Gospel—J. Bilisoly
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So then when we get to the third stanza, if we could stand together and sing the rest of the hymn?
Dust is very brief, like the falling of.
And your priceless soul belongs.
Behind.
Me.
All the voice of Jesus holds you in the heart.
If it's in your way, you may I know again.
And you're crying us away.
In time.
And I hear the warning voice make a longer because.
I will rejoice in time, on the market, into life from nowhere.
Shall we ask God for His help in the meeting?
Could you turn with me please to a verse in First Samuel chapter 20?
I'm just going to read.
Part of this these first three verses.
And I want to emphasize the phrase that has come before me of late.
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And that's in the third verse.
But maybe we should just read from the start of the chapter. And David fled from Naooth in Rhema, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? And he said unto him, God forbid thou shalt not die. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will show at me. And why should my father hide this thing from me?
It is not so.
And David swear moreover, and said, Thy father certainly know that I have found grace in thine eyes. And he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved. But truly, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
Now I had been asked to speak in this meeting yesterday by one of the local brothers here in Saint Thomas and.
Those of you that have done this can understand the feelings of trepidation.
Inadequacy.
Feeling that this is a big task.
And yet I think often of that verse that says not by might nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord. And so we realize and we know that if there's going to be any soul that comes to Christ tonight, it's going to be directly because of the work of the Spirit of God. If he wants to use A4 vessel and take some message and use that as a convicting arrow to your heart, then we thank the Lord for that. But it's the work of the Spirit of God to save souls, isn't it?
And so I asked the Lord for a burden, and I asked the Lord for this burden, that he would give me a burden for lost souls.
And so I woke up rather early this morning, and this is what came before my soul was this statement here at the end of verse three. There is but a step between me and death. And dear ones, tonight I'm going to be repeating that frequently throughout these few moments that we have together. There has been a step between me and death.
You know, each one of us here in this room is taking steps right now. You're taking steps.
And those steps are leading you in a certain direction. And now we've come to a gospel meeting, and you're sitting in this gospel meeting in a chair in this room.
And with the Lord's help, we trust that you will hear something of the gospel message and you're going to be faced once again in your life with a decision.
You're going to be perhaps, as it were, at a crossroads in your life.
And you're going to have to decide what step are you going to take.
Are you going to take a step of faith that will?
Secure for you eternal salvation through the precious work of Christ in His shed blood.
Or are you going to take a step away and say not tonight?
You know, I don't know a lot of you here because there's a whole generation or two of young people that I don't don't know personally. I recognize your faces. I've seen you, most of you before.
And I don't know where you're at. I don't know if maybe there's a step between you and death tonight.
Now with David here, it was literal death.
He was being hunted, he was being persecuted by a man that despised him, that was jealous of him.
That feared for his position in this world and he wanted to remove this hindrance.
You know, he had been told King Saul had been told that his Kingdom was going to be taken away from him and given to a neighbor of him his.
That was better than he.
Now, I don't know that he knew who that neighbor was at this point.
But we do read in these chapters here.
In verse 10 of chapter 18, if you just turn back.
Actually, verse nine and Saul I, David from that day and forward.
Did he? I am with a sense of, you know, this is a great man that I can make good use of. No. He eyed him with envy and perhaps we could say hatred too.
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And so David literally thought of that step between him and death, and he was afraid.
I wonder if there's anyone here in this room that is somewhat fearful tonight because.
I think you know whether you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior or not. I think you know who you are.
I don't. I don't know who you are.
Scripture says the Lord knoweth them that are his. The Lord knows your heart.
He knows what you're thinking. You know, we've been here at conference for a day and a half now and perhaps you're getting a little wary and you're saying, yeah, another meeting.
Another meeting to sit through, watch those minute, that minute hand go slowly around the dial. I hope you're not saying that in your heart. I would ask you, and I would even plead with you for just a few moments if you would. Would you listen and think about this serious matter, of this step between you and death?
Work with a man.
Not long ago.
I had worked with him fairly closely off and on throughout.
The time that he was there at the company.
