Open—E. Staggs, B. Prost, N. Whatmough
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00:05:07
And.
I stand up here with a measure of fear.
We were talking about the open meeting and I actually had no intentions on standing up here.
And in fact, they were talking about a couple of brothers who had been known at times to be exercised. And I had made the comment to him, Well, if you're going to stand up, better make sure you have the mind of the Lord.
So now I'm standing up here, I'm a little nervous about it.
Trust, I have the mind of the Lord.
We've had much before us.
The last couple of days about wisdom and.
And about having Christ as our object.
And.
Something happened here the last couple of days that had given me some things to think about.
And.
Before I read Daniel chapter one, I'll tell the story.
There is a law in the state of Washington, it's it's three strikes and you're out.
Basically what that means to a criminal is that if you get arrested one time.
Then after that time, you go to prison.
And.
If you get arrested the second time, you go to prison.
And when you get out, if you get arrested again the third time, you spend the rest of your life in prison.
There's no way out. You go there and I thought what an appropriate message that would be for the gospel.
There's young people and older ones too, perhaps don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. Imagine if that was a concern to you. Imagine passing this scene and spending an eternity.
In the lake of fire, outside of the presence of God, I still think it would be a great part of a message for a gospel.
But the part I'm leading up to is that there was a man just last week.
Who was convicted or was arrested for his third strike?
And he was. He was on his way to spending the rest of his life in prison.
Well, he made a He made a phony gun out of paper and cardboard while he was in jail.
And.
As they were leading them from one place to the next, he took that paper gun and he stuck it to the back of one of the one of the wardens or one of the the guys that are the guards there. And he says give me your give me your gun and let me loose. And he broke free.
00:10:03
After he broke free, he made this comment.
That.
He would rather die than spend the rest of his life in jail. And I thought what a solemn thing that was. Here's a man who's who's willing to break loose and, and, and willing to die so that he wouldn't spend the rest of his life in prison. Well, the end of the story is, is that in Monroe, they found this man. He was saying goodbye to his relatives. He was in there with a gun. The police went in and they did his death wish.
They killed him so that he wouldn't have to spend the rest of his life.
In prison, the police officer was shot. And I have to be honest with you, I'm not one who who necessarily feels immediately when I hear news like that. Well, the man got what he deserved.
No, I'm not like that because.
The first thing came to my mind is he's a soul and it's all over for him. He thought he was going to be freed from one thing, and now he's caught in prison for eternity. But the thing that was solemn to me is how in the world did he get there? What was it in his life to lead him to such a path?
And you know, as I look around this room today.
It's a tremendous warning to realize that you know anyone in this room could end up on such a path.
Solemn thing, and oftentimes it starts with just one thought or one action that you produce in your life that leads you in a path that you're stuck with for the rest of your life.
Well, the other part of the story is I heard a man talking about this person who.
Who was arrested? And he said, you know what he said? I said I spent ten years in prison. He said I'm a 2 striker.
And he said, you know what scared me?
He said it scared me to think that I would spend the rest of my life behind bars.
And he said it was the IT was, it scared me that much. But he said, you know, he said that wasn't the only thing that was my biggest help. And this is the point that I want to speak about because I believe that this is important for each and every one of us to be exercised about. And then I'll read Daniel and I think we'll see a little bit of this in Daniel and his friends lives.
But the thing he said is I had to come to the point to realize that my actions were not the responsibility or were not due because of the cause of others.
But because I made the actions of my own free will, and it was only my own will.
That prevented me from walking in a path.
That would keep me out of jail for the rest of my life. You know the path that you walk today.
You can either walk it for the Lord or you can walk it in the flesh. You can't have it one way or the other.
Well, let's read Daniel, Daniel chapter one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon onto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with the part of the vessels of the House of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the House of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure House of his God. And the king spake onto Ashpen as the master of the eunuchs.
That he should bring certain of the children of Israel and the King's seed, and of the princesses.
Children in whom was number blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom.
And cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such has had the ability in them to stand in the King's palace.
And whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
And the king appointed them daily portions of the King's meat and of the wine which he drank. So nourished them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah, on to whom the Prince of the eunuchs gave them gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belshazzar, and to Hananiah Shadrach, and to Mesh al Meshach, and onto Azariah.
Abandoned go. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the King's meat.
Nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the Prince of the eunuchs, that he might not defile himself.
Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs.
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And the Prince of the eunuch said unto Daniel, I fear, my Lord, the king whom hath appointed your meat and your drink. For why should we? Why should he see your faces worth liking than those which children I'm sorry.
Worth liking than the children which are of your sort. Then shall you make me endanger my head to the King?
Then said Daniel to Belshazzar.
Abell Czar, whom the Prince of the eunuchs had set over. Daniel Hananiah Mishael Azariah. Prove thy servant, I beseech thee, 10 days, and let them give up. Give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the King's meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.
So he consented to them in this matter and proved them 10 days. And at the end of 10 days their countenance appeared fair, fatter, and flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the King's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom. Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams.
Now, at the end of these days.
Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the Prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them. And among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Michelle, and Azariah, therefore stood there before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all the realm, all his realm.
And Daniel continued even on to his first year of King Cyrus.
Well, these are these are interesting young men, aren't they?
When you consider the fact that.
That these these young men and I would say that there's like the age of many of the young men here, somewhere between.
1417 years old, 18.
Delicate ages. Ages where young men are trying to find their place.
Trying to be a little independent. Women too. Young women.
Sometimes there's a tendency to look around and say, you know, this isn't fair, this isn't fair, that isn't fair. Why do my parents do this or why don't they allow me to do that? And I want you to take a look for a moment at these these young men.
Well, first of all, there was an enemy come into their land.
What did he do? He swept through it.
Killed ants. Uncles, mothers, fathers, brothers.
Sisters carried them out of that land, brought them to a foreign land.
Gave them a name, a name after their gods.
They lose an identity.
Then he turns around and he makes them eunuchs. What does that mean? You know, sometimes I hear the frustration of young people. Well, you know, it's hard to marry anybody in meeting, you know, nobody's interested in me or I'm not interested in somebody. You know, it's a, it's a woe is me kind of thing. So these guys were made eunuchs. What does that mean? That means they could never have children. They could never follow after the natural course of of man and woman.
And then they were teach shoved right into the teaching of the land.
They were given to meet the filing meet. Why was it the filing? Well, because it was that which was worshipped to idols.
Well, let's go back just a little bit.
How many of you have been ripped away from your families?
How many of you have seen an enemy come in and kill your family?
I'm going to tell you something they didn't do.
These four did not blame God.
They trusted God.
They trusted him so much that they wouldn't allow anything that would come into their body that would defile and dishonor that God.
They trusted.
What does that mean defile? What does it mean eating something that is defiling? Well, these were things that were offered and sacrificed to idols.
How many idols are you taking in today? It doesn't have to be a food. It doesn't have to be a food that corrupts and defiles your body. It doesn't have to be that that dishonors God.
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What are you taking in in your ears and what are you taking in with your eyes? What is your conversation like? What kind of friends have you taken up with? What is your path taken up with in this world? You know, there was a whole group of people. This was, these were not the only ones carried away by the way. These were the only ones who clung together, at least that we know here and desire to go on together. Why? Because they had the same exercise. What kind of company are you keeping?
Who are your friends?
Do they desire to please the Lord?
Are they exercise?
You know as I say these things.
I realize in my own life that I'm kind of like a windy Rd. Sometimes I walk a straight path and sometimes it veers off and it winds.
Sometimes the Lord has to discipline me, and sometimes the Lord doesn't allow me to.
Feel the happiness of my path in this world because I'm not walking in obedience to His ways and what His desires are. And you know there's a reason.
I believe there's a reason that you feel discontent.
It's because you have another object, something other than the person of Christ, something other than His glory, something other that would glorify the Father.
You're seeking a path of independence.
I had to think a lot about what our brother said the other day about the principal.
The law that's after of sin and death.
There's a nature inside of you that only seeks its desire to go its own way.
But when you seek in an obedient path to please the Lord, then there is power to go on. I believe that that's the reason that.
They were able to go on the way they were.
Well, they were willing to supplement that food for something that we would call a lot less. You might say, well, it's kind of drudgery, isn't it, to eat something like oatmeal or or whatever pulse is some kind of ground meal day after day after day. But isn't the end result a greater blessing? Isn't what it gives to God. The glory is the is the greater blessing.
Isn't the kind of companion in fellowship with those who desire will eat the same things you do?
Feast upon the things of Christ.
I want to talk a little bit about the education.
I know sometimes there's mixed feelings about that. And I think that that on one side, you know, they get the impression we don't want anybody to go to college or you're never supposed to learn anything and.
You know, I want to look around this room and I want to know how many drove to meeting. You have to raise your hand. I, I drove to meeting and you know, there were some engineers behind the development of that car.
There were engineers to develop the petrol. The gasoline moved the engine forward.
The very book that I read here is written from words where men have taken down overtime and they said we need to have a common way in which we can communicate with one another to kind of wisdom, to kind of knowledge and intelligence.
You know, I don't think that's what they're talking about. There's those in here that have a degree in engineering.
There's those that are mechanics, there's those who run businesses, there's those who work for others. You cannot get on in life without having some measure of what the education of this world has for us. But that's not the problem.
The problem is, is when the education of this world takes up a philosophy, a pattern of life that runs your life inconsistent with God's thoughts.
That's the wisdom of this world.
