Open—R. Thonney, R. Boulard, J. Kemp
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276.
Could we also sing #225?
Reading verse three While here in the valley of conflict we stay or give us submission and strength, as the day soon free from afflictions to Thee we shall come and find with our Savior a heavenly home. 225.
Miss.
We pray.
Can we ask one question? Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for our precious Savior. We thank Thee, our God, that our hearts are being prepared even now for that home call that we're about to hear. We thank the for the comfort of the Scriptures that we have this afternoon.
We pray for thy blessing upon thy precious word, that those two or three that might be LED of thy spirit.
To take part in this meeting, I'd indeed have a word of expectation, comfort, and.
To stir us up and to build us up edification as well. We just pray that there might be something for each one here.
We know it is our desire to communicate with man, and we thank thee that as those that are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ is, I desire that we would go on in faithfulness, devotion to thyself.
In an orderly way until I was come blessed Savior. So we pray to our God for thy blessing this afternoon upon our brother Bert Council, his family members. We ask you to comfort their hearts with his son of how soon we're going to be home. We thank me that the separation is not very long now and by faith we can see that there is evidence that we're about to be taken out of this scene very shortly. And so help us our God encourage our hearts. We need it and we need to be strengthened in the path of faith.
That we might go on in a way that is acceptable disease and with devotion for the Lord Jesus we thank because I love to us. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Like to go back to the chapter that our brother read from yesterday afternoon.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 4.
Speak a little bit more perhaps?
We've been enjoying.
In the ratings, what is future?
And that heavenly.
Seeing that we are going to be part of and it is interesting even connection with this world to think about the tremendous changes that are going to take place.
The earth is going to be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. No one is going to have to say to his neighbor, know the Lord, for all shall know me. Wonderful day that's ahead. Tremendous, but I'd like to speak on.
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For the present moment, the what God is doing in us. You know, brethren, it is interesting, whatever measure the Lord has given me, to see what He is doing in different countries of the Western world.
To see that it is not.
Near so much what I do, it's what he is doing. Maybe I can be an instrument, maybe I'm a hindrance, but it's what he's doing and the way he does it is so different than the way we do it so often.
So I'd just like to read that part of this chapter. We'll start with the first verse.
Seeing we have this ministry, we spoke about that a little bit yesterday in the third chapter. Ministry of condemnation is contrasted with the ministry of righteousness, which is what is what we have today. We have this ministry, he says. We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth.
Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Truth of God goes into the soul through the conscience. That's why we commend ourselves not to the intellect, not to the reason, but to the conscience. That's the way the Lord Jesus did. He often answered his adversaries, but he didn't answer their questions. He answered their conscience.
Verse three. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
In whom the God notice that small G Speaking of Satan, God of this world, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, or the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, it's not what we are that is important, but Jesus Christ Jesus the Lord.
And ourselves, your servants, for Jesus sake, for God.
Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness that shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God?
In the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
I think we realized that the Treasury, the earthen vessels that he's speaking about, are these human bodies we live in.
And it speaks of the treasure. What is the treasure?
Refers to back to verse six. The treasure, brethren, is the Light.
Of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. To be able to say we know God, the God of the universe, the infinite God, the eternal God, the God that has no beginning, no ending. When I try to think of a God that's eternal, it just blows my mind. Everything I know in creation has a beginning and an end. To think of a being who was always there, never had a beginning.
Don't grasp it very well, but.
I can say I know him. It's like somebody standing down at the seashore.
And say, I have seen the ocean. OK, great. How much of the ocean have you seen? Well, that's another matter. But you can rightly say I have seen the ocean. And we, you and me, can say we know God. To me that is so tremendously precious, man. We have been brought into the light of the knowledge of the of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I think I've mentioned that before, but I think it is so striking. The Muslim religion says that God is unknown and unknowable.
How tragic over a billion people in this world.
Have no knowledge of the God they profess to know.
No knowledge unknown.
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And you tell me you know God.
That's the treasure that is a treasure that is in these earthen vessels. This vessel is not so important. It's dispensable.
But the treasure that I have inside is something that is eternal, wonderful to be able to say that we know God in the person.
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and so it says in the face of Jesus Christ.
What kind of a God is it that you know?
Brother John, what does God like?
You say you know him.
But how? What does he like then, if you know him?
God is a God of love, isn't he? God is a God of light, as we heard yesterday, and you see it in the Lord Jesus. Wonderful though, to be able to realize how glorious a God, how perfect a God. That's what I marvel about in the Lord Jesus. So.
He was often in this life surrounded by those doctors of the law. There's anybody I fear in life. I've had some.
