Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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To young people, I was thinking about four different times in the Bible where we read 2 words one thing, and I'd like to first of all turn to the one in Marks Gospel chapter 10.
Mark's Gospel chapter 10, verse 17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good master, what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not.
False witness defraud not honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I kept from my youth up. Then Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow me.
And he was grieved at that saying, and he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he had great possessions.
Well here you notice in this 21St verse it says one thing, thou lackest. Now this was a very, very fine young man, a man that I'm sure anyone would say was better than the ordinary, that you might meet day by day. And he came to the Lord Jesus and it tells us here that he was running. I believe this shows us that he was in real earnest, but I think it brings before us that not earnestness or our best plans or our best works can.
Fit for the presence of God. So he came running and he came to the Lord Jesus. And I believe when he said Master, it doesn't mean that he acknowledged him as Lord, but simply as teacher. And the Scripture says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord. So the Lord Jesus took him up on his own ground. He just looked upon him as a great teacher.
And he asked the question, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
He thought that it was going to be by some efforts of his own, and he didn't know his own helplessness. And you know, we must all learn this sooner or later, that we have no strength of our own. It says when we were yet without strength. In due time Christ died for the ungodly. There's nothing that the natural man can do to make himself fit for the presence of a holy God.
But when he asked this question, then the Lord Jesus took him up on his own ground.
He first of all said that why call us thou me good? There is none good but one that is God. If he didn't recognize who the Lord Jesus was, and then why should he have called him good? Because as the Lord said, there's none good. No, not one. Or as another verse says, there is none that doeth good. No, not one. That's the third chapter of Romans. So I don't believe that this young man truly recognized who the Lord was.
But nothing more than what Nicodemus saw in him as a great teacher. And so the Lord, as I say, just took him on his own ground.
He said, Why call us thou me good. And then he said, Thou knowest the commandments, and that is if he was going to try to do something. The law laid down God's standards. The law told man what he should do, because it said this do and thou shalt live. But had any man done it? Did man in his natural state have the power to do those things that the law required? Well, the Scripture answers that.
Question and not I it says.
Deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So I say the Lord took him up on His own ground. And if there's anybody who feels that they can make themselves fit for the presence of God by their own works, the law gives man an opportunity. Is there anybody that has lived up to God's holy requirements and has kept His law? The Scripture says that the law was given that every mouth might be stopped.
And all the world become guilty before God.
And so the law simply made known to man God's requirements and closed his mouth just as if I had a heavy bag. And my little boy said, well, dad, I can carry that bag. And I say, no, it's too heavy for you. Oh, but he says I can give me a chance. So I say, well, here it is. Then you try it.
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And he tugs away and tugs away and he says, well, I can't carry it. Well, that's really what the law did. It was intended to show a man that he had come short. But this man came in the sense of his own self righteousness. And so I say the Lord took him on that ground just as he did Israel when the law was given in the first place.
That this man then answered all these have I observed from my youth up, That is, he could boast that he had fulfilled.
Certain of the requirements of the law, but there were two things in the law that he he wasn't able to fulfill the law said thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength. Is there any person in his natural state that is, that can possibly do that? Why, that condemns us. The Lord Jesus said the two great commandments of the law were first Godward.
Loving the Lord with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, is there anyone?
Who could say he loves the Lord with all his heart? By the natural man, he's at enmity with God. You know very well you're going to school and you talk to people about the Lord Jesus, why they want to walk away from you. They don't love the Lord. There's enmity in their hearts. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be. And is there any person who could honestly say that he loves his?
As himself always makes me think of the story that I heard of a man and he was visiting in a certain place and he saw the firewalls go by and they were going in the direction that was near his house. And he was a little uneasy and he followed to see where the fire engines were going. And he was so relieved that it wasn't his house. But if he loved his neighbor as himself, he would have felt just as badly.
That it was his neighbor's house. You see, the natural heart does not love his neighbor as himself. The natural heart is selfish. And that's why the Lord brought these two things before him. Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor.
And thou shalt a treasure in heaven, And that was loving his neighbor as himself.
And come, take up thy cross, and follow me. And that was to love the Lord with all his heart.
That he would be willing to forsake all and follow him. Now, there might be some person here and you say, well, does it really mean literally that you sell all that you have when you come to the Lord Jesus? Well, I sometimes put it this way, that when you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, there really is a change of ownership before you're saved. Everything that you possess you think of as your own. My car, my house, my possessions, my money.