When you have somebody in psychology tell you that this is the answer, this and this and this, it was something from your childhood, you know what I'll tell you it is you have a sin, you have a fallen nature, you're a Sinner before God, and you need a Savior. It's that simple. You don't have to pay me $10,000 to get that answer.
I was saved at a Lutheran Church. I should say I was saved by the finished work of Christ, but the Lord used the pastor of the Lutheran Church to give me that message.
I asked him. I said I believe in God. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But what did he do?
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Told me every sin you ever committed, Jesus Christ bore the punishment for that, those sins on Calvary's cross. And I said that's for me.
That's for me.
And once I once I said those words, it was the beginning of a changed life.
It was the beginning of what our brother said yesterday, where the Spirit of God began to work in my life.
And I can tell you that the only time in my life he never worked is when I didn't let him.
When I allowed something else in my life.
Something to hinder that path.
Something that would be of the world.
Satisfying to the flesh.
But there is a wisdom you need to be careful of.
Anything that would.
Replace Christ in your life. Anything that would give you to depend upon your own strength.
Anything that would give you anything other than God created this world.
Anything that would tell you that there's life beyond this planet is the wisdom of this world.
And it's designed to lead you away from Christ.
You need to learn. I couldn't run my business without having learned something.
Were given a mind to learn.
But you need to discern the difference.
These young men learned what they had to learn 10 times better than their teachers.
But it didn't change their path as a people of God, as a servant of God.
In any direction outside of what was pleasing to him. I believe that was the path in which these young men were blessed and were a blessing to the people of God. We have a privilege to pick up this Bible and to read this story. And God had revealed such tremendous truths to Daniel and gave such tremendous courage and strength in the most difficult of situations.
Situations that we will never in our lifetime have to face.
Young people, older ones, when you go out to a meal, do you bow your head and give thanks?
You say, is that significant?
Well, it's telling everybody in the room that you honor the one who provided that food for you.
You can't bow your head and give thanks.
For your food, you might say, well, what are you bringing that up for? That's so basic and simple. If you can't walk in the simple things and honor the Lord, how are you going to, when the trials really come into your life to walk for the Lord?
Well.
I believe there's nothing more.
That the Father would have for us.
And to have the very same object for our souls that he has for his own heart.
And that is the person and the work of Christ.
I believe that.
You will only get it.
By reading the word of God.
So that the Spirit of God can take these things and drive them home to your hearts.
A ministry that has been before us in the reading meetings and then what our brother just brought before us.
And I wonder if we could look at a couple of verses in the Gospel of John, primarily the 17th chapter, and then connect them with a verse in Romans chapter 12.
John's Gospel, chapter 17.
And.
Will read verse.
6 John 17 and verse six. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.
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Thine they were, and thou gave us them me, and they have kept thy word.
And then down to verse nine, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.
Verse 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
And then verse 14, I have given them thy word.
And the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is true.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them.
Into the world.
And then connect that with a verse in Romans 12 which might not at first glance seem to be connected.
Romans 12 and the last verse.
Romans 12 and verse 21.
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
You know, in considering the verses and the chapter that we have had before us in the readings.
I don't know whether it has occurred to others, but it seems in the way that things are presented in the Word of God that very often.
Truths are presented that need to be kept in their proper balance. And here I believe in John 14 we find.
Two things that are brought before us are John 17, I should say, that are brought before us.
Which at first glance might seem to be hard to reconcile, because here we are told more than once that we are in the world, but not of the world. And we are told clearly, and the Lord says so in his prayer. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou should just keep them from the evil, and then he sends them into the world.
As he has been sent into the world.
You know Christianity has a positive and a negative side.
And very often these are difficult for us to reconcile, aren't they? On the one hand, in the what we have had before us in First Corinthians, we find that there are things that we are clearly and definitely warned about. We are warned very clearly about man's wisdom, and rightfully so. We are warned very clearly about those things which will spoil our testimony and spoil our walk before the Lord, and rightfully so.
And here in John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus very clearly mentions to them that they are not of the world.
What does that mean to us all? That means very clearly and definitely that as I walk through this world.
I am not to be part of the world system. If we want to know where the world began, we have to go all the way back to Cain, don't we? And we find there that Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and it says he built himself a city.
Called it after the name of his own son, and then he surrounded himself with everything that he could possibly get in order to make himself happy, but leaving God out. And that is what the world still is today, isn't it? If you look at everything that characterizes the world system around us, even its religious systems, it is ultimately man saying I don't want God, but I'm going to use everything that is possible in a sinful world.
To make myself as happy as possible and in a sort of a way, pretend.
That this is the way it should be.
No, we're not to be of the world.
And it says here in verse 21 of Romans 12. It's also the negative side. Be not overcome of evil.
00:35:07
Oh, I wish I could impress that on each one of our hearts, because it is a day.