Legal proceedings against me at times, and I must say, I've learned to fear lawyers because they can take your word and spin it around to mean just exactly what you didn't mean to say. That's the way they're taught to be. The Lord Jesus was surrounded by lawyers and they always went away completely confounded. You can't trip up a perfect man.
And he was completely perfect in every way. Sometimes when he was asked a question, he didn't answer.
Remember when they brought that woman taken in adultery and they said this woman was taking adultery?
We should stone her according to law of Moses. What do you say? They knew he preached forgiveness of sins, and they thought they had him between a rock and a hard place. He didn't answer. He stooped down and he wrote on the ground. But then he gets up and he says a word that is not the answer to their question, it's an answer to their conscience. He that is without sin amongst you, let him first cast the stone at him, at her. You know their hypocrisy. If it was adultery, there had to be a man involved. And where was the man?
And if he was going to condemn her, he'd have to condemn the whole lot of them. And he had not come to condemn. He had come to save wonderful, wonderful, glorious Savior. They all went out and they left her alone with Him. There was one man there without sin. And so when he stood up, he said, Woman, where those thine accusers, No man condemned thee. She said, no, manlord.
There was one that could pick up the stone to cast it here. But he hadn't come to condemn, he had come to say.
Beautiful, beautiful Savior, go and sin no more, neither do I condemn Thee. Well, we could go on and on talking about the glories of our Lord Jesus, but here in verse seven, I want to focus on a point here, brethren. It's often been illustrated these verses by the story we have in the Old Testament of Gideon.
And his 300 men.
It's a lesson that he had to learn. It's a lesson we have to learn.
The last part of verse 7. The Excellency of the power is of God and not of us.
And so when Gideon blew the trumpet to have the children of Israel to come together to war against the Midianites.
32,000 I think it was, came after him.
And the Lord said that's too many. Tell those that are afraid to go home.
And so a large part of the army went home and the Lord said you still got too many. If I give you the victory, you're going to boast of it yourself. And so.
Bring them down to the water. I will prove them there. And when it was done there was only 300 left it seemed.
Foolish 300 men against the host of the Midianites, and what were they carrying out to battle with them?
In one hand was.
A earthen vessel.
With a lighted torch inside. And the other hand was a trumpet. And they stood around the camp of the Midianites at night. And at a good given signal they broke the vessel and the light shone, and they they blew the trumpet, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And the enemy rose up and beat each other down. And it was a tremendous victory. But it was the Lord. The battle is of the Lord. The Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. And that's a hard lesson for us to learn.
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Oh brother, and the Lord has to deal with us because we tend to glory in what we are ourselves, and we hinder the blessing that He wants to give.
In what way was Pauls vessel broken? We have it in versus?
8:00 and 9:00.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted.
But not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
You like to be troubled on every side.
You find that enjoyable?
I don't think so. You like to be perplexed.
No, you like to be persecuted. We don't suffer too much persecution over here. But sometimes, you know, at school, you let your light shine. They're not going to let you be included, and it's not that pleasant.
Cast down. Do you like to be cast down? No. This is the way Paul's vessel was broken. We can say it this way.
But why does God allow the breaking of the vessel? It's so that the light can shine, while the vessels of Gideons then were not broken.
The light didn't shine. It was when they were broken that the light shine.
And you know, sometimes God allows trials in our life that are very unpleasant.
Why we say what is the purpose?
Brethren, the Excellency of the power is of God and not of us. It's what He's doing, not what I'm doing. It's what He's doing.
Now go to verse 10 and 11 and I want you to notice as we read these two verses that they are somewhat similar, but there is a difference.
Let's read them carefully. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Both versus speak of death and then life.
Life comes after death in these verses, and it's the life of Jesus. It's life in resurrection. That's the life that you and I have today, brethren. It's life and resurrection. It's life that's beyond death.
And it's wonderful to realize it.
But, brethren, what has been a challenge to my own soul is that in the Americas, especially here in North America, it seems that we like to live without taking into account first the death of the Lord Jesus. What does it mean to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus?
The Lord Jesus died for us.
The verse was quoted yesterday in Second Corinthians chapter 5, next chapter.
He died for all.
That they which live may not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
So you and I have life in Christ, but it's a life that is beyond death. And so if you want to really enjoy that life that is yours in Christ, if you want to really live it, you're not going to practically manifest that living until you bear about in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
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He died for my sins, so when sin presents itself to me.
What is my response?
Is there anything in me?
That responds to that if I understand my position in Christ.
Has nothing to do with me. I'm beyond death. I'm on resurrection ground. What has impressed me is that here in the United States, it seems in Canada, it seems like we enjoy living.