But you know when you're saved, why you acknowledge Jesus as Lord and he's the one that ought to. And if we truly are acknowledging his claims, why we say everything that I have belongs to him where the stewards were to use what we have for him. And so when the Lord saves us, why everything that we possess actually belongs to the Lord and we should be looking up like Saul of.
The very day that he was saved, up to that time he had, so to speak, lived his own life. But he said, Lord, but wilt thou have me to do? And So what the Lord was really setting before him was what Christianity really is, And that is the Lord first, others next, and self last, as someone has put that as an acrostic for joy.
J Standing for Jesus, all for others, and Y for yourself. JOY, Jesus first.
Others next and yourself last. It's impossible to do this if you're not saved. But when the Lord Jesus comes into your heart and takes control, this is exactly what happens. And that's the secret of true joy. None of the world can't find joy because they're trying to find it without God, and they're trying to find it selfishly. They shut God out of their lives and they think if they get fame or money or.
Pleasure or something like this that it's going to satisfy.
Something for self. But I want to tell you and dear young people, that when you come to the Lord Jesus, the true secret of joy is to put him first. To say, as a little Him puts it, a love that transcends our highest powers, demands our soul, our life, our all. We sell out, as it were, and give the Lord Jesus his rightful place.
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Well, this young man like that, and mind you, he was a nice young man.
He was a man that could really boast of a good character, but he didn't have Christ. And there might be some nice young person here tonight, a person that perhaps is better than some other people that you compare yourself with. But I say this, if you like having Christ as your Savior, then you lack now that which is really vital and important. One thing now lackest. And so the one thing that is needful for the Sinner is to receive.
Christ, that's what happened on the road to Damascus with Saul of Tarsus. He received the Lord Jesus. He received him. He was his Savior. And from that moment, honor onward, the Lord Jesus was the one who had the first place in his life. He followed him. And you know, he was naturally a covetous man, but the grace of God enabled him to even overcome that part of his disposition so that he could say, I've coveted no man's gold.
Silver or apparel. What a wonderful change was wrought while if there's anyone here tonight and you lack that one thing.
Why, May God grant that you'll be brought to the feet of the Savior and receive Him. And I'll tell you this, that when you do, He'll give you the power. Immediately something will happen When you accept the Lord as your Savior, your heart goes out in love to Him. And next Hawaii, you begin to think of others. You remember Rahab the harlot. She confessed that the Lord was the true God. And what was the next thing? She began to think about shelter for other people in Jericho and her home was.
For all those who sought refuge from the judgment would find their place of shelter.
Under the scarlet line. So remember this one thing is needful. If you haven't got Christ, why? You haven't got salvation, You haven't got the thing that is most important. In fact, in God's sight you're still dead. You haven't begun to live, because it's only in having Christ that we pass from death.
Unto life.
And now the next one I'd like to look at is in Luke chapter 10.
Luke chapter 10 and verse 38. Now it came to pass.
As they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said.
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she helped me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
Now neither Martha nor Mary were in the same position as that rich young man. That rich young man lacked what we might say is really salvation itself. He didn't have Christ. He didn't have salvation. But Martha and Mary both, I believe we could say, had put their faith in the Lord. They welcomed him into their house. They really were true believers. But here we find that although they were both true believers.
Only one had realized the one needful thing.
It tells us here about Martha, that when the Lord Jesus came to the house.
Why she had so many things to occupy her that she didn't have any time.
To sit down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And you know, it's very easy for us in life just to keep so busy that we don't have time for that one needful thing. Oh, we might say, but other things are necessary. We do have to eat. We do have to have shelter. Yes, we need all those things. But the one thing that is most important that the Lord Jesus spoke about was the thing that Mary really had.
Valued. You know, I've sometimes thought in reading the scripture here carefully because sometimes I think Mary is put in the wrong light here as though she wasn't doing anything. But I believe if you read the story carefully, you'll see that they were actually both busy when the Lord came to that house. But what Martha, what Martha complained about was that her sister.
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Left her and took her feet at her place at the feet of the Lord Jesus.
In other words.
When the Lord was not in the house where there were a lot of necessary things to be done, there were things that had to be attended to, and we all have them. We have to look after our material things here in this life. But when the Lord Jesus came into the door and to me, it's just as if Mary said to herself, now this is an opportunity I must not miss.
The Lord has come to visit us and the work's going to have to be left. I I'm not going to bother with it right now.
I'm going to sit down and hear what the Lord Jesus has to say.
And I'm sure that many of you at this very moment are saying that's just the way it is with me. I never would have time to read my Bible. I never would have time to get to the meetings if I didn't leave something. There's just so many things that I want to do that I find when meeting time comes or when time comes at home to spend little time reading the Word. I always have to leave something to find time. And I'm sure you'll find if you begin to think about it, that that really.
True, you must leave something because the devil always suggests 101 Things that you can do.
When the time comes to sit at Jesus feet just to have a little time to.
Listen to him. We know it in a home, you know.
When there's no time for a husband and wife just to sit down and talk and enjoy one another's company, and then the home becomes a drudgery instead of a a place of happy companionship. It doesn't mean that we don't have things to do and we sit down and talk, but we leave those things because we appreciate one another's companionship and fellowship. And so how much more?
When it's the Lord of glory.
So Mary here made a really good choice when Jesus came in.
She I believe said to herself, perhaps not out loud, I must stop and just sit down and hear what the Lord Jesus has to say to me to day. And that's what she did. And her sister found fault and the Lord Jesus was the one that spoke up. And may I just suggest this, that sometimes you do something for the Lord and somebody finds fault well.
It's often very well just to leave it and let the Lord.
Answer the question for you. That is. In other words, what I'm saying is to be satisfied with His approval. Sometimes when we try to justify ourselves, we get into problems. But you know, if we just leave it and let the Lord vindicate us. And notice here Mary didn't say a word. She could have got a little bit annoyed at her sister and said, well, I want to do this or it's not your affair or something.
Here or I might have done that. But she didn't say a word. She let the Lord answer for her, and the Lord answered so sweetly for her by saying Martha. Martha lowered, careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part. You notice the Lord Jesus didn't say the better part. I've heard people say that's the better part, but it doesn't. That isn't what the Scripture says. Mary has chosen that good part.
Because there are times when we should be busy, there are necessary things the Lord intends us to do, and we're doing the better part when we do them, when they should be done. There are duties and responsibilities, and we're doing the better part. But when the time comes that we should be sitting down at the feet of the Lord Jesus or stirring ourselves up and going to the meeting, and the better part is to go the goal where we can learn more about him. Because I want to.
To you, dear young people, and the world is growing rapidly worse, and there's all kinds of things being poured into your ears day after day at school and everywhere in this modern society to try and do two things to shake your faith in God's Word and to make you lower your standards of what's pleasing to God. Yes, I know that's what you're hearing all the time.
To say all those are old fashioned ideas, you don't have to think that way. We're living in 1979.
And things have changed or starting to make you doubt God's word. But remember, the only way it can be fortified for the evil of this present day is to be acquainted with what the Lord Jesus says. There's a verse in the 17th Psalm that says by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Don't neglect the word of God. Read it. And I say again, be sure that you.
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Time, you know.
I know as you get older, I find now when I read things, I don't remember them as well. And so I just want to encourage you to read the Bible when you're young. If you think, well, when I get a little bit older and I have more time, but you're not going to have more time until perhaps if the Lord were to leave you here until you got retired, well, maybe you would have a little more time. But you define them that you couldn't remember so well.
Plus the fact that it's a wasted life.
How much better to spend your time for the Lord Jesus while you're young? So let's remember this little word spoken by the Lord Jesus. One thing is needful and that is to sit at Jesus feet and hear His words. And we get that through this precious book.
Now I'd like to turn to the next one in Psalm 27.
Psalm 27.
Verse four. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
Well this, this is one thing of desire you notice in the others we spoke about the one thing of salvation, the necessity of sitting at Jesus feet. That's the one thing that's needful. But you know, life must have a purpose and with the psalmist here, he had a purpose. I've often said if the Lord were to come down right now.
And go about and speak to each one of us personally and say, what would you desire most of all that I should do for you?
I wonder what would be our response? I'm sure that many of us have things that we really would like the Lord to do for us. But here we find the supreme desire that was in the heart of the psalmist, and I hope it'll be of my heart and of your heart too. And that is, his supreme desire was that he might dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of his life, that he might behold the beauty of the Lord, and that when province arose, that he might.
Inquire from him, Wasn't that an excellent desire? Wasn't that a fine thing to have?
For the one desire that was paramount, that was greatest of all in his life. And dear young people, we all have things that we desire. We have requests when we talk to the Lord, but we can ask ourselves right now if this is the greatest desire of our hearts. And he said not only the desire, but he said.
That will I seek after, because if you desire something, there has to be also.
Energy to pursue it. If I said that I wanted to have some certain thing, well, you'd probably find me pursuing it. If I said I wanted to have a nice house, you'd probably find me pursuing the idea of getting a nice house. If I wanted to get new clothes, you'd expect me to be going down to the store or something so that I would get them. And you know, there's no you sitting here and saying, well, I really desire to follow the Lord unless it has some.
Some effect in our lives that there's a purpose then that will I seek after. My father used to quite often say, he said, sometimes we have a a good wishbone, but a poor backbone. And I think that's very true. We, we say, I wish this and I wish that, but there's no backbone to our Christian life. We really have no spiritual energy. And the the solemnist here said one thing of I desired of the Lord that will I seek after.
The thing not only that he desired, but there was the energy of faith connected with it. That's what he sought after. Now that was the ambition, shall I say, of his life, And he says that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life. This is a rather remarkable expression, because in the 23rd Psalm it says.
That your really goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
And many of us, as we sang in the first hymn we sang tonight about the Father's house and the glorious home that awaits us, and we love to think of that. But this is something a little bit different here, isn't it? That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life.
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And you know, this is a this is a good thing for us because I believe it simply means to walk in the in the company of the Lord Jesus. And I've often said that we ought to desire to enjoy his company in two different ways, individually and collectively, individually in our Christian life at all times because we can have the Lord.
Right beside us at school.
We can have the Lord beside us in our homes, we can have him beside us as we drive in our cars, says about Enoch that he walked with God for 300 years. We can have the company of the Lord at all times. But then there's another aspect, and that is the collective, the Lord Jesus said, where two or three are gathered together in my name.
There am I in the midst of them. So, you know, I think there are two very blessed desires that we can have.
To have the enjoyment of the Lord's company in our daily life. And that is a very wonderful thing, to just feel the Lord near to you as you go about your daily life and your job and your friendships and everything. And then next that we should desire to know what it is to be in that blessed place of privilege to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
To go. And I say to go because it takes spiritual energy.
To go in obedience to His Word and gather around Him.
Where he is in the midst. So isn't this very lovely here? The one thing that the psalmist desired was that it might be true of him all the days of his life. And I I say again, may it be our portion individually as we go about our daily life, and collectively that we value the privilege of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then it says.
To behold the beauty of the Lord. It's good that that comes in here because sometimes, you know, when you go to meeting, well, you might get occupied with other things. We can get occupied with people's clothes or anything like that, or we can even get occupied with people's failures. A lot. A lot of things can come in to distract us. But isn't it nice here?
His purpose and you know the House of God at that time was beautiful.
That that beautiful temple was was wonderful, but it says here that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
And so the next point here in this verse is to enquire. I've often said that life is full of hard questions. Constantly we're meeting difficult questions in life. Young people going to school meet all kinds of problems. Today, as we get older than we, the problems don't decrease, they seem to increase more problems and problems about friends, problems about jobs, problems.
About where you live. Problems arise in the assembly, All kinds of life, just full of it. Just like that queen of Sheba, she found life so full of hard problems that she made a long journey all the way up to Jerusalem to get some of these problems settled. Well, isn't it nice here that it says to inquire in His temple? And dear young people, we have a person that we are invited to come and inquire from and his.
Is wonderful counselor the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace and so when these problems arise, some of them are answered in the word of God and some of them are only answered by getting before the Lord in prayer. I say some of them because some things God has spoken about definitely in his word but there are a lot of things in life that we don't have a direct verse of Scripture but as we're.
Lord, He does reveal his mind to us now. This was the one thing.
The psalmist desired that he might just walk in the company of the Lord all the days of his life, that he might be occupied with the beauty of the Lord, and that when the problems arose, that he would go to him and ask the Lord for the solution to these problems of which life is so full. And so we do have such a one. He invites us in the Psalms. He says, pour out your heart before him. There's no other friend on earth.
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That you can really pour out your heart to only the Lord. You've perhaps tried to do it sometime. You poured out to your heart to somebody and He let you down. He repeated what you said or and told it the wrong way or something. And you get very disappointed often with what people do. But there's one who invites you to pour out your heart to Him. And He knows us through and through, and He invites us to come with boldness into His holy presence.
Now there's just one more I want to look at, and that is in Philippians Chapter 3. Philippians Chapter 3.
And verse 13.
Now perhaps I should read the 12Th verse to get the context, not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth under those things which are before.
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect. Be thus minded, and if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
There's another verse that says the man also strive for the mastery is yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.
And so here we find the apostle Paul considers himself to be pressing on toward the mark. He's like a runner. He wants to run with the prize before him. And he says here, this one thing I do. We've spoken about these different places where the Scripture speaks of one thing, not only as the psalmist, the one thing of desire. But now this is action, isn't it? This one thing I do. He he compares.
To a runner who's running in a race, he doesn't say that he has already attained. We haven't come to the end of the race. None of us have. We're still here in this world. But we are running in this race, and we're told in Hebrews 12. Let us run with patience or endurance the race that is set before us.
Paul desired to apprehend that for which also he had been apprehended of Christ Jesus. I might say that the word apprehend simply means laid hold of, as though he should say like this. I want to lay hold of in my own soul the purpose that the Lord had in laying hold of me, because that's what He did when He saved us. He laid hold of us. We were on our way to a lost eternity, and he reached.
Laid hold of us. What did he do it for? To make us famous people or something in this world? Did he do it to make us very successful? No, Paul said. I know why he laid hold of us. He laid hold of us that we might be just like his beloved son, that we might just be like God's beloved son. In this chapter He desired that he would have him as his object and be like him, and then at the end of the journey he would.
Physically like him, because the Lord is going to change our bodies to be fashioned like unto his own glorious body. So he desired to get hold of this. And dear young people, if you and I got hold of this, sometimes the way people talk, you'd think the Lord saved us to make a successful business people or to make us something here in this world. But I say again, let's get hold of this. He laid hold of us for another purpose.
That we might really be Christ like here in this world.
And Christ like for all eternity, morally and physically, in that glorious scene above.
He goes on to say in this 13 verse, there's one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark. So he was pressing on through life, and he sought to have an object before his soul.
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Sometimes they use the comparison, you know, to help bring out this thought. Supposing that you were trying to break a path across a field of deep snow. Well, you know very well if you've ever tried to walk in deep snow that it's very hard, if you're just walking in deep snow, to make a straight path, you probably find that you really make quite a crooked path. But there is a way of making a straight path. And so let's think of a man and he's making this.
Crooked path. And then all of a sudden he realizes what he's doing. He didn't have any object. And so he sees on the other side of the field a tree. And he sets his eye on that tree. And instead of looking down where his feet are, he just keeps that tree before him and goes on through the snow. Well, you know what's going to happen, don't you? As long as he keeps his eye on that tree on the other side of the field.
He's going to break a nice straight path across the fields.
I remember when I used to walk to school, we used to cross some frozen pond and sometimes the snow is pretty deep. And whoever brought the path, if they didn't, if they didn't do that, why it it just was so wandering across the the field, across the ice. Well, I believe this is an illustration. Before we were saved, we were breaking a crooked path. We, we certainly were going our own way. Scripture says all we like sheep have gone astray.
Turned everyone to his own way and perhaps even when we were saved, if we didn't put the Lord as our object, we can also make crooked paths as Christians sometimes as real believers, we're like Peter, we're following a far off we're not making a straight path. It says in the cross of Hebrews lift up the hands that hang down in the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet and so.
This person realized he wasn't. Then he got his eye on the tree and why he was going along for a little while looking at that tree, and then he began to think, I wonder how I'm getting along. I wonder if I'm doing a good job here. So he turns around and here he sees this crooked path behind him and.
He sees this straight path that he's been making.
And he begins to pat himself on the back. Oh, I'm doing a good job here. I'm doing a good job.
Meanwhile, he forgets about the tree because he's occupied now with himself and what a fine job he's doing. And then he realizes he gets his eye off the tree. Well, you know, when he gets, if he puts his eye back on the tree, when he gets to the other side of the field, he's going to see something quite striking. He's going to see that crooked part, the nice straight part, and the crooked part when he was looking back to see how he's getting along.
Now you know when we are conscious of sin in our lives.
We certainly should judge sin and failure. It's important that we do. The scripture tells us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I I don't want to miss this point.
We're not to sort of flatter ourselves that we're doing a pretty good job.
I remember when I was a young man, somebody spoke on New Year's Eve about how important it was to look back over the past year and take stock and see how well we had got along through the year. And I remember how my father was very disturbed when he when I came home, he said, oh, son, that's not the thing to do. Keep your eye on Christ.
If you think you've done a good job, you'll be proud, and if you think you've made a failure, you'll be discouraged.
When there's failure, confess it, but don't, don't have your eye upon self, have your eye upon Christ. Now of course, there is a sense in which we should remember our past failures to be humble, but we don't have to be occupied with them. Paul said to the Ephesians, Wherefore remember that she being in time, past Gentiles in the flesh. And sometimes it's a good thing to remember that we have.
Done some things we shouldn't just to keep us humble, but we don't have to be occupied with it.
Thank God we can be occupied with the Lord Jesus and I think the greatest danger.
Is to be occupied with how well we're doing because I think that spiritual pride is one of the greatest sins. So the apostle Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark and what was before him. Well, the proper translation of this verse is the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ. That is, he saw Christ in glory.
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And he was pressing on. In those old ancient races, they always had the prize at the end.
And the runner ran with the prize in view. When he reached the end, he won the prize. It was there in view. And he compares himself to that. The prize in Paul's life was to get to the end and be with and like the Lord Jesus. And now this 15th verse. Let us therefore as many as be perfect. Perhaps I should say here that.
Perfect here doesn't mean that a person who is saved.
Ever will be perfect in the sense that there's no failure, but perhaps I could describe it like this.
That the perfect Christian state is to have Christ as the object before your soul.
And that's really what he's talking about. Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. I say this because sometimes I've heard Christians say, well, how can you know whether a thing is right or wrong? Because you talk to a lot of different Christians and they don't all have the same opinion.
Well, he says, if you set the Lord before you and you really want to please him.
And you make his word your guide, and Christ as your object. Then he said.
The Lord will show you. The Lord will show you. And that's a very wonderful thing because.
If you relied on ma'am, you would have all kinds of different opinions. I've heard Christians say, well, you can never be sure about that because so many Christians have different opinions. Or that's just about saying that the Lord really can't teach you. You really have to rely on man. And since they didn't have different opinions, you really can't know. Don't believe that, dear young people, the Lord can reveal it. And more than that, He wants to reveal it to us. He wants to reveal it.
If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. And then He brings in a nice thought in the next verse. Nevertheless, where two we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us mind the same thing. What He's really saying is we're not all as far along in the race, but as we get along in the race, often things we didn't understand before.
Open up to us. I don't think there's any Christian here that tonight that's been saved.
For any length of time, but would say that when I was first saved I didn't see that, but since I have been saved for a little while. The Lord has made that known to me. And so just because to night you maybe don't see a lot of things in your Christian life. Remember where too we have already attained. Let us walk by the same rule. What is the rule?
What is the rule? Well, the rule is to have Christ in glory as the object before your soul, and whether you're right near the end of the race or just starting out in it, there's no difference in the rule.
Exactly the same whether you're saved for 5 minutes or five years or 50 years. There's no difference in the rule.
The rule is to have Christ as the object and His Word as the guide for you. And So what he is saying is that there may be things that perhaps you don't see. And you know, I can look back in my life, things that I didn't see when I was younger. And as time goes on, the Lord makes these things known to us.
But let us go on with Christ as the object before our souls, and then he opens these precious things to us, makes them real to our hearts if we press on in the race. So let's remember those four things. I don't say they're the only four, but I think there are four in a very beautiful order in our Christian life. First of all, if there's anybody here that is not saved, you lack the most important.
What you need is Christ and all. May God grant that you'll receive them as your Savior tonight. There's no better time than now to accept the Lord Jesus, to let Him come into your heart and then he won't lack the one important thing. Then to the next thing. One thing is needful. If any of us have been neglecting our Bibles and neglecting the meetings, let's remember one thing is needful. Mary found out that good.
Of sitting at Jesus feet and then the next one one thing of I desired as young people we have ambitions. It's sort of natural when we're young that we have ambitions and so one thing that I desired of the Lord that will I seek after and as we life opens up before you, may it be your desire dear young people to go on in life in the company of the Lord Jesus and then to the last one one thing I.
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Putting all this into action in our lives, are we pressing on toward the mark? We're soon going to be with Christ in glory, and we want to press on. And if there's things tonight that we don't see, let us not take our eyes off the object. Let us not boast and flatter ourselves and say, I think I'm doing pretty well and doing all right. But let us have our eye upon the object, the one whom God has set forth before us to be the object of our hearts, and press on.
And then soon we'll be with Him and like him. That's what the end of the chapter is, when we're not only down here having him as our object, but in His presence, with him and like him. Well, may the Lord keep us. Dear young people, we only have a little time. I often say the rest of our time, I don't know how long it is, but I believe it's a little time.
Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tear him.
May the Lord give us a proper sense of values in our lives.