Pella Conference: 2006
Table of Contents
Psalm 22
Gospel
Eph. 4:1
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
King 115.
Chapter One.
Paul could say in verse 16 cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you and my prayers.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened. That he may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us Word, who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ.
When he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all.
Principality and power and might and Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
And have put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth. All in all shall we pray our God and our Father we rejoice to sing a hymn like this.
00:05:14
From Ephesians chapter one. But I wondered if brethren thought it was the mind of the Lord, if perhaps we could look at the 4th chapter connection with the beginnings of the eggs. Practical exhortations.
The Apostle Paul gives us in light of what is taken up in the 1St 3 chapters.
Sounds good.
Ephesians chapter 4.
I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God, and Father of all, who is above all, and through you, through all, and in you all.
But unto everyone of us has given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto man. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried above with every wind of doctrine, but a slight of men, and cunning craftiness.
Whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
From whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual, working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body onto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.
Who, being passed feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness.
To work all uncleanness with greediness, But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be, that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that he put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that he put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speaking every man truth with his neighbor.
We are members one of another. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your rod, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, a thing which is good, that he may have to give to him the needle. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good, to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you.
Well, as has often been mentioned in the first part of the Epistle, we get the doctrine concerning the calling of the Church in Ephesians. Ephesians opens to us the mystery of the Church and presents to us not so much what Christ is to the Church, but what the Church is to Christ. In Colossians we have what Christ is to the Church. He's the head of the body. In Ephesians, as I say, it's what the church is to Christ.
00:10:09
And she's the fullness of him that filleth, All in all, sometimes illustrated it this way in Colossians if and I don't want to sound.
Sound crude when I say this, but in Colossians the thought is that a body without a head is an incomplete unit.
We must take our direction as the members of the body of Christ from our head, our glorified head, the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. And we know this in a physical way. Again, a body without a head is an incomplete unit, but it's just the opposite in Ephesians. In Ephesians, a head without a body is an incomplete unit. Isn't it tremendous to think, brethren, that Christ is incomplete without his body? The Church, as I say, summed up at the end of the first chapter, She's the fullness of him that filleth All in all.
But after he takes up the heavenly calling and position of the Church, and what is ours now in Christ, then he begins these very practical.
Exhortations. Because, brethren, whenever we're brought into a position of blessing and favor and given light from God's word as to that place of blessing that we've been brought into, there's always responsibility connected with it. And I believe that the joy and the fruit and the power.
Come in our Christian pathway, in the measure in which we walk by grace, and it's only by grace. But in the measure in which we seek to walk, in the good of what is what is ours, in the measure in which we seek to carry out our responsibility before God in light of the place of blessing that we've been brought into. And so from now until the end of the epistle, he takes up these very practical things, and he begins here in our 4th chapter.
In connection with our walk, I just want to point out before we get into this verse and into this chapter, that this is the third, the third of seven times in the epistle that we have our walk brought before us Without expounding on it. Let's just enumerate them very quickly and I'll leave them for your meditation. Go back to the second chapter for a moment and he begins the exhortations in connection with our walk, reminding us.
Of how we once walked before we were saved. And so in verse two of chapter 2, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world. And so he reminds these Ephesians Saints that there was a time before they knew the Lord Jesus before they had been brought into this place and position of blessing and relationship. They walked according to the course of this world. But now he's going to go on and he's going to exhort them that that is not what how they are to walk any longer.
They no longer belong to this world. Their hopes, their goals, their abs, their their their goals are not connected with this world anymore. That they are a heavenly people with a heavenly calling. So notice 1St 10 of chapter 2 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
Unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And then if you go over to the 4th chapter, we'll skip for a moment the third one in our verse, the first verse of the chapter, verse 17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk, not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. So again he goes back and reminds them how they are not to walk, and we need to be reminded as believers again and again. Now notice the fifth one is in the second, the second verse of the 5th chapter.
And and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. The 6th one is in the eighth verse of the same chapter. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light. And then the 7th one is in the 15th verse of chapter 5. See then that ye walk circumspectly.
Not as fools, but as wise. But then, just to go back to the third time in our verse, first verse of the chapter, I therefore the prisoner, the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or the calling, where with you are called. And so in light of what has preceded as to the heavenly calling and position of the believer and the relationship is being in Christ, now there's an exhortation to walk worthy of that calling.
00:15:22
May I also point out.
That.
As Christians?
We know God as nobody ever knew him before. We know Him as Father. Nobody knew him as Father. The Lord Jesus has revealed the Father. That's what we find even in John 17 that the Lord said, I have revealed to them thy name. He's addressing the Father. We know him as Father, as Christians and then also.
In verse 15 of chapter 3, to whom the whole family?
The better accurate rendering is every family in heaven and earth is named.
Believers are not all in the same position in the Old and in the New Testament.
There were various families.
And but we are in the most intimate position as Christians. We know God as Father. But to whom there is to God the Father? Every family in heaven and earth is named. And then in verse 18.
The practical admonition.
May be able to comprehend with All Saints.
What is the breadth and length and depth and height you know when it comes to God's ways of grace today?
That is not just to be understood in connection with those who by God's grace are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. They are not all gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, but.
They are all our brethren in Christ. If they know the Lord Jesus as Savior, and if we do not have that view of the Church, we are limited.
Supposed to understand this, in order to really come into the full enjoyment of what Christianity is all about with All Saints, you know, we have to include them all in our Love's affection.
Although we can't walk with everyone in practical fellowship, but we in our thoughts and affections ought to include them all. Whether we can walk with them or not, they're all part of this mystery. And the mystery has to do with Christ and the Church. That means in the Old Testament it was not revealed, but since we have the revelation of Christ and the Church in the New Testament.
What do we find?
They're beautiful pictures in the Old Testament of Christ and the Church. Think of Joseph.
You know Joseph was rejected by his brethren, a picture of Christ being rejected by his Jewish brethren. But then when they are reconciled to him, what do they find?
There is a Gentile bride sharing Joseph's glory. That's a picture of Christ and the church you know today is going to come when Israel will be reconciled to their Messiah, the Lord Jesus. But they will be surprised. They will not be jealous of us. They will be surprised to see a Gentile bride. The church primarily consists of Gentiles out of the nations of people, for his name is a statement in the New Testament.
There's a gentile bride sharing that glory with him. The Lord Jesus is not only securing heaven for us, but today is going to come when he comes back with us and when we will reign with him in glory. You know, it's a wonderful thing. We are heavenly people, blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, but even the earthly blessings. The Lord Jesus in his grace will share it with us or have us share it with him.
This one is.
Worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, I think it's important to understand.
00:20:03
It's been made mention of what that vocation is, vocation or calling. It's that which we occupy ourselves with.
In natural things, a doctor is a vocation. Person occupies himself with that vocation.
And I think it's important for us to be familiar with what we are called to. If you don't know what you're called to, how can you walk worthy of that vocation? I'd like to just go back briefly to the first chapter, just to mention a few of the points of what we have been called to. There is perhaps no other place in the New Testament that we have such a vast panorama.
Of spiritual blessing, as we do in the book of Ephesians. Oh brethren, we have been called to heaven and heavenly blessing and heavenly glory, and we need to let it sink into our souls, not only to know it, but to enjoy it.
The apostles prayer in the first chapter is to know it, and the apostles prayer in the third chapter is to enjoy it, and then there will be power to walk in it, brethren. But oftentimes we become so occupied in our daily lives with material things.
That spiritual things seem to kind of fade into the background. We need to be reminded of these things again and again, but here in chapter one, just going to briefly mention them.
In verse 3 Paul begins by saying blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Every spiritual blessing belongs to the believer in the Lord Jesus. He may be that he was just converted last night, or he may be 50 years in the path of faith. The blessings are equal in both of those persons.
The one who has been saved for 50 years maybe enjoys them more than the one who has just been saved last night. But the blessings are the same. Oh, to let that sink into our souls. Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ. You know, material things.
Really are just loan to us. They're really not our blessings. Our blessings are what are given to us forever.
And we might refer to material things as blessings, and I suppose in a certain sense we might say that. But really material things are all going to fade and pass away that which we have in Christ. And those spiritual blessings are that which is ours forever. No one can ever take them away from us, and we need to walk in the enjoyment of it, brethren. But then he goes and enumerates some of these blessings. Just let me go.
Through some of these verses, verse four, he's chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. We are chosen by God before there was any world in existence. He had in His eternal purposes, chosen you and I, who believe we don't understand that very well. But it's the truth of God that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's the position you occupy.
God in Christ.
Holy and without blame, you and I look at each other and we say, well, I can find some things to blame in one another. Yes, practically, that's so. But our position in Christ is this.
Holy, completely holy, and without blame, and no brethren in the measure that we lay hold of that and walk in the enjoyment it will give us power to walk in holiness of life in a practical way as well.
Verse five, We've been predestinated to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. We've been brought right into the family of God. God not only.
Wants us as servants. He really wants us as sons, first of all, those who will sit down at His table, who are intelligent as to His purpose purposes and can enjoy fellowship with Him as to His eternal purposes.
00:25:14
God has millions and millions of angels to do his service, really doesn't need any more servants, although it is a privilege to serve Him. But what He wants, and this is his eternal purpose, is to bring us into His presence as sons. So we're predestinated to the adoption of sons to by Jesus Christ to Himself. Verse six, He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
You know, sometimes young people say I just don't feel accepted. You might not.
But just know this, according to this verse, you are accepted on the highest level possible.
You're accepted in God's beloved Son. You cannot know a place of higher acceptance before God.
Verse seven We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
How many times when you hear believers pray, I've heard them pray forgive us our sins.
It's interesting, but that truth is not known. Generally in Christian circles we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Oh brethren, what a privilege. We don't have to ask for it any longer. We need to do is thank God for what we already have.
Verse eight he is abounded toward us in all wisdom.
Prudence. And what is why? What is that? What is the reason for that? Because in verse 9 he's made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. What are those purposes about verse 10 and 11? That he's going to bring everything into subjection to the Lord Jesus, all things in heaven and in earth. These things are opened up to us and we have an intimate place.
In this sphere of blessing, O brethren.
That the enjoyment of these things.
Would take hold of our lives, that we would walk in it. When it says walk, it means let it be a practical reality. Don't just talk to me about these things in the meetings where you're sitting around. Walk in it. Let your whole life be evident that you really do believe these things. We live in a materialistic world and I have to confess brethren for myself.
That materialism affects my thinking far more than I like to realize. We need to confess it to the Lord and ask him to help us to lay hold in a fuller measure on spiritual reality.
He gives us all things joy. He gives us all things freely to enjoy. But we have to remember that these things connected with this earthly life are not our real blessings. They are mercies, are real blessings, are that which we have in Christ in heavenly places, and what we find in Luke 16 where we have.
The steward mentioned.
And I like to read that verse 12.
And that is in connection with stewardship.
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, that's the material things don't belong to us, they belong to him who shall give you that which is your own. You know, if we are not faithful in administering the material things which are entrusted to us as to us, don't expect that you're growing wealthy spiritually.
My grandfather used to tell me.
That a brother was visiting in my hometown, a laborer and a brother was taking him from house to house. That was the custom. You know, the laborers were not just giving addresses, they were visiting the families and they were going to a house and on the way to that house, the brother said. We are now coming to the House of a brother who is poor, but he is rich. He was poor in material things, but he was rich.
00:30:18
In spiritual things. Then they came to another house and while they were approaching, he said. Now we're coming to a House of a brother who is rich, but he is poor. He was rich materially, but was poor. I'm not saying it has to be that way, but the danger is that when we have material riches that that is what our heart becomes attached to. You know, we have to be stewards. And if you're not faithful as stewards.
That which belongs to another, the true riches will not be entrusted to us. That's a good thing for us in North America to be reminded of. You know, those of us who have visited in Africa and other poor countries. We know how thankful we ought to be for what we have in way of food, homes, clothing and all of that. But we have to remember that's not.
Our real riches. Our real riches is that which we have in Christ.
The circumstances that Paul was in, he mentions it two times. Chapter 3, verse one for this 'cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. Chapter 4, verse one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. He wasn't like we are today, sitting comfortable in these chairs. He was a prisoner. He was in prison.
He didn't occupy himself one bit. If you read Ephesians, you wouldn't think that was there was anything unfavorable about his circumstances because he never mentions it. He was occupied only with what we have in Christ and the blessings which are ours.
And.
You were mentioning of these two men, one was like Smyrna, they had nothing but they rejoiced. The other ones were like Leon Lucia. They were rich and increased with goods and and they were miserable because they had business, the riches. The the greatest hindrance to us in America is we got too much stuff. We got too much material things. The Apostle Paul, he was raised at the feet of Gamaliel.
He was trained. He was educated. He wasn't he. And and yet he lifts himself totally about them. Those things that were gained to me as I counted lost for Christ. Yeah, Douglas, I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.
Think of what this man went through, the sufferings that he endured. And then he writes he just lifted by the Spirit of God, totally above his circumstances. And he writes about all these blessings which are true of all the Saints, not just his, but all the Saints I mean.
I couldn't help when you were commenting on this wonderful, these wonderful verses. Who wrote those verses? The one that had the most awful circumstance that you can imagine. And yet he's he's above it all, isn't he? To write what is ours. So we should.
Shame ourselves and get before the Lord if we get occupied with things that haven't gone right for us.
We're not. We're not even close to what Paul went through and the early Christians.
Not that we want to despise the mercies that God has given us. We're very thankful this weekend for this comfortable facility that the Lord has provided through our brethren here. We're going to be very thankful in a little while to go over to the dining room and enjoy good healthy food. We're going to enjoy a good rest at the hotel where they placed us this evening. And so we don't want to despise the mercies that God has given us, but again, those of us who've had opportunity to visit in other corners of the world.
Realize that those the mercies we enjoy and appreciate today and in a land like this, on a continent like this, they are not the bottom line. They are not the bottom line to the enjoyment of our truth, as someone has already said they can sometimes ought not to be, but sometimes.
