Address—R. Thonney
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Standing here if you'd like to stand up.
A little bit if we can this thing.
Oh.
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Let's pray.
Gracious God our Father, we're so thankful for the Lord Jesus.
That one who has revealed all that thou art towards us.
In a complete way, we thank the Lord Jesus.
For Thy love, for having gone to Calvary, for having died for us there and now, Lord Jesus, while we're left here in this world, our conduct shows just how much our hearts respond to Thy love. And as we look into Thy word this afternoon, we do ask for the direction of thy Holy Spirit, we confess.
Complete insufficiency in ourselves, but Lord Jesus, we're looking up at this moment.
To thee in glory and know that thou art fully sufficient. Thou knowest the needs of each person sitting here in this room.
And we would ask that by Thy spirit there might be something of profit for each one. We ask, Father, giving thanks for this privilege of having Thy word in our hands, and the liberty to open it and read it and enjoy it together.
We ask blessing in the most worthy name of the Lord Jesus.
Father, Amen.
Like to turn to John chapter 14 to begin this afternoon.
Kindly introduce.
What I have on my heart to.
Go over.
This afternoon.
John chapter 14 and verse 15.
If.
Ye love me.
Keep my commandments.
Verse 21.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Chapter 15.
And verse.
10 If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and I and abide in his love. Verse 14.
Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.
Now let's go over to 1St Epistle of John.
Same author.
The Apostle John.
And verse.
Three of chapter two. First John chapter 2 and verse 3. Hereby do we know that we know Him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know Him and keepeth not His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Chapter 5.
And verse 2.
By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. And this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and His commandments are not grievous. I think that's sufficient. We could probably read other scriptures as well that deal with the question.
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Of.
His commandments, You know what a command is. It's something that is told us to do.
It doesn't say if you'd like to you can do it. No, it's something that specifically is told us to do. I sometimes think in our.
Culture here in the United States and Canada under democracy.
We kind of shy away from the word commandments.
Thinking perhaps that it relates more to the Old Testament.
And certainly there were commandments given in the Old Testament as well.
But what I'd like to take up this afternoon is the commandments. At least some of them, because there are many commandments in the New Testament, but.
There's one thing that's linked with that word the commandments. Keeping the commandments and its love.
It was kind of touched on yesterday in the Reading meeting, and I would like to touch your hearts, first of all, brother and sister and the Lord Jesus, dear young person here too, because it's a real proof of your love to the Lord Jesus when there's that response in your heart to keep His commandments. I want to distinguish the difference between Old Testament commandments.
And New Testament commandments was that the Old Testament commandments were given to man in the flesh who had no ability to keep them. When God told man in the Old Testament to love the Lord his God with all his soul and with all his might and with all his heart, he had no ability to do that, and it only.
Showed that there is nothing in us by nature to fulfill God's commandments.
The difference, the major difference between the Old Testament commandments and the New Testament commandments is that now God has given us a new life in Christ, a life in resurrection, and it's a life that delights to do God's commandments, the Lord Jesus said prophetically in the book of the Psalms.
I delight to do thy will.
Oh God, it wasn't only what he wanted to do, but it was his delight.
Now, if you and I have been born into God's family, we possess a nature that delights to do God's commandments. Remember, old brother AC Brown used to say that the commandments of the New Testament are directives to direct that new life that we have in Christ. And so let's not shy away from the commandments that we have in the Old Testament.
They're there for our own good and you know.
A verse that I used to not understand. It's in the end of the 12Th chapter of John. We're not going to look at it now. The Lord Jesus says, I know that His commandment is life everlasting. In other words, if God commands something, it's for our own ultimate good. And you may say, boy, that's a hard thing for him to command me.
Remember, if you have that new life in Christ, if you're a real believer, you have a life and a nature that not only is capable of doing what you're commanded, but has a delight in fulfilling what He commands us.
And so I want to get it in that perspective. It's based on love. God doesn't want you to do it in 1/2 to sort of way. In fact, in the Old Testament it talks about servile labor and they were not to do any servile labor on the Sabbath day. What's servile labor? It's half to stuff. It's things that we do as we think we have to, but there's no heart in it.
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God doesn't take any delight in that.
He wants the recent your obedience to be the response of love. And how can we do anything else, dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, when we think of the Lord Jesus and all that He did on the cross of Calvary for us.
No limit to his sacrifice, no reserve whatsoever.
He laid his life down for us.
Isn't there going to be some kind of a response on my heart, in your heart then to his commands which are really for our ultimate good? Let's think about it. Let's meditate on it. Dear brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, if you are here, there's some young person here with a half to sort of attitude. God takes no delight in it.
The Lord Jesus said to his disciples when the 70 had left him, Do you?
Want to go away too? Will you also go away? Peter gave that wonderful response. Lord.
To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we believe and aren't sure that thou art the Son of God. Tremendous response. They wanted from their hearts to follow Him. And that's the way it should be in your heart and mind. If your heart is not one, God has done all He can do to show you how much He loves you. He can do, if I can say it.
Reverently, he can do nothing more to manifest his love.
On that cross, when his only son hung there between heaven and earth.
Nailed there by those Roman soldiers and then?
In those hours of darkness, when God took my filthy sins and laid them on the head of that spotless, sinless sacrifice, and then let the fury of His judgment break on His head, I see manifested, as in no other place, the love of God.
And now that is the springboard for our response.
Dear young sister, dear young brother and the Lord Jesus, I appeal to your hearts. If it's not that, there's nothing to our Christianity at all. It's a matter of the heart. In the Old Testament, they could go on in a sort of outward sort of form.
And get something of the blessings of God. But in the New Testament it's a different matter.
It's a matter of the heart. I can't see your heart. All we can see is what is manifested in the life. But the way you show you love the Lord Jesus is the measure of your obedience to him. And I'd like to go over a few commandments of the New Testament this afternoon to me, exceedingly precious, but a very important for our lives.
So we're going to let's go back to John's Gospel chapter 13 to see perhaps one of the first in importance.
John chapter 13 and verse 34.
A new commandment I give unto you.
That ye love one another as I have loved you, That ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
Here's the commandment and the Lord Jesus said this is a new commandment. Why does he say it was new if in the law of Moses?
There was a command to love thy neighbor as thyself.
Why is this new? I suggest that it is new because it was given.
As we've already mentioned to the man now in Christ.
The new nature that you and I have, that new life. But it is a new reference point too Now. It does not say to love our brother as ourselves. No self is gone from the picture entirely.
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What is the reference point now as I have loved you and I think that's so important to get the change in reference point. It's no longer myself.
I'm distressed at times to see how much this self philosophy of psychology has has permeated Christian thinking. It is distressing. It is not Christianity, it is Judaism and it is going back to the weak and beggarly elements is what it is.
No, self is not in the picture any longer. It's Christ.
I command you that you love one another as I have loved you, and this word can love, I'm sure many of us already realize, is a word.
That means love because of the source and not because of the object. In other words, it says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Why did God so loved the world? Was it because of something good in the world that he saw?
That's what sometimes mentioned. No, that is not the case. God, soul of the world. Why? Because God is love. It's the question of the source and not the object. So you may say, well, that person isn't that lovable toward me. How can I love him? Because of the nature you have in Christ, you have the capacity to love that person. That may not be very nice towards you. That may insult you in fact.
They treated the Lord Jesus pretty bad. Did he quit loving?
Never did. He still loves as much as ever. And that's the love that you are capable of if you are a real believer in the Lord Jesus. Remember in South America in one place there's a problem between two sisters and one said, I just hate the sight of that sister. And I thought the brother that answered was answered pretty wisely. He said, sister, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
You can love that sister now if you have not been born truly into God's family.
Perhaps you do hate that sister, but because you don't know what real love really is. Thought that was a pretty wise answer. But that's true. Maybe you have some person that really is a thorn in your side. I want to tell you, you have the capacity, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, to love that person. How much?
As I have loved you and I just want to say this to me is so important in our Christian lives and brethren, I want to stir us up in this matter.
Of showing love. This is a love that is sacrificial love. It's giving love we've already mentioned, for God so loved the world that he gave.
Of times we mentioned that verse in Galatians 220. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. In other words, it's a love that's sacrificial. I say, you say you love a certain person, but have you really laid down your life for that person?
I've been amazed at sometimes hearing stories from place to place of sacrificial love.
Brother Ramon Alarcon first went to Oaxaca. There was a lot of banditry and there was real danger of him getting shot.
In fact, one time he loaned his raincoat to a brother.
Going to another town because it was raining and.
On the road he got beat up pretty badly because they thought it was rather Ramon Alarcon.
And when they found out it wasn't him, they left off and thankfully he still has his life.
But Ramon told me one time how when he was preaching down there one place, he said he didn't understand, but he said a brother stood on this side of him and another brother stood on this side of him, and a brother stood to the back of him. And he said, go ahead and sit down, brothers, you don't have to stand here. But they didn't tell him why, but they just insisted on standing there. And so afterwards they told him, he says there's real danger that they're going to shoot you from the distance, and it would be better for them to hit us than have to hit you.
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That's laying down your life for your brothers. Do we know that kind of sacrificial love?
You know, sometimes there's a person that has real problems. But isn't love that we're talking about here that we're commanded to love with? Isn't that a love that means that we need to sacrifice something? Dear brothers and sister in the Lord Jesus? To me, it really hits my conscience to realize that this command to love one another is given in different forms in John's Gospel and epistles.
7 distinct times. Why would it be necessary?
That He command us to love one another. It's because we need to be stirred up about it, brethren. And the Lord help us to fulfill this command to love one another as I have loved you. Let's go to another command in.
First Peter chapter one.
This is a command that's taken right from the Old Testament, so it shows that the moral principles of the Word of God do not vary from dispensation to dispensation.
They are the same.
First Peter chapter one.
And let's read from verse 14 as obedient children.
Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts and your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy.
So be ye holy in all manner of conversation or manner of life.
Because it is written.
Be ye holy.
For I am holy.
Here's a command.
It doesn't say be holy if you think you can.
It just says be ye holy and the standard is the highest standard. You can't lower this standard for I am holy. How holy is God?
Completely holy.
Sometimes we say.
Thrice holy God, Because when the seraphims in Isaiah 6IN Revelation chapter 4 are flying in God's presence, they say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty, Thrice holy God.
Now the commandment on our part is to be holy.
You say it. That seems almost impossible. How in the world, in a world like I live in, am I going to be holy?
I want to explain here that OFT times in the New Testament, when you have holiness spoken of, it's talking about positional holiness.
And sometimes it talks about practical holiness positionally.
We are holy before God and without blame before God in love positionally. You cannot improve on that ever by your own efforts.
That is a matter of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what we have here is practical holiness.
It's an exhortation. We use that word exhortation, but I like to think of it as a command.
Be ye holy as I am holy.
And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, dear young brother and sister, the question of separation from this world is a must.
You cannot mix up lightly with the world. People think that they can take a little bit of it won't hurt anything.
You know, that's what happened to Samson in Samson's life is a tremendous testimony to the fact that God means his people to be separate from the world.
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Holy, that means separated from evil, but it has the positive side of separation to God.
And in the Psalms, it speaks about the beauty of holiness.
You know that holiness is beautiful.
You know where you see that when you see at a wedding.
A man and a woman.
Who say they are separating themselves from all themselves, from all others.
To their spouse alone, that's real special and we all enjoy witnessing that. There's beauty in that.
And isn't there beauty if you and I have that purpose of heart to be separated to the Lord Jesus? Samson allowed his affections to go out.
To women who were not of the people of God. There were I think 3 women in Samson's life.
And he was destroyed by a terrible sad Sampson's in from not realizing that as a one of the people of God, he was to be separated from the Philistines. But he went down time and again and he got burned for the first time. His first wife got burned up. And when he came to Delilah, how sad.
He didn't seem to learn his lesson and he ended up losing his hair. He lost his separation from the Lord, he lost his eyes, he lost his strength, he lost his liberty, and he lost his life.
Why? Because simply he did not obey God's commandment to be separate. Dear young brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, I want to suggest this for your consideration. God's command is be ye holy, for I am holy. Let's go back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 for another of God's commands, New Testament commandment.
And verse 14.
But I want to back up two verses. We usually start at verse 14. I want to back up two verses.
To show.
What God desires there to be before we listen to the commandment.
Verse 12 You're not straightened or shut up in us, but you are straightened or shut up in your own bowels, and bowels of affection, and is in their love now for a recompense. And the same I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged, you know, it says in the book of the Psalms, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart, and when there's enlargedness in heart, when there's an enjoyment of the love of Christ.
Then there is the power to keep his commandments. And what is the command? Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ of Belio, Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
Separation is what we were really just talking about, and this really goes along with the last command that we read. But there are what are called yokes in our world today. There's a business yoke, it's been suggested there's religious yokes.
They're things that are entered into and you have to share the responsibility and the weight of things with another individual.
Marriage is another yoke and dear young people, be awfully careful about your hearts affections, letting them go in One Direction and another. Seen it happen so often in South America that a nice young sister.
Begins to accept the attentions of a person who does not know the Lord Jesus, who is not given fruit of being a real believer in the Lord Jesus.
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And in time, when the heart unraveled and we don't know our own hearts, dear young people.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. And then when the heart gets unraveled?
In those attentions and she realizes that that person isn't a believer says sorry, you're not a Christian. Oh, they come immediately and they make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus. I've seen it happen sometimes they're baptized and.
They say they're going to be at all the meetings. So often it has happened that they get married and then.
Comes the reality test. They don't go on at all and that dear young sister is drugged down to the level of the world because she entered into a yoke. Be awful sure in the day we live in, there's a lot of deceitfulness that goes on. Be awful sure that the person you are going to enter into a yoke into, whether it be business yoke or a yoke in marriage.
Is one who is a true believer in the Lord Jesus. Don't make a mistake. God means for marriage to be for the whole life long. He doesn't contemplate anything else than that. And if you want a happy home, be awful sure that that person you are an entertaining thoughts about is a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's go over to the book of First Thessalonians, chapter 5.
A lot of little practical what we call sometimes exhortations, but I like to think of them too as commands.
Their foot there as directives for our own good.
Nothing new, dear brethren, but my desire is to stir us up this afternoon.
To be more.
Alive in our faith and our life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's start with verse 16, First Thessalonians 5 and verse 16.
Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing in everything. Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesying.
Approve all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all.
Appearance of evil.
Just go over these. There's a list of commands, really. We call them sometimes exhortations, but I think they're a little bit more definite than even exhortations.
Their commands rejoice evermore doesn't say rejoice if you feel like it doesn't say rejoice if you think you can.
Rejoice evermore.
I think this is tremendous.
To think of that a little bit, brother, Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, Rejoice in the Lord always. Just in case you didn't hear it again, I say rejoice.
Brethren.
That joy should flow as a deep stream through the life of a believer. It may not be always evident outwardly, but it should always be there. You know the Lord Jesus, when he was rejected by His people, it must have been a real sorrow to Him.
But it says at that time Jesus rejoiced.
In spirit, I think that's beautiful. Somebody has said that joy sometimes in a new believer is kind of noisy. It's like a stream that comes off the mountain, and when it's coming down the steep part at the beginning, it's kind of noisy as it goes over the rocks. But as I get down into the valley, it gets deeper and it gets quieter. That's the joy that should permeate our lives, real joy.
And I really want to stop and ask you to consider this, brethren, because I think it really depends on our focus.
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I see sometimes people say I just got so many problems in my life, I can't rejoice.
How did God expect me to rejoice always when I got so many problems?
Rejoice in the Lord always, brethren.
Take inventory in your life. I don't say you don't have problems. You may have real, serious problems. I think everybody does.
But let's put those on one side of the balance sheet. Now go over to the other side.
The positive blessings that we have in Christ, let's focus in on those for a little while. I can guarantee you, you're going to see that that list is going to be far, far greater.
We have reason to rejoice. We have reason to be glad. We really do. God is not asking us to do something impossible when he says rejoice evermore.
Remember hearing somebody.
I think it was Thanksgiving time and somebody asked.
In their classroom to write down something you're thankful for.
And this one.
Student who came from a fairly well off family and had most everything he could ask for said I don't have anything I can be thankful for. I really don't. I can't think of a thing why.
Just because he was wrongly focused.
And I say that happens to us. We get our problems in front of our eyes until they look like mountains.
Not realizing that the greater part in our Christian life is what we have in Christ. Do we have a man on the throne of God who's there for us?
Oh brethren, what a tremendous thing to realize that He's there for us. We have love. We're loved with a love that cannot change. Unchanging love is our portion from God.
I tell you back up off those problems you have.
And start looking a little different direction. I can guarantee you you'll find plenty of reason to rejoice. We do have it. Paul wrote that prison epistle or I should die Epistle of Philippians from prison.
And his circumstances weren't that great, I can tell you. Roman prisons weren't like prisons.
Today in the United States or they have quite a bit of comfort, they were not that way at all. But he said from that prison, he said rejoice in the Lord always this command, brother, are you fulfilling this command?
The next verse perhaps tells us how we can fulfill it too. It says pray without ceasing. Oh, I think this is so important in our Christian lives. You know, we're dependent creatures will never be anything but that dependent. But we live in a society that encourages independence. Be your own person, do what you want, Be independent. You got all the answers in you.
But God has made us.
Dependent.
That's the glory of man is to be dependent on God.
And you know, sometimes we feel it, our need of the Lord. Great if we do nothing wrong with feeling weak, if it makes this go to Him.
So praying is an expression of our dependency upon Him. Pray without ceasing. How am I going to do that? I can't be on my knees all day. How can I pray without ceasing?
You can pray.
In your heart, you don't even have to form the words with your lips. You can pray as you're walking down the street. You can pray as you're driving your car. You can pray as you're at work. You can even pray when you're talking to somebody else.
Interesting, we have that case in the book of Nehemiah where Nehemiah was the cup bearer of the king and there he is standing in the King's presence. And the king was sin. You look sad today, Nehemiah. And it says, I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, it was all in the moment's time. But that's the matter, dear brother.
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Pray without ceasing. Is your life a life of prayer? I think there is something to power, though, in praying alone with God. Do you make it a point to pray to the Lord yourself alone when nobody else is around? There's real importance to that given in the Scriptures too, and I think that's so important.
I sometimes quote what I think Martin Luther said.
He said I have so much to do every day. I dare not pass any less than three hours in prayer on my knees.
And it was said when he was.
Going to be buried after his death. They found calluses on his knees. Prayer isn't easy.
I find in my own experience prayer to be work.
To Labor talks about epifras who labored fervently in prayer, it's not easy.
This is not just kneeling down in a comfortable position and going over a list of people. It's it's striving with God. It's there's other words used, supplication.
What is suffocation? It's something a little more intense than just prayer, which is a general more of a general sort of word.
Lord help us. Dear brethren, these are exhortations or commands.
Given that we are to keep the next one is in everything. Give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you in everything. Give thanks if you look in Ephesians chapter 5 we're not going to look at it now, but it says giving thanks.
For all things, not only in all things, but for all things. Isn't that interesting? You know, we find it pretty easy to give thanks when things go all right.
When things go the way we like them to go.
But I want to ask you, do you make it a point to thank the Lord when things go the other direction?
I found that a real blessing in my life, and I think I've learned some. Look for my dear Latin brother.
Remember one time in the city of O Rudolph, which is a city in Bolivia, on the high altar Plano.
It's about 100,000 people population in that city. It was market day and we were there and I was seeing dear brother Lino Bueno off on the train.
And when he came back to the Jeep, which I'd parked in a parking lot there in front of the station, I found that thieves had gotten into the Jeep and had stolen my briefcase with all my personal documents.
I stood there kind of stunned a minute. It's a brother there, a Bolivian brother with me. He says let's give thanks to the Lord. You know, we don't exactly think about giving thanks at a moment like that.
But we did it.
And I still think it was a miracle, brethren.
It became evident that the police, we gave the report to the police, but at the end of that day I had my briefcase back in my hand with all the documents in it. It was minus a little bit of money and minus a little bit of medicine in there, but I had all the documents and that was the most important thing. I I considered a miracle.
But it's worth it, brethren.
God allows that to be robbed from us. This is the will of God.
Oh, you say, how in the world could that be the will of God? It is in everything. Give thanks, everything that is allowed in your life. The positives plus the negatives are there according to the will of God. He only means you're good and if he allows something that you consider negative.
Brother and sister in the Lord Jesus I want to suggest.
That all things work together for good to them. That love God in that way. There are no real long lasting negatives in the life of a believer. Next one is quench not the Spirit. Here's another command. The believer in the Lord Jesus has the Spirit of God dwelling within his body. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
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Why is He there? Well, we know that He's there as the seal for security and our salvation. But Scripture plainly tells us in John chapter 16, the Spirit of truth is there to guide us into all truth. And so the Spirit of God is there to guide you in your life. Don't quench the Spirit of God when He's.
Gives you a thought to guide you in a way that's according to the word of God. Don't quench the Spirit.
Remember some years ago when I worked at the hospital in Chicago and I just come back from a conference in Wheaton, IL?
And thoroughly enjoyed the conferences, really happy. And his first day back at work, kind of a jolt to be put back on the job, that hospital.
And there was the.
Young man about my age standing there and it was as if the Lord said talk to him, give him the gospel. Lord, He's a supervisor. I got to do this carefully.
And you know how you put it off? And I put it off twice. A strong impulse. I really believe it was the Spirit of God that told me to speak to him. I didn't do it.
It was just a short while later he got pinched between 2 trucks and killed.
I'm guilty. I'm guilty not having spoken to him. The gospel. The Lord puts on your heart a certain individual. Speak to that person. If you don't feel like you can get a gospel, track something else, some way to put the way of salvation before that individual. It may be the last time that individual has to accept the Lord and salvation.
And so the Spirit of God guides us in many ways collectively too. He's in the assembly. The assembly is the habitation of God through the Spirit. And the Spirit of God is dwelling amongst us to guide us, whether it be in.
As we had this morning, the breaking of bread to praise the Lord.
Or in prayer, in the prayer meeting, Dear young brother and the Lord Jesus, I want to tell you that we'd like to hear from your voice in the prayer meeting and in the praise meeting too. Sometimes, you know, you come to a meeting and you sit down almost with the decision made beforehand. Well, I'm going to be here, but.
I'm not going to open my voice to take any part, my mouth to take any part. Be careful not to quench the spirit. You might be quenching the spirit.
Another way that's possible to quench the spirit, and I suppose I'm guilty of this.
It's talking too much.
And I specifically remember one time in Mexico where Doug Buchanan and I were with Ramon Alarcon.
Brother Ramon spoke first in the gospel, and there it's not limited to one. And then Doug spoke, I think, and then.
I remember how distinctly I felt, just felt totally. I didn't have anything to say, but the brethren are waiting for me to talk. I better say something. And I got up and it certainly wasn't the leading of the Spirit of God.
But while I was talking, I noticed a young brother from Oaxaca go over and talk to Ramon and.
We went back and sat down and after the meeting was over, why? Ramon says. That's too bad. Brother on Hill had something to say tonight, but there was no time and you got done. It was time to close the meeting.
Did I feel I had quenched the Spirit in a brother, a local brother? We need to be sensitive as to the leading of the Spirit of God. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesying. Here's another exhortation or a command that is important to listen. God speaks and sometimes He uses instruments that we might not like that much. I remember in my youth saying to an older brother.
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When that brother talks, I can't really listen very well.
And the brother responded with this verse, Despise not prophesying. He says listen anyway, even though you might feel that way, listen anyway. Maybe God saying something to you. And what that brother has to say. It was a help to me. Despise not prophesying.
Doesn't mean that everything that is prophesied is good. It says in the next verse prove all things and that's why you all have your Bibles open in front of you. I can make a mistake. I've made mistakes before. And if I do prove it, is that what scripture is saying when I say is not the final word?
I may say something that may be helpful. I may say something that may not be helpful. You prove it by this standard, the word of God.
Hold fast that which is good.
And then the next one, abstain from all appearance of evil. Your young people were living in a world that is filled with iniquity.
So much sexual immorality in the world. I think this verse has something to say to you young people. I'm thankful when I see wholesome relationships being established between young brother and a young sister. But be careful because we live in a world where appearances sometimes give people to understand something that is not perhaps intended. Be careful.
How it appears to others, abstain from all.
Appearance of evil times just about gone. I want to.
Touch One more command that I really want to leave with our especially with our dear young people.
The end of Matthew's Gospel.
What the Lord Jesus said before he was taken up into heaven.
Verse 18 Matthew 2818 Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the world.
Amen.
Go is the command here. Take the news of Christ, salvation to the world, all nations. Dear young brother and sister, in the Lord Jesus we have a responsibility in the gospel. We should always have a heart and a desire and sacrificial giving in one way or another in connection with the gospel message.
Somebody put it this way?
Given the way it is given so distinctly to go, it's not so much a matter of asking if you have a call to go. You should rather ask if you have a call to stay home.
Think about it. We live in a needy world. I'm amazed at the wealth of this country.
Is it just to stay here and enjoy our comforts and our wealth?
Dear young person, I want to challenge you seriously to not live for present advantage. If you're going to do so, you're going to stay here in this country.