And the last time I talked to him, he asked me about my children and we had a little bit of conversation along that line.
But prior to that, I had heard him talking to others and he had mentioned something along the same line to me about his wanting to retire and he was going to retire in a couple years. He had it all planned out. He was going to move to a foreign country. He was dissatisfied with the government here in the US or back in the US, and he had his life all planned out.
He came into work one day, it wasn't even a working day for him. We're on what we call a flex schedule.
And so it was his day off, but he came in to make up some work because he was going to be taking a trip to San Diego.
And he usually rode the bus, but this day he drove in. He was going home.
And at an intersection not more than a couple blocks from the building, a man under the influence of alcohol came flying through an intersection and hit him and knocked his car almost a block down the street.
He lived a few hours and then he passed into eternity.
There was but a step between him and death now. He didn't realize that, but that's how brief life can be, how uncertain. What about you tonight?
I know of another young boy.
That was waiting in a pond along a pier and he was walking out into the water.
And he slipped, he didn't know how to swim, and he slipped and he went into a deep pocket and the floor of that lake and he went underwater.
Almost certain to drown, he didn't know how to swim.
And God, in his Providence and mercy, allowed a man.
An older man to come walking through the water alongside up here and he bumped into this boy.
And realized that something was amiss and saved his life.
And God in mercy saved that young boy's life, and he later was saved.
Well, I mentioned that because like I said, you're on a journey, you're taking steps, and that's what I have before me tonight is the subject of taking steps.
And I want to look at five men.
And see the steps that they took and where those steps LED.
And we're going to see in four of these examples, and there's many, many examples in Scripture that we could draw from, but I just have these five come to mind to my heart. We're going to see some similarities with four of these in the steps that they take. So let's go to the book of Genesis chapter 4 and look at this first man.
And we'll read a few verses from the beginning of this chapter, and we're going to speak about a man named Cain.
And Adam knew Eve his wife verse one, and she conceived and bare Cain and said I have gotten a man from the Lord.
And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
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And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel into his offering.
But unto Cain, unto his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cane rose up against Abel's brother and slew him.
And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said I know not.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
Verse 13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold.
Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid?
And I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth. And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me.
And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. One more verse here. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
We know the story well, so I'm not going to go through it.
But we know that these boys, no doubt these two sons, the first sons born into this world of man.
They must have had a similar upbringing.
They must have known something about why their parents were clothed in animal skins in verse 21 of the previous chapter.
That the Lord had clothed them with.
They must have heard the story of their parents disobedience and the result of.
What happened? The consequences?
Perhaps they've been told something of the approach.
Unto God.
But we know that Cain here, he comes with.
His offering?
And we notice right away, don't we, that it's deficient. It's very deficient.
Because there's no blood.
It's a bloodless sacrifice.
And that won't do, dear ones, tonight.
Because God says that without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Are you resting on that? Are you sheltered beneath the precious blood of Christ?
Cain had his own notion of how he was going to approach God.
But it wouldn't be accepted. God couldn't accept it.
But notice what he says here in verse 14. He says, Behold, thou hast driven me out to stay from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. That was cain't thought.
That wasn't God's purpose towards him.
The Lord had graciously said to him in verse seven, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, a sin offering. God had made a provision for this man.
Whereby he could come on the same ground that Abel did, but he didn't accept it.
From thy face shall I be hid? That was his choice.
And that was his conscious choice. He chose. He took that step and said, I'm, I'm going to go out.
He could have accepted, he could have humbled himself and accepted Gods pardon. What about you tonight?
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Maybe you say, well, I would offer something better than what Cain offered.
Dear ones, tonight I don't care what it is that you have to give to God, it's not enough.
He's already made provision for you.
And he has given the best that his love could give. He's given his dear son, the son of his love, his beloved son. And anything else would be a slight to him.
He's given all that his heart of love could give, and the best that you could offer would be a slight to him.
It would be like saying to him, I have something better than what you've provided. Can you imagine speaking that way? But that's in effect what you would be doing.
God has made provision for you, but I want to just point out here.
Four things. In verse three it says Cain brought.
And in verse 8, Cain taught.
Verse eight again Cain rose up.
And verse 16, Cain went out. Now keep those things in mind because we're going to see.
At least to some degree with these other four, three men that we want to look at, we're going to see this pattern or something similar to it, Cain brought, Cain talked.
Cain rose up. Cain went out. You know, there are verses in Scripture that are so sad and tragic, and to me this is one of them. This verse 16. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and he doesn't say this, but he never returned.
Are you going to leave this meeting?
With an unsettled question in your soul as to what you're going to do with Jesus, which is called Christ.
You may be leaving.
The opportunity once and for all. There may be a step between you and death. Oh, don't take a chance.
You know, we probably all enjoyed most of us that tracked that Bible tract, Gospel tract, I think it was called Roger's Deliverance. It was the story of a a man that was a professional diver and he couldn't sleep one night. So he decided he had access to a pool and he decided to go down and he didn't even bother to turn the lights of the pool on. He just climbed up the ladder that he was so familiar with, went out onto the diving board, stretched out his arms.
In perfect form, as he was so good at.
And began to prepare for a dive. And as I recall the story, there was a little light coming through a window from the moon. And as it played across his body, there stretched out on that diving board, ready to dive, poised there, it made the form of a cross, a shadow of a cross on the adjoining on the wall opposite wall. And he looked, and as he stood there poised, ready to spring, he saw that cross.
Made him think about eternal things.
He turned around and he went down.
Later he found that they had drained the pool. There was no water in the pool. You can imagine there was just a step between him and death. It would have been certain death had he dove, and an awful death.
Awful, but he was delivered. He was delivered by what looked like a cross. Dear ones, tonight, you tonight can be delivered by the cross. Don't walk around it, don't spurn it. Don't turn away from it.
Now at the foot of the cross and yield your life to the Lord Jesus. Let's look at the next one in Acts chapter.
25.
Acts Chapter 25.
Verse 13 And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus, and when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There's a certain man left in bonds by Felix.
About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him. And then so on into the story he tells King Agrippa about this man.
Well, King Agrippa says.
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In verse 22 to Festus, I would also hear the man myself tomorrow, said he, Thou shalt hear him. So they planned this meeting.
And they bring Paul before this king Agrippa.
And it tells us here in this chapter 2 in verse, this chapter also in verse 23. And on the Morrow, when Agrippa was coming, Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city.
At Festus commandment or commandment, Paul was brought forth.
This was quite a gathering of the notorious folks of that day, royalty, principal men of the city.
Governors.
And a prisoner named Paul.
And so I thought of this in connection with King Agrippa. What did he bring? You know, it talked about, we talked about Cain bringing something. This man brought all that man might offer.
Royalty. Pomp. Glory.
You know our brother in his last meeting. Read that verse to us. Let not men glory in man.
And there's another verse. I'm not sure where it is. Let he that, but he that glorious, let him glory in the Lord.
You know, men love praise. It says here that they came.
This king, Agrippa and Bernice came to salute Festus, and I'm sure they came with salutations and glowing words and so on. And men love the praise of man more than the praise of God.
Well.
You know he got to talk to Paul too. It says in verse one of the next chapter that he said unto Paul, Dart permitted to speak for thyself, but I want to jump down in the chapter.
And start from verse.
24 And as he thus spake for himself, Besta said with a loud voice, Paul, dart beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness for the king north of these things, before whom I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believeth style the prophets I know that thou believeest.
Then a grip is said unto Paul almost now persuade us me to be a Christian.
You know, I didn't mention this, but I've wondered sometimes when we were talking about Cain. I wonder what Cain?
Said to Abel. He said he talked with Abel, his brother.
I don't think we read anything that Abel ever said. The only thing we ever read of is that his blood cried unto the ground, unto the Lord from the ground.
I think that's the only thing we read of people saying I don't know what Cain said. Scripture has veiled it from us, so I'm not going to surmise what he said, but I don't think it was.
Very good. I'm sure it was in anger because it says he talked with them and then he rose up and we know what he did. He slew him. He slew his brother, became a murderer.
Well, here King Agrippa speaks to this man, this one who had given so much for the Lord.
He was in chains.
And here, with a loving heart, he says to King Agrippa, he's seeking to reach him. He sees that perhaps there's some plowing in this man. And I think he means seriously when he says here.
Believe us all the prophets. I think he meant seriously, literally, that he knew, he seemed to understand that this king knew about the prophets, that there was an interest in these customs and Jewish things. And I understand that. I believe it was his great, great, great grandfather.
That was a Jewish proselyte that had been converted to Judaism. So it was in the family line, you might say these these things, this interest in Jewish customs and the Caesars of Rome had given privileges to this man and and given him authority over cities, Jewish cities and so on.
And so he was interested in these things. And Paul meant seriously, believe us all the prophets. He was putting an honest question to him. I know that thou believe us. He was. So Paul sensed he was so close. There was just about a step between him and death. And if he could take that step in the right direction, and what does he do? Another very solemn verse in Scripture.
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Almost persuade us now me to be a Christian. Oh, you just feel your heart, as it were. His statement, He was so close.
But he went the wrong way, as far as we know.
Almost persuade us, without me to be a Christian.
Loving answer that Paul gives, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost an altogether such as I am, except these bonds. No note here. What he does. I don't know that we know that he ever said another word to Paul.
That was his last statement, as far as I know. Almost that persuadeth me to be a Christian.
And then what does he do? And when he had thus spoken?
The king rose up.
And the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them.
And when they were gone aside, oh, he goes out from Paul's presence, the very one that could have been used as the vessel.
The messenger of God to reach his soul, He goes out from his presence and he's gone.
And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa and Defeestus, this man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.
Citizen Jeremiah that it is not in man to direct his steps.
What a foolish man. What a foolish man Cain was. It is not a man to direct his steps. He can't do it. He goes the wrong way by nature.
Let's go to Matthew 26 for the next man.
Matthew 26 and verse 14.
Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot, went into the chief priests and said unto them.
What will you give me? And I will deliver him unto you. Who is he talking about? The blessed Lord Jesus, the one who he had accompanied with for maybe three years.
What? Judas is going to betray him? That's what it says here. What will you give me?
What did he bring?
What did Judas bring here?
He brought a plan. He thought it was a clever plan.
He had seen the Lord Jesus.
Remove himself from his enemies that wanted to take him and put him to death.
So he had a clever plan where he could benefit.
And no one would. If we can speak reverently, no one would be hurt. He would benefit and he would walk away richer.
So he comes with a plan. This is what he brought, and he talks to these chief priests.
And outlines his plan.
Now turn over John to get the rest of this story, John's Gospel, chapter 13.
John's Gospel, chapter 13.
And I'm not going to read the whole account, but they're sitting together.
Emil the Lord is having a meal with his disciples.
And he says in verse 18, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me, he's quoting.
An Old Testament scripture.
And so they ask who this is and so on.
And then let's just pick up from verse 27. And after the SOP the Lord had given, a SOP, Satan entered into him, into Judas.
Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly now. No man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
For some of them thought, because Judas had the beg, that Jesus had said unto him by those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the SOP, went immediately out, and it was night.
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Now I just would take a liberty here. I think most of us realize that they didn't sit at tables as we did just a while ago for supper, but they reclined.
They were in a reclining position and so Judas had to get up. We saw that Cain rose up.
We saw that King Agrippa rose up.
Can I take the liberty to say that Judas got up?
From this table where he had been in the company of the Lord Jesus.
And.
Went immediately out. Isn't that solemn?
And it was night.
What a solemn verse this is. Judith gets up from that table, he rises up and he goes out from the presence of this blessed one, the only one that could save his soul.
And it says it was night.
And I think the very next time he met this Blessed One was when he betrayed him.
And then we know the end of Judas. He went out and hanged himself. He fell.
His body split open and it says his bowels gushed out.
An awful and.
There was but a step between him and death, and he took that step and went out into the night.
It's night time in this world, dear ones. We are in the twilight of this dispensation of grace. Are you going to step out into the night, into a lost eternity?
Don't be like Judas. The Lord has given us these portions in the Scripture as a warning. Take heed. Listen.
You don't want this to be your end.
Let's go to First Samuel, chapter 18.
For the 4th, 1:00.
I want to talk about Jonathan.
Now, I don't want to imply in taking up Jonathan that he's a lost soul, because I don't think he is.
But I bring in him here now to as a warning to us, those of us that might be believers, that are believers, I should say, in this room.
That we too are taking steps.
And what struck me as I was looking at this portion was the similarity that there were between those three men that we have just spoken of and the solemn account that is recorded to us of those men, and the similarities with Jonathan here.
Verse One. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more, out home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant between, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle.
Well, we have often enjoyed this portion being ministered to for us and each of these things that Saul, Jonathan gives to David have meaning. And I'm not going to go into it forsake of time.
But it struck me forcefully as I was looking at this just recently.
That there's something here that Jonathan didn't give to David.
Now some of you are probably thinking.
That it was his sandals.
But I'm not thinking of that right now.
That's true. We don't read that He gave him his sandals. And we have enjoyed the thought that he wasn't willing to walk in the path of rejection with David, who's the type of the Lord Jesus. And we can be like that, can't we, as believers, not willing to bear reproach for our Lord? But I wasn't thinking of that. There's something even sadder to me.
That's heartbreaking that he didn't give to David.
He didn't give himself.
The last verse of this.
A little later, we'll get to that.
He didn't give himself.
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He wasn't like Amaci in First Chronicles, and I want to turn to that in First Chronicles 12. Just hold your place here in First Samuel. Just very quickly look at First Chronicles 12 because I think it's so touching about a Macy.
First Chronicles, chapter 12.
And verse 18, you know, this was in David's rejection when Saul was hunting him and all these different ones came to him.
Then this manumaci comes to him, and it says then the spirit, verse 18 And that should be a capital S.
Came upon Amassi, who was chief of the captains, and he said, Thine are we, David? And on thy side, thou son of Jesse, peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers, for thy God helpeth thee. Then David received them and made them captains of the band. Beautiful Amaci, I said, Thine, are we David? He gave himself. They gave themselves to David. That's what Jonathan didn't do. How sad, how tragic. He didn't give himself to David.
And so we read in the 20th chapter when they meet up at the end of the chapter. I'm going to hurry now because I want to get to this last man.
But in the 20th chapter, in the last verse.
42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, for as much as we have sworn, both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and be between thy seed, my seed, and thy seed forever. And he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city. How sad.
Oh, you feel like you wish you could just say no, Jonathan, don't, Don't turn from David. Go with him. You're safer with him. Why do I say that? Well, Saul had just tried to kill his own son. Look at verse 34 of that chapter, or verse 33. And Saul cast a javelin at him, at Jonathan to smite him, whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger.
And to eat no meat the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David because his father had done him shame.
His father tried to kill him.
And spoke very harshly to him.
Verse 30 Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse, to thine own confusion.
He chose David.
And unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness.
He was angry. Saul was irrational.
And in his anger he tries to kill his son. Probably didn't even realize what he was doing. An evil spirit would come on him and he would just act in rash anger.
David Jonathan should have gone with David.
And then David would have said to him, like he did to a Biathar in chapter 22 at the end of the chapter, verse 22. And David said unto Abiathar, I know, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me. Fear not, for he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life. But with me thou shalt be in safeguard. Oh, look what Jonathan missed out on. He could have been with David. Yes, there would have been some hard times.
But David promised the Biothar and he stuck to his promise, and he would have protected Jonathan too. Now turn over to.
Later on in this chapter 23.
And we know that they meet one more time.
And this is so sad to me because David's in a wood in verse 15.
Saul saw and David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness as if in a wood. And Jonathan, Saul's son arose and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find thee, and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I will be next unto thee. And that also saw my father knoweth. And they too made a covenant before the Lord, and David abode in the wood.
Oh, I wish I could say. And Jonathan went with him.
And stayed with him.
But I'm going to read it the way the Word of God has given it. The Spirit of God has given it to us. And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
Notice this.
Jonathan had brought these things to David like others had brought things. All of these things that he gave David. He had talked with David. Oh, they had enjoyed some sweet communion together.
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And now he arises. It says in verse 16 that he arose.
And he went to David, but then he goes out from his presence forever.
Or I shouldn't say forever, but for.
This scene anyway.
He went out from David's presence and he never got to taste.
The joy of reigning with David.
Oh, how sad. Well, let's look at someone. I want to end with someone very special. This man is different than all the others.
His name is Jesus.
Let's look at.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
We've been talking about steps, taking steps.
And how could we overlook Philippians chapter two such a precious chapter?
That we read so often Lord S day morning some of these verses about these steps of the Lord Jesus.
Seven steps downward, 7 steps upward.
So we want to consider him for a little while.
In a few minutes, the few minutes that are left to us, and you know, that's what it says in Hebrews. I'll just read it. Hebrews, chapter 12.
It says in verse two looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest she be worried and faint in your minds.
It's been said that verse two tells us to look where he is and verse three look where he was. But I enjoy what our brother Bob likes Bob, Tony likes to bring before us and that is that the the an old Spanish translation of the first part of the first three says instead of consider him, reduce your thoughts to him. Maybe you can remember him saying that.
Whenever I read that, I in my little note in my Bible, I think of Bob. He gave that to us and I like that because to me it's a little stronger than just consider him. To reduce your thoughts to him means you crowd out everything else. It's sort of like a surgeon that's performing an operation and he's going to isolate that part of the body that he's operating on and he's going to concentrate on that. He's going to cover everything else off. He doesn't want to be distracted. He wants.
To isolate that one little area, or let's take the example of a scientist, he puts something under a little bitty, something under his microscope and he looks into it and he sees this display there and he concentrates on that and everything else around him that might be going on is shut out. He reduces his thoughts to whatever that specimen is under his microscope. That's what we want to do with our Savior. We want to crowd out everything else and reduce our thoughts to him. And so let's just read without comment. Let's read those verses in in Philippians chapter 2 That we read so often.
Those seven steps down, those seven steps up, starting with verse five, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.
Even the death of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Well, I know we've many have enjoyed the thought in verse seven there where it says he made himself of no reputation. Mr. Darby's translation, I believe, says he emptied himself, dear ones.
Consider the steps that this man took, this blessed man, and I would just challenge each of our hearts and especially you, dear young people.
That when you're faced with decisions, you have many weighty decisions to make.
I would just ask you to offer you this before you decide. Read. Read these verses that we just read in Philippians 2 and see if that doesn't help you in your decision.
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Because that's really what we want, isn't it? You know, if we don't, if we don't seek to.
Emulate him if we don't seek to walk in his footsteps.
We're going to have a lot of trouble in life as believers. We're going to have lots of trouble. And I want to end with that verse in first Peter 2.
First Peter, 221.
For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps.
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who when he was reviled, reviled not again when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed.
You know, Joe could say, doth he not see my ways and count all my steps? That's quite a thought.
Job could say that he counts all my steps and maybe.
There's some here that perhaps are discouraged. Maybe you say it's a hard path we heard about.
The path today, and I enjoyed that and you might say that there's a path that the vultures eye doesn't see and the lions whelps have not trod. But let me encourage you with this and I thought of this as our brother was speaking.
That there is one that sees our ways. That's what Job said. Doth he not see my ways? And doth he not count my my steps? He knows how many steps you have and he'll help you. But just look to him, dear ones, and follow him, emulate him. And again, I would encourage you when you're making decisions, read those verses in Philippians 2 and see if that doesn't help you in your decision. I wonder if we could stand together and sing the first hymn in our sheet.
Almost.
Persuaded now to believe.
Almost persuaded Christ to receive. Maybe someone could start that.
Anyone is not clear as to the way of salvation. Please talk to someone. I would be willing to talk to you. I know many brothers here would. Let's ask the Lord for his blessing.