Be a hindrance to our enjoyment of the truth. But they we don't want to despise what God has given us. If God has put much in our hand, then we're responsible as stewards to use it for His glory. If he puts a little in our hand, we're responsible to use that too. I would like to say too, in connection with what you said about Paul's circumstances, that Paul wasn't indifferent to his circumstances either. I used to think that it was good to get callous or indifferent to things. Lord, allow something in our lives or take something away.
00:35:27
But we don't want to ever become callous or indifferent to our circumstances. And I was thinking of what Paul wrote later on in similar circumstances to Timothy. He said to come before winter and to bring his coat. He wasn't indifferent to his circumstance. He felt the cold. He felt the need for some physical comfort. In fact, this is a little aside, but I've appreciated the fact that that's why at the end of Paul's life, he could say only Luke is with me.
The Lord made sure that the one who could be the most help to him, the beloved physician, was with him when he needed him the most. And so we don't want to ever become indifferent or callous to our circumstances. But I want to echo what Chuck said, and that is that our enjoyment of the truth.
Gives us a joy and lifts us above the circumstances. It may not take us out of the circumstances, but it can lift us above them and give us an inner joy and a peace that the world can't enjoy. In adverse circumstances, a man of the world can be happy. A person, a young person who doesn't know the Lord can sing when things go well, but you just introduced something adverse into their lives. Their happiness and their joy and their singing depends on their outward circumstances.
But, brethren, our joy depends not so much on outward circumstances, but our enjoyment of what is ours in Christ and what is ahead for us in our souls. And that's why Paul, when he wrote to the Philippians, he could say, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. There again he was in very adverse circumstances. There again he was a prisoner of the Lord, but he could rejoice even in those circumstances.
So, brethren, in the measure in which we get a hold of these truths in our soul, in that measure it will lift us above the circumstances may not take us out, but it will lift us above them, so that we can rejoice.
So I want to read Second Timothy one verse 15. This thou knowest that all they which are in Asia, be turned away from me, of whom are FA, jealous and homogeneous. And this is what you were saying. The Lord give mercy under the House of Onociferous, for he OFT refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.
O Lord, grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
And then how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well he valued all that. But the point I was making was his circumstances were anything but pleasant. And he writes the highest truth anywhere found in the word of God. He was above it all, in the power of the Spirit of God, and yet he appreciated anything that was done. And he said, he mentions that many times in his epistles.
Another thing too, in connection with this first expression of our chapter, is that Paul doesn't refer to himself here as a prisoner of Nero or the Romans, and that was true. But he refers to himself as a prisoner of the Lord. And I believe that was another reason Paul could rise above his circumstances, and that is that he took it from the Lord. He didn't consider the second 'cause. The second 'cause was the Romans, the second 'cause was Nero.
But he realized that he was a prisoner because the Lord had put him there. He was a prisoner of the Lord. And I believe, brethren, that what will give us peace in our circumstances is to realize that this circumstance comes from the Lord. It's so easy to look at the second causes and to question, well, why did this happen and why did that happen? There's an interesting example of this in the Old Testament with the children of Israel when they came to refit them.
In the I think it's the 16th of the 15th chapter of Exodus, we find there that they come and there's no water for them to drink. And you say, well, maybe they missed the mind of the Lord in coming to refit them. It says they came there by the commandment of the Lord. He brought them there to prove their hearts and to prove His faithfulness to them. And brethren, if we can just get a hold of that, you say, I don't know why the Lord has allowed a certain circumstance in my life that I'm going through.
00:40:10
Well, don't look at the second causes. Look to the Lord. Say, Lord, you've allowed this, and now teach me what you have for me in this circumstance, and give me the grace in accepting the circumstance, to rise above it, and to have an enjoyment of yourself and your truth in the circumstance.
One or the other of Our Calling brethren, is that we are called in one body, in Christ and.
Especially this is addressed in this 4th chapter that we walk worthy in view of that fact that we are members of one body in Christ and I think this fact that He.
Addresses them as the prisoner of the Lord is very significant in that way. And.
I say it in this way. A prisoner does not have his own rights. A prisoner is totally at the command of those that have him in prison. He doesn't go out when he likes to. He doesn't. He can't do what he wants to do. It's all regimented for him. And I think that is an important thing to think about too, when we speak of walking.
As members of one body, there's so much, and I fear that we have been affected. I have to speak for myself where we think we have our rights. The Brethren should listen to what I have to say. I've got something to say and I want to say it. Where does that idea come from? It comes from our democratic culture, but we've got to come to the realization.
Brethren, the only rights that I have.
Our rights to the lake of fire for my sins.
Jesus came and redeemed me from that awful eternity, and now I belong body, spirit, soul, and body. Not only what what I am, but what I have is all his.
I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and it should be the willing rendition of our lives to Him, brethren.
Not something that's forced, but Paul speaks and I love it. Like you mentioned Jim, he doesn't say prisoner of the Roman Empire. He might have even gone back. And he said I made a mistake by going up to Rome, to Jerusalem, and that's why I'm a prisoner now, no.
He looks above it all. We have a God who is so great He can overrule even our mistakes. Brethren, for his own purposes of blessing Otter realize that we're before him. But brethren, if we're going to insist on our rights.
We are not going to be able to walk in the unity of the faith that the Scripture speaks about.
No, it is realizing that we are under the command of someone.
Far greater, far more supreme, the Lord Jesus Christ, prisoner of the Lord, the Lord help us to understand what that means.
I suppose and all right.
He was twice imprisoned. The first time he was in his own rented house, you know, and they came and visited him. He could fellowship with the Saints, but the second time he was in the dungeon, you know, so it is believed he was a prisoner twice, but.
That first imprisonment did not discourage him to continue to serve the Lord even.
When it endangered him for further persecution, and he did suffer more severely in that present second imprisonment, I'd like to comment on the.
Between the three things in this first verse, we're spending quite a lot of time, but hopefully profitably, on the first verse before US1 is prisoner, the 2nd is calling, and the third is worthy In the context of the epistle. Paul, being a prisoner and the calling are connected, and I think it's important to see it or we miss the real force of the two, which, if I may say so, is not.
00:45:13
The circumstance itself, but it's the conflict involved in the first chapter. We have the calling.
On High of God Concerning us and we have been called.
To be part of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the place that He has given of God as His church. And so we have been raised up with him To be in the heavenly places as we have in the second chapter and for us in chapter one. It's called the hope of your calling because in that sense it's not yet realized Our Calling in the sense of Ephesians, while we have many present blessings and spiritual blessings to enjoy now.
And we can enjoy Our Calling now, the realization of it, the hope of Our Calling, will be realized when we are physically present with the Lord Jesus in the glory. But our position before God is there now. And so in Chapter 2, Paul speaks of the fact that we are raised together with him in heavenly places in Christ, and we're viewed there now in Chapter 3.
Paul is a prisoner.
For the sake of we who are Gentiles.
Because God allowed him to be that in order to bring out that truth for our blessing and enjoyment, and so it's in connection with the truth of the calling.
That he is identified in this epistle with being a prisoner in chapter 4, having paid the price, if you will, to bring out the truth of it to us, he says to his fellow believers, I'm a prisoner of the Lord.
And then he brings in the calling for which he is a prisoner really in this epistle. And then he says that you would walk worthy. And in the 4th chapter he presents to us a worthy walk in the context of particularly the assembly in the 5th chapter. It's a worthy walk in connection with our relationships of life and with the world to whom we bear a testimony.
But then we see the real reason of the conflict. It's Satan opposes the calling, and in Chapter 6, Paul takes up the conflict that you get into. If you're going to hold that calling in your soul, it may be you have much, it may be you have nothing. But regardless of whether you're the richest person in this room or the poorest person in the room.
The conflict you're going to have to walk in, the truth of the calling that is yours, is because Satan is going to oppose you in it. And Satan opposed the apostle Paul to bring out the truth and to walk in it. And as a consequence he was a prisoner of the Lord because he was bringing it out for the Lord's sake, and the Lord allowed him to be in those in that place as a result of maintenance of that truth.
I say it because.
If we don't.
Lay hold of it. If we don't walk in it, then Satan doesn't have, if you will in that sense, a reason to oppose us.
But it's the maintenance of the truth of God in the soul. Satan is opposing that truth, and he's going to oppose it in the life and circumstances and walk of every believer in this room, unless we really lay hold of walking worthy of the vocation wherewith we have been called.
Fall after he wrote the 1St 2 verses, which was his introductory part that he got onto the topic of that believers are standing in grace. And that's what our brother was talking about a little bit ago, this standing in grace. When you look at verse three, it says blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. That's the only way that we can be blessed with those blessings is that we are blessed with them by his grace.
And it's by that beautiful grace that we're blessed by them when that topic goes all the way through the end of chapter 3 and verse one of chapter 4 begins that topic that we're talking about of the walk and the service of the believer. So when we get home after we've got left this meetings here together, we should also read the 1St 17 verses of chapter five that is the continuation part of the walk in the service of the believer.
00:50:25
And when it gets into verse 18 of chapter 5, it's about the walk and the warfare. And that's where we see the very familiar passage about put on the whole armor and it goes down to the last four verses. That's a conclusion. So when we started this morning, my steam brother Jim started speaking about the different types of walk. And if we could, I'd just like to take a couple moments on that Chapter 2 and verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good work.
Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them? The other day I went fishing.
And I started to walk down along some timber to the lake and there was a brown sign with a little white emblem painted on it. And it was 1 going, hiking down a trail. And I went walking down that trail and that trail was groomed by the Iowa DNR and I could walk down it. It was mowed, it was cleared and it was a path for me to walk on. So let's look at this as a selected walk. This walk is selected by God in Christ, Jesus unto good works. We had to have one that walked this way before.
That we could walk it. Christ Jesus walked in good works, didn't he? He did good works. He went around, He healed him. He He lifted him up. He made him whole, and he saved him. And so we see here that we have a walk that has been prepared. That little trail down through the timber was prepared for me to walk upon. This walk here is a prepared and a selected walk of God, and that is the walk that he expects us to be walking on.
We have no choice on this walk but to walk it. It is prepared and selected for by him, and he wants us on that walk. Now when you get over to the walk that is suited to Our Calling, our brother, who talked on that quite a bit, we'll skip that, Go to chapter 4 and verse 17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. We are to have a walk that is separated.
We are separated from out from amongst them. The Lord has called us out.
Called us out of the world, and we heard that in chapter 2 and verse two in which times in in which in times past she walked according to the course of this world. We used to walk according to the course of the world, but now we are to have a walk that is separated. That is the key here in verse 17 of chapter 4. And the key to walking separated is to having the mind correct on our walk. It is the last word.
We used to walk in the vanity of our minds. Now we have a mind that is different. We have to change that mind. And when you look at verse 23, it says and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. He is talking about our minds on this walk. We have to be renewed. This morning before I came here, I was, I was enjoying that. I was a creation that has been made a new in Christ.
Not like I used to be. A Newman We need to add the letter A with the word new, and it's a new. It's not really in our English language, but it is a Newman, a new creation, isn't it? And here we renew the spirit of our mind. And So what does it tell us? Verse 22 tells us to put something off, verse 24 tells us to put something on, and verse 25 tells to put something away. This tells us how to renew the spirit of our mind by the putting off, by the putting on, and by the putting away.
Then we can walk in a separated walk different than we used to walk. You look at chapter 5. Like I said, the 1St 17 verses of chapter 5 are the same topic. It is about a lovingly, lovingly walk we've been referred to. I like referred to it as a sacrificial walk. Christ was a sacrifice to God and a sweet smelling savour. So he's referring to us as having a sacrificial walk. I want to close real fast and give somebody else time. Verse 15 of chapter 5. See then that you walk circumspectably not as fools but as the wise. We have a walk of sincerity.
That's the walk that is talked about here, the walk of insincerity. So when you get home, read these other portions and put them all together. One verse I love in this the Little Epistle, and that is in chapter 3, verse 11. According to the eternal purposes which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, this was not a patch. When something goes wrong in my life, I put a patch on it and mend it and try to fix it up. This was an eternal purpose.
00:55:17
God knew what he was doing, didn't he?
And he has prepared the first walk for us. It is prepared for us.
Eph. 4:1-6
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We didn't get very far enough. I'd like to suggest if the mind of the brethren that we begin at verse one and then move on to verse two and three and on. We don't want to miss what we have in verse 2-3 and four and so on. Some practical instructions. So perhaps we could start at verse one and.
Ephesians 4, verse one.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith your call.
With all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one spirit, even as you are called, and one hope of your calling, 1 Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all, and in you all but unto every one of us has given grace according to the measure of Egypt of Christ.
Wherefore, he says, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended of far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the working of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, and unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness.
Whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint suppliant according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.
Make an increase of the body onto the edifying of itself in love.
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not, as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, having given themselves over onto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have that ye have heard him.
And have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that he put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the Newman, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying? Speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
00:05:14
Be angry and sin not, Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that need it. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
But that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby year sealed under the day of redemption, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
If you'll bear with me just for a few moments, I'd like to make a couple of comments in connection with verse two and go back to the Old Testament for an Old Testament illustration. Because in the previous reading meeting we spoke a great deal about our walk and walking, worthy of Our Calling and so on, and we spoke of it perhaps more in the context of individuality, and we often speak of our individual walk.
We had some expressions in the previous meeting as to one who went on, against all odds, a day of absolute ruin and indifference to the things of God. And certainly the last days are always characterized by individual out individuality and individual faithfulness.
But I believe too, brethren, in Scripture, we always find that when there is individual faithfulness, then God provides others that we can walk with. And so we've talked a great deal about our individual walk. And when we come to the third verse, then there's a collective aspect of things, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. But I believe that verse two bridges what we have in verse one and what we have in verse 3.
Just hold your finger here and go back to an example in the Old Testament that I hope will help illustrate this in the Book of Numbers.
Numbers, Chapter 13.
We'll just read a couple of verses here and there to get the context. It's a well known story, the story of Caleb and the spies that went in to spy out the land.
Notice verse 30 of Numbers 13 and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it. For we are well able to overcome. And then go over to verse six of chapter 14 and Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jefuna, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes and then going down in the chapter.
Verse 24 But my servant Caleb. And this is what I want to particularly notice, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully. Him will I bring into the land where unto he went, and his seed shall possess it. Now in our chapter we have an exhortation in verse two to walk with all loneliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. As I say, he's now introducing A collective aspect of things.
It's not just individual walk, but it's going on with others. And what he's bringing out is the spirit and attitude that is needed, brethren, if we are going to go on in fellowship with those who have similar desires and motives to please the Lord and to walk in His truth.
If we're going to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, it must be with a proper spirit and attitude. And that's what I've appreciated about Caleb, you know, it says of Caleb a number of times that he wholly followed the Lord. That is individual faithfulness denoted. But it's interesting when he and Joshua with the other 10 spies brought up the report, 10 of the spies brought up an evil report.
And ten of the spies stirred up the people. In fact, there's a solemn comment about them in Deuteronomy. It says they discourage the hearts of their brethren. Not a solemn comment. Little did they realize as they brought up that report and stirred up the people of God that it would be recorded in God's eternal record that they discourage the hearts of their brethren. But Joshua and Caleb brought up a good report of the land, and Caleb, particularly it, says he stilled the people.
00:10:16
Now, brethren, isn't that what we need in the days in which we live? We don't need to stir up the people of God. There's enough to stir us up. I'm talking not in a good way, but in a bad way. The enemy is busy to stir up strife and difficulty and trouble of one kind and another amongst the people of God. And you come from local assemblies and you know exactly what I'm talking about. The enemy is busy in these last days, but Caleb sought to still the people. But what's to me? What is the most remarkable?
Comment that scripture makes about Caleb is that he has promised a personal inheritance and that he would take possession of it by and by my servant Caleb because he had another spirit with him. It is the spirit of Caleb that God noticed particularly and because he had a proper spirit In seeking to steal the and encourage the people of God, God said that he would eventually enter the land.
And he's the only one, I believe, that we read of that received a personal inheritance when they eventually entered the land. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him now, brethren Caleb was faithful. He brought up a faithful report. But you know, Caleb might have said, well, I'm going to wholly follow the Lord. I'm going to go on for the Lord. But I'm not going to go on with those rebellious people. Why they even want to stone me. They don't believe the report. They're not trusting God.
They. I'm not going to go on with them. I'll follow the Lord. Isn't that sometimes the reaction of our hearts? We say, well, I'm going to follow the Lord. But look at my brethren. They don't. They don't appreciate what I do. They don't appreciate the truth sometimes. And I'm going to follow the Lord, but I'm not going to go along with them, you know, Brethren. Caleb.
With the proper spirit turned quietly back into the wilderness with the people of God. And do you realize that from this point on you don't read of another thing that Caleb says or does in the wilderness until they cross the Jordan and he goes into possess his inheritance? He went on for some 40 years quietly with the people of God. He saw lots to impinge his heart and discourage him. There was plenty more failure to come.
And he would see the governmental ways of God in dealing with those around him and sin and fault finding and murmuring and complaining. And for 40 years he went on with the in a proper spirit with the people of God. Did God overlook that? No. God rewarded that and brought him into his inheritance. Even at 85 years of age, his strength, natural strength, hadn't abated. And so I just point this out that I believe what we have in verse two of our chapter is the spirit and attitude that needs to be practically manifest in our lives.
If we're going to go on not just individually, but with the people of God.
Of the fact that we are members of one body. In fact, it's good to realize here in chapter 4 you mentioned the other day, Jim, that it's the beginning of the practical part of the epistle. And that's true. But verses 1-2 and three?
Are practical exhortation as to our walk. But from 4 through 16 it is not exhortation that we have, but.
Teaching again and verse four says there is one body.
And one spirit, it's not saying you should be there is it's stating a fact. And so in view of the fact that we are one body, these first three verses show how we can walk to show that truth. It's not something that should just be a doctrine we hold, but it should be something that's practically evident in the way we go on together.
And so in verse 2, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another in love.
Anybody have all loneliness and meekness?
I don't think any of us would raise our hand and say I've got it all and taking master this part. No brethren, we are learning it. I trust. I trust we are lowliness. That which does not cause offense in my brethren.
00:15:09
Meekness. That which does not take offense. Sometimes there's lowly people that are not meek.
Maybe they don't give offense in their ways, but they're quick to take offense. So that brother didn't shake hands with me. I wonder what he's got against me.
We can be that way too.
But where are we going to learn these qualities? It's so important if we're going to walk together as members of one Body brethren, to go on with all lowliness and meekness reminds me of the verse in Matthew 11 That says, take my yoke, the Lord Jesus says, take my yoke and upon you and learn of me whom am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest into your soul.
No better place to learn.
Than united to the Lord Jesus in our individual walk to learn those qualities, brethren, we don't use yokes like they do in some parts of the world, but it was interesting to me some years ago down in Bolivia, we were out in the countryside.
Walking through the countryside, giving out the gospel and came on a place where they were.
Training a new ox for the yoke, and I'd never seen it happen before. Maybe some know that this is the way they do it, but they put it on one side of the yoke, an old ox that is well accustomed to using the yoke, and they put the new one that has never had a yoke on him in the other side. And then they turn him loose and it was really interesting to watch.
That new ox just throw.
Threw his head up in the air and shook it. Rushed ahead and backed up and tried to go One Direction another.
That poor old ox, how it had to suffer. And I thought about myself with the Lord, how much I must make him suffer in the yoke with him. And yet he invites us. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
Oh, what lowliness in the king of kings. What lowliness as he walked through this world, had time to take little children in his arms to bless them. What meekness, brethren? In that person, meekness is not taking offense. And I think of Moses, who's called in the Old Testament the meekest man in all the earth, and it was in the place. I think it's the 12Th of numbers you were reading from the 13th.
Where Moses.
His to his two siblings, Miriam and Aaron, complained about Moses.
That he had taken an Ethiopian woman as white as a wife, and he says, as the Lord only spoken by Moses, hasn't he spoken by us too? And Moses didn't defend himself. In fact, you never get the feeling in that chapter that he got resentful towards his brother and sister at all.
And when the Lord defended his servant and smoked Miriam with leprosy.
What did Moses do? He prayed for her, he said. Lord, heal her now. I think that's a beautiful example of meekness. And I ask you, sometimes there's brothers that may speak very hard against you. What is your reaction when that happens?
You know what your natural reaction is, But can you?
Just get down on your knees and sincerely pray that the Lord will bless that brother that spoke so hard against you.
That's meekness. And if we could have that spirit brethren, how many problems that would totally disarm? Oh, the Lord help us in going on together in all loneliness and meekness. And there's a couple other words here, too, that we need to look at with long-suffering.
Remember Brother **** Gorgas? He says. We don't pronounce this word right.
00:20:01
Long-suffering.
We want somebody to learn in 5 minutes what took us 10 years to learn.
We need to be patient, brethren, with each other. Things don't come like we think they might at times. We need to have patience with one another And another word here is love. Love, brethren, is so important in our relationships together. It's what's to characterize us in the Christian testimony. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have love one to another.
Remember that love, that agape Love is love that loves when there's nothing lovable in the object. It loves because of the source. It does not love because of what it sees in the object. And that's important because sometimes we look and we say, man, that person isn't that lovable. How do you think I can love him?
Because he loved us first. You can love him. If you have that divine nature, you have the capacity to love. And so that's what we are to do in our relationships together, brethren.
Spirit, there's a verse at the end of Timothy. Last verse of Second Timothy, The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy Spirit, Grace be with you. Amen.
There was a meeting once at Gordon. Hayes gave a bit of time on that verse and one of his comments was.
We can have a right spirit.
In the midst of wrong circumstances.
Or wrong situations. And that was pretty impressive. And certainly that's what Caleb had. He had a right spirit when the circumstances were wrong.
That we make an effort to cover ground.
You know, we had a whole meeting on verse one. I think we can cover more ground. I'm not saying that what was presented was not good, but we should make an effort to cover more ground. You know, this is a chapter that has a lot of good instructions. Don't just get stuck to some verse, but I like to also mention something on verse 3.
It's important that it doesn't say to keep the unity of the body.
In the bond of peace, if he would have to keep the unity of the body, we would have to go on in with every Christian who is truly a member of the body of Christ. But the unity of the Spirit refers to that which gives practical expression to that truth, a path consistent with that truth. You know, the Spirit does not lead in all these different directions that we find.
In Christendom, even in all these different directions that we find among so-called brethren, I had to come out from where my grandparents already were in fellowship in Germany, because the Lord gave me, and I believe it was His grace to do so, to see that they were in a wrong ecclesiastical position. The amalgamation principle was accepted.
And practiced, the spirit does not gather in division.
And we have to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bonds of peace.
The Lord can show us by His spirit, where there is a testimony that is giving practical expression to the truth, that there is one body, and then ask Him for grace to walk in that path. The unity of the Spirit is not, as I have said here, the unity of the body, but that which gives practical expression.
To the truth, meeting on that ground, and practically expressing the truth of the body of Christ.
00:25:02
Is a reality today as much as it was on the day of Pentecost. There is one body, isn't it? And 1St Corinthians chapter 12. I just like to read those verses there because it's so important to get it. This is the ground upon which we seek to gather. This should be the exercise of our hearts and if we minister, the truth of God.
Properly, it does not make us complacent. It exercises us so young people understand what we're saying. Get a hold of it for yourself. But here in chapter 12 of First Corinthians, it says in verse.
12:00 As the body is 1, notice that and have many members and all the members of that one body.
Dean, many are one body, so also is Christ.
For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made, all made to drink into one spirit. How often that word one is mentioned? I remember as a younger person, hearing brethren, minister, and speaking about the ruin, the present ruin of the public testimony.
And I think it has helped me to understand. I didn't understand it all at the moment but.
To realize that the body is just as much one today as it was on the day of Pentecost when it was outwardly evident. But what is in ruin is the public testimony. If a heathen person would come to Pella, Iowa, and walk down the street and ask persons, where are these Christians I hear about?
I'd like to meet up with them. Where would they stay? Well, there's some that meet over here. There's some that meet over here, There's some meet over there. They would never get the idea that there's one body they would think, well, there's a lots of different bodies of believers.
But the scripture says there is one body and that's what we have to recognize. How is that body formed in the beginning?
The Holy Spirit came down and through what is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the one body was formed by those believers that were there at that time. There were about 120 in Acts chapter two they were baptized into one body and then God continued to add to that one body. And every time a believer accepts the Lord as a person accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior.
When he believes the gospel of his salvation, the Spirit of God is comes as the seal and also unites that person to the body of Christ. So it is a work of God. It is not something that you and I can do.
It is something that God is, has done and is doing continues to do.
There is one body, the same today as it ever was, so that a person when he accepts the Lord as Savior, the Spirit of God, coming as the seal for security, also unites that person to the body of Christ. Now what you were mentioning, brother Heinz in verse three, what we are exhorted to do is keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Remember speaking about this some time ago? And I made a mistake in the way I expressed it and I said something like this. We need to be careful not to break the unity of the Spirit.
And the brother came up to me afterwards and says, brother, we don't break the unity of the spirit.
Either in my actions I keep it in the bond of peace, or maybe I don't keep it like I should, but the spirit of the unity of the spirit is a unity that the spirit keeps, and I'm responsible to act in that unity of the Spirit. But let's be encouraged, brethren, the truth of the body of Christ, It's unity is a reality, a practical reality, today as much as any time.
00:30:08
You said, Brother Heinz, we can't walk with all our dear brethren in the faith, but if we meet together, we meet together in view of the fact that the body is 1.
And that includes every true believer on this ground. There is room for every true believer that wants to walk according to the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. So we need to be exercised about that rather. And it's not like you say it's if we accept all believers in any group that they meet as equally valid places of meeting, that would mean that God by his spirit, is in agreement with all the division that is taking place.
In the outward testimony is that right? That cannot be right. The Scripture is so clear that there is one body, and that we are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord help us to be exercised about this.
Thank you.
Is 12 disciples that followed him and heard everything he said and.
He had to keep them together and.
He said once. He said, What was it you were talking among yourselves about while they were talking? Who should be the greatest and?
Here we have a room, I don't know 300 or something like that.
That's a That's a momentous task.
But the spirit of God dwells each in each one of us, in each one of us, And if we're subject and to Him and allow him to lead us, there will be unity. I've often found, quite often, almost never fails. If I'm at odds with my brethren at home for some reason, I have to go home and I have to look at the mirror and see that fellow that's looking back at me.
And get him straight 1St. And then usually the problem goes away. And I strongly recommend you do that because we have different views, different opinions. Just think of all the members in the body of your human body if any one of them decides.
To function as it should be, as directed of God, or if you want to call it the Spirit of God, there's going to be a problem. We're going to be sick. And I must say that that's not an easy expression to understand, to endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. It's not my thoughts versus your thoughts that we might both be wrong.
But it's to be LED of the Spirit of God.
Follow the man with a picture of water.
He won't lead you this way and me this way and another one this way, but we'll we'll we'll be going on together by laying aside our own thoughts and just be subject to his leading by the word of God.
It's I've heard of everything that's been said today, and I agree with it. I think your illustration in the Old Testament is excellent.
But it's it's allowing the spirit of God. It's it's a unity. It's a collective thing. It's not individual here, it's a collective thing. And that's much more difficult to carry out practically than me carrying it out individually.
And it's not an easy thing. We have to set our own wills aside, and by the word of God be directed under the power of the Spirit of God, and then our problems will go away. It's in the bond of peace. And if you insist on your way and you and yours and me on mine, it's not going to be peace. And the sometimes some of the of this last trouble we've gone through.
Just you can't help it. But we some of our beloved brethren, that they're not with us anymore. And that's just just one small fraction of the whole Church of God.
The enemy has done done his dirty work all right.
He hates to see God's people together in unity, going on in subjection to the head and led by the Spirit of God and the word of God.
00:35:07
May it be so, with each one of us not insisting on our own rights, we might be dead right and dead wrong at the same time.
There are two help me in connection with what you have been saying, brother Chuck and the previous comments. One is it says let each esteem others better than himself. We quote that verse, but how practical is it really in my life and yours? In other words, if I look at a brother or sister in Christ, and I really in my soul, esteem that brother or sister in Christ greater or better than myself.
I'm not going to be striving like the disciples who amongst us is the greatest. But I'm going to and I'm going to be very careful in my spirit and attitude toward that member of the body of Christ. And I will be very careful what I say about that person to others if I really, practically in my soul, esteem that person better than myself. The other scripture that's helped me in this regard is that verse that says he hath placed the members in the body.
Not as it hath pleased me, but as it hath pleased him. You know, sometimes I look around the meeting room and maybe there are those that naturally I don't click with, and those sometimes I'm at odds with on various points and maybe even scripture and so on. But to look at that person and realize that he has or she has been placed in the body not as at us, pleased me. Not my choice, but his choice.
We won't turn to it, but another Testament illustration that I've appreciated in this regard is in connection with Gideon. When Gideon went out to fight the enemy, Gideon had no choice as to the men he was to associate with. It was all the choice of God, and God allowed circumstances that brought out who was to go up with Gideon and who wasn't. In fact, the Lord said to Gideon, who whom I say shall go with thee shall go with thee.
And whom I say, shall not go with thee, shall not go with thee. Gideon had no choice as to the ones that he was to associate with. If you just allow me to to go back to what Bob said a moment ago. We had on the table this morning connection with the one body we had one loaf.
You know, we had some folks come to the assembly in Smiths Falls time ago, and their comment after the breaking of bread was and especially the sister had been many places with many groups of Christians. They had never seen one loaf on the table before. You know, that humbled me, That spoke to my soul. But brethren, when we look at that loaf and we remember what 1St Corinthians 10 says, we, being many, are one bread.
And one body. When we look at that loaf, we need to realize that represented in that one loaf is not just those who are there on that occasion, Not just those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world who seek by the grace of God to practically express the truth of the one body in the breaking of bread. But that loaf, to the eye of God represents every believer alive on the face of the earth.
Every member of the body of Christ. That's why it's one loaf. It's not many loaves, it's not wafers, it's not crackers, it's one loaf. And we if we lose sight of that brethren, then we become narrow and sectarian in our view. Yes, there is a path of faithfulness and yes has been said, there are brethren we cannot go on with because of things that are not according to the word of God in the mind of God. But every believer I say is represented in that lobe.
We hear a little expression. I've even used it myself. The church is in ruin. I don't like to say that I know what brethren mean when they say that. But if I say that unequivocally, I'm saying God has failed. The Lord Jesus said on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Our verse in Ephesians 4 says there is one body. Brethren, the church is not in ruin but the testimony as to the truth of the one body.
Is in ruin because what is committed to man, he always breaks down. He always fails in. But thank God, the committing of the unity of the body was not given to man. That is safe in the hand of God, safe in the hand of the Lord Jesus. And there is one body, though we must hang our heads as we see Christians in various pockets and fellowships of Christendom. We must hang our heads. And you know, it's interesting that Caleb and Joshua.
00:40:15
When they saw the failure that came in, they didn't stand back and rent their clothes. Why? They identified with the failure and the ruin that came in. Brethren, if we are at the Lord's table by the grace of God, we cannot stand apart from the failure and the ruin that has come in. We must, in the presence of God, rend our clothes to and admit that we are part of it, but then go on by grace in the truth that God has given to us.
Your clothes, Brad.
Give us I've just appreciated in the fact that they humbled themselves and realized that they were no better than their brethren. They were no better than the other 10 spies that brought up the evil report. If they brought up a good report, that was only by grace. But they identified with the failure and the ruin in humbling themselves and rending their clothes, is that right? They carried in themselves the sense of the failure.
Of their the failure of the people of God to walk, and what God had in mind, and the dishonor it brought to God. And I you see that spirit with Daniel in the book of Daniel. Daniel was a lone individual. Earlier in the book of Daniel, you find you had three friends. But Daniel Chapter 9, he's all by himself one man who identified fully with the ruin of God's people.
And prayed and confessed his sin and the sin of his people. Israel notice the order, his sin first. So often we can see the failure out there and we exonerate ourselves. That is not the right spirit, brethren. It is identifying with the ruin and confessing it to God. Maybe the others don't confess it. Somebody's got to confess it. And then Daniel becomes in the end of that chapter.
The recipient of one of the most useful pieces of prophetic of the prophetic scriptures, the prophecy of the 70 weeks.
And the future of God's people, why was God able to give him that? Because of the place he took and basically, like you say in spirit, rent his clothes.
Stands for that truth. There is one body, you know. The story is told that I think it was Albert Hayhoe that walked on a Sunday afternoon in town and met a dear Christian.
And he said to him, I saw you in the meeting this morning. Well, brother said I wasn't in your meeting this morning. Yes, he said I saw you in the meeting this morning. I've never ever been in your meeting. Well, he said I have to explain. There was a loaf on the table. And that loaf expressed the truth of the body of Christ, of which all true believers are a member.
And I saw you in the loaf. I think that truth, if we really keep that in mind.
Prevents us from our hearts affections to be too narrow, you know, And when we need a Christian and we find out he is true or she is truly a Christian.
It's nice to say nice to meet another family member, you know, and to enjoy what we can enjoy with that person. Although they might not exactly walk in the same path that we walk in. But it's so important. There is one body, you know that we see that in that law. Sure, it speaks of the body of the Lord Jesus, but it also speaks of that one body.
Of which he's had. And all believers are a member. That's the truth that is not dependent on us. He is the one that has formed it, and they're all part of the church, the body of Christ.
The common expression to hear it everywhere in Christendom is go to the Church of your choice. That's the exact opposite to endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the uniting bond of peace.
Just the opposite to that. Go to the Church of your choice. We have no right to choose what brethren, we're going to walk with.
00:45:08
That's not up for us to choose. He chooses, He directs, he guides by his spirit, and when we're subject to his leading by the word, we'll walk together. But.
It's.
The church is promoting. Leaders in the in the church are promoting.
A principle which is diametrically opposed to what we're looking at here.
Intermediate during Bolivia one time had the custom of going from church to church, visiting all over.
And one time she was in the home and she said to me brother, she says we all ought to be 1.
I said, Sister, it's not that we all ought to be one. We all are one. We're just not acting like it.
Not walking in the unity of the spirit and sometimes brethren, we get the mentality. I fear we get the mentality of division, division.
Lord, help us to conform our thinking to the scriptures. Here there is one body and the exhortation to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. That is the exhortation of Scripture. Is that like?
Having a beautiful jewel.
And he says, now you keep it in this lovely jewel box.
In the jewel box is a uniting bond of peace.
Practically, I believe that the talented were careful not to limit the expression, the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace to only one aspect of it, which is the truth of the one body.
We don't tend to apply the truth to our own heart and our own conscience if we limit it in that way. We need to recognize the force of the Scripture. It absolutely does apply to the truth of the one body, but it is not limited in its force to that the assembly and Corinth was not keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
They were not divided externally into two different places of gathering in the city of Corinth at the time their letter was written to them. But because the flesh was working in contrast to the Spirit among them, there was not the bond of peace that the unity of the Spirit would maintain. And I think sometimes when we look at these verses, we need to make sure that we apply them.
To our own heart and conscience in the assembly or gathering, where we are as to is that unity being maintained even in that small expression of it.
And I'd also just one more comment. There is one body. We've emphasized that over and over and over, but I think we need to emphasize as well with the same force. There is one spirit, there is one spirit, there is one spirit and the spirit of God.
Always acts in unity with the mind and heart of God.
And the Lord Jesus is the perfect life to see the unity of the Spirit in an individual maintained so that when it's maintained in His heart, if it is maintained in my heart and your heart.
There will be the collective expression of it together, but it starts. Even though it's a collective, there's a collective aspect to it. It starts in the individual. Am I this afternoon, walking?
In complete uniformity to the spirit of God and His work in my soul with God. If I'm not, then I am going to disrupt the peace.
That that spirit would maintain in my soul with God, and in you, my brother or my sister in Christ.
00:50:05
So again, just two comments. Don't limit this truth to the divisions in the public testimony that's given or professes to be given to God. It also has its application to us in this room to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
And there is one spirit, and He will always cause us to hold one.
And to recognize one God. That's the difference between Christianity and all these other false religions. There's one God, there's one head. There's one spirit, There's one body.
There's been one unity formed by the Spirit, and you and I are.
I think at the end of the chapter we get kind of a practical chairing out of this. How do we go about endeavoring easy use of the spirit? Well, every individual one has a responsibility that you're bringing before us. And let's suppose we're Francis brothers and skipped on the belt on and starts talking to someone else and and what is the conversation about what? How are we conducting a what are we talking about?
Or are we talking about somebody? It says here. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor.
And evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.
Is that what our conversation is about? If it's not, we're not endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because.
What you and I do to one another individually, as you say, disturbs the peace, and it brings in this wrath, this malice and discontent and unrest in an assembly. And you and I are are each one responsible to endeavor to to keep that unity.
And to keep that peace and to do that which is edifying 1 to another.
And and seek that peace. But to to to go on and as though you and I individually what we do means so, so very little. It doesn't really affect that much. It does brother. It does. And we have to be careful that we aren't contributing to that. It says you're left.
That doesn't mean that it's that we we do it first. It means that we don't do it at all.
And so to let means that we keep ourselves from it, and it's the spirit of God that will help us to do that. These things are little foxes that spoil the vine, and we need to be careful we don't contribute to it, sisters and brothers. We're all guilty of it, and we need to judge ourselves for it. Can we read the first Chapter 2?
First, Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 12 together and bear with me. Just a couple minutes on this and I'll get back to the topic of unity. I'm not trying to distract away from that.
1St Thessalonians 2 and 12 That you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you into His Kingdom and glory this morning, just before this, or just a few minutes ago this afternoon. I mean, we heard our brother have an address to the young children.
And I just wanted to talk just one moment here on this. The word called CILLED. In our English language we quite often look backward as it as a one time calling only. And I do not believe that that pertains to this. I believe that Our Calling is continuous.
It is a continued calling to his Kingdom and his glory. We heard about the calling of Sam of Samuel this morning. If you turn to 1St Kings Chapter 19, you could read about Elijah going to a cave. And the Lord passed him by there and spoke to him. And it says he did not speak into the mighty and the strong wind to him, and it says he did not speak to him in the earthquake, but it says he spoke to him in a still small.
Voice, young ones, the Lord will speak to you in a still small voice.
Through his word, he is continually calling you to walk worthy. It is not a one time thing and it takes discipline to walk worthy. Now if we may, let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30 together.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed unto the day.
00:55:06
Of redemption, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is in.
Three different ways. One is let's read for Gospel of John chapter 19.
The Gospel John, chapter 19 and read a very familiar verse, verse 30.
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said it is finished and he bowed his head and he gave up the spirit. He seals us into a finished transaction when we sing.
The hymnal Happy day. There is one verse that says I am my Lords and he is mine.
We are sealed into a finished transaction the day we trusted and believed and was saved.
That is a seal that cannot be broken. It was finished by the Lord Jesus Christ and we immediately get into the unity because there was one that finished the work of Calvary. And the Holy Spirit doesn't really help us a lot to speak about himself. He likes us to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ and edify him. That is the Holy Spirit's job, but the Holy Spirit himself is the one who does.
The ceiling. And he seals us into a finished transaction that nothing never needs to take place again because there never need to be another sacrifice and we're sealed under one and we are sealed into one body and also in second Timothy.
Chapter 2. I believe it is my Bible there.
Second Timothy Chapter 2.
Verse 19.
Nevertheless the foundation of God is sure, having this seal, that the Lord knoweth them that are his. Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. We have been sealed into the ownership. We are His.
He owns us, and the Holy Spirit sealed us into that ownership. When we look at Ephesians 4 and 30, it is the ownership or it is the ceiling of security.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption. I am currently redeemed now, but there is a day of redemption when I will be taken off the face of this earth, and I will receive a body like unto His and my salvation as that part of it is a full and complete. I'm full and completely saved now, but it's a full and complete the day of redemption. So I have security, and He has sealed me into that security, hasn't he? I'm standing.
Promises of God. I am preserved and I have assurance and I'm sealed in security. When you look at verse 13, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and malar, our clamor and evil speakings be put away from you with all malice. What is that? That is our fleshly reactions that we can have. We can have these freshly fleshly reactions, but when you read verse 33, our brother was referring to?
But be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, for giving one another, even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you.
That is our standard, our standard that we have to walk by and we need to walk by that standard in love, in unity, together.
One faith, one baptism, verse five He is not the Lord of the body. He's the head of the body, but he's the Lord of every individual believer. It's for us to acknowledge that he is our Lord. It's not some human being.
One Lord and one faith that is not here referring to.
Practical faith demonstrated in the life of the individual believer. That is what we believe in. There is one faith, the Christian faith, one baptism.
01:00:00
If somebody has been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, he doesn't have to be rebaptised when he comes among us. There is one baptism Now. We had the experience years ago that somebody was saved and came to meeting. She had been baptized and she wanted to be baptized.
Again.
Well, we said to her, really, you don't need to be baptized again. There is one baptism. Well, she wasn't satisfied with that, so she was baptized again. And that's what even the early brethren have said. If somebody isn't satisfied with what has taken place in connection with baptism before, even somebody was saying.
If they're not satisfied with that, baptize them again. But it isn't necessary. There is one baptism, and by baptism we take the place in the company of the Christian.
Professingly.
Salvation is not connected with water baptism.
But we find in the Church's history that when somebody accepted water baptism, then he was persecuted as a Christian, you know, because by doing that submitting to baptism, they took their place in the ranks of the Christians and they were being persecuted. There is one baptism now if.
A person has been baptized before they really had personal faith, and they're not satisfied with that. Baptize them again. But it is not necessary. There is one baptism, you know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is Christian baptism. And a lot of people are baptized. And by that fact that they are baptized, they join the ranks of the Christians.
And that's how it was in the early church. They were being persecuted from that day on. So there is one baptism.
Sometimes when people find out you but are a Christian and belong to the Lord Jesus, their next question is what faith are you? Meaning I suppose what place do you attend from week to week? What group of Christians are you associated with? But we never get that thought in Scripture. There's one faith and one baptism. I'd just like to go back to something that was alluded to, but just to clarify it. Sometimes in scripture when you have the word faith, it has to do with confidence in God. He that is set to his seal, that God he that hath received his testimony have set to his seal that God is true. That's confidence in God. That's faith in God.
But sometimes faith as it is here is taken up in connection with the truth of God, the deposit of truth that we hold in our hands the word of God. And that's why Jude begins his epistle in writing up to the Brethren in a day of ruin, and giving up of the truth and subverting of the souls of the Saints. He begins by saying, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation.
It was needful for me that I write unto you and exhort you that she earnestly contend for the faith once the once committed to the Saints. That is, it's the faith. It's the deposit of truth. God hasn't given in this dispensation. Some of the people of God one truth and other of the people of God another truth. No, it's the common salvation. It's the faith that we need to to earnestly contend for.
And that's why the two are connected here. 1 Lord, one faith, and then what's connected with one faith? 1 Baptism. And I believe, brethren, we need to be very careful that we never give the thought that we baptize to a certain group of believers.
My wife was baptized or christened in the Anglican church as a baby, brought there by her parents, and she was christened when she came to know the Lord as her Savior and eventually took her place at the Lords table. She never was rebaptised because she was originally baptized.
01:05:04
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I believe that is what is very important when someone comes. It's not a question of.
Were they of being rebaptised? It's a question of were they baptized in that name? Because the Commission the Lord gave to his disciples in resurrection was to go forth and to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And if we insist on someone being rebaptized, because?
Of who baptized them or we felt there was certain amount of water was or wasn't used, or whatever the circumstances.
We're really denying practically the truth that there's one faith and one baptism, and so she was never rebaptized because she had been baptized on that ground previously. And so we never, I'll put this very bluntly, we don't baptize to Brethren, or we don't baptize to any group of Christians. 1 Lord, one faith and one baptism.
Doesn't say the games. It says the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. That's the Trinity. That's Christian truth, Christian ground. And once you're brought onto that by a baptism, you don't have to do it again and again and again to identify it to us or to any other group. It's not us or any other group that we are baptized to. It's to the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and baptism.
Identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. That's what's important to see. It's not identifying with a group of Christians. It's identifying with the Lord Jesus and his death and resurrection. I'd like to say here in these verses 4-5 and six.
All 1111.
It's God that unifies. Man is the one that divides and separates, and it's interesting. It's often been mentioned, but I think it is helpful. Verse four is the circle of.
Christian Reality. Only those who are truly believers in the Lord Jesus are members of the one body.
Verse five is the circle of Christian profession, and there are many people who perhaps in an outward way are baptized. They profess the Christian faith in an outward way. Simon the sorcerer in Acts chapter eight was baptized. It ended up. He wasn't real, but he took that ground of Christian profession and.
When he took that ground, he was responsible. And when Peter and John came down to Samaria, they discerned that he wasn't real. They didn't get after Philip for baptizing him. They got after him for taking that position. He was responsible. A person is responsible for the profession that they make, and so it includes those who may not be real, but it is the circle of Christian profession.
Verse six is the circle that embraces all creation, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all. So that is the circle of all creation. There's one God and Father of all. Even though people may not recognize him, he still is the God of all, and He's the one that gives life to all creation and then that little last little expression in you.
All refers back to verse 4, the one body.
Reality and goes reality, profession, creation and then back to reality.
Of all, the originator of all. That's the universal aspect.
Father is used in more than one way, I mentioned in these meetings. We only know him as Father that is in the relationship as being in the family of God, being children of God or sons of God through faith in the Lord Jesus. But here you have the fatherhood of God.
In a universal sense, as the originator of it all.
Have the genealogy, and it goes right back through the genealogy from the Lord Jesus to Adam, which was of God. In that sense he's the father of all.
01:10:15
There is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Once again, First Corinthians 8:00 and 6:00, thank you.
And the apostle Paul was wasn't yet the Apostle Paul he saw on the road to.
Damascus. He asked the question, he said. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And, you know, that's a question we're taught.
To ask and that's a very valuable question. But I can see another question that is very valuable also after we really know that there's one body and that there is one Spirit and we know that there's one faith and one Lord and one baptism and if that kind of.
Hits us.
Then we might ask another question, and that is what do you want Christians to do rather than what do you want me to do? I'm not saying the first question is not important, but it seems like once these things gel in our mind that we can then ask what do you really want Christians to do? And I being a Christian.
Then that will be what?
I should do. It's a more inclusive type of thought, and it helps to put the whole sense of unity in a practical way in our minds, to inquire from the Scriptures what God wants Christians to do.
Has not been given. According to verse 7. All Christians have been given something, you know, and we have functioning members in the body of Christ. We have sometimes pointed that out when somebody from the outside wanted to remember the Lord, we told them after they were saved. Remember you received as a member of the body of Christ. You're not joining, brethren.
And a functioning member of the body of Christ. You might not at this point know what your function is, what your gift is, but you have received something, be exercised to find out what that gift is, And then in humility and dependence upon the Lord, exercise that give for the glory of God and of the Lord Jesus, and for the blessing of all.
Whether that be lost or Saints, you know the evangelists especially for the lost. So there's everybody that has received something you ought to be exercised. Lord, show me what it is. What wilt thou have me to do?
There says be therefore followers of God as dear children. The dear children is all Christians, isn't it, that are born again. And when it says be therefore followers, it would make you think of a little son that is imitating his dad.
In a positive way, hey, may we all be imitators in a positive way of our father be therefore followers of God. When you look over in Titus chapter 2 and verse seven, it says in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. A pattern is a type if I need a part to repair something.
Say I needed a an electrical switch to run a power window on an automobile. You go to the parts department and you have to order the part by the year, the mate, the model and everything for your car. And there has been a mold set before. There been has a pattern and there has been a type. And therefore I can get a piece that will work exactly like the one that was in there before. And therefore we are to be patterns or types for these young ones around us.
01:15:11
And we have a pattern or a type that we can follow or be imitators of. In other words, in a positive way. We can be like unto Christ in our walk, can't we? We have one that walked before us, that was perfect, holy, spotless, and undefiled.
Given in scripture, it's always in connection with the truth of the body of Christ. It's interesting, in First Corinthians 12 you get gifts mentioned and it's in connection with the truth of the body. In Romans 12 you get the gifts mentioned and it's in connection with the truth of the body of Christ. And here it is again in connection with the body of Christ. Body of Christ is a functioning body here in this world.
And I think it's so important to get that in verse 7, everyone is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. There's not one member who has exactly the same measure as another. But how does the body function? If it functions properly, every member has to be active, like you were mentioning. It's not coming just to be become a member of that group and occupy a seat during the meeting.
But to come there in exercise of heart, the Lord Jesus is present in the midst, He is the head of His body through the Holy Spirit exercises those present to take part and.
I don't like it, brother. And when we get our eyes on certain individuals and we're looking at them and to them, there should be an exercise to look to the Lord Jesus as present in the mix and let him lead each one. I know it's hard sometimes for younger brethren to begin taking part, but I think you need to come in exercise of heart, and it's not that you're going to.
Start teaching when there are other able teachers there.
But come there in exercise. I really believe that. Many times a younger brother who has a good question or a comment is very helpful Sometimes. Some young people have said to me, boy, that meeting was completely over my head. It all went sailing across my head. And I think of you younger brothers were exercised. Sometimes the younger brothers say, well, I don't want to show how stupid I am.
Well, maybe if you have that accident, if you have that question, maybe there's a whole bunch more that have that question too. And it would be a help if you would just humble yourself and ask the question if you have it. It's very helpful to keep things down to the level of reality where we are brethren. So as we come together, let's all be exercised. That's the way the body is to function. The sisters too.
They don't take part in ministry. The scripture is clear about that. Does that mean that they can just go to sleep there and it doesn't make any difference? I notice in many parts of the world that sisters are sometimes more alert than the brothers, and let me tell you, they understand things well.
Thank God for the sisters that are sitting there and are seeking to give liberty to the spirit of God, even though they're not going to take part in an audible voice.
Their presence there is just as important as any brother.
So let's be exercised as we're in His presence unto everyone of us is given grace.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ, it's Christ the Giver. Here in Romans it's the Spirit. I should say First Corinthians, it's the Spirit of God who gives the gifts. In Romans it's God the Giver. So the whole Godhead is occupied in this question of the gifts and their function in the body of Christ. Let's remember that we don't as members of the body of Christ when we come to meeting. I think it's very important to see that. And it's interesting that the statement in the seventh verse.
Comes before what follows and the list of gifts that is given in the 11Th verse. Just notice what it says in verse 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets. Well, we don't have apostles and prophets today, but we have their writings. They laid the foundation and so in that sense we do have them. Not physically in the form of people amongst us, but we do have them. But then he says.
01:20:19
And some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
And maybe we read that list and we look around, we say, well, I don't have that gift. I'm not an evangelist. I'm not a pastor. I'm not a teacher. And so we say, well, that's for a certain few that have a gift. Well, it is true. Thank God we do. And I believe on the basis of this portion and other scriptures, we will have these gifts until the Lord Jesus comes, until the church is complete and raptured home. But just go back to First Corinthians 12 for a moment to another list.
Because as I say, before he takes up this list in our chapter, he brings before us, as has been expressed, that everyone of us is given a gift, some function, as a member of the body of Christ. There's a list here given in the end of First Corinthians 12. It says in verse 28. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets.
Thirdly, teachers. After that, miracles, then gifts of healings. I'm going to skip one governments, diversity of tongues and so on. You say I have none of those. I don't. I don't fit into any one of those categories. But what about the one I skipped helps? Can any one of us get out from that one? Every one of us can be a help where he's placed us. As we said earlier, he's placed the members in the body as it hath pleased him.
And we understand this in a natural body, if we lose a hand or a foot, the other one can take over and we can get along through life like that, but not as well as with two hands or two feet. We feel the loss. And I want to make this very, very practical and bring this down even to our local assemblies. I believe that there are many assemblies. Brethren who suffer, suffer a lot, because there are those in the assembly who are not exercised to function as a member of the body of Christ.
And to exercise the gift of the ministry that the Lord has given them. In fact, I've wondered if when Paul wrote to the Saints at Colossi, he didn't have something on of that on his heart when he said and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that thou hast received of the Lord, that thou fulfill it. We're not told what that ministry was, but Paul felt that the Saints at Colossi were suffering a lack because Archippus wasn't exercised to take up and fulfill the little ministry that the Lord had given him.
Timothy was reticent, perhaps shy held back. He was to stir up the gift that was in him. You can't stir something up unless you're you know what it is, and it's good to be exercised as to before the Lord as to what your function or your gift is. Not that you'll go a lot round boasting of it. A man's gift maketh room for him, but be exercised and stir it up and use it. Maybe it won't be publicly in the meetings, especially for the sisters, but carry that out.
And it will be for the blessing, the up building, and the maintenance of the body of Christ. It will be for the blessing of others, maybe ever so humble a service, ever so quiet and done in in in secret. But carry it out and don't look for the praise of man.
We labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Look for his approval. It's not the greatness of the gift, not the greatness of the service that counts. It's doing it before the Lord may not even be appreciated by your brethren or those that you seek to serve and help, but leave that with the Lord. Paul was mistreated by the Corinthians, questioned his authority as an apostle, questioned his ministry, and so on. He said, that's all right, we just leave it with the Lord.
We serve him, we exercise what he's given us, and we wait for the day of his approval.
Sisters in the church today. What about sisters in the church today? There's a lot of them that are preaching and they're taking the place of men. Give some comments on that, Chuck. I've appreciated how in John chapter 12 you have Mary, we might say a sister, and she comes and she pours out her ointment at the feet of the Lord.
But it's interesting, in that portion, you don't read of anything that Mary says. She doesn't take a public part, as it were. You don't read of anything, she says. But when she comes with a heart full of Christ and pours out her ointment, it says the whole house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
01:25:14
It's like a sister on Lord's Day morning who comes to the breaking of bread with a heart full of praise and worship. It's true that she doesn't take a public part in the way that the brothers do. I realize she does, but she doesn't take a public part in the that the brothers do by reading scripture, are praying or suggesting him. But I do believe that like Mary, a sister who comes in tune with the spirit of God and a heart full of praise and worship overflowing.
With an appreciation of the person work of Christ, she is going to have an effect on those that do the whole house and those that do take a public part. She really does exercise her priesthood in that way. She doesn't take a public part. And as you say women have stepped out of their sphere in taking a public part. But nevertheless, she has a tremendous influence. And let me say one more. Let's give you one more example before you say what's on your.
Yes, OK, but here's another Here's another situation.
Because we said we don't just exercise our gift. In the assembly there were women in the days of the Lord Jesus. Three of them are mentioned by name, Johanna, Mary Magdalene and Susanna. And it says that they followed the Lord and ministered to Him of their substance. You don't hear of them preaching, you don't hear them taking a public part. They didn't eat. We don't read of them distributing the food to the multitude when the Lord used the disciples, but they in their sphere follow the Lord.
And ministered to him in a proper way. Nickel head, I want to add First Corinthians, 1434.
Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also sayeth the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for women to speak in the church. That verse has been blotted out to our to many of our Christians in in the system. That's wrong now.
Say help. So that's the one you skip now she could be a help, couldn't she? But not publicly, not speaking and and taking the place that is the man's place.
She's going to move away from Smiths Falls.
She's a sister that's going to be missed, I think, more than anybody that has ever moved away from Smiths Falls in recent years, at least in my recollection. Not because she's ever stepped out of her spear as a sister or taken any public part, but because she's been such a help in her quiet sphere to the people of God and functioned as a member of the body of Christ. And it breaks my heart to think that she's going to leave us in Smith's Falls, although she's going to be in happy fellowship at another assembly, and I know they will benefit from them, from from her ministry. And for that I rejoice.
That's a couple they took a palace in and they taught him the way more perfectly. She had part in that. In the home, in the home sphere, a woman can be a tremendous help. Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos the way more perfectly. She was involved. You know, it's good to get a balanced view of things. The home is a sphere where a woman can be a tremendous help, even to brethren.
In #200.
Spirit with the Lord, O blessed wondrous word, what heavenly light? What power divine does that sweet word afford? #210.
01:30:25
Make a comment. It really is in connection with what our brother Jim said about.
Mary and Martha and Lazarus. What is significant is that the the the point of that passage is Mary in the alabaster box of ointment, because there's nothing said quoted that Lazarus said either. He was absolutely silent but.
He was a living testimony by being there of resurrection life. You.
So Mary didn't say anything, Martha didn't say anything. Lazarus didn't say anything. But the alabaster box appointment said it all, and Lazarus was was eloquent by his presence and testimony of a resurrection life in verse 26.
How is it then, brethren?
When you come together.
Everyone of you.
Half the Psalm.
Hath the doctrine half the tongue, half the revelation, half an interpretation?
Just to go along with that verse in our chapter.
Gift according to the measure, the gift of Christ.
I was thinking of the reply of the disciple to the Lord Jesus.
There's a lad here that has.
5 loaves to.
Open Mtg. 2
Open—H. Brinkmann, J. Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Oh, blessed is our language love.
For everybody.
Give him the wind. Blow the world.
Let's turn to Colossians.
Chapter One.
We were told.
That in Ephesians we have what the Church is to Christ, the fullness of Him that filleth. All in all, reverentially we say he is incomplete without the Church, just like a man is incomplete without a wife.
You know, it's a wonderful thing that we can look at our wives that our compliment.
That's what God gave the wife to us. Four.
But in Colossians, you know what wonderful thing it is that we see what Christ is to the Church, not what the church is to Christ.
And so.
Colossians is a wonderful book, just like Ephesians. You know in these two books you have I believe it's not wrong to say the highest Christian truth are in these two epistles we read from Colossians one verse 9.
00:05:14
For this course we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the full knowledge of this, will allow me to give the more accurate critical rendering on that passage in some of these verses. And that's J and BS translation.
You must be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that he might walk birthday of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the true knowledge of God.
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.
And to all patients, and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love.
You see, it's not just the point that he is his dear son. He's the son of his love and we have been brought into that very sphere that he has always enjoyed.
In whom we have redemption.
The forgiveness of sins. In Ephesians we have the means by which we have redemption. In Colossians, we have the one in whom we have redemption. That's why the correct rendering leaves out to his blood. Some people have been offended by Mr. Darby leaving it out, but it is here the one in whom we have redemption, not the means. And then this one is presented in the most glorious way.
In the one in whom we have redemption, who is seeing?
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. He's not the first creature as some have used this verse. He is the first born of all creation. When he enters his own creation of necessity, he has to have the place of the first born, the place of preeminence. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth.
Visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
He's the head of the body, the church. Who is the beginning? Notice there is a beginning here. There are more beginnings in Scripture, but here it is a beginning, and that's the beginning of the Church. He's the head of the body, not as a man on earth. He is that in glory, risen and glorified, who is the beginning, the first born from among the dead, that in all things.
He might have the preeminence. There were others that were raised from the dead before, but they went back to death again, not our blessed Lord. Death has no longer any claim.
You know, he late death had no claim on him in the 1St place he was wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, But he laid down his life.
But he is now the beginning, the first born. From among the dead, we all will be raised. Those who have died in faith will be raised from among the dead, and we who are living will be changed together, going to be brought to be with the Lord.
And he's the head of the body, the church.
Who is the beginning, the first born from among the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For in him the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.
00:10:00
That's the way it should read.
You know when he came, it wasn't just the sun that came. God was manifested that triune God. The fullness of the Godhead was seen in him. He that has seen me has seen the Father, he could say.
And having made peace through the blood of the cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.
By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, reconciliation means to bring things into proper order.
To the fall of man. Even the creation is in disorder that will be changed through the Lord.
You know there will be reconciliation of all things. All things will be brought into proper relationship to God.
The things in earth or things in heaven, and you.
That is the believers now that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now has he reconciled.
We don't have to wait till a future day. We are now reconciled.
Days now a proper relationship between God and to save people.
And reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Get all of that young people or older Christians, have you laid hold of that. That's how God looks at you and me. If we by faith have come to the Lord Jesus, He has presented us.
Holy, unblameable and unreprovable. That's how we stand before him positionally.
If you continue into faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel people say you see here, you can be saved today and can be lost tomorrow. That's not the way that verse is to be understood.
There is no such a thing as a true child of God becoming an apostate.
This here is apostasy not to continue in the faith. A believer will not become an apostate. All you have to do is check carefully what's taught in Hebrews.
But how wonderful.
We will continue in the faith. He is the one that has saved us. He is the one that will keep us.
Be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. That's God's purpose. It hasn't yet been accomplished. That's why many travel to these dark countries. In Africa and other places in the world. There are people that have never heard about the Lord Jesus.
That's why that word that the Lord Jesus told his disciples going into all the world applies to us today.
Some of us have had the privilege of traveling to different countries not just to preach the gospel, but to bring the truth of God to God's people as well.
And Paul was made a minister of this gospel this is.
The Gospel of the grace of God.
Who now rejoice in my suffering for you and fill up.
That which is behind of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the Church. You know what he was suffering. He was suffering for the Lord.
And there are those who still suffer for the Lord, but not in the same way as Paul did.
You know, he was the minister of the Gospel.
And not just.
To the Jews as Peter was.
He's our apostle, the apostle of the Gentiles.
He was made a minister of that good news.
00:15:06
And he was suffering in connection with proclaiming it.
And.
Where off I made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill or to complete the word of God.
You know, the Mormons and others who are liars claim that they have new revelations. All they need to know is this verse to show that they are liars. The word of God is complete. What we have in our hands today is to complete word of God.
No further revelations to be looked for.
Even the mystery.
Which had been hit from ages and from generations, but now is manifest to the Saints.
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this ministry among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. You see, this is the difference between Ephesians and Colossians. It's not that we are in Christ, that Christ is in US.
And that fact that he dwells in our bodies is in US is assuring us future glory.
The hope of glory is the fact that Christ dwells in our body. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Christ dwells in US.
What a solemn truth that is. Dear young people and even older believers, remember that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and Christ dwells there.
That is what makes us realize that we better walk in holiness.
In separation from evil.
Because we bring dishonor upon the one who dwells in us, It's inconsistent.
For a Christian to live in sin.
It doesn't mean that any of us ever reach sinful perfection while we're in this body.
But that's why in first John it says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's not for the unbeliever written there. That's written for the believer. You know, as long we're in this body, the flesh is within us. There are three enemies that we have.
That is the world the flesh and Satan love, not the world.
Know the world is the system away from God, over which the devil is God and Prince.
He's the God of this world religiously, the Prince, politically. That's why I can never be involved politically.
The consistent thing for a Christian is not to be involved in politics.
I'm so thankful that we immigrated to the United States in 1953.
I grew up in Germany.
Unfortunately, I wasn't old enough to have to serve. I was 15 when the war ended.
I'm so thankful when I found out that in the United States I can, as a conscientious objector, refuse military service, and I did that. I'm not trying to boast. I think the Lord gave me to see that it was inconsistent for me, as a follower of the Lord Jesus, to fight and to kill. Love your enemies.
You know, and I took the position of a conscientious objector.
You know, I wasn't even a citizen at that time and there was a possibility that they might kick me out, that I was going to be sent back to Germany.
But they investigated where I worked, my neighbors, and they found out that this is indeed a Christian who wants to live by Christian principles. They allowed me to remain and stay here. But how wonderful that we are able to live for the Lord. And then Paul had two ministries.
00:20:22
Not only was he a minister of the gospel of the grace of God.
He is also a minister of the mystery.
Christ and to church. That's the mystery. You don't find it in the Old Testament revealed. It is revealed in the New. But as often has been pointed out, I think we even mentioned it in the reading that since we have the Revelation in the New Testament, we find we have beautiful pictures in the Old Testament of Christ and the Church.
The Lord Jesus himself said, search the scriptures, for they testify of me.
You know you have beautiful pictures of Christ and the church. Since we have that revelation, that Old Testament book, that Old Testament as a book becomes that much more precious to us, we see Christ in it. The scriptures testified of him.
And Paul was preaching not only the gospel of the grace of God, He was preaching the mystery Christ and the church Have you laid hold of that truth? Christ in the Church. That mystery hit in the ages past, never revealed, now revealed. And the apostle is the minister of the Church, the Apostle Paul, if you want to learn to know about the truth of Christ in the church.
Read Paul.
Yes, you have it in Matthew upon this rock. Christ, I will build my church, and the gates of haters will not prevail against it. But you have reference made, but you haven't. Don't have it developed until you go to Paul's writings.
So how important it is for us as young people to read the Bible?
Read the scriptures.
And read it prayerfully.
When you read it, say Lord, please help me to understand what I'm reading.
It's not a question of just having a bright mind.
You couldn't understand anything if you wouldn't have a sound mind. But in order to understand the truth of God, you need more.
Than a sound mind you need the Spirit of God to give you understanding. His spirit testifies with our spirit that we are the sons of God. That is the Spirit of God testifies with our human spirit that we are the sons of God.
Yes.
How dependent we are upon God, upon His Word, and upon the Spirit of God.
You know, what does the Spirit do more? And the first thing that he does in a person's life, he's seeking to quicken to make a life.
To Sinner.
We find that in John by water and by spirit we are born again.
That water is the word which the Spirit of God uses in order to bring you into life.
But then the spirit also comes and indwells you. There's a difference between new birth and being sealed.
Many Christians don't understand that.
I ministered on that once and somebody among us opposed me on that. Afterwards, there is a difference between being born again.
Old Testament Saints were born again.
That's why the Lord could tell Nicodemus when he spoke of new birth. And he said how can that be? He said our daughter teach and Israel. And nor is this not as a teacher in Israel. He could know that there was such a thing as new birth, but how wonderful in Christianity we have more than new birth.
00:25:06
As a result of the work of the Lord Jesus, the finished work of Calvary's cross, and him going on high, what did he do? He sent down the Spirit to indwell every believer, our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit, but not only that.
He dwelt in the church collectively.
That's why it is so important that we allow the Spirit of God to take the lead when we come together as Christians.
I have related that story before and if you have heard it, bear with me. My grandfather on father's side got saved.
And they wanted to make him a preacher.
He had the ability to preach.
But he had come to understand the truth of the Church.
And he met in separation.
That's many, many years ago.
And.
But then they started having get togethers.
The fundamental Christians would have what they called an Aliens Fazam Law Alliance meeting and they would come and they would have Bible studies.
Nobody was picked to preach.
And he heard about that my grandmother had not seen the truth that my grandfather had seen, although he what she was saying, he took her with him to that meeting.
And he told me this story himself, he said. We really enjoyed being there.
And then towards the end of the meeting, since some of those people had in mind to make him a preacher earlier, they said Brother Brinkman has to Lord not giving you anything for us today.
Well, he said. Yes, I really enjoyed being here today.
And I believe we all have felt that he has blessed us.
By his Spirit. But why we didn't look to a particular man? We look to the Lord by the Spirit to use whomsoever he would.
We have all enjoyed being here. I'm sure those of us who are Christians, I would recommend that you always come together that way. Not looking to a man, but looking to the Lord by the Spirit to bless and to guide and to bring his picture before us. That opened the eyes of my grandmother. I was so happy when I heard that story. You know, that was many, many years ago.
That took place at those in those days. The women didn't weren't allowed to go separate and the husband, but my grandfather understood better that it had to be a personal matter of personal conviction. He left it up to the spirit to open my grandmother's eyes, and that time her eyes were opened.
And they walked together in happy fellowship ever after.
But anyway, what a wonderful thing it is to grow up.
Being exposed to so much truth.
And do you really appreciate it?
Do you really appreciate it? Young people especially?
That you have been exposed to so much water responsibility, What do you do with it?
Are you accepting it by faith?
Well.
And Paul realized.
That what was entrusted to him and I already pointed out there are these two ministries.
The ministry of the gospel of the grace of God, and then the ministry of the mystery of God. And what does he say? Who we preach? Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
00:30:07
How often I, like me, like to ask you, How often have you brought Christ before somebody that you met or that you know?
Have you?
You have a wonderful message.
You know a lot of wonderful truths. You hold it for yourself.
We don't have the same responsibility as the Apostle Paul.
But we have a responsibility of sharing that which God has given us to know and to enjoy. And then it says to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Does that man mean to present him sinless? That is, get him into a position that he won't send any more? No.
People have to come to understand that when they know the Lord Jesus as Savior, they stand before God. Perfect.
And the truth that Paul was bringing to them is to Christ and the Church if received.
That would present them perfect, bring them into full spiritual growth.
I'm sure everybody here, even those who are saved for a long time, and perhaps the Lord whom the Lord has given some understanding of scripture, they will be ready to say there's a lot I still have to learn, you know, there's a lot we still have to learn. Nobody knows at all. But that does not mean that we cannot, in this sense be perfect.
That we come to see our position in Christ and come to see how God looks at us. We have to learn to look at ourselves the way God looks at us.
And a marvelous thing is that in spite of our shortcomings and the flesh still within us.
He looks at us as being perfect in Christ.
Positionally.
Well, how wonderful.
We're unto I also labor striving according to his working, which workers in me mightily. You know, it has to be just like Paul implies here, him working, whether in Paul or in US, it has to be him doing the work by his spirit well.
What brought this chapter before my heart is the fact that we had in Ephesians. What?
That we are in Christ.
Here we have that Christ is in US.
Believer. What a solemn fact that is, he dwelt in US.
You know our temple is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus. When he in John's Gospel says that he would come and take his abode with such, you know he has taken his support with us. He dwelt in US individually and dwells in the church collectively, and hopefully we all learn to allow Him.
To use us.
And to bring other souls.
To the Lord.
Or make them familiar with the truth of God? Have you ever had the joy of leading somebody to the Lord?
Have you ever had that joy?
There is no joy like it.
Even our own children.
You know.
People sometimes, several times somebody would say hi, why do you want to have 10 kids?
Why do you want to have 10 kids?
What I have usually answered is how many Christians have the opportunity of leading 10 souls to Christ.
If nobody else is going to be brought to Christ, to my efforts except my kids to have brought 10 to the Lord, that in itself would have been worthwhile having lived on this earth. Don't you think so? And we have a promise, dear parents.
00:35:16
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house, the jailer was told. In Acts there is a promise connected with it, and we can claim that by faith.
It's not going to be according to our way of laboring, but the Lord by His Spirit can use His word and bring it to their hearts, to their conscience, and bring them through it into blessing.
But you cannot bring the word of God before anybody unless you know it.
You know, you have to get to know it.
Fill your mind with it.
And then, when the opportunity arises, the spirit can bring a worse to your memory. That is just what that person needs at that time.
And so we better get into the scriptures, reading it, meditating upon it, and asking the Lord to give us to understand it and to enjoy it, not only to understand it intellectually.
Now there are people in this world, I believe, that know the Bible without knowing the author of it, without knowing the Lord Jesus.
But all truths, brother, the brother that labored among us for many years, made that statement several times. I put it to memory. All truth enters by way of the conscience, Londeen, you know, to the landin.
True, that is.
The word of God has to penetrate into our hearts and into our conscience and then accepted by faith, and even that faith is a gift. That's what we learned from Ephesians 2.
By grace are we saved through faith is not of ourselves, it is a gift of God.
An uncle of one of my sons in law, An orthopedic doctor.
We met him.
And he said, I like to go and talk with you. Let's go over to the house. You know, they had a reception there and it was at a hall and the house wasn't too far away. So we went over there and he said, I just cannot believe.
Orthopedic doctor, well educated, very intelligent.
Well, I said to him, If you really would want to believe, can't you ask God to give you the faith to believe? If you really want to believe, it's a gift.
I don't know if he ever did accept the Lord, but I'm happy to tell you that some of his children are devout Christians.
But Hall said the father isn't.
Maybe he did get saved and I didn't find out about it, but I don't know even whether he is still living but.
How wonderful to have the word of God brought before us from little on.
You know, in our home.
In Germany when we had supper.
The word of God was read.
My parents realized that these children need more than just physical food. They need spiritual food.
My dad didn't have the ability to expound the scripture as his father did, but my mother did. And when I and my brothers had spiritually, we ought to our mother.
You know, and the Scriptures were read. We were encouraged. You know, there was never a time in my life I can honestly tell you that, that I ever questioned that the Bible was the word of God. Never.
But there came a time.
When I had to make a decision.
You know, there was an evangelistical meeting.
And in Germany, Tibetan didn't have a gospel every Sunday, and that's the custom in American in the English speaking world.
00:40:10
And let me tell you, and please don't be offended, I do not agree that we preach the gospel to those that we break bread with.
Bring the truth of God before them. The gospel is for the lost.
And but anyway.
How wonderful to hear.
The Word of God and to be exposed to it.
And brethren, do you have an exercise that these young people hear the scriptures Not just in the reading meeting, you know?
I believe as I have said, and please don't be offended, I don't preach the gospel to the Saints.
I preached the gospel to the Sinner.
And I'm very happy to remember that there were those that I could give the gospel to. And he got saved. Just a few weeks ago. We got a telephone call from Munich from a lady that we gave the gospel, and she was saved some years ago, but it was seven years after we had given her the gospel that she got saved.
That was in 97 when she got saved.
But recently she called. She said, we want you to know that Peter got saved yesterday, her husband. And she called all the way from Germany to let us know. We prayed for Peter every day. You know, what a joy to know. Peter is a family member now. He's a brother in Christ, you know well.
Give credit to the Lord.
But do you have people on your heart that you pray for every day?
Not just your family, your relatives, others that you have contact with.
What a joy it is to see them saved, come to know the Lord.
Well.
This passage in Colossians.
Is such a wonderful passage, and let me just point out to.
In verse nine of chapter two, we have this wonderful statement for in him, that is in the Lord Jesus.
Dwell us all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
We don't need to know anything beyond knowing the Lord Jesus and we know the Triune God revealed in his person.
Read the scriptures. Read the Gospels. Not only the Gospels, but.
What a wonderful thing it is to see how he moved among men.
And can't we learn from him?
The only gospel that some people have is us, our lives.
Can they see Christ in US?
For me to live is Christ, the Apostle Paul said.
Left Christ before man.
We readily admit, don't we? We do it very poorly.
But it is nevertheless the exercise.
To live Christ before men and the Lord Jesus wants.
To use us, although we're poor, feeble human beings, imperfect human beings.
But have you ever found a perfect servant?
There's only one, isn't it?
And that's the Blessed Lord.
But the wonderful truth is, he uses imperfect instruments. But it is the Spirit of God that uses whatever is uttered feebly, imperfectly. He can use it, and especially if he quote the scriptures.
For them.
In have eternal life. Well, anyway, how wonderful.
May this passage be an encouragement to us. And I repeat again, it came to my heart and mind in connection with what we had in Ephesians, that we are in Christ, but now Christ is in us. That's the side in Colossians, He dwells in US.
00:45:13
And what a wonderful thing it is to walk in fellowship and communion or in company with the Lord Jesus.
You know, that's why we need to pray every day. That's why we need to read the Bible every day. And that's why we need to keep short accounts when it comes to anything that we have done wrong, even wrong thoughts that come into our minds.
You know, we attach not only to what we say and do. We also judge by what we allow.
Our minds to be occupied with.
You know when you have a evil thought coming up, touch it, cast it aside, and the best thing how you can prevent these things from coming into your mind is think on good things.
That Christ dwell in our hearts richly. You know, Philippians is such a wonderful book on that point, so may the Lord bless.
This passage to all of us.
And may the Lord Jesus.
Be seen in us, but it cannot be seen in us unless we go on with him from day-to-day.
And then what about the ladies?
You know.
Ladies. The Lord has used ladies to bring Christ to souls.
And what about the wife of a brother in the meeting?
To have a godly wife, what a difference it makes you know and to read the scriptures together, pray together.
You know, sometimes.
Wife might be the best person to correct.
A husband? We all need correction sometimes, do we not? The fool despises corrections, the Scripture says.
Well, to have a wife that knows the scriptures, reads the scriptures familiar with the truth, what a wonderful life to have, and then to allow her the liberty.
To correct us when necessary, Well, anyway.
Young fellows, what kind of a girl are you looking for?
Just a pretty girl.
I don't blame you that you like a pretty wife.
There has to be more than just being a pretty girl. Has to be a godly wife.
That can be a help to you in your Christian life.
So may the Lord bless these few thoughts, and may.
We all.
Grow to be more like the Lord Jesus.
A pleased to 1St Thessalonians, Chapter 2.
First Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 10.
Your witnesses and God also, how holy, and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe as you know how we exhorted and comforted, and charged everyone of you, as a Father doth his children, that you would walk worthy of God who has called you unto His Kingdom and glory.
Just very, very quickly, in the few moments that we have left, I'd like to notice 3 exhortations in Pauls ministry to three different assemblies as to this expression to walk worthy. We noticed one this morning or this afternoon earlier this afternoon and we'll go back to it very briefly in a moment.
But there are three times, as I say, that the apostle Paul exhorts the Saints to walk worthy.
And as was mentioned in the reading meeting this afternoon, the exhortations in our Christian lives as to our practical walk are always in light of the truth that is brought before us. And we'll notice this little difference in each one of them. We find, if we were to back up in the Book of Thessalonians that Paul had preached to them the gospel of God. You get that? At the end of the ninth verse of this chapter, we find 2 to back up to the first chapter.
00:50:01
That as a result the Thessalonian believers had turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven. And having heard the gospel of God, and having turned from dumb idols to the living and true God, now the exhortation is to walk worthy of God. There were many things that no doubt the Thessalonians believers hadn't entered into, Yet they hadn't, I don't suppose, entered in to shall I say.
Colossian or Ephesian truth, they knew that they had turned to the living and true God.
And so the apostle Paul exhorts them to walk worthy of that. I'd just like to apply it in this way. The afternoon maybe there's someone here, and you haven't been saved very long. You've turned to God, as it were. You've realized that God had a great, has a great provision for you in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of Calvary. And you sit in meetings like this, and you say there's a lot of things I don't understand about walking to please the Lord. There's a lot of things I don't understand.
About being in Christ and the heavenly calling of the believer, and so on. And that may be true. But don't be discouraged, young. Convert, walk worthy of God. You've been brought into relationship with the very God of eternity to think of it, and these Thessalonians believers, to think that they had once bowed down to idols that could neither hear nor see or help them in any way, and then to think that they had turned to God, and so he tells them to walk worthy of God.
Who has called us unto his Kingdom and glory? You know the Thessalonian believers, They turn to God, and they were waiting for his Son from heaven. They were waiting for the Kingdom to be established. It's true. They needed to be enlightened as to the another truth. And that was the truth of the Lord's coming for his Saints, because they were concerned about some of their number who had passed away, wondered if they'd missed out on the Kingdom and the glory. And the apostle writes to explain very carefully that no, they hadn't missed out in any way.
That they were going to be part of that Kingdom and glory in a coming day through the resurrection, the coming of Christ for His Saints, and the fact that they were going to rise, and so on. And we've often enjoyed the 4th chapter of First Thessalonians, where he leaves nothing unexplained as to that blessed truth, but simply again to just bring this to bear on our souls. The first exhortation here is to walk worthy of God, but now go back to the book of Colossians where we just were.
Colossians.
Chapter 2.
I'm sorry, chapter one, Colossians, chapter one, and verse 10. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, and all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks, and so on. Well, here we have another exhortation, to walk worthy, not to walk worthy of God, but to walk worthy of the Lord.
Because this has already been mentioned in these meetings. What he's bringing before the Colossians Saints is the Lordship of Christ, the Headship of Christ. And we often speak of these Colossians Saints as needing exhortation to hold the head, that is, to look to the Lord for direction as members of the body of Christ. And so He exhorts them here to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.
And again, I just want to make this very, very practical. Because, brethren, Christianity is a very practical thing. It's true. We need to seek, by the grace of God and in the power of the Spirit, to get hold of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. But Christianity too, is a very practical thing. We sit in meetings like this, and it's wonderful. But what about, as the world would say, where the rubber meets the road? It's there's reality, and it takes real grace to go on and to walk in the path of faith day by day.
But are we seeking to own the lordship of Christ in our lives? I want first of all to apply this in our individual lives. How much is our exercise? And brother and I can only speak to my own soul, but how much is our exercise? To get up every morning and say, Lord, what will thou have me to do? When Paul was, as Saul of Tarsus was converted on the Damascus Rd. the first thing he says is not the first thing, but one of the first things was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
00:55:10
And you know, it's true. As was pointed out, Paul made mistakes, Paul failed. But he, I believe it was the exercise of his whole pathway. As a Christian, his whole walk of faith, his exercise really is summed up in that expression. And are we looking to our head every day? We understand this In a natural body, our members take their direction from the head, from the brain. Are we as the members of the body of Christ, seeking to walk worthy of the Lord unto all, pleasing to look to him every day for our direction?
Not to do something according to our own will. The world today says follow the lusts and desires and appetites of your heart and go your own way and nobody's to put restraints on you. Is that the way it is to be with the Christian? No. We need to own the Lordship of Christ in our lives individually and then collectively in the assembly. When a difficulty comes up or a decision has to be made in the assembly, who are do we to look to?
Where are we to look for instruction and direction? We're to look to the head. The assembly is not a democracy. We don't take votes. We don't go by popular opinion. No, we seek to go to the word of God and to find the instruction, the direction under the lordship of Christ, the headship of Christ, for every decision that's made in the assembly. We don't cast lots in the assembly when a decision needs to be made.
No. We have the Spirit of God to direct us. The Spirit of God is our link with our risen head. We have the word of God, the complete word of God, as instruction. Oh brethren, let's walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing and we don't have time. But if you notice the context of this, there's so many things connected with walking worthy of the Lord. Why, there's knowledge, there's wisdom, there's understanding, There's fruit, There's the increasing in the knowledge of God. They're strengthened with all might. There's patience or endurance. There's joyfulness, There's thankfulness.
Why are those things not always so prevalent in our lives, individually or collectively in the assembly? Well, perhaps one reason is brethren. We're not looking to the Lord. We're not walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. But now I'd like to go back, just for a moment, to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse one. I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy and notice this. It's not worthy of God, It's not worthy of the Lord, but worthy of the vocation wherewith he are called, or the calling. Now we had some expressions on this verse at some length earlier in the reading meeting. It's not my thought to go over what has been said, but simply to say this, that here.
In Ephesians, as was pointed out, we have our heavenly calling brought before us, and we are to now walk worthy in light of what is brought before us, the position that we have Our Calling, our hope. Are we seeking to walk worthy of that? The story is told of many years ago when France was ruled by a monarchy. One of the Crown Princess of France had an English tutor at the palace. And this Crown Prince he was, he knew he who he was.
And he was very unruly. And his tutor, of course, couldn't discipline him in any way. And this tutor came to the end of himself one day and wondered how he was ever going to teach this young man the curriculum that had been set out that he was to teach the Crown Prince of France. And so he went, and he bought, he obtained a purple rosette and he brought it to Class 1 morning.
And purple was the official color of the French royal family. And as that Crown Prince entered the classroom, he said to him, his tutor said to him. He said, when you misbehave in class, I cannot correct you or discipline you. But he said I am going to pin this purple rosette on your lapel. And every time you misbehave, every time you act in a way that is not in keeping with the French royal family.