I fear sometimes that we're living our own near natural lives. It's not that we die physically, but we don't put into effect this principle of bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I don't know how to make it maybe a little bit simpler. Could I say it this way if I live to for my own pleasure every day?
Is what I like to do, the car I like to drive, the job I want to do?
If it's all what I enjoy, tell me, are you going to see the life of Jesus in me?
I suggest you're not going to see the life of Jesus.
No, I understand my position. I no longer live unto myself, but unto him who died for me and rose again. And that's what it means to bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Our whole culture, brethren, is built on the premise of pleasing ourselves. I'm not saying that things are necessarily wrong.
But it's a false principle of life.
I enjoy thinking of those apostles in the first days of the Church's testimony and how they lived.
They really live that resurrection life.
You know, they took them into custody several times and they threatened them.
With punishment and they threatened them. We're going to kill you if you keep on speaking in that name.
Can you scare a dead man by threatening him? We're going to kill you. It had no effect on those apostles. They went right on preaching the gospel message because.
Because they had already passed through death, they were living on resurrection ground, and so it wasn't a question. They killed them. OK, that's fine.
But brethren, it seems like in our culture we have learned to like life just as we know it. In the United States at least, we talk about the American dream. I don't know what they call it up here in Canada, but it's probably somewhat the same. But.
President, that is robbing us of what our true life really is.
And I just want to challenge you that that's not what we are called to live.
Bearing about in the body of the dying of the Lord Jesus. That's what we should do every single day.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.
Now notice verse 11. We which live are always delivered unto death. Here is something that goes a bit further. It's something beyond our control were delivered to it.
And brother, I must say I have been challenged in my own.
Heart and soul by seeing some of those that the Lord has delivered to pretty tremendously difficult circumstances. Some have mentioned sister out West who has a young family of four children and she's if the Lord doesn't intervene very directly, she will be called home.
What a tragedy. Naturally speaking, we say a little family to lose their mother. What a tragedy. Why does God allow that?
We're delivered unto death for Jesus sake. It's something outside of our control and God allows those things in our lives. It's not what you wanted, it's not what you look for, You're delivered to it. Why? That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest and here it puts in our mortal flesh.
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When I hear the testimony of our brethren in parts of the world that.
No persecution means.
In our brethren, our suffering persecution in parts of the world.
You know what? The Chinese, I understand Chinese brethren. I have not had direct contact with them, but I've read some books of them and their testimony.
You know what they say, Don't ask the Lord that the persecution cease. That keeps our testimony vibrant.
Brethren.
Why is the testimony seemingly going?
Downhill in the United States.
I really believe it's this principle that we're talking about.
That we are living to please ourselves. I'm not saying that we do it purposely, it's just the whole.
Current of the culture that we live in.
Self pleasing.
That is not the life of Christ.
Brother Dawn read in Matthew chapter 16. Maybe I'll read it again and to me it connects directly here.
Matthew Chapter 16. When Peter.
And the other apostles were told that the Lord Jesus was going to Jerusalem and he was going to be crucified and killed and rise the third day. Peter he give them.
Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
Just the same way we would think, I have to say for myself.
And the Lord Jesus rebuked him. Notice what he says in verse 24. And Jesus said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself.
And take up his cross and follow me.
Deny himself.
What's the need of denying yourself?
I got money in my pocket. I can buy it that thing that I need.
What's the need of denying myself?
That's the principle of the life that we have in Christ bread in denying ourselves. We don't live any longer for ourselves. We live for him who died for me and rose again.
And then he says in verse 25, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
I fear that many are losing their life, not losing their salvation, not losing their soul, losing their life. Are you living life in a way that when the Lord calls you home, it will all be gained for you? Like the apostle Paul could say, for me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.
He lived.
For what was beyond, not for things that are temporal.
But all it just seems to me that we are part of a culture and I think it has done damage to the Christian testimony. And when I say Christian testimony, I'm speaking in general, the whole Christian testimony, the idea, the principle that just permeates our culture. And brother and I stand up here and I trust you're not thinking. I'm pointing the finger at anybody. I'm pointing the finger at me because I can see how that principle is deadening in my own life to please myself.
We've been bought with the price of the blood of Christ.
And we no longer live to please ourselves, but to please Him who died for us and rose again.
So.
Here Paul says in Second Corinthians.
411 We which live are always delivered to death. Sometimes, you know, we don't put into effect what we have in verse 10.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and so the God who wants that light to shine out of our lives.
He delivers us to death.
So that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Used to be a brother out in Gresham OR in the hospital Brother Oscar Frazee.
