Address—A. Hayhoe
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Hymn #52.
#52 Lord we are thine.
But by thy blood once the poor guilty slaves of sin, but thou redeemed us to God, and made thy spirit dwell within Thou hast our sinful wanderings, born with love and patience, all divine.
As brands then from the burning torn, we own that we are holy God Lord, we are thine Thy claims we owe ourselves to Thee weed wholly give rain vow within our hearts alone, and let us to Thy glory live.
Here let us each thy mind display in all thy gracious image shine and haste that long expected day.
When thou shalt own that we are thine #52.
Lord, we are thine by thy blood.
Oh my Lord.
Give me life of it.
Already my love.
And make my face.
Oh yeah.
Like you to turn with me, please, first of all to a text which is very, very familiar to everyone of us, that 10th chapter of Romans.
The 10th chapter of Romans.
And the ninth verse.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
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Thou shalt be saved.
Like you to turn now to another verse in Ephesians?
Ephesians chapter 6.
Verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.
And in the power of his might.
Yet another verse in Colossians.
Chapter One.
Verse 10.
That he might walk worthy of the Lord.
Unto all pleasing being, fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
One more verse in Philippians chapter 4.
And verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord.
Always and again I say rejoice.
These four verses have been laid on my heart this afternoon, and perhaps coupled with them and instance to illustrate each one in the life of the beloved Apostle Paul, who was the inspired author of each one of the verses that we have read.
First of all, we read, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If you turn back with me, please, to the book of the Acts, perhaps we'll see this illustrated in the.
Halfway of the Apostle Paul and mine chapter of the Acts.
And saw yet breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went under 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 unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly.
There shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul.
Saw five persecutors Thou, me, and he said, Who art thou, Lord?
Who art thou?
Lord and the Lord said, I am Jesus.
Oh, beloved, what a picture we have here. The long-suffering, matchless grace of the heart of God that looked down after this world had rejected God's beloved Son after they had spit in his face and crucified him. The eye of God looked down and saw a man named Saul.
Who was breathing out threatenings and slaughter, and whose heart was filled, overflowing with hatred against those who bore with love the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? The eye of God looked down upon that young man. The eye of God saw. This young man saw as he went to the authorities at Jerusalem and sought from them letters that would give him liberty to go to Damascus.
To the synagogues there that he might bring bound to Jerusalem those who love the name of the Lord Jesus, and as he started out from Jerusalem with these letters in his pockets.
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The eye of God looked down upon him.
Oh, I want to impress this upon each one of us. This very afternoon. The eye of God, my beloved friend, is looking down at you in love this very moment.
Oh, I'm happy to be able to say that. To start right here and point to each one of you and say the eye of God is looking down upon you.
I'm sure there's no one here whose testimony is such that you would stand by the chief of sinners and say.
That this describes the evident condition of your heart. Oh, I believe that Saul stands out among men as the most outstanding hater and persecutor of the name of Jesus Christ and of his devoted followers. But God loved him. And my friend, God loves you. The time came when Paul.
Saw at that time.
Approaches the city of Damascus, and a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shone down upon that man.
Has this ever happened to you?
Has the light of God, beloved friend, ever shone down upon you that you might get a glimpse of your true condition in God's sight? I quite expect that you had asked the religious people of the city of Jerusalem, who is numbered among the most outstanding and religious people of this city.
Saul's name would have been among the first mention.
But in the sight of God, and with the light of God's holy presence shining down upon him, he discovered that which he had not known until that time his true condition in the sight of God. Beloved friend, I want to begin with this. Do you really know that in the sight of God you have been found lost and guilty? And have you been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ?
I don't ask you how well you know your Bible. I don't even ask you if you broke bread here this morning. I ask you this in the light of the eye of God that looks down upon you this very moment, My beloved friend. Are you sure?
Are you sure that all that was recorded against you?
Has been blotted out by the Precious Blood of Christ.
I have sad reason to say what I do.
I say, I do not even ask you if you broke bread here this morning, that won't fit your soul for heaven. You may have deceived your parents, you may have deceived those who came to question you when you asked to remember the Lord. But I say this to 1:00 and all here this afternoon you are going to spend as I am, going to stand in the presence of him whose holy light shone down upon Saul Tarsus on the road to Damascus.
And if the light of God's holy presence had shone upon us as we were gathered here.
To remember the Lord Jesus in death this morning, would you, beloved friend?
Would you have been found cleansed from every stain of guilt by the precious Blood of Christ?
It's a solemn question, I know. Perhaps by some it may be considered a little too straightforward.
But I ask you now as we consider the case of this dear man, Saul.
Upon whom for the first time this brilliant light shone forth, I ask you in the light of God's presence, I ask you in view of the fact that you will stand in the light of that present someday. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? What was the language of this man?
This chief of sinners as prostate on the ground, he utters his voice to the Lord.
What is it? Who art thou?
Lord.
Oh, what a marvelous word is this Jesus, that name that he despised. Jesus, that name that he hated to hear from the lips of his devoted followers?
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He now looks up and addresses him as Lord.
You remember this same thing in a case of the malefactor who was crucified beside the Lord Jesus.
Lord.
Remember Me when thou cometh into thy Kingdom. Did he read that word in the superscription written over the cross? No, he did not. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. No mention of that title, Lord.
But he uttered it by faith. Saul uttered it by faith. And I plead with you this afternoon, beloved young friend, perhaps growing up in a Christian home, and you know that father and mother have trusted the Lord Jesus, and you hear that name.
Lovingly and reverently and often mentioned in your home. But I ask you now, I ask the children. I ask the beloved young people, particularly those growing up in Christian homes.
In Jesus Christ.
Your Savior and Lord.
Now let's turn over to the second scripture that we referred to in Ephesians.
For I believe that this mighty step in the case of the beloved apostle was but the beginning, and I trust it may be so, you and me. I trust that the wonder and reality of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior may be to you and to me also by grace, but the beginning of that which will be for the glory of God.
And for your happiness along the way, homeward and for your eternal Thanksgiving too.
Because I want to tell you this beloved young people, the wisdom, the light, the instruction of this precious book is not given to you in order that you might find yourself walking a narrow and restricted pathway, but is given to you because God wants you to have.
A happy life, an abundant entrance, and a full reward. I greatly fear that he who whispered first in the ear of Eve has whispered in many ears here, present today, and tried to persuade you that the wisdom, the light, the direction of his book is going to be a narrow and restricting thing to walk by, that you're going to miss pleasures.
That otherwise would be so pleasant and so delightful. The Scripture speaks of that good and acceptable and perfect will of God who uttered those words, the same man who was found on his face on the road to Damascus.
But that has to be proven. This is the 12Th chapter of Romans that he may prove. What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Excuse a quotation, please, from time to time. But they do ring in my memory. You'll never meet a man who walked with God during his lifetime.
And at the end of his day, he said, I wish I hadn't done it. What is the result of walking with God? What is the result of walking in the light and the wisdom of this precious book? You know what it is? It's a happy life. It's an abundant entrance. It's a full reward. And it's because God loves you and because God loves me that he's put this complete book in our hands.
For our delight, for our meditation, for our wisdom. Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Again we have that glorious title, strong in the Lord of beloved young people. This is his desire.
It is his desire and abundant provision has been made that it might be a reality that you and I need not go through our journey here as weaklings.
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Was this the case with the author, divinely inspired of these very words? You know it was. You know the Apostle Paul by nature was a man with great and boundless energy. But the hand of God was laid upon this man. The hand of God was laid upon him for a wise and faithful and loving purpose. And if we were to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, I believe we would find this principle.
Displayed in the life of the Apostle Paul, Could we turn then to 2nd Corinthians?
Chapter 12.
Verse 7.
The Apostle Paul, writing, of course, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
Thing I be sought, the Lord.
Thrice that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities and persecutions, and distresses, for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong?
Beloved, the apostles spoke from personal experience. He wrote from his own reality. When he said, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, Paul had to learn that he had no strength, no might of his own, with which he could face the difficulties of the Christian warfare.
Christian warfare, Do you mean to say that we're going to encounter things like this along the way? I thought you said it would be a happy life, beloved, so it will be. But I didn't say a life without difficulties. Trials, testing, battles, warfare.
I wouldn't be true to the word of God if I hid from you such realities. I sometimes wonder if books have not been written and songs have not been composed that give a false impression of the Christian pathway. I think there are those who feel that to become a Christian means the immediate removal of every difficulty, every problem, every obstacle that we can go down through life with a sort of a gay song in our hearts. Beloved, there is a reality to the Christian pathway.
There are enemies within and without, but is there strength equal for it? Thank God there is. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. The beloved apostle knew this strength he endured all through his journey in the strength of the Lord.
And not in the supposed strength of the Apostle Paul. Sometimes we meet this as we go about. We see those who naturally speaking, would be perhaps cast down with their own weakness and their own infirmities, but rejoicing in the power and might and strength given to them of the Lord. They go onward and all what I do, What a delight it is to see that which the Lord can minister.
To those who would otherwise be cast down by their problems and their trials.
I don't know yours, but I'm very, very sure of this, that as I'm standing here this afternoon, there are many, many, many believers right here before me who have real and trying and heartbreaking problems. And from time to time you pour out your heart before the Lord. From time to time you close your eyes in the evening, and that which looms before you on the moral seem so formidable.
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So difficult, dearly beloved child of God, you have by God's matchless grace, a resource of power and of strength in him. But I believe it's only entrusted to those who are made to feel their own weakness.
You know, the 23rd Psalm says he maketh me.
To lie down in green pastures. Sometimes I like to emphasize that little word He maketh me. I don't suppose that was the original intention of the verse. But from time to time, as you visit some dear child of God, and you see them flat on their back, and infirmity and weakness that verse brings through your mind, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
He wants you. He wants me to enjoy these pastures. He wants you and me to have the sweetness of his love ministered to our heart along the way, the encouragement of his own strength granted to us as we face the difficulties. But if we try to face them in our own strength, we'll meet with continual discouragement. But if we bow on our own lack of light, of wisdom, of strength, beloved, there is strength to be had in him.
Who inspired the apostle to write these words? Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.
And in the power of his might, isn't that forceful language? Do we lack anything when the pathway is considered when we read such words as these?
Some of us were just recently visiting down in Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
And beloved, we felt as we mingled among those who we love in the Lord down there, that we saw some of these things carried out in a practical way.
Thou dear brethren and sisters and young people have problems that are considerably different to that which you and I might meet with here. But they do have problems. They do have testings.
But beloved to see their godly quiet.
Recognition of the light and the wisdom of the Word of God. And the strength ministered from above is that which causes us to bow our heads in shame.
One dear brother came to us the morning after the meetings were ended.
It was a Tuesday morning. His name was Celestino.
We ask our prayers for him for the return journey to his own home. He was about to start out on foot.
We asked him when he thought he would reach home. He thought he could make it. By Thursday afternoon, it had taken him 2 1/2 days on foot to get there and Celestino, along with three other of the brothers who sat there in the meetings.
Carried bullets in their bodies because of the dangers of the way Celestino had been shot, cleaned through and the bullet was still lodged by his backbone.
He was in pain, but he had considered it to be a joy and a privilege to walk those five days over the mountains in order that he might sit and listen to the reading of the precious word of God.
I don't hesitate to admit that there were many tears flowed down very stoical faces as we.
Shall I confess it, as we wept and prayed with these dear brothers and sisters, who, some with their children and little ones, were starting out to return again to their homes, to face again the continual struggle for existence, to face again the problems and the dangers that you and I.
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Don't know very much about now, dear young people, I don't. I don't speak slightingly of the problems that I know you face. I know you do. I know that perhaps on Tuesday you're going to go back to face that which is so totally opposed to the precious person, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it's at school, at work, perhaps with some of you in the home too, You're going to find yourself in an atmosphere.
Totally opposed to the one so dear to your heart. Is he sufficient for this? Can he give to you the strength to stand for him in the midst of it all? Beloved, when we read of Davide mighty men, when we read of the commendations at the end of some of the officials of this one, and that one who stood true to the Lord.
Remember.
He is watching you as you go back to school on Tuesday. He's watching you as you go back to your work on Tuesday. And he wants to record for you, as he has recorded in the pages of this precious book, the evaluation of your soul for the person and the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to digress a bit to get into something.
Practical. That has been on my heart since we had a little chat together at the table just a few moments ago.
And that is the dear young people at school who have not yet stepped out into the business world.
I know that at school you meet with many, many things that don't seem too far astray. They don't seem like downright disobedience to the word of God. But, beloved, just let me ask you this one question. Could you, in the company that this sort of thing would involve, could you speak with loving reverence of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Could you bear with you that precious name, and find yourself at home in the activities and the company that perhaps strives to win you over? Oh dearly beloved young people, if perhaps the reverend mention of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will bring mockery, will bring reproach. Just close your eyes and picture that name nailed above his cross.
And remember what he suffered because he loved you so much.
Dear young fellow Believer, what did it cost him to put your name and mine by grace in that book of life? What did it cost him? He loved you so much.
That he endured all that is recorded and that which can never be found out because he wobbled your name to be found in the Lamb's book of life. He loves your name, He loves to hear it before the angels of God and glory, and he's going to welcome you home.
Am I going too far to picture? But he's going to welcome you home by name.
I like to think of that, but he's going to welcome me by name and he's not going to be ashamed to do so either.
And while I'm here, and while you're here, you know very well, and I know very well, for this is not only for those who are young. We needed all our life long that the reverent mention of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in a day like this and in a world like this.
Will bring reproach, will bring mockery. But here, beloved, is where the strength can come from. If we go forward in our own strength, we will very, very soon meet with sad defeat. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Could we turn over to Colossians now? Colossians Chapter One?
And verse 10.
That he might walk worthy of the Lord.
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Unto all pleasing being, fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
We said at the beginning that the accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
Confessing of that worthy name and title ought to be but the beginning. There is strength for the whole pathway that is ours for the receiving from him. And now see this exhortation, that he might walk worthy of the Lord.
Unto all pleasing will, I not find the wisdom needed for the fulfillment of this verse again in the pages of God's precious Word.
Oh, how much busy activity there is all around us, Christian activity, so-called too, that is not according to the light or the wisdom of the Word of God. And you and I, dear young people, have an exceptional privilege, many of us, For I am looking into the faces of those whom I recognize. Many of us have had the privilege of a Christian home. Many of us have been brought up to know the joy of being brought to such meetings as these from the time we're very, very little.
Some folks consider that to be a pretty narrow experience, and they suggest that a much broader experience would be.
Helpful to us, I stand here to say, with profound Thanksgiving to God.
That my very earliest memories are associated with the privilege of being brought to such meetings as these prayer meetings. Yes, thank God. Bible readings? Yes. I couldn't understand what was being said, but it was just part of our family timetable.
And I was found there. Probably fell asleep before the meeting was over. A good many times, in fact. I digress a moment to recall that when the five of us used to go off to meeting, sometimes we'd make a pact among ourselves to see if any one of us could stay awake through the meeting. And the next morning we would ask one another if we would recall how the meeting ended. And it was pretty pitiful sometimes that not one of us could remember how the meeting ended. But my memory was associated with the privilege of being brought to such meetings at all. How I thank God for it.
How I thank God for it, we were reminded in Toronto some time ago.
Of the faithfulness of the parents of dear Samuel, who, when he was a very little boy, took him to the temple. What would there be in the temple for a little boy?
An old half blind man named Eli who didn't have very much discernment and a couple of very wicked sons.
What an environment for a little boy, But his mother had faith enough to take him there, and Samuel followed the Lord.
All beloved parents, beloved parents, bring your children to the meeting. There's a blessing involved, I have no doubt, and I can only stand here. I trust I say it in the right spirit, with thankfulness to God for the privilege that I have known all through the years.
Of being numbered among those who rejoice in the happy privilege of the scriptural simplicity in which we find ourselves gathered this day now in verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleading. Did this mean anything to the apostle Paul? Did he just write this one day by inspiration as a secretary would write?
Being dictated to no beloved friend, the apostle Paul, who was the inspired penman in this text, knew the reality of this verse.
Walk worthy of the Lord.
Again, please forgive me if I digress in thought again.
To Oaxaca, Mexico.
I recall two years ago, Doug Buchanan will remember this very well on our way into the interior toward the little community known as El Cacao where the conference was to be held. It was necessary to pass through a number of.
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Pagan villages. I had never laid eyes on a Pagan village before, and the experience was a shock to me.
The very feeling that one would have as we approached and walked through one of these Pagan villages is something that cannot easily be forgotten.
The nakedness.
The sin, the sense and power of evil that seemed present in such villages was very strongly evidence. And then, beloved brethren, we continued on our way till we came to this village of El Cacao. Do you know what we found in that village?
We found that every home in that village, with one exception only.
Either husband or wife or both were gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every home but one. And what did we see as we looked around that village?
The outward evidence of a desire to walk worthy of the Lord. What had made the difference? This precious book, with its living message, had been brought to that village.
And the light of its glorious passage had delivered them from the guilt and penalty of their sins. But more than this, it had taught them his book heads up, that nobody had gone in there and give them a given scolding, and told them how to behave.
The precious living word of God, with all its glorious life, had had such a profound effect upon them in every way that I'm sure my dear brother Doug Buchanan would say the same thing, that the very feeling as you walk through 1 Village and stepped into another was immediately evident. You could feel the difference. And beloved, you could see the difference. You could see the difference.
You could look at those who were gathered there and realize what the precious living word of God.
Meant to them in more ways than one, there was a delightful eager.
Response of love to him who had so loved them.
I know one day we were having meetings in the little villages. El surveillo again a way back in the interior. 2 Deer Indians appeared at those meetings. They also had come for two days over the hills and what had brought them there. The rumor had quickly spread through the mountains that a message of forgiveness was being taught in Elsa Willow and they had come that long, long distance.
Hoping that they would be able to hear and understand. They couldn't speak a word of Spanish, they could only understand the mistake dialect. There was one dear fellow there, Leonardo Garcia, who had formerly been an evil witch doctor. He knew both Mistec and Spanish, and he sat there and listened for the entire hour while the gospel was presented and then turned around and repeated the message in the Mist Tech dialect to these two dear Indians who come that long way.
Because they had heard that a message of forgiveness was being presented. Oh, beloved, I say again, as we see the profound effect in the life of those who have received not only the forgiveness of their sins, but the light of the precious word of God to guide them. Beloved, bear with me while I say.
As we come back here and look around, it doesn't seem quite so easy to differentiate here as in some other places.
Sometimes you get a bit of a surprise when you find that someone is really a Christian after all.
Bear with me please.
I love your soul, and I think of the day when you're going to stand before the Lord.
I think of the day when I'm going to stand there. He loved me so much that he died to redeem me. He loved me so much that he gave me this book to be the guide of my life.
And among the verses in this book is the one we've just been reading together.
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That he might walk worthy of the Lord. I believe that in a day like this, it brings mockery. It brings reproach. You stand out as being a bit different because you want to please the Lord. Is that true? You know it's true. Of course it's true.
We get in Peter a verse which I suppose will come before us tomorrow In the readings. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. When I read those words, strangers and pilgrims, permit me to say that I think perhaps I have sensed it in a practical way.
In traveling alone in faraway places.
Now, there are some pretty fascinating places to the average tourist, I suppose, here and there, scattered around the world. And I've been in quite a number of those places that apparently tourists find to be very charming, very fascinating. But I want to tell you something. Nobody needs to tap me on the shoulder when I'm all alone in one of those places. And say, Albert, don't forget you're a stranger in a Pilgrim here. I'm well aware of the fact that I'm a stranger in a Pilgrim in those places.
I feel the loneliness of it. Those dear to me are not with me.
Is not my home number matter how many charming attractions there may be around me? I'm conscious of the fact by everything I see and everything I hear that I am but a stranger and a Pilgrim and that I don't really belong there. I'm passing through and I trust for the glory of God.
Some time ago we had occasion to visit the ambassador from Yugoslavia. It was our desire to enter that country, and the Lord granted it. But the interview with that ambassador left me with a profound impression. You know, we are told in Second Corinthians again by the same apostle. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. Well, we went to this ambassador, a tall, very stately gentleman.
And we began to tell him that our desire was to enter his country well, as we rather expected.
He was every inch a gentleman and showed it by his conduct and his conversation, but.
The moment he opened his mouth to speak, I knew that he was a foreigner. He knew English and knew it very well. But there was something about that accent that betrayed him. As a foreigner in Canada, he couldn't disguise it. I quite expected to listen carefully. You can tell that I wasn't born an American too, but there was something about the accent of this Ambassador Mugosli that betrayed him as being. But.
A temporary visitor in Canada.
And when I heard that in his accent, I thought, Should there not also be something in our conversation, beloved fellow Christian, that betrays us in a generation like this is your conversation? Is mine the same as that which goes on all around us?
It ought not to be so. There ought to be something about your daily conversation at school, at work, that would betray the fact that you're a stranger here now. The next thing was this. This ambassador has an unbounded enthusiasm for Yugoslavia. Why? You just think there was no other country in the world that could become fair to the beauty of.
Yugoslavia.
Wonder that everyone didn't come and visit that country. He spread out tourist folders and he said you must go here, you must go there. Oh, he was so filled with enthusiasm for the country that he was representing. I thought again as this enthusiasm became so evident. What a lesson for me.
I also represent a country beloved. I hope once in a while my language might betray that fact.
And I hope, I hope, that I have more enthusiasm for the country that I'm representing, that that ambassador had for his all beloved. There are flaws in that country. Anyone who goes there knows it full well.
But the country that I represent, The country that you represent, dear young fellow believers.
Do you have that kind of enthusiasm as you speak of it to others? Is it any wonder that they turn away and say no thanks? I want to have a good time. If they could only see your delight, your enthusiasm, your eagerness, as you speak of that glorious country that you represent, as you speak of your true home, and your eagerness to be there. Surely, beloved, this is the way it ought to be.
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Been one third thing impressed me as we spoke further with that ambassador.
After his enthusiasm, he stopped and said now these are the requirements that must be submitted to if you wish to cross the boundary of our country.
These are the requirements. And he faithfully outlined what was necessary in order that we might enter that country. I thought again, what a lesson. First of all, that our very conversation ought to betray the fact that as ambassadors we are strangers here. Secondly, that there ought to be an eager enthusiasm for the country we represented toward which we're traveling. And thirdly, ought we not to be faithful concerning the requirements for admission?
To that country, dear young ambassadors, remember this, remember this. So we read here that he might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. You know, it's a little bit difficult to.
Think through the life of the Apostle Paul and try to pick out anyone occasion when this was.
Fulfill. It just seems that everywhere you turn in the life of the Apostle Paul, there was that objective before him. He wanted to walk worthy of the Lord. This was not just simply a text included in the Divine Canon. This was a reality to the beloved Apostle. Suppose we turn to Acts.
The 17th chapter.
And the 61St?
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Verse 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill and said, he men of Athens, I perceive it in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I pass by and beheld your devotion, I found an altar with his inscription to the unknown God.
Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him, declare I unto you.
I see. Again, it's difficult to pick something specific out of the life of the Apostle Paul as a demonstration of walking worthy of the Lord.
But here was Paul, in a city that perhaps might have been a very, very attractive thing for this dear man. I don't suppose there was quite as much traveling done in his day as there is in ours, and it must have been quite an experience to find himself there in Athens. And his spirit was stirred within him when he saw the beautiful buildings and he saw the wonderful architecture. Is that what it says? No. This dear man walked worthy of the Lord.
And wherever he went, and whatever the occasion may have been that confronted him, the glory of the Lord was before him. The service of the Lord was before his eyes. And so as Paul was there in that city of Athens, the most fascinating city for a tourist.
His spirit was stirred within him, and he preached Christ, knowing, I'm quite sure, as he began to preach that it was going to bring mockery and going to bring reproach. Oh, dear young fellow believers, dear young brother or sister in Christ you have only one life to live for him who laid down his life for you. And someday, I believe, very, very soon.
That life of yours, this life of mine is going to come to an end. The last entry is going to be added to that record if you and I are going to face it in the coming day. Yes, we are at the judgment seat of Christ. You and I are going to face God's record of your life, God's record of mine, and you won't be able to add a few last minutes lines to that record of your life.
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Our brother Kaiser prayed at the prayer meeting here.
His soul was burdened concerning the dear young brother recently and suddenly taken away from the Columbus Assembly and a dear young brother recently taken away from Chatham, NJ.
Young young man, both of them, the last line of their life history has already been recorded.
Dear young fellow believers, these minds were written not to restrict you, not to bring to you a narrow and sorrowful life, but in order that you might have a life of joy and happiness, in spite of the difficulties and the problems, in spite of the struggle and the warfare. I don't minimize this. Those things may be your experience, but he who was ordained of God to pen these words Himself.
Went through experiences that you and I will never be called upon to pass through. You know very well that if you were to turn to 2nd Corinthians, I'm not sure the chapter where he gives an account of those things they endured for the name of the Lord. Was he writing them because he felt sorry for himself and wished he had chosen some other pathway, Even though it's not so beloved? You know that the Apostle Paul looked back on all that which God had entrusted to him.
All those things through which he had passed, and he says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
When one of our daughters with a very little girl, I won't tell you which one because they're both here, I gave her a choice to make a bright new shiny penny and a dirty, crumpled up dollar bill. I was pretty sure what her choice would be. She was familiar with the look of a bright, shiny penny, and she didn't have much use for that crumpled up piece of green paper, and she promptly chose the penny.
I was pretty sure she would do that, but I have an idea that if I offered her the same choice again today, she'd know that one was worth 100 times as much as the other, and she made the wrong choice. It wasn't very serious after all, was it? But dearly beloved young people, I have made far more serious mistakes than that in my life, and I want to stand here and tell you that it has been the grace and faithfulness of God, and his hand upon myself will shoulder.
Still finds me by matchless grace here today. And if you feel the hand of the Lord upon your shoulder, dear young believers, remember it's there because he loves you so much, He wants you to be happy. And if I had been allowed to follow the wayward notions I had in my youth, my life would be a sorrowful mess today, but a matchless grace of God. I pray that these words may touch my heart, even as I pray that they may touch yours, walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.
Now one more last one.
Our time is up Philippians Chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always again I say Rejoice.
Then a marvelous verse. Surely this was written by a man who knew something of luxury and comfort and popularity and fame. What else is there to rejoice in? Our friend come with me down the streets of Rome.
We come to a prison.
And we get permission to enter this prison, and we open one of the prison doors and we look in and we see an old man sitting writing at a table.
He's an old man who bears the marks of much suffering. Beaten with rods, beaten with lashes, stone. Much suffering has been a lot of this dear old prisoner who sits there at his table writing, waiting for the day when he will be LED out to be executed because of his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we step over the table where there's dear old man is writing.
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And the aged apostle Paul looks up to see who has come in.
What a sad look on his face. You think so?
Friend, not for one moment we look over his shoulder to see what he's just written. And these are the words rejoice in the Lord. Always and again I say rejoice.
I can see that aged apostle as he looks up with radiant joy to proclaim the truth.
Of that which was promised him from the God who sent his Son to redeem him. Oh, dearly beloved young people, I want to tell you this. I know it on the authority of God's precious living Word, that it is possible in a day like this, with all the difficulties and the problems that I cannot solve, nor can they be entirely removed from your pathway. It is possible by the grace of God.
Owning the lordship of him who died to redeem you to go through this journey.
With his strength at your disposal and his joy.
To encourage you all along the way. Are you going to end your days as Paul did and rejected man in prison? I rather doubt it. But even if you did, this could still be your portion. All beloved, rejoice in the Lord always Again, I say, rejoice. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer?