class often used to have parties.
And sometimes they would badly want you to come.
And I don't wish to say something to be humorous, but I can remember one time a couple of them made a pitch. They were going to get me to that class party no matter what. And this is that they said, well, look, if you don't want to drink and go on with all the things that we're going on with, then what? You're just the kind of a person we need because you can be the bartender and then you will be sober and, and, and that'll work out just fine. They would have been happy with that.
But I can tell you it was much, it was a much deeper thing one time when I was.
In practice, and I worked with doctors in the hospital all the time, knew them well. Often one of them, more of them would be giving an anesthetic and I doing the surgery and so on. So I knew them well.
And one time there was a dinner for one doctor that was retiring, and although we did not normally go to that, I thought we ought to go and pay our respects.
And I have to tell you that it hurt, and it hurt a lot at the time when most of those who knew me well made very sure that they didn't sit at my table or anywhere within the vicinity. Now, that doesn't say much. I'm not trying to tell you that I was always faithful to the Lord, but they didn't want their conversation disturbed. They didn't want what they were going to talk about deluded or anything like that by anything else. And it was very.
Very obvious.
I say to you, it will happen to you too. Not only will you give up the world.
But if you're faithful, they'll give you A and they'll say we don't want you. We haven't yet come in this country to persecution.
In an active form, but depend upon it what we read there in Two Timothy Three will take place.
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But remember, there is a day when the Lord Jesus will have his rightful place. That'll be the day for rain. But today, it's the day to bear the cross.
Can we take a minute and sing one verse of a hymn?
173.
And well, maybe we can stretch it to two verses versus three and four of 173.
A little while it will soon be passed. Why should we shun the promised cross?
Oh, let us in his footsteps haste counting for him. All else but loss. 173 versus 3:00 and 4:00.
A little.
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Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Hold on a second.
OK.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee for the precious words of this hymn. May it be true of each one of our hearts. Give us grace to be willing to accept the offence of the cross.
And to walk before thee in that happy path.
For what Thy Word tells us and what we have sung together is only a little while, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Word of God - The Sword of the Spirit
Consolations From the Lord For Us
The Lord's Appearing
Open Mtg. 7
Open—M. Payette, J. Bisono, R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
256.
Praise the Savior.
Of what we owe him.
For the Lord of bless you.
Oh yeah.
I saw.
Jesus.
From the dog and our father, we thank thee that worketh by thy power.
Through faith setting those objects proper.
To faith before our souls that our eyes might be fixed on those things.
That are heavenly, that our mind might be set on those things that are above where the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior is at Thy right hand hidden. Thee shall that day it is revealing to this world.
And we pray that this little hour before us might be a profitable time, and thy word and we know the Scripture is profitable as we've read. We pray that we might receive.
Receive that ministry of the Spirit of God.
From the precious word of God into our hearts through the conscience that it might have its effect its formative effect in our lives and we know the hard working the spirit of Christ and each believer who conformeth to the image of thy beloved son. Let us know our needs will great so many and yet in one portion of Scripture in the mouth of two or three as always uh.
Purpose to speak to us from the word. Thou canst meet those needs.
So we look to thee that thou come in for us, Lord Jesus.
Thou art the one in the midst two or three gather to thy precious name. Thou art sufficient, Lord Jesus.
And no sufficiency of ourselves. And so we look to thee. All we think of how thou speed the multitudes. And thou art able to spread the table in the wilderness. Feed thy people. So we look to thee. I got our Father. We ask this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I have a question before I speak. Is there a Mr. Smith here?
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Mrs. Smith.
I'm looking for a Mr. Smith and a Mrs. Smith.
Let's turn to First Samuel, chapter 13.
First Samuel chapter.
13 verse 19.
Now there was number Smith found throughout all the land of Israel.
For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews.
Make them swords or Spears.
We need Mr. Smith and Missus Smith.
We don't have a Mr. Smith or Mrs. Smith. We're in trouble.
We don't have spheres.
This was the work of the Philistines. You know, the Philistines in Scripture speaks of the energy of man and the things of God.
When man is active in the things of God, he robs us of the things of God.
We re read these verses in Second Timothy chapter 3. Let's go back there for a moment.
Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15.
And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.
Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and His profitable.
For many of us here, many of you, children, young people.
Can be said of you from a child that has known the Holy Scriptures.
If I say what's, what's this book? It's the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Bible. What else can you call it? The word of God. You know, this is the word of God. This is Holy Scripture. This is the Bible.
But do you know it?
You read it, you grow in the knowledge, grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through its pages.
We know that this is the source.
And we need to go to the source and drink of it and make it our own.
So Timothy, he knew that from a child, and not only did he know that these were the scriptures and holy letters from God.
He knew what was in them so he could preach the word. He had a sword.
He was a Smith.
Timothy Smith.
You knew it was the word of God and He.
Studied it, he read it, he believed it, he applied it in his life, and he could preach it.
Earlier on in the book of Genesis, the Philistine had been busy in the days of Isaac. Genesis chapter 26.
Verse 18.
That was the landfill in the land of the Philistines in Gere, the valley of Gerr, verse 18, Genesis 2618. And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham's father.
Why did you have to dig the wheels? The wheels again? Because for the Philistines had stopped them after the death.
They were busy filling up those wells.
So Isaac couldn't dwell in the land and be refreshed.
No, it's not enough to have Christian parents or Christian ancestors or to have either 5th generation in the assembly. We have to get these things for ourselves.
And so Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham.
And he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
That someone a century ago picked up this book and read through his pages and found the truth of God by the teaching the Spirit of God.
Well, 100 years later, if you and I dig in the same, well, we're going to find the same thing. The word hasn't changed. We're going to call the things by the same names. That's what they are from the Word of God. That's where we need to get the truth that we hold and that we believe and apply in our lives and preach from the Word of God.
So the Philistine has been busy to plug up those welds.
And the enemy is busy just getting us not to read the word of God or to have someone read it for us.
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And tell us what it means.
You know, I was in the Catholic Church with a young man, and in the Catholic Church you were not allowed to read this book.
We'll read it for you and tell you what it means.
Do you want me to read this book for you and tell you what it means? Don't do that. You'll be a Smith. You read it for yourself and put it to the test.
And keep at it. And then you'll have a shining sword, a sharp sword you can use on yourself, first of all, and you can use for the glory of the Lord.
Well, they dug some other wells there, verse 19 And Isaac's servant digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdsmen of Gerard did drive with Isaac's herdman saying the water is ours, and he called the name of the well Essex, because they strove with him means contention there in the margin.
You don't Protestantism.
They received the truth through the Word of God.
God brought out the truth from His Word and gave it to certain men and then developed into people seceding from the Catholic Church who refused to have people look into the scriptures, who persecuted those even put to death those that were living out those things that they received from God Himself through His Word.
But there was contention there.
You know, today you might meet up with believers.
People who really believe in the Lord Jesus. And when you talk, you start talking about the wonderful truth of Scripture.
There's contention.
That was in those days, not anymore, yes, but that was written in those days, You know, it's just, it was tradition and they just undo the word of God. They will contend, they will have contention with the truth of God.
So what did Isaac do is he didn't strive?
They dig another well, and strove for that also. And he called the name of it Sitna or Hatred.
My brother was speaking before of the rejection of the cross of Christ, and you know.
If we want to be faithful to the word of God.
And apply it in our lives and speak truthfully to others as we either our questions or we feel responsibility to witness to them.
We can't compromise what God has given us. We need to be faithful and it might provoke hatred.
But I've enjoyed the thought that he removed himself from Lance verse 22 and he digged another will. Wouldn't give up on that water.
I want that water that comes from down there. That's what I need. They dug another well and for that they strove nut They said you can have that one.
And he called the name of it Rehoboth, which means space or room. And he said, for now the Lord had made room for us.
And we shall be fruitful in the land.
You know, dear brothers and sisters.
We've come together this weekend. What was on the agenda? What did the brethren have for the topic of the reading meeting?
What we're gonna talk. What were the hymns that we're gonna be giving out this morning? Who is going to speak in the open meeting? None of that had been ordered.
But if we leave room for the application of what we have in this book.
The leading of the Spirit of God is going to happen.
We're gonna have room to be together and to behave together in our personal lives and collectively in accordance with this word, with this book. We don't have to disobey the Word of God to go on in the truth. That's what man would have you do. Say. If you want to be faithful today, you have to have things the way we teach it in our seminaries.
And our universities in our school.
You know some believers in the Lord Jesus? They believe in evolution.
And this book doesn't teach evolution.
This book, which is the Word of God, teaches creation, a powerful God who produces a universe. Nobody can measure just his Word.
That do you believe that?
So God is so powerful, he could create a measureless universe that we cannot explore. It's beyond our the numbers we can take in in our minds. The God of the Bible, he created this.
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Well, this is the God of my book, of my Bible. This is the God of the universe, the same God who hung on that cross.
Which fit in his face, back scourge, crown of thorns, objects of mockery and derision.
That's who's in this book, you know, that's the one that's presented in this book from cover to cover. The Almighty God, creative, the universe Moffins fit upon and crucified. So you could have us with him forever.
May we value dear ones?
The liberty God has given us. Lord Jesus says that.
The truth shall make you free.
What freedom we've enjoyed this weekend.
And I trust we continue to enjoy.
Freedom to be here, not out in the world. Freedom to be here to enjoy the things of God and simplicity and liberty room for one another.
You know when we read this book.
We need to leave room for each other too.
In any measure, we're all ignorant. There are things we do not know. Perhaps there are things that we understand differently from our brethren.
But if we get our thoughts and our understanding from what we read in this book, we have to leave room for them, leave room for one another that we can continue on together and not want to coerce brethren or others to believe like me or like you or like brethren. Even I trust we'd be disobeying the Word of God if we force people to adopt what we believe to be the truth of God. We can preach it and apply it. We can't force it upon people. You have to see it for yourself.
And it's a wonderful thing, you know, when a young man, a young woman grows up.
In the things of the Lord and these things that perhaps that they've heard from mom and dad in the assembly, they make it their own. They become Smith. It becomes the word of God in their soul, in their hearts and their lives, the things that they believe, their convictions.
And when someone comes up with a question with something that's disturbing, they probably might not go back right to mom and dad or an older brother. They say the word of God says this and this is what's true. They can answer for themselves. What a wonderful thing, you know?
Well, you SI don't know if you are a Smith or not. Nobody's called Mr. Smith, but may the Lord be able to call us each one, Smith. And that we know that these scriptures that we have in our hands can make us wise, and that they will make us wise if we read them and spend time with them. Just a few more thoughts before I leave room for someone else. Song of Solomon.
Verse chapter 3. Song of Solomon chapter 3. Verse one.
Song of Solomon 3 verse one by night on my bed.
I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him.
But I found him not.
You love the Lord Jesus.
Oh I I know the Lord is my savior. I love the Lord Jesus but I I don't feel him close. Seems that.
My relationship with him isn't as as warm or dynamic or realize I'd like it to be.
Well, she was on her bed, you know.
Resting.
Spoke yesterday. I'm not going out putting our light under the bed or the bushel. She was in her bed.
Resting. But then it says, I will rise now and go about the city in the streets and in the broadways. I will seek him whom I so love it I sought him, but I found him not. The Watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said saw ye, Him whom my soul love it. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth.
You know, it says that in my French Bible. It says she went a little further after she had that interview with the guard, she went a little further.
And she found.
I said, have you found him?
You find him in the morning or you stay in bed till you got to rush to school or to work. Or do you get up and you go through the streets and listen to the guards?
And go a little further till you find them.
If you seek him with all your heart, he's gonna let you find him.
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If you stay in bed, you might not find them.
You know, we're saved by grace and kept by grace, and the Lord is going to come and take us all home. It's wonderful. Yet we cannot say that we are. We have no responsibility. We have responsibilities as believers. And the tone of your life and mind depends not only on the grace of God, but how you apply those things that you know.
Somebody could be a Smith and have pieces of steel lying all around. It's shot there by not one sort.
Why is that? He didn't heat up the stove, he didn't put the wind in there. He didn't pick up the steel, didn't heat it up, didn't spend energy.
Of making that into what it's supposed to be.
So God has given us his word. Not only that we would know it's the word of God. So it would be a reality in our lives, be applied in our lives to seek him early and then find him. And you know, it's interesting, you just go on in that third chapter.
There's another bed there. It's Solomon's bed, verse 7.
Behold his bed, which is Solomon's. Three score valiant men are about it, of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert in war. Every man has his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night, you know.
If it was a treasure chest.
With diamonds and gold and all sorts of things you say.
All these mighty men of Israel, with their sword, they're guarding that treasure chest.
Oh, they're all around Solomon's bit.
You know the Lord Jesus, he can rest now. I know he's still working, but in that aspect of his work, he's resting now.
I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do.
Is that work finished? The work of salvation?
The religious man in You and Me and the Philistine would say you've got to do this, you've got to do that.
It says here, you gotta do this, you gotta do that. They'll find verses in here. There are other verses too, you know, in here. And these men around David, about Solomon's bed, they watched over.
Where Solomon rested.
Are you equipped to watch over the rest of the Lord Jesus in His finished work?
It's all around us, you know, attacks on this person, attacks on his work.
The Word of God answers to all of these attacks plainly to give you confidence and say no, there is nothing to add to the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross for the salvation of anyone who's going to be in heaven forever. Nothing to be added.
We're talking about that at lunchtime. And sometimes, you know, we say we're saved by faith and it's wonderful. That's what it says.
Save by grace through faith, not the gift of God.
Sometimes we can make faith the object and preach that faith. You have to be strong and fit and you know, and powerful and faithful. And if you realize that, you can look in the mirror in the morning and say I'm a mighty man of God. And that's pride, you know?
May God give you and I to be like these men who can.
Exercise at war around a bit.
Because there's a spiritual war going on.
It's against you and it's against the Lord Jesus and His finished work, and it's in having this word before us and knowing about it that we can answer these things. So dear ones, just a few thoughts I had on my heart concerning that verse in Second Timothy chapter 3. Knowing the Scriptures that can meet the wise unto salvation, how the enemy of our souls through the energy of man would block up these wells of refreshment, yet God and His grace has put it in our hands.
You have it in your hands this very moment. I have three of them right here. I have one French, one English, 1 Spanish, and if you went across the world, it's an Italian, German, it's available.
To be read and understood and applied.
Are you a Smith? You have a sword.
And I have a little question for you, dear ones, if you have a sword or if you had a sword in your hand.
What else did the enemy present to you that you put that aside and pick something else up instead?
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The times that we live in, the enemy is bombarding the minds of men with lies and false teaching and all sorts of things and seducing them with violence and corruption. And you and I are not immune to that. It's all around us.
May God give us dear ones to hold to that sword till the Lord Jesus comes.
I mean no, I mean with the black window hermanos. I don't exactly like to speak with translation because maybe I put you all to sleep.
La Familia, but I want to read some verses of consolation to the family.
Who lost one of their loved ones these days?
Psalm 116, verse 15.
Estimates and Los ojos de jua la muerte de susantos, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
Los Angeles.
How blessed it is that the death of his Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord. No, I see la Muerta de Los Incredulo. That's not the way it is for the unconverted.
It is not.
Pleasant to the eyes of God.
Sabemos comodice unbarcicolo en Romano catorce there's a very close yet yocho nueva.
In Romans 14, verse 789.
Focusing gun on nosotros vive paraci in inguno muere paraci pue civil vimos para senor vivimos de si morimo para senorimos a tipu ES southeast a que vigamos O que muramo de senion somo.
Fernando himself, and no man dieth himself. Or whether we live, we live unto the Lord, Or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords.
Verse 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living.
As soon as young Quebecois, it is a blessing. If we live for the Lord, we live isimo limo paracinomorimos and if we die for the Lord, we die the Cristo. After we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a relation with the Lord Jesus Christ inquiry that is not broken.
Roman prima sewanda corinthos cinco, 2nd Corinthians 5.
Versicolor Uno verse one poques avemos que SI.
Muentra morality rate ETA vernacular SE de siciera tenemos de dios unity physio una Casa nuecha de manos eterna en Los cielos. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God in the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. It's a lot of de la position que de nemos encrito. Jesus speaks of the position we have in Jesus Christ.
Well, Mohamed dijo anteriormente que sibei vimo para senor vivimo estimo rimo paraceno morimos. As we said before, if we live for the Lord we live and if we die, we for the Lord we die. Given this young quemontanido mucha bondance de la palaro de yo SE mistodia, what a blessing it is. Did and have abundance of the word of God in these days.
Sometimes we are not paying much attention and sometimes we are discouraged. Basically, as he said, in Capitol Cuatro, there's verse 16 of chapter 4.
Portanto no des miamos antes an quetin metron Westeros de vada de gassando El interior hemperos de renueva de ria India. Or which 'cause we think not. For but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Each day that passes in this world.
Our bodies are wasting away.
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Physically.
For that reason, the word says we faint not.
The Spirit of God knows that we might get discouraged for some reason.
But we have this advert, this exhortation from the Word of God una vez and Bolivia nosoto visitamo le manolino bueno. One time in Bolivia we were visiting Brother Lena Bueno para consolale con la palabra de dios.
To comfort him with the word of God. He was 99 years old.
You know what happened.
Instead of here we can comforting him, he comforted us with the word of God. Damien Quirole Romano ocho de Sioto. Also I want to read in Romans 8/18.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in US. And rozier que tamo viendo mucha dolencia SUV de cuo que manera in the days that we're living there as much sickness, and we in one way or another suffer solo pemitido pores in your all permitted by the Lord.
Vero no de comparison la Gloria venida que nosotros de maniceta, but it's nothing to compare with the glory that will be manifested in US esuna consolacion barano Soto de versico. That is a consolation for us.
And verse 28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Doesn't say that all things are good.
But in some way or another, they help us.
Yesterday we were talking about the Apostle Paul. Do you want a monolith?
A brother said that he was a prisoner twice.
In your the first time he was a prisoner, he was.
In the things of the Lord. Walking in the things of the Lord. Yeah, maybe I'm not you. Hey, Sila Cantavan Tinos Adios.
And he's, uh, sang, uh, hymns to God, and I segunda vesque califreso fuendo soviencia de pirito san. The second time he, uh, was prisoner, it was because he disobeyed the direction of the Holy Spirit. No canto. And he didn't, uh, sing, not any spirit. He didn't have the spirit to sing.
Sometimes things happen in our lives that the Lord permits.
And we don't get discouraged.
And we are encouraged.
Something that is not the will of the Lord, then we suffer.
Is San Mateo Catorce Matthew 14?
Mersico Lorentices, verse 26.
Y lo disciple of Biendo le andar zor El mar SE tovaro de siendo UN fantasma idieron bosse de miedo peron en seguira esules hablo de siendo tenet animal yo soy notes Pedro Y di Jose tueri Sierra tu manda queo bayatissa de la saguas Y El dijo vein Y de Sendiendo, Pedro de la Varca, and Abbas O la Zagua para era Jesus pero.
And the very end of Puerto Rico.
Verse 26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, did me, come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to think he.
Cried saying Lord, save me faith and the deposition list of Para la Costa de Senor Pieteres was a man who was disposed to do what the Lord wanted him to do.
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He said if all the rest deny you, I won't deny you.
And then he got into a position where he's afraid.
And he cut off the ear of a servant.
Pedro.
He didn't cut off his neck, he cut off his ear and he said the Lord directed the.
That wasn't the will of the Lord.
That he would fight like that, Something we can see in this scripture.
He was a man that was disposed to do.
He was ready for the Lord's use.
But he had a little failure senor situation.
He said, Lord, if it is, you may go to you on the water.
And there was, uh, big waves defeated Caminara. It would be hard for us to walk on the water even if it was calm, Mucho menos sietan Braves, much less when it was stormy on the sea.
And he said, If it is you, Lord, did me come to thee on the water?
29 And he said, come this in the endo Pedro de la Barca and Jesus. When Peter was coming down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus solo Camino, but there was a failure.
Puerto viento to me Eddie comin Santos de on Y comments on this de yo bosse de siendo senor salva me. But in verse 30 it says when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink.
He cried saying, Lord save me, what happened?
He was going good. You know what happened.
Viento he began to look at the strong wind.
And took this his eyes off the Lord Jesus.
I don't know if it's happened to you, but it's happened to me the same as to Peter Heyl Caminando Yang. I was walking well.
Pero me Puerto Salvador, Puerto viento la pruebas de la tribolaciona que Nos yelling. Then I started to look around at the strong winds that were blowing yego menzel ondemand and I started to sink. You know, Soto estimo metropais cuando tie della cue cuisine and we won that one. We have a saying in our country. When you get up to your neck in water in san SE que clamos, then we uh, then we cry to the Lord.
No con vie Eno miral.
Los Puerto viento di quita la Vita senor. It's not good to take away the the vision from the Lord and start looking at the problems around.
Because we might start to sing.
And then we will have to cry to the Lord. Lord Silva, me, save me nowhere. I like you to have no de Nemo tiempo pero vemo una mujer que ETA inferma confronto de sangre.
Via Vieira salo Toluca De Niro, there's another story of a woman who had a, uh, flow of blood and she had, uh, spent all she had and she didn't have any more money. Boy fin Diehl And at at the last she Jose que solo contocade voor de vestido de senor Teresana. If I can only touch the border of this garment, I will be well. And ** *** tried to Escondido, but I finally and behind she touched his guy.
Yeah, with them and was healed. Que Pena que nosoto de JAMA para Ultimo. Uh, what a sorrow it is that we live sometimes the Lord to the last.
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Especially when we have some money in the in our confiamo mas in their own recognition, we are trust more in men than we do in the Lord.
I don't know if that's happened to you, but it's happened to me.
Some brethren in my my country. Do you think Jonathan Jesus, I don't wanna a doctor. My doctor's allergies. I'll see that. The emerald. Yeah. Intra mucho de Sione. One of the brothers said that in my country, you know, Eli medical and didn't go to the to the doctor. You know how many years he lasted? Knowing Denmark, Daniel, 99 years.
There's a noise in the Hemphill that's not exactly a good example.
It's not a sin to go to the doctor. If it's some of you, it's not. It's to have more faith in the doctor than it is in the Lord Jesus.
In our In our weaknesses.
May the Lord have mercy on us.
And give us to trust more in him. Jealous.
We're going to take the opportunity, brethren, just to say a few more words that are my heart and go to 1St Thessalonians Chapter 5.
We are getting down to the very end, brethren. I think we are all aware of the fact that at any moment.
The Lord may come the beginning of this meeting. Brother Robert read those verses at the end of chapter four of First Thessalonians that speak of what could take place at any moment.
The Rapture And for the Rapture, there is absolutely no sign to indicate its closeness. It could take place at any moment.
But if you go to chapter 5, you'll notice it speaks of the second part.
Of the Lord's second Coming, what we call the Revelation or the Manifestation.
Sometimes the appearing.
But those 3 words speak of that time when the Lord will come at the end of the great Tribulation. And we've had that focus quite strongly in these meetings that that too is our hope. We look for the Lord to come to set things straight in this world. There is really no other answer to this world's woes. And for that part of His second coming.
There are multitudes of signs, some of them.
We're starting to see today wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, diseases, those that rise up saying I am Christ. Those are all signs that we are getting down to the end.
And it's there for us to awaken us, and we have some pretty strong.
Exhortations in this chapter. Let's just read a few verses here. It says of the times and the seasons. Brethren, ye have no need.
That I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
The day of the Lord is when the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven to establish his Kingdom.
And he comes into this world, and he establishes his lordship in this world.
It's a day that lasts 1000 years through what we call the Millennium.
And ends up with the passing away of this world. This world is going to melt.
With fervent heat and the heavens are going to be disappear as well.
But that day is going to come as a thief in the night.
We who are believers in the Lord Jesus do not wait for the Lord as a thief.
This always refers to his coming at the end of the Great Tribulation, not the Rapture.
For those who do not want him to come, for those that do not wait for him, he will come as a thief when they least expect him.
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Oh how solemn the days we are living in.
How does this reflect on us then? Verse four shows clearly that he's not coming for us as a thief. Yeah, brethren are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others but us, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in helmet the hope of salvation.
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. That verse nine is one of the best verses in scripture. There are others to show that the believer in the Lord Jesus, the true believer, will not go through the tribulation. God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Very clear.
But, brethren, the reflection of Scripture here, in view of the fact that that day is coming.
Rapidly on this world, Two things. Let us not sleep, let us watch and be sober. Two things, sleepiness and drunkenness, not talking.
In the physical matter of sleep.
Or drunkenness. We know those drunkenness is wrong for a believer.
Physically, too, but we're talking about it in a spiritual way. What is sleepiness? Somebody who is asleep is not alert. There's somebody sleeping on the floor. I say, hey, you.
You going to answer me? No. What's wrong?
He's asleep and it's evident sometimes, brethren, that for our own interests, our own business, our own home, our own family, we're very alert. But for the things of the Lord, his interests were not very alert. What does that mean? I really think we need to realize that that.
Means we are asleep.
You know sleep has a way of creeping up on you.
It's happened to me.
Especially when I'm going on long trips.
Especially when I'm alone in the car, don't have anybody to talk to.
And maybe I've eaten a meal.
And get back on the road in the hum of the road.
Just little by little that sleeps creeps over you until I've had my head drop like that at time. That's dangerous business be driving when you're that way.
Brethren, sleep has overtaken many of us, and I'm not pointing the finger at any particular person here. The Spirit of God indicates to us.
If we are asleep, we are living in a world where there are opportunities that abound to use for the Lord. Use our means.
You know the money of the United States is going down the tubes as to value. You're going to wait.
For a while until it loses more value before you use it for him. May the Lord exercise this as to the needs there are in this world.
And to use not only our money, but our time, our energies and things that will be forever for that coming day of glory.
Stocking to a Brother and the Lord in Lawrenceville, IL.
Where we live, he used to be the president of the bank where I did some business.
Nice believer not gather the Lord's name but he says I lost 40% of all my investments.
In one week.
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Not too bad.
But if we're invested in this world, what can we expect the Lord exercise. I think the Lord has allowed these things to happen so that we will wake up young people, use your energies. I marvel at the the potential you have gonna use it for the benefit of some earthly company. I'm not saying it's wrong to work. Do your work hardly as to the Lord.
But do it in view of that coming day of glory. Jesus is coming back to this world.
He's going to reign supreme from sea to sea, the whole system.
Of this world's order is going to be completely changed.
And are we living in view of that day, or are we living of some time of earthly comfort we want to have down here?
I suggest, brethren, that we need to wake up.
And I trust you understand I'm not saying that to you only I'm saying it to my own heart comes as a tremendous challenge. And I hear in other parts of the world of the opportunities there are.
In China, where there are believers crying for teaching of the Word of God, I suggest that some of these young brothers.
Here would be able to teach.
Then the word of God, I say sometimes myself, I don't know that awful much.
But I know more than they have had the privilege of being taught, and that what I've been taught I'm responsible to pass on to others. The Lord help us.
To be awake. But there's another matter here. It's soberness. And soberness is in contrast with drunkenness.
What do we mean when we talk about drunkenness? In a spiritual sense? It's being under the influence.
Of present things, it could be a business.
Brother Bill was talking about sports.
You under the influence.
Nothing wrong with playing a ball game, but if you get under the influence where that commands your life and it's a question of your sports or a meeting where you know the Lord Jesus is going to be present.
Is sports more important to you?
Are you under the influence? It could be business, it could be any number of things.
Let's stop and take inventory of our lives. Let's think what is it that controls my life so that I cannot really give to the Lord those things that He clearly indicates in His word that we should get Him?
So those are things, brethren, we need to be.
Awakened as to them, he says, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch.
And be sober.
Like to go down.
In this chapter, a little bit further to.
The exhortations we have towards the end, to me they are so beautiful and important in our Christian lives.
Let's just speak of.
The exhortations. We have quite a few exhortations here. From verse 14 on. We exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly. Comfort the feeble minded or the faint hearted, support the weak. Be patient toward all men. See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all.
The Lord help us to do good. That's a big part of the Christian life.
Now that we are believers in the Lord Jesus, we're not saved by good works, but we are saved to do good works.
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It's interesting how often in Scripture good works are mentioned.
Verse 16. Rejoice evermore.
Somebody has noticed in scripture that there are two verses in the Bible with only two words in them.
The other ones in the English translation anyhow, it's.
In John Chapter 11, Jesus wept. It's nice to put those two verses together.
Jesus wept. Rejoice evermore.
Oh brethren, Scripture doesn't give us an option on this, doesn't say rejoice if you can.
Now it says, Rejoice in the Lord, Alway.
Again I say rejoice.
Just as if the first time he said it. I don't know if it got through to you.
Did you listen?
The joy Scripture speaks about is not just a superficial.
Joy.
It's that deep joy in the soul.
That Bill was speaking about the Lord Jesus had in his life way here. He is the man, even though He is the man of sorrows. He rejoiced in spirit even when he was rejected.
That's the joy that should be yours and mine in the Christian pathway.
Pray without ceasing.
Oh, prayer, brethren. It's such an tremendously important part of the Christian life. Pray.
Unceasingly.
You know, in our hurried lives it seems like we tend to be careless as to having time alone with God.
Pray and the Lord prayed often, went out early in the day, and was alone with God his Father before he started the day.
I really have found in my own life that there have been times when I haven't taken time to pray like I ought.
And you know, it's like you're spinning your wheels all day long. You can't seem to get anywhere.
Wouldn't it be far better to take a little time of quiet in the presence of the Lord so that our efforts would amount to something? Still remember Martin Luther?
Said I have so much work to do every day, I dare not take any less than three hours to pray.
The Lord help us, brethren, encourage us. There's prayer in the individual circle.
Knowing what it means to have a closet, a place where you can be alone with God, to shut out the other influences.
It's a tremendous privilege.
There is prayer in the family. You know what it means to pray as a family.
I found that a real blessing.
And then there's prayer in the assembly.
Oh, what a privilege to get together to pray too. Pray without ceasing verse 18 in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Give thanks. When things go wrong, give thanks.
Maybe I've told this story before, but it was an impression. It left its impression on me. One time in Bolivia, we were in the city of El Rudo, and I was saying goodbye to that old brother Lino Bueno at the train station.
And came back to my Jeep with another Bolivian brother that was with me.
We got back to the Jeep. We found that somebody had gotten into my Jeep and had stolen my briefcase.
All my personal documents are gone.
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Kind of standing there in a little bit of shock.
The Bolivian brothers says let's thank the Lord.
You don't exactly think about thanking the Lord right then. Let me tell you, brethren, it was a real lesson to me. We thank the Lord even then.
Through a series of circumstances, I can't tell you right now, the end of the day, I had my briefcase back in my hands. I can't believe it that it happened.
Alert put it right back with all the documents in. It was missing the money and missing some other items that weren't too important to me. But brethren, let's give thanks in everything.
Not only in everything, but it says in Ephesians 5.
Giving thanks for all things, not only in all things, but for all things.
Why? Because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Verse 19 Quench not the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
And why is he there? He's there to guide you.
Don't quench the spirit.
May the Lord help us in these exhortations.
Despise, not prophesying.
You know, sometimes we don't like like to listen to a particular brother.
Remember when I was younger, I traveled quite a bit with brother Clem Buchanan.
At one time I said to him after a particular meeting and that brother speaks. I just can't listen very well.
He looked at me and he said.
Despise, not prophesying.
You listen to him anyway, even though you don't like that particular brother that much. God may be saying something to you and what he says. That was a very helpful word for me in my life as a believer.
But it doesn't say that we are to accept everything that is prophesied, no.
We're to be Smiths, like Brother Michelle said, Prove all things.
Check it out. That's why you got your Bible open. Is that what it says?
Hold fast that which is good.
Abstain from all appearance of evil and justice before we close, Brethren, the very God of peace sanctify you.
Holy and I pray God, your whole spirit.
And soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And evidently as the rapture, it speaks of there faithful, as he that calleth you, who also will do it.
There's no wonderful brethren to depend on his faithfulness. Can I trust in my own faithfulness? Not for a minute. That's what Peter did and got him into trouble.
Can't trust in our own faithfulness. There is one faithful and he will do it. That's what Scripture says. Wonderful. But the desire of the apostle is that we may be preserved, blameless.
Spirit, soul and body. We are made in the image and likeness of God. God is triune and we are triune spirit, soul and body. The spirit is the God conscious part of our being.
The soul is the self-conscious part of our being and the body is the world conscious part of our being. So we are in all aspects. His desire was that we would be preserved, blameless. There are things in this world that contaminate on the spiritual level. Be careful what you get into. Young people, older ones too.
There's contaminations for the soul. If you turn on the TV and watch it without any control. Let me tell you, there's lots of contamination, not only the TV.
The Internet. Be careful what you're watching there. The Lord might come at any moment, and he catches you watching that stuff. Be careful.
The apostles desire is that you would be preserved, blameless spirit, soul and body. There are things that contaminate even the body.
01:05:01
And the apostles desire was that we would be preserved, blameless.
Spirit, soul and body to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord help us, dear brethren, Let's pray, Father.
Bless thy precious word.
How little?
We say to enhance it.
No Lord, it's Thy word that is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. Bless it, we pray in our hearts and souls today.
Commend the rest of the day in thy hands, in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
2 Timothy 3:14-4:1
Need for the Word the Sword of the Spirit
Great Grace
Consequence Of Disobedience
Ministry
2 Timothy 3:14-4:1
2 Timothy 4:1