When many, many dear believers are taking up with the world and are being overcome by the evil in the world, that is, the tide of evil is becoming so great and things are becoming so difficult that dear believers are saying I just can't struggle against it any longer.
Sad to say, it goes even a step further than that, doesn't it? Because unhappily, there are difficulties among the people of God.
And there are things that arise amongst those who do know the Lord. And unhappily, sometimes that evil assumes such proportions that we hear dear believers say, I can't walk that pathway of faith any longer.
How many times, and maybe you have had the experience, have we brought before dear souls what the word of God said about a certain matter, only to have them say, well, that's all very good and true in theory, but it's just not that way in practice. I had an e-mail from a brother sometime ago. I had brought before him some things that.
I didn't think he entirely agreed with. And when he wrote back, he said, well, Bill, that's all very good.
And the way it comes out in Scripture is nice and I agree with it, but, he said in practice.
Things aren't always so nice and neat. Have you experienced that? Yes, we have.
We have found the practical side difficult, haven't we?
I still remember, though, what our brother Clifford Brown once said to us. He said, brethren, remember that God will never reveal to you and to me something in His precious Word and yet allow the day to be so difficult and the circumstances to be so hard that it is impossible to carry it out. I don't believe we'll ever see that It may be difficult. There may not be very many others who want to do it, but it will be possible.
But then we go on here in John 17 and it says.
We are in the world, and again, at first glance it might seem to be a difficult thing because on the one hand we're not of the world and on the other hand we are in the world. On the one hand, we are to be kept from the evil in the world, and yet on the other hand we are sent into the world.
You know, the difficulty isn't a new one. I may have mentioned this before, so pardon me if you've heard it before. But if we read the history of the Church, we find that it happened very, very early on in the church's history. And by the time the 4th century had come about, after the Lord Jesus Christ had died and the apostles had come and then left the scene, we find that there were two lines of thinking that very, very quickly developed.
On the other hand, there were, on the one hand, I should say there were those who ended up right in the world. There were those who ended up beginning with Constantine and others, getting into the world, getting involved in the government and in the politics of this world, getting involved in that day in the affairs of the Roman Empire. And as far as it went, they were not only in the world, they were of the world.
But then there were others who said this is terrible, this is an awful thing. We are becoming just like the world. Evil is coming in, wickedness is coming in. We have to do something about that. So the thought came, well, we better get apart from the world. And the first monasteries developed back in that time where men and ultimately later on women to hold themselves up totally separated from the world. That was the day when men started to become hermits.
Put themselves way off in the back of the beyond, in little cabins and places in the wilderness.
And I know it sounds ridiculous, but it happened over and over again, history tells us.
Where men they wanted to be separate, but they didn't want to be where nobody could see them.
And so they got up on top of platforms, on poles, built a big tall pole, put a platform on top, and they lived up there in the elements and in little tents sometimes. And people brought food to the foot of the pole and they'd pull it up on a rope and so on. And they were separate from the world, all right.
They were not of the world, but for all practical purposes, they weren't even in the world.
Well, what do we have in the word of God? Oh, I believe we see that.
00:40:05
That these things which seemingly are contradictory can be brought together in walking with the Lord. And I'd like to think that this follows on with what our brother had yesterday about the Spirit of God, because I believe it's more and more important in the day in which we live to be walking in the power of the Spirit of God.
And in communion with the Lord.
If we go to Romans 12 here we find there is a negative side, but there's a positive side. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
On the one hand, as you and I walk through this world, we are in danger of being overcome by the evil that is in the world. As we try to live and move in the House of God, we are liable to be overcome by the evil that has come into that house, because it is a great house. And we are liable to find that more and more Satan brings an increasing tide of things against us, so that we say it is no use.
This is too hard. Maybe some of you have read the pamphlet that is available through Bible Truth Publishers.
Which is the substance, I believe, of a conversation between two older brothers, and it probably would be at least 75 years ago now. And one brother apparently made the remark to the other. He said, you know, the difficulties and problems among believers are going to increase rather than decrease, and they are going to succeed one another one after the other, like waves of the sea. Sometimes it is personal problems in our lives.
Sometimes it is family problems, sometimes it is problems in the assembly, sometimes they transcend the local assembly and go out at large among the people of God. And we don't limit those remarks merely to those gathered to the Lord's name, because it seems in looking around in Christendom at large, that believers in every place are being assailed by all kinds of difficulties that the devil is bringing in.
And there is a great danger that we are going to be overcome of evil, and that is his aim.
We don't want to be funny, but everyone here has had the experience perhaps of going into work or if accosting someone in the morning and asking them how they are. And maybe the individual hasn't had a very good sleep and maybe they have a lot of problems in their lives and maybe they haven't had their morning coffee yet or whatever it is. But when you ask them how they are, the answer is, well, I'm here. Meaning don't expect too much more at the moment because it took everything I had just to get up this morning and get here, so I'm here.
And I speak to my own heart. I get the impression that in many cases that can happen to us as believers where yes, we're here and yes, we are believers, and yes, we are to that extent expecting the Lord to come, and we are to that extent.
Knowing where we're going and living good, morally upright lives.
But all again I say to my own heart, is that all that the Lord wants? Is that enough?
Is it enough merely to say I'm not being overcome of the evil? I'm standing there and I'm holding.
Firm, that is important, Indeed it is, but could I suggest that in connection with what we have in Romans 12, here we get another step?
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome.
Evil with good.
May I suggest that that affects everything as wherefore this is in in first Peter chapter 4 it says the world wonders why to use the words of scripture you run not with them to the same excessive riot speaking evil of you. There is a negative testimony in that we don't go along with the evil that we don't go along with the sin in this world.
Very, very important. But all may that only open the door for a positive testimony. Let there be a positive testimony. Bring Christ before them. Don't be afraid to speak well of Christ. Don't be afraid.
To say something.
For your master.
Just recently.
A young brother. He's here this afternoon. He won't mind my mentioning this, but.
00:45:04
We were trying to remember something that an older brother had said quite a few years ago, and I think we kind of pieced it together and I think we got it right. The remark was the Christian ought to be the world's best friend, but the believer should never seek the friendship of the world. That brings it out well, doesn't it? To seek the friendship of the world is fatal to my Christian testimony.
But the believer should be the world's best friend. Who should be the one up front there?
If someone needs help who should be up front there trying to bring Christ before them? Who should be upfront with that gospel testimony that says?
Not only do I take a position against the sin and wrong that goes on in this world, but let me tell you what I have that is so much better and it should show out on our faces.
But if I am part of this world, if I'm of the world, even though I'm in the world, I won't be able to do that because the world won't listen to me. They will have to see very clearly that I have something better. I remember well, quite a few years ago now, where there was a young sister who was, I suppose the word would not be too strong to say. She was persecuted a little by one of her teachers at school for her Christian testimony. He brought things before her and occasionally ridiculed her for the fact that she didn't join in with a lot of things.
One day she said, how about coming to a gospel meeting. There was going to be an all day meeting and then a gospel meeting and then a hymn sing afterward for the young people. And she said, why don't you come to the gospel meeting and you can stay afterward and take part in the hymn sing and in the refreshments and that.
Well, he was a single man and he was free to come, so he came.
I don't know exactly what he thought of the gospel meeting. I have no evidence that he was saved. But afterward, as he enjoyed the hymn sing and saw the friendship and joy and fellowship that went on amongst the young people, when he enjoyed the well, I should say he enjoyed it. He observed the joy that was there and the happiness, he said to that young sister. Afterward he said, well, I see what you mean, He said, I see what you mean. You've got something better.
Than anything that we could offer you. He could see clearly that there was something there and whether he took it for himself, I don't know. Oh, I say to us here, to our young people and to each one of us. Let that be our testimony.
But then carry it a step further.
What about among the people of God? That makes it even more difficult, doesn't it? Because sometimes the tide of evil there in one sense is harder to withstand than that in the world. And sometimes the things that come in among believers are very, very difficult.
On the one hand, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And I say to each one here today, God would have every one of us to be an overcomer. The essence of an overcomer is that he is not molded and shaped by what goes on around him, but rather he's animated from something within that gives him a moral power greater than everything that is around him.
Can that be you? Can that be me?
All you say, but if I'm going to go into the world, maybe I have to be of the world because how am I going to reach them? No, that's not what Scripture says. Or some would say, well, if I'm not of the world, practically I have to be so separate from it. No, we are to be a testimony to this world and to know the Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest example of that and we see it exemplified in the apostles as well as they went about.
They reached out to people, but they reached out to them because they had more than what they had. And they said here is something which is the antidote to all the difficulties and problems that you're facing.
It's not easy to do, is it? It's not easy to do. And sometimes we will say, well, how can that balance be achieved? How can I know?
If I could use the expression how far to go in going after an unbeliever with the gospel before I become part of the world.
You know, we've said it before and I'll say it again, but when we read the Word of God, we very quickly find that there are things which are beyond human understanding.
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For example, can you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man?
Can you reconcile John 6 and 37? That on the one hand says all that the Father giveth me will come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Can you put those two together in the human mind and make sense out of them? No, you can't, because ultimately they are two things that are beyond human understanding to bring together.
And so it is with many things in the Word of God, and the Christian life, I believe, consists.
Very often of keeping the precious truth of God.
In proper relationship to other truth. But how can I do that? Oh, I can do it only by walking in communion with the Lord. This precious book, properly read, will always drive me back to the source of it. And that's the wonderful thing about it. Because I can't read this book. We had that before us in the reading earlier today. I can't read it in an intellectual way. I can't read it as if it were a natural textbook. I can't pick it up.
And say, well, my human mind and my intellect will somehow make sense out of this. No, I must pick it up with the sense in my soul that this is God himself, by inspiration speaking to me. And that only in the power of the Spirit of God can I understand what it says, and live and walk in the good of it. And so I say to each one of us.
Going back to what we had in John 17, we are in this world and we are not here, as one old brother said more than 90 years ago.
He said we are not left in this world as believers simply to lead good, morally upright lives and then go to heaven at the end. Yes, we should do that, very definitely, but that is not enough. The Lord wants us to be living witnesses to the grace that brought us to Himself. And that involves walking in the good of everything that I see in this precious book and walking in communion with the Lord.
So that others can see the joy and the blessing that it will produce in my life.
I like what our brother said. He was warning us solemnly just a few moments ago about how Daniel faced the most difficult circumstances in his life, very difficult things that, as he mentioned, I doubt very much if most of us here, maybe none of us will ever be called upon to endure the kind of difficulties that he endured. But what did he do? He purposed in his heart and he went forward in spite of those difficulties. Was it an easy path? Of course it was not. Was it easy not to be able to have his own family and children?
Very difficult. Was it easy to be in a foreign land and have to learn a new language and operate under very difficult circumstances? Of course it was.
But the Lord used him in a wonderful way. And if God is allowed unusual difficulties in your pathway and mind if God has allowed circumstances that you say Lord, I can't go on.
Remember that God will never give us truth, will never give us a pathway without giving us the grace to walk in it, and he will never show us something in his precious word that I have to say. I can't do that. It's it's good, it's true, but I can't walk in it anymore. And so.
We leave that verse.
Be not overcome of evil. That's the negative side. May we have that clearly before us.
But oh, may there be the positive side with us, to overcome evil with good. And if you say I can't do that, the bad, the evil.
It's too much, the struggle is too hard.
I have had people say that to me over and over and over again. Bill, I know what you're saying is true and I point to my own self to I'm not singling out anyone else, but I have heard so many people say I just can't do it or I just couldn't do this or that it is just too hard.
Then I just suggest one thing in closing.
Let's go back to Calvary's cross.
And witness that Blessed One first of all in the Garden of Gethsemane, where you might say he had every reason, humanly speaking, to expect his followers at least in some way to understand what he is going through, and he finds them sleeping for sorrow.
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And when he comes, he finds that the chief priests come with swords and staves the ones to whom he had come in blessing. Coming out is against a thief.
And we find them taken, you know, all this, we're just rehearsing it. Taken before those chief priests and made a mockery of and.
All through the night there, that awful trial that he went through, being buffeted and so on, and all kinds of indignities heaped against him, spit upon and so on.
Finally taken before Pilate scourged in the most awful way.
Taken to Calvary's cross.
Marked by the soldiers, then nailed to the cross. But what's the reaction?
Oh, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He comes out and he says to those who came to arrest him, If you seek me, let these go their way.
When Peter cuts off the servant of the High Priest Seer, he heals it.
When he comes before those chief priests, instead of answering back, he answers nothing, but simply lets the accusations go. When he comes before Pilate, he bears witness very clearly, not only to who he was, but to the truth. When they drive the nails into his hands, he says, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. When a thief on the cross that had been railing against him shortly before that asks for mercy.
He says, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise? Oh, in every case the Lord Jesus met the evil first of all.
Not by being overcome by it, that's the one side, but on the other side by overcoming evil with good.
Oh, may I say to each one of us here that may I suggest is the testimony that is needed today, whether to the world or among believers, is those who will be in the world.
And yet not of the world those who are kept from the evil of the world.
And yet sent into the world in testimony those who were not overcome by the evil, whether in the world.
Or among the people of God Boda, who in every case with that spring, that fountain of joy within, are able to rise above those circumstances and to overcome evil with good.
The Moments. The 116th Psalm.
The Psalms are a wonderful thing because they really give the experience of the man of God under the hand of God and the feelings of his heart.
We get the wonderful feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and the 22nd Psalm, in the 69th Psalm and others, but I was just thinking of this 116th Psalm this afternoon.
Because they really, I believe, gives the experience of the man of God as he's going under trial and following the Lord.
Don't have much time and we're not going to try to comment on every verse but the 116th Psalm.
I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him.
As long as I live.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pangs of death hell gap hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow, and I called upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ye. Our God is merciful.
I was thinking of this.
Could spend a lot of time considering it, but.
The Word is nigh thee. That is the Word of Faith. It's a wonderful thing to realize that we have a God.
What? Their brother took me out to Mount Saint Helen, and I'd seen pictures of it, and I saw the power of a side of a mountain being blown off by a volcano. And then I realized, you know, that was just one little mountain among many thousands.
Perhaps hundreds of thousands in the world and you see the power of God and creation.
And yet to think that who am I that the Lord has thinking about me. You know there's not one person in this room about whom the Lord doesn't know the most intimate details of your life and doesn't care about you. Not a wonderful thing to think that the creator God.
Has an intimate, caring interest in you.
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And we see why troubles come in because, you know, most of us would enjoy the things of God. The world's out there enjoying the things of God. Tomorrow is going to be the Lord's Day, and they're going to be on the golf course and they're going to be water skiing and doing whatever they want. And you know, the only time they'll turn to the Lord is when the troubles come. But you know, the Lord is going to be right there.
And what a wonderful thing it is to know God in that way is that He's just right there to whisper prayer. We think of a Nehemiah. Think of these ones, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego just abled to turn to the Lord in the midst of their difficulty. And to think that the eternal God is inclining his ear to each one of us.
The youngest child had turned their heart and faith to the Lord and received Christ as their Savior learned.
That God is listening to them.
I just quickly tell a story at an ungodly neighbor across the street. He said. He never prayed and he never cried as an adult.
And the first time that he ever prayed and he ever cried, he went up into the drive shed of his ungodly grandfather as a drunkard and he bowed his head and he cried out to God for help. And his name was Randy. And he picked up a little book out of a box of trash beside him. And in the front of the book it said to Randy, because Jesus loves you.
And I thought of that, that the eternal God cares about us, and So what confidence we have to go to him and to speak to him, that he's gracious, but that he's righteous.
And God is always going to deal with us in a righteous way.
God is God and he cannot cease to be God. And often the difficulty with us is we want God to deal with us in an unrighteous way.
And if we come to God taking our place as a guilty Sinner before God, he can deal with us righteously. He has a righteous remedy towards that. But if we come to him asking.
Just to forget to sweep things under the carpet and so on. He can't deal with us righteously, whether St. or Sinner.
The sixth verse says he preserveth the simple.
I was brought low and he helped me.
You know that word simple is perhaps a very, very profound word, but I think really what it entails is a simple just simply accepts things the way that they are written in the Word of God.
And I appreciated what a brother said. Don't let the things that you don't understand spoil the things that you do. And I have found in my Christian life, and you have probably found in yours, that it's the things that you do understand, that you have resisted, that have caused your problems. It's not the things that you don't understand.
And those are the barriers our brother was speaking about to us getting more truth.
And so he says, Return unto thy rest, O my soul, the Lord hath done bountifully with thee. What is the rest of the Saint? It's simply to rest in the Word of God.
We've been talking about reasoning and difficulties come in in the home and the assembly and our personal lives, and we start to reason our way out of them.
But what is it that brought our anxious souls to rest when we were concerned about our sins? Was we simply rested on what the Word of God had to say?
And that is ever.
The psalmist is speaking, instructing himself here.
And he is just simply saying, Return unto thy rest, O my soul.
And if there's a difficulty or an anxiety in your life or a matter of questions in your life or mine, that we should just return to the rest of our souls, and that's simply to believe what God has said.
We get reasonings about things and we get into great difficulty.
And then we recount the goodness of God to us. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, and mine eyes from tears, and my feet before the falling. And so here our brother was speaking to the young people about walk following the Lord. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. He makes a commitment. And then watch what happens in the 10 first. I believe therefore I have spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
Paul quotes this verse, I believe in the second epistle as the foundation of all ministry is that I have believed, therefore I have spoken that there's a personal engagement with God as to the word of God.
And we believe, and we speak. And Mr. Darby said something once. We can see farther than we can walk.
And it's a good thing.
But then suddenly our experience catches up to our talk, and he says I was greatly afflicted.
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And you're going to find that, and I'm going to find that, that as we follow the Lord, he purposed to follow the Lord until fine. Now suddenly he finds affliction connected with it. And our brother is spoken about following the Lord, and we're going to go home and suddenly we're going to find out that it's going to bring trouble and difficulty.
There's joy in that path when we discover that joy.
You know, we we say that and we have these experiences and these memories of all the goodness of the Lord of walking together. But you know, you know, sooner really decide that you're going to really follow the Lord, then you find out that you're reflected. And then he says in his haste, he comes to a hasty conclusion. I sit in my haste. All men are liars. How many believers have you seen? We have heard about giving up, have just given up and they said, well, there's there's nobody.
There's no way that we can know there's a testimony anymore today.
There's no way that we can know that there's a pathway for faith anymore today. And that is kind of attributing a cruelty to God, that He would ask you to do something and not give you a scriptural way in which to do it.
Or that God would demand of you unfaithfulness to walk in the pathway of faith.
That that was a great comfort to my soul. The foundations be destroyed. What shall the righteous do?
The Lord hasn't changed.
Men may have failed.
And that's when I really started to seek the place of His appointment, when I realized I was looking among all these places to find where the Lord was in the midst. And I don't want to isolate it to that question.
But I realized I got to stop looking for faithful men and start seeing that God's been faithful and that He's preserved the testimony.
But you know, he was judging everybody else. I said in my haste all men were liars. It's not a very happy thing in the soul when you start to judge everybody else. And it was a kind of a hasty thing because not all men are liars.
But he went on to realize this. So then he starts to ask the Lord not what about everybody else? But he said, what am I going to do?
He said there became an exercise in his soul, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me?
He's turned from having a critical spirit to everybody around. And maybe you feel that way in the assembly, and maybe in the assembly where you are, maybe there's not that great teaching and so on. And you say, well, there's no evangelical work, and maybe that's absolutely true.
But ask yourself for the psalmist, what am I going to render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? He says, first of all, I'll take the cup of salvation and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. Many people say, well, I wouldn't believe in God because Christians are all hypocrites. Well, this is what this that maybe every Christian he's seen has perhaps been somewhat hypocritical. We all are. But he says, I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. The Lord has been kind to man. Those people out there playing on that soccer field are making playing on grass that God made for man to play on. His delights are with the sons of man.
Man sits down at a picnic and cuts up a watermelon and eats it, and God was thinking about man when he made that watermelon.
And there's good reason. Maybe Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.
But the Lord, he's been good to man. Man goes to the beach and he sees the ocean.
And it has to do with a God whose delights are with the sons of man.
Well, I don't have a watch, so I'm going to have to move on here quickly. But what does he say then? I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. He has just made this stunning proclamation that all men are liars. And he said now that I'm going to pay my choice vows in the presence of all his people.
And what a wonderful thing it is. Tomorrow we're going to sit down at the Lord's Table.
And break bread.
And we are going to really.
Every St. of God in the church is represented in that loaf.
But you know, we often say we see the one body and the one unbroken loaf, but the language of 1St Corinthians 10 is we being many are one bred, for we are all partakers of that one loaf. And you give expression to the truth that you're a member of the body of Christ by being in the place of his appointment and partaking of that loaf. And if there's something in your life that is hindering you from doing that, get rid of the hindrance.
Get rid of the hindrance. Don't bring the hindrance to the Lord's Table. Don't bring your corruption to the Lord's Table. Get rid of the hindrance.
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But what a wonderful thing it is, because the heart's desire now was to.
Take the cup of salvation, call on the name of the Lord, and play His choice flowers in the presence of His people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints. Is that the pathway here in the Psalms ends as far as this life is concerned.
And I'm going to close with this. There's more verses in this chapter, but the pathway, we never met a Christian that lived for the Lord.
Or didn't live for the Lord and didn't look back at their life and say I wish I lived for the Lord more.
There's never been a Christian to lay his head down and look into eternity from death and say, well, I spent too much time with the Lord. I wish I'd lived to please myself more.
What a precious thing to realize now that all things are yours, a brother once asked me. He said, in terrible pain. He said, Neil, is it wrong to want to die? I said all things are yours.
And when you feel your life's work is done, you can tell the Lord that you're ready to go to be with himself.
And it's a precious thing, you know, Death is man's enemy, but to the Saint, it's simply the servant to bring him into his presence.
We're not looking forward to death. We're looking forward to the rapture. I hope Brother Bill is raptured along with me and doesn't see death. I hope he's among those that are alive and remain. But you know, if not, it's just going to be the Lord's servant to give Bill Bill what he wants and to give the Lord what he wants.
And so with such a God such as ours, we should really incline ourselves to the Lord and really desire to be where the Lord is.
But I just thought of these verses in connection with following the Lord, but especially how many believers get saved and immediately a flood of problems and a flood of difficulties come into their lives. I believe therefore have spoken. I was greatly afflicted, but just go on for the Lord and just ask Lord, what can you do? What can you render to the Lord? What can I render to the Lord for all of his benefits to me And he's going to just fill your heart with joy so that you can look at the very worst of enemies death and say precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints.
And So what a God we have, A God that inclines his ear and would prepare to have a book and a box of rubbish beside a man that for the first time in his life cried out to God.
And you're going to find out, and I'm going to find out the same thing.
In the pathway, well, the Lord encouraged us, as our brother was saying, just to follow the Lord and to go on for the Lord. And if we see farther than when we can walk and as Job, we, you know, our experience catches up with our talk and we have difficulties in our life. Thank the Lord for it because He's making these things real to our soul. Don't give up.
And.
His name appears and shining in his glory right with the.
All right, when he tried to come back looking right, Looking right.
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Before.
In Kingdom time, your life will be in just a glorious place. Our hearts will feel the same, so sweet in one eternal day.
All have to be joyful, joyful.