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Would take us to see him if you were out there. He's with the Lord now, His name was.
You went to see him. Ninja Bill.
You remember that brother in the hospital?
I was thinking his name was Oscar, but Oscar Frazier is the one that took us to see him. But anyhow, he was a brother. He was a brother in the Lord that.
When he was about one year old, the doctors did a.
Operation on his neck and turned out that they paralyzed him from the neck down.
And the only part of his body had any control of was the face, and he turned out to be ******* in his face, and his face would go into all sorts of contortions.
And it was almost embarrassing to look at and try to look away because his face went into such contortions. But I still remember Brother Oscar was the only one that could understand him. Albert was his name I remember now.
Is Albert or Oscar could understand him and so he would kind of translate for him. But I remember when they got talking about the Lord, how that poor twisted, contorted face and the body that was laying on that stretcher just shone with the glory of the knowledge of God. So it took a broken vessel, but everybody in that hospital knew that Albert was a believer in the Lord Jesus. The light shone out of that broken vessel.
And I'm not saying we have to die, brethren, but I really believe we need to get a hold of this principle of living. Our life is not what we look like down here. It's not that which is seen, as it says in the end of this chapter. It's that which is not seen, that which is seen as temporal. You're living just for a few brief moments of time. Are you living for God's eternal day?
Now notice what he says in verse 12.
Our chapter. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. He's speaking to the Corinthians so that there could be blessing for those Corinthian brethren. What did it mean? There had to be death in him so that there could be life?
In them.
I'd ask you young people, you older ones too, do you want there to be blessing in your life?
Do you want there to be fruit that will last for all eternity? I know you would say yes to me.
What is the answer?
Death to us, life for others. And I'd like to turn back to John's Gospel, chapter 12, just briefly.
Do some verses that the Lord Jesus spoke and somewhat related to what we read in Matthew.
Chapter 12 of John's Gospel.
Verse 24.
Here Philip brings Philip and Andrew come and bring these Greeks to the Lord Jesus.
And the Lord Jesus recognizes that the Gentiles will be able to come into blessing only because of his death. So he says in verse 24, Verily, verily, I send to you, accept a corn of wheat, fall into the ground and die. It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Here's a grain of wheat.
Going to put it up here on this podium.
Keep it nice and dry. Don't let anything happen to that grain of wheat. No microorganisms. Start working on it. We're going to keep it nice and safe.
Is that our life? If that's our life, no fruit.
No fruits. What are you going to do with this grain of wheat? I'm going to take it outside. I'm going to put it down the ground.
The moisture makes it swell and it's going to start to rot and it's going to die.
Isn't that wasteful?
In that death of that little grain of wheat gives birth to a new life in which there will be much fruit. And of course, the Lord Jesus here in verse 24 is referring to Himself.
But brethren, it doesn't stop there. He goes right on in verse 25 to quote a verse that is somewhat similar to the verse we read in Matthew chapter 16. He that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal. You love your life here. You love what you're doing.
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You're going to lose it.
You hate your life. That's a pretty strong word.
I wrestle with that. Hate your life. That's the word the Lord Jesus uses.
In this world, you'll keep it to life eternal.
I just want to challenge you, dear young people and older ones, to.
Live.
This life that we're talking about.
You know, you hear stories, and I must say we here in the West don't know much about persecution or sacrifice too much. I heard a story and I'll just tell this story briefly.
I think it happened in Iran. In the northern part of Iran, there was a man and his wife, a brother and the Lord and his wife that were traveling across the country and they stopped in a little town.
To go into a store to get a bottle of water to drink, and against the side of the store was this man leaning against the wall with a machine gun in his hand.
And as the brother got out of the car, his wife.
Gives him a little Bible, says give this Bible to that man. And so he shoved it in his pocket and went into the store and.
Came back out and got in the car and his wife says, did you give that Bible to that man against the wall of the store? Can't you see he has a machine gun? You want me to die? And he gets in and he starts up the engine, says I prayed about it and I decided I wouldn't give it to him. And so they take off and they go. But the argument continues in the car. And finally they stopped at the edge of town. He says, what are you asking me? You want me to die today?
Give that Bible to that man, she said she was insistent in finally said, OK, you want me to die, I'll go back. Give it to him. And so went back and stopped the car and the man was still standing there and went up to him and gave him the Bible.
Then broke down in tears, he says, You know what? Three days ago, where I live, my native village, an Angel appeared to me and told me to come to this town and wait. Somebody was going to come by and give me a Bible.
Well, it might have been.
A question of giving up his life, but rather what is more important, obedience to him?
For our lives, what is more important?
The rest of the story is that brother.
And the Lord lost his life in persecution in Iran not too much longer after that.
But it's a story I read and I trust it's true. I heard it from sources. I believe her, right? But this is what's happening in parts of the world today. But you and I, in a certain way, are challenged in the same way. Are you living to yourself? You are going to lose your life. And to me, it is the most tragic thing to see somebody come down to the end of their life and they have only lived for themselves in this world. They might have.
A tremendous amount of material things, but they have nothing beyond.
I plead with you, there are so many opportunities to use your life in that which will last for all eternity.
And that's my desire to encourage you. Notice what the Lord Jesus says here in verse 26. If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. What is more important to you? Honor from this world, her honor from the Father.
Dear brethren, I have often been asked, why do I think that the assemblies here in North America seem to be getting fewer and fewer?
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And those in South America seems to be extending.
And I cannot say I understand the full picture. It's God's working the way he is to me. It is a wonderful experience to witness it. And I encourage those of you who are able to go to South America to go down and witness it. See your dear brethren. They asked about you, they're interested in you. They pray for you. We're one body in Christ.
You know what? Some go down there and they don't know how to speak Spanish. You know what?
The fact that they came just to see their brethren and to show fellowship with them means a tremendous amount to our dear brother down there.
So I encourage you, you might have an easier vacation going somewhere you enjoy. But you know what? Our life is not about what we want any longer. Our life is to please Him who died for us.
And rose again.
I'd like to just turn to Acts Chapter 9 and read a couple of verses there and.
With the Lord's help.
Just to give you the burden of my heart.
Something similar to what our brother Bob the Lord laid on his heart.
Just some of the priorities that came to.
Characterize the life of the Apostle Paul. He had one priority before he was a saved man, before Christ saved him, and that was to wipe out the name of Christ and to murder and to imprison those that love the Lord Jesus. But after he was saved, his priorities were forever changed.
They were changed to the day he left the scene as a martyr. Well, it just says here in Acts Chapter 9 that.
Verse One saw yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound under Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly they're shrine round about him, a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecute us, Thou me? And he said, Lord, Or he said, Who art thou, Lord?
Just turn to Chapter 22.
Verse seven. Acts 22. Verse 7.
And I fell into the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecute us, Thou me? And I answered, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, who now persecutest. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord?
And the Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me by Cain to Damascus.
Well, I just want to point out here that this very first priority that Paul.
Expresses is this.
Through 4 words that we have in the English Bible.
What shall I do, Lord?
Up to that point in time, he had been a very determined man and thought he was doing God's will, God's service.
By persecuting the church. But I question whether he really asked God.
For that direction, we're in the energy of the flesh. I believe it was in the energy of the flesh. It was a very energetic man.
And instead of using those energies to the glory of God, he used them, as he says a little later on in Philippians, the Epistle to the Philippians. He used them to his own glory, that energy.
His first priority after having received Christ.
Having seen the Lord Jesus in all of the brightness of his glory above the brightness of the sun.
He asked this question first. Who art thou, Lord? He wanted to know the person of the Christ.
He wanted to know who it was that it appeared to him.
And then he wanted to know what lay in store for the rest of his life.
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Lauren.
Notice one of those words that we don't use very often in the English language. Many people pray in the name of Jesus.
But it's nice, you know, if we can pray and ask what we're asking and give thanks for what we're giving thanks in the name of the Lord.
Jesus Christ.
But it's something for us to acknowledge that there is one who is worthy to be the Lord.
In our lives.
Paul began to get his priorities straight as soon as he'd seen a vision of Christ.
Can you ask that question?
You'll forgive me for giving a little personal.
Story You know there are some defining moments in life.
And sometimes the Lord allows those defining moments to occur. Some of you remember where you were.
On September.
The 11Th.
2001.
Those were moments that were defined. That was a day that was divine and defining to the Western world was already mentioned in these meetings. Many think differently today because of that day.
But on this recent trip that I had, I recently visited an assembly Reynosa, Mexico.
And I looked into the faces of brethren that had faced death.
Did the brethren there had laid on the floor?
Of their homes for a Lord's Day several weeks back.
While the drug cartel fought out in the neighborhood of the meeting room in the neighborhood where they live.
The drug cartel was fighting it out with the government troops and the police.
They lay on the floor all day long to stay out of the spray of the bullets.
I looked into the faces of those brethren.
And their priorities were changed. Their priorities were different to my priorities.
They say death.
What shall I do?
Lord.
We were there and had several meetings, I said. Partway through one of those meetings, perhaps the first one, there were five, I said, brethren, we've already taken an hour of your time and said that doesn't matter.
Would you please continue? We continued.
Brother Bob said this.
Since I don't know why our priorities aren't what they are, why we're so weak, why the assemblies are weakening, why we're so weak in our souls.
But I believe that it is this that we do not face, danger we do not face.
The effects of what the enemy is trying to do to destroy the name of Christ, to destroy those that name the name of Christ, and to destroy those that will live for Christ.
In this world.
We're just not exposing our true colors. There was a man that was saved few years ago.
Dear brother in Christ, Roman Catholic. And he said to me maybe three or four weeks after he was saved, he said, you know, brother.
As we had our Bibles open, he said. You know, persecution didn't work very well.
Satan didn't do his job really very well with persecution, tried to slaughter the Christians at the beginning of the Christian age and the Roman church persecuted, he said. But you know, prosperity is working beyond his wildest dreams.
Lives are being lost.
Because of prosperity. But what a difference it would make if we got up in the morning.
And said, What shall I do, Lord?
What shall I wear, Lord?
Where should I go, Lord? Should I go, Lord?
Instead of deciding for ourselves.
Let's turn back in the book of Acts to chapter.
15 I think it is.
Acts Chapter 15.
In verse 25.
It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent, therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. Now we're not going to recount the whole story here.
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But there was a crisis in the time of.
The Assembly the Church of God approximately 21 years after the church had been formed on the day of Pentecost.
The enemy had been seeking to destroy the Saints, destroy the Assembly says in Chapter 8. I believe we read it yesterday. There was a great persecution, great persecution, the Saint for scattered.
This is 21 years later.
And the Saints were scattered. They preached the gospel where they went. Souls were saved.
But now.
There was going to be a different tactic that the enemy would have to destroy and that is to corrupt the truth of God and to add something to the work of Christ and to say to the Saints in chapter 15 verse one, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, he cannot be saved. And it was a bold faced lie. But here there were men, four men that are pointed out in verse 2526 and 27.
Paul Barnabas.
Judas and Silas, four men and God has something to say about them. He says this, that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to read it in the way that it's presented in the new translation. It says this men that have given up their lives.
For the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I think of hazard of very risky business.
And it was risky for them to go out and to preach the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles, to the idolatrous wicked.
Satanically influenced Gentiles. It was it was a very difficult thing. It was a risky thing. And they faced riots. Paul could say I die daily. He faced death every day.
But the Spirit of God here records that they were men that had given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did that mean? What does that mean?
It means that they had a choice of whether to go out and to face the Gentiles or to face the religious Jew.
To face death every day or not to?
God had called these men Barnabas and Paul. You could read it a little earlier in the book of Acts, and by the grace of God, he'd risen up, raised up Judas and Silas. Silas, you know, is called the faithful brother in first John chapter 5. The faithful brother sums up his whole life. 3 words. But those men looked at the Commission that the Lord had given them to accomplish that work that he'd given them to accomplish.
As those that would represent him and preach the gospel of the grace of God, and to bring the light to the Gentiles and to the Jews. And they well knew that if they went out into that Gentile world.
That it could probably, it would probably cost them their lives.
And so he says that they were ones who had given up their lives for the name.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ, they'd already done it.
The hope means that they.
Estimated the value of their present lives, the lives that they could live.
And they could live to please themselves. They could live to.
Enjoy the things of this world. They could live in comfort.
They can hide their light under the bushel basket. They could hide their light under the bed.
Or they would go forth in the energy of faith and preach the gospel and as if it was like this. I think of it in this way that the apostle Paul at one time Barnabas and perhaps Judas and Silas, they at one time said, Lord, we've lived our lives up to this point.
We've lived them the way we wanted to live them.
We've accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We never asked any permission. We never sought the will of God really for ourselves. We just lived the way we wanted to live, and now we're willing to obey the call to go forth under the Gentiles.
Here's our life, here's my life. You can have it. I'll give it to you.
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High cost, high cost in their life. They knew Silas, you know, was going to go to the Gentile city of Antioch. He was going to preach the gospel. He was going to go with Paul on his second missionary journey.
And they face death when they went to Philippi.
But at the beginning, the Apostle Paul, I believe in the presence of God.
Offered up his life, he said. All right, I'll go in service. You can have my life.
I'll leave it for you.
Well, I trust everyone of us would have the grace this afternoon and the safety and the comfort of this room.
To be honest with ourselves as to the selfishness of how we lived up to this point.
The ease, the comfort.
Into.
Offer up our lives for the name.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what it cost Paul, don't you?
He wrote 14 epistles. If you count the 14 the Epistle to the Hebrews, you know what it cost them.
To give us those epistles, don't you?
Cost him his life.
Are you reading them?
Paul had some priorities.
You have to face death to set his priorities straight, but he set them straight.
Perhaps we just look at one more priority, give a little time perhaps for one more for others to stand up.
First Timothy, chapter 6.
Verse 19.
Let's read verse 17, First Timothy 6, verse 17. Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high, high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good and that they they they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Mr. Garvey's rendering is in his translation says this, that they may lay hold of what is really life.
And then just turn over to Acts chapter 20.
In verse 35, let's read verse 34.
Acts 20, verse 34. Yeah, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things. How that's so laboring. He ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Well, the Lord Jesus was a perfect giver. He gave all that he had, and he said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. He left this world, He had nothing.
Gave it all away and gave his life. He offered up his life as we read this morning.
What a sacrifice. What a sacrifice of sweetness to his God and Father. I'll just say this afternoon to encourage you to offer up your life to the Lord.
You don't know how he uses it. You don't know how to use your life. Paul didn't know how it would be used, really.
Paul didn't know he would get the martyrs crown. Paul didn't know that he was going to write 14 epistles.
Paul didn't know the impact that he was going to have on the Christian testimony in his day and down through the ages until the Lord comes. He didn't know the full extent of it.
And here, he says, he used he labored in a practical way to provide for his own needs.
And to provide for those that were weak, those that were not well off. And he exhorts in First Timothy 6 that those who are rich do who who do have.
Means to use the means that they have to further the Christian testimony in their day. It was a priority with the Apostle Paul to use what he had to strengthen the Christian profession in his day.
It was a priority with the apostle Paul from the day that he was saved to say, What wilt thou have me to do, Lord?
It was a priority.
It was a priority with him once he understood.
That have serving Christ was going to be a difficult thing. It was a priority with him to offer up his life to the Lord.
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And to live that life one day at a time, to the glory of God, and to face death every day.
I just want to encourage everyone of us here.
To look at the priorities in life.
And say, do I have my priorities straight?
The Lord is just about to come for his own. Do we have the priorities straight?
Would you permit me to make one more comment? Isaiah chapter 58?
Isaiah chapter 58, verse 13.
Now this is Speaking of the Sabbath day, but I want to apply it to the Lord's day.
Isaiah 58 verse 13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor seeking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord have spoken it.
I believe, brethren, we need to examine ourselves in connection with how we treat the Lord's Day.
I know we call it Sunday here in North America.
But you'll forgive me, I just looked into the faces of brethren that face death.
For a whole day, lay on the floor on the Lord's Day.
And when they were able to be together on the Lord's Day.
I want to tell you it showed that they wanted to be together in the presence of the Lord on the Lord's day, and they wanted to use that day for him.
All of it.
Not even the kids.
Were restless and wanted to go out and they did go and play during the lunch hour and so on.
But they sat respectfully, and they listened to the word of God. They faced death.
How are you using the Lord's Day?
Are you honoring the Lord?
Soon over Brendan, soon over the time to honor the Lord Jesus, to give him the respect the honor.
And to give them the dignified presence of ourselves in His presence, to give him, show him dignity and honor in a public way on one day of this this week, the first day of the week, soon over.
Maybe the exercise to read this Isaiah chapter 58 verses 13 down to the end 13 and 14 and to just I suggest to read it as if we're reading about the Lords day and to ask ourselves, are we really using the Lorde day in the right way? May it be a priority with us.
To give him the first day of the week.
Give it to him.
Maybe we won't give him a whole life. He'd like to have your life. He'd like to have all of all of it.
But given the life.
Given of the time that you have given the Lord's Day, give him the honor.
That is his. May God give us the grace to do it.
Well, there's very little time left to brethren. I don't plan to speak at any length, but truly what our brethren have brought before us has spoken to our hearts and consciences.
But we might be exercised to use the opportunities, the talents, the time, the resources that we have, not for ourselves, but for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus. I'm sure when we get to glory, we won't be sorry for anything that we may have sacrificed. And perhaps it's very little in in in my own case.
But whatever is done for the Lord.
Is valued by him, recorded in the Book of Remembrance. That book will be open someday. The Lord will reward faithfulness. Not that reward is a motive for service. I think we know that. But it truly is an incentive that those little acts of service and sacrifice in our lives are going to be rewarded in that day. Are you thinking of a verse in the First Corinthians chapter 3?
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People are familiar with it.
And it has in view the judgment seat of Christ, which I think we have already referred to in these meetings, when all our lives will be reviewed, manifest. Our sins will not be brought up to condemn us, but our works will be resurrected. What we have done, our conduct down here, our lives will be showing for what they are.
How we have lived our lives today and in the days that may be before us, there will be reviewing, they'll be rewarding and they'll be rejoicing, but also there may be loss. How someone can feel loss in that day, I don't know, but the Word of God says this chapter, First Corinthians 3.
Verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day she'll declare it. What day is that? It's the judgment seat of Christ.
That will take place shortly after we are ruptured into His presence. And because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built, thereupon he shall receive a reward. Isn't that encouraging? And that reward will go on through the millennial days. We are now forming the capacity.
For the place that we will fill in that coming Kingdom, there will be a reward. And I believe myself some people question this, that that reward will go on into eternity. Either doeth the will of God shall abide forever. Those things that we do for the Lord down here will not be lost in the eyes of the world. It may be foolishness, but it's precious in the eyes of the Lord. I often think of the sisters that attend the meeting.
Faithfully, maybe it's in much weakness, the prayer meeting or whatever. There will be a reward for your presence at the meeting. You are very needful in the in the assembly meetings, though you may not take, you do not take part publicly. Anyway, our verse here again. If any man's work abide which he had built there upon, he shall receive a reward. Verse 15. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.
Yet so as by fire, as our brother Bob has remarked, a saved soul, but a lost life. How sad. I think we all know the prime example of that is the life of Lot. He was a man that followed Abraham, but his heart was in the world and the things that were seen occupied him. He gravitated toward Sodom. He gave up his tent and his altar, and he ended up in that wicked city of Sodom.
With the government of the judgment of God hovering over it. He lost, he nearly lost his life lost his testimony is that a kind of a termination that we would want to know and there would be loss in our lives as we read here. He himself shall be saved. We're going to meet lost in the glory. No doubt he's a righteous man that that's his soul every day yet so as by fire save so.
But what he had done burned up.
Because he lived for himself and he lived for the world trying to improve it. Well, brethren, we've gone over this a number of times. We won't belabor it anymore. But may we think of that verse while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen? There'll be a reward of bright, marvelous reward for any little faithfulness there has been in your life and mine our resources.
You know, I've often said I was traveling in Malawi, taking some money out of the bank there a few weeks ago, and.
Speaking to a young man who was coming out of the ATM machine, I said, you know this money here, it belongs to another man.
It doesn't belong to you. How are you using it? And So what we possess really in the in the pecuniary of the financial area, it really belongs to God. We are only stewards responsible for how we use what has been committed to us. The reckoning day is coming. The Lord is going to return the nobleman from the far country he's going to take.
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He's going to review.
And look at the way in which the goods or the talents or the gifts were used when He returns. How have we used what He has committed to us? And if it was used for his glory and honor, and the furtherance of His interests and the preaching of the gospel, there will be a reward. It will last for eternity. Well, the judgment seat of Christ is.
A solemn time.
And it should exercise us, not that we have any fear of punishment, but there is going to be a review of our lives. You know, I've noticed lately that.
In the account that David gives of the mighty men who accompanied him in the time of his rejection when he was haunted by Saul, you will remember there was a list given of those that had shared in his rejection.
That were faithful perhaps in The Cave of Adulon. They had performed some wonderful services for David, for the Lord. But there's one place in that list that is blank. And sometimes we might wonder there's there was one name that was it should have been penciled in there, but it's blank. Who it was, I don't know. We're not told. Was it Joab? Was it Jonathan for that person, whoever he was, he lost his crown.
He didn't follow David in the path of rejection. We follow a rejected Christ. Brethren, we gathered around, not a glorified Christ this morning. I rejected one. And if we share that rejection, there will be a reward and a crown for any faithfulness in our lives. May the Lord energize us to live the rest of our time, which may be very short, not for ourselves, but unto Him that loved us and gave Himself for us.
You sing the last verse of 252.
May we still God's mind discerning to the Lamb for wisdom gold. There are no wonders daily learning, all the depths of mercy know.
God our loving Father, we bow at the close of this meeting and we thank thee, blessed God, that thou would speak to us at this lead date in the churches history. We feel, Father, that the coming of the Lord is just around the corner and then it's over. In this world. We seek grace from thyself, Father, to walk in the good of what thou has committed to us. So we pray for one another. We ask you to bless the balance of the time here and then, Father, as we each.
Leave here to go to our homes, we ask the.
The Dawards, I give us the grace to go on, Lord Jesus more to please Thee and not to please ourselves. We out go and give thanks to my name. Amen. Amen.