Simply going to point at that rose which represents the royal family as to being purple, they said the effect was amazing and you and I have been called with a wonderful calling and heaven is before us. But again, we're exhorted to walk worthy now of the vocation wherewith we are called. I would like to cap my remarks by turning to one further portion. It's in Revelation chapter 3.
01:00:15
We've had three exhortations, to walk worthy to walk worthy of God, to walk worthy of the Lord, and to walk worthy of Our Calling. But now I want to read this expression. It's a promise given to those in Sardis who didn't defile their garments. Verse four of chapter 3.
Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. Now notice this.
And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. You know, this isn't an exhortation here to walk worthy like we've had in the three previous scriptures. Here there is a wonderful promise given that the Saints who sought to go on in separation from that which was not according to the mind of God. He says they're going to walk with me because they are worthy. And brethren, there's a day coming when we're going to walk with Christ.
Beyond the need for the exhortations to walk worthy, when we get to glory and we're with Christ, we're not going to need to be exhorted to walk worthy of God or of the Lord or of our vocation, but we are going to walk with him in that day. Why? Because we are worthy power. We worthy in our own worthiness. No, in the worthiness of Christ. And that ought to motivate us, brethren, to walk worthy. Now to think of what's ahead, to think that we're going to walk with Him because we are worthy, because we're seen in price.
And his righteousness will make us worthy. Oh, that ought to to motivate us to walk in practical righteousness. Now, to walk worthy again, I say of God, to walk worthy of the Lord, to walk worthy of our vocation. And then to think that the day is coming and it's not far off. Brethren, when we're going to walk with him because we are worthy, we're going to be seen in Christ. We won't need an exhortation. There won't be anything to defile there. We're going to walk with him there.
In perfection.
Let's learn to walk in some measure worthy of that Blessed One while we wait that day.
The last two versions of #29.
Gospel 3
Gospel—J. Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's begin the Gospel meeting this evening with hymn #7 on the gospel hymn sheet. God loved the world of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Salvation fall at highest cost. He offers free to all. I'm going to suggest we stand up to sing this hymn number 7 and if someone will please start it.
Oh God, you're here.
And all right, my day, Joy of God's love.
We're going to connect six portions of the Word of God at the beginning the Gospel meeting this evening. The first one is in the book of Galatians.
Galatians chapter one.
Galatians chapter one.
I'm going to begin with the last three words of verse 3.
The last four words our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God, our and our Father, and then turn to Marks Gospel Marks Gospel, chapter 10.
Mark's Gospel chapter 10 and verse 45.
For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. First Timothy, Chapter 2.
First Timothy chapter 2.
00:05:03
And verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.
The man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. I want to read another verse in the book of Galatians, this time in the second chapter.
Galatians, chapter 2.
Just the last part part of verse 20.
The Son of God, who loved me and gave himself.
For me, Titus, Chapter 2.
Titus chapter 2 and verse 13 looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing.
Of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. One more portion in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 6.
So Ephesians chapter 5.
And justice the last part of verse 25.
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Well, at the beginning of the Gospel Meeting this evening, we make no apologies from turning here and there in the Word of God. Because, as we've often said at the beginning of a meeting like this, it's the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit that God is going to use tonight. If there's blessing in this room, oh, it's true as we go through the Word of God in the New Testament.
There is room for preaching and exposition and explanation of the Word of God, but it's not our ability to present the Word or to explain it tonight that blessing depends upon it is the Word in all its living power, the Word applied in the power of the Spirit. And I love at the beginning of a gospel meeting, to quote that verse in Peter. We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever.
And as we have turned from page to page and read these six different portions of God's Word, I trust that your hearts and ears have been open to take in what God has to say to you. This is a gospel meeting, and our particular burden tonight is for those that are lost. And yet, you know, for all of us, Isn't it refreshing to hear the sweet story of Jesus and his love time and time and time again?
I am always encouraged when I visit an elderly St. of God in their home, maybe in a nursing home, a care facility, even in the hospital, and all. They love to speak of the simple gospel story. They love to speak of the Lord Jesus. Maybe they've been saved for 70 or 80 years, but they love to speak of the Lord Jesus as their Savior. They love to speak of the blood of Christ. They love to speak of the hope that they have.
Of being with and like him there in the Father's house. I love that old hymn we sometimes sing. I love to tell the story for those who know it best, seem hungry and thirsty to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory we sing the new, new song, we'll be the old, old story that I have loved so long and so for all of us tonight, as we hear the word of God and as we speak of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, I trust our hearts.
Will be encouraged and refreshed. If you're lost tonight, our prayer is that you will be saved. If you're saved tonight, our prayer is that your heart will be encouraged and refreshed as we go over these things, as we have done on so many previous occasions. And it's not my thought in reading these verses this evening to go over these verses word by word or line by line, or to even take up these verses in the order in which we have read them. But I was impressed this week in meditating.
On the person and work of Christ, I was impressed and struck with how many occasions it speaks of the Lord Jesus having given himself. And so I looked some of these up and these are the ones that I enjoyed in my own soul. The Lord Jesus giving himself. We speak first of all of God the Father giving the Son and all. How true that is. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Let's never forget.
00:10:20
And let's always remember that there was a great cost to God in giving his Son.
To send his only begotten into this world. I don't suppose any of us.
Even for eternity will fully enter in to what it meant to the heart of God to send His Son, the Lord Jesus into this world. As you go through the Old Testament in light of these New Testament scriptures, you find so many occasions where these precious truths are illustrated by type and shadow we find in connection with God sending the sun that beautiful picture of.
Jacob and and Joseph.
Of Israel sending Joseph to his brethren, and Joseph in obedience, responding and going even at great cost. We find another beautiful picture in Jesse sending David to the camp of Israel to see how the battle was going and take some provisions to his brothers. And then we find him going down and defeating the champion of the Philistines. What a picture it is of the Father sending the Son. What a picture it is of the Lord Jesus coming in obedience.
Into this world. And those are just a couple. Over and over again, these pictures are brought before us to touch our hearts, to speak to us so that we realize, at least in some little measure, what it must have meant to God to send his Son the Lord Jesus Christ. How many of us tonight have ever looked up and said, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift? Have you ever thanked God for sending his Son into this world?
Or when we speak of these things, does it really mean nothing to your heart? Does it really mean nothing to your heart and you kind of shuffle your feet? Oh, I was a boy and a young person in gospel meetings one time myself. And I know what it's like. You shuffle your feet a little bit, You look at the clock.
And you know, the clock moves much slower for the audience than the speaker. Sometimes for the speaker, time seems to fly by for the listener, especially if they're not interested how time seems to drag. But I want to tell you faithfully before God tonight. If you go out of this world without Christ, you will have plenty of time to think about these things where there will be no clock.
I is very solemn. You know, eternity is like a clock with no hands. You know there are at least two clocks in this room this evening, and those clocks, as slowly as they may seem to be moving to you, they are moving and the hands are slowly moving around.
And in the natural course of things, 8:00 will eventually come, and we'll close our Bibles and step down, and we'll go on our way to whatever activities you're looking forward to later this evening. But I say there will be a time.
When in eternity there will be no clock, and I say you will have plenty of time to remember a gospel meaning like this.
You know, I think it's remarkable to realize from the word of God that in eternity you will have a memory.
I've often quoted that verse that said the Lord Jesus speaking. He said the word which I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. What does that mean for us tonight?
Have you ever heard John 316?
In case you haven't, I'm going to quote it now. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Perhaps that's the first time you've heard it, but for most in this room, you have heard that verse before. And not just once before, but many times. Maybe some of you boys and girls and young people learned that verse in Sunday school, and to this day you could stand up and quote that verse without a mistake.
But the reason I just quoted that verse is to illustrate my point, and that is that if you reject the message of that verse, if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, and you pass out of this world lost and in your sins, the day will come when you will remember that verse in a lost eternity. But that verse will come to your memory not as to a point of refuge or salvation, but that verse will rise in judgment of you.
00:15:21
That verse will rise.
In your memory, to condemn you and to make you realize that you are there in a lost eternity because you rejected the message of that verse. The word which I have spoken the same will judge him in the last day, and I want to plead with you tonight in the presence of God. If you walk out of this gospel meeting tonight, and you go out lost and in your sins, and you go out into a lost eternity, you will have a very, very clear recollection and vivid memory.
Of this gospel meeting.
And these six portions of the Word of God that we have read together will come back to you in a coming day.
To condemn you.
And to make you realize.
That you are where you are.
Because of nobody's fault.
But yourself?
You know, there's nothing worse than having nobody to blame, is there? You know, we like to blame somebody.
Sometimes said, if I'm on a trip and I have my wife with me and we're driving, we're going through a city and trying to find our way to somebody'd house or to a meeting room and we missed the the exit. If my wife was reading the map, I'll say why weren't you watching the road signs? If she was watching the road signs, I said why don't you, why won't you following the map? We'd like to have somebody to blame. And when I'm alone and I get lost, it's pretty tough sometimes because I have nobody to blame but myself.
But all tonight it is so serious. It is serious. We are passionate about what we're Speaking of tonight from the word of God, because it is serious to pass out of this world knowing.
The word of God and knowing the way of salvation. And yet to realize that when you leave this world and you draw that final breath, it's all over. You know we missed the road sign. We missed the exit.
Last night we were coming home from dinner at a brother and sister's home and the driver missed the exit for our hotel. You know, it was no big deal. We went ahead and we swung around and took another exit and we got there. But we have maybe a 2 minute delay. 3 minute delay, something like that was no big deal. Nobody panicked.
But you know there's no U turns in eternity.
There's no more exits once we leave this world. When we exit this world, we exit, and the right exit or the wrong exit, there's no turning around.
Eternity is fixed at that point.
You know, there was an occasion when the Lord Jesus drew back the curtain and he told about two men, two men who lived in this world.
Two real men, you know. Sometimes the Lord spoke in parables.
But these were This wasn't a parable. These were two actual men.
With names, although we're only told one of their names, but they had names. They lived in this world.
They left this world. They both died.
But they died under very, very different circumstances.
One went out into eternity to lift up his eyes in torment.
The other went out into eternity to a place of blessing.
What the Lord Jesus was seeking to bring upon the conscience of the hearers in his day was the fact that when a person leaves this world, it's too late to make a decision.
One of those men realized he'd made the wrong choices in life.
And he wanted things rectified.
And he wanted something to ease his suffering.
Albeit only down to a drop of water.
But I want to tell you tonight, on the basis of what the Lord Jesus said in God's Word, that man never got his momentary relief.
He never got his drop of water and he never will. Do you realize that since the Lord told that story, that man has been in torment for over 2000 years more?
00:20:09
And do you realize that when another 2000 years pass?
He won't be anymore to the end of his torment than he was when the Lord Jesus told the story.
Or than he is right now.
That's why we have gospel meetings. That's why we open the word of God. And we seek to present from the pages of this blessed living book the Savior of sinners, the one who came into this world and gave himself at Calvary's cross.
You know, thousands of people.
A few hours ago were ushered into eternity.
In what we would call a natural disaster.
An earthquake 6.2 on the Richter scale in Indonesia.
The tally I heard this morning was 3000 and counting.
Solemn, isn't it? You know, an earthquake comes without warning.
A hurricane is predicted and many times people can get out of the way.
A volcano is boiling and they can give you some idea that it's going to erupt in the next while and people can get out of the way.
An earthquake is unpredictable as to when it's going to happen. Oh, I realize they can tell you that you're living on an earthquake fault and that this will happen at some point and that and so on. But an earthquake comes without warning. But you know, the judgment of God is not without warning.
You know, it's a principle with God that he never judges without doing two things. He always gives a warning and he always makes a way of escape. And we see that again, illustrated even in the Old Testament.
When God said that there was a flood coming on the world because of man's sin and the wickedness that sprang from his evil heart, God gave a warning. Noah preached righteousness, I suppose, for about 120 years.
And there was a way of escape through the Ark, albeit only eight souls went in and were spared from the judgment at that time.
When God looked down at Guilty Nineveh, he pronounced judgment, but again he gave a warning.
Noah entered into that city and cried. Yet 40 Days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Wasn't a very long message, was it? Do you know the whole city got saved? And that's something. It wouldn't it be something if we preach the gospel in Paula? And the whole city got saved, but the whole city got saved.
And there was a way of escape. The judgment did not fall at that time. But you know what's interesting? When you go over to the book of Nahum, another generation, about 120 years later, the judgment did fall. God wasn't fooling around.
And, you know, sometimes we talk about judgment coming on this world.
And it tells us that there are scoffers in the last day who come, and they say, where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep?
All things continue as they are, even until now. You know, when I hear people talk like that, I realize we're right there because those kind of people come, Scripture tells us, in the last days.
But is God fooling? No. He's appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. But you know, the wonderful thing is we can turn from Speaking of judgment.
We can turn from Speaking of the consequences of sin, and we can speak tonight of the Savior of sinners who gave himself at Calvary Cross.
You know, the Lord Jesus couldn't just reach down and save us. No, He had to come down.
And he could say, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Where did that will lead him? Oh, it led him to Calvary Cross, he could say of the work of Calvary I have a baptism wherewith to be baptized. And how am I straightened until it be accomplished. He came for one purpose. He came to glorify God and to give himself a Calvary's cross. And these verses that we have read together.
Over and over and over again have spoken of the Lord Jesus giving Himself. You know, we often speak of the gifts of God and the gifts of Scripture, and there are many gifts that we could enumerate, but the greatest gift that was ever given to man.
00:25:19
Was the Lord Jesus giving himself at Calvary's cross? Had the Lord Jesus not lay down his life at the cross, there would be no salvation, there would be no blessing for mankind. At the cross we have the display.
Of the heart of God, like it had never been displayed before.
We have the display of the heart of the Lord Jesus like never before.
The boys and girls sometimes sing that well known hymn. Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Then they sing Jesus Loves me, He who Died Heaven's gate to open wide.
Wonderful that we can speak tonight of the one who gave himself in love.
You know, as we read these verses, we realize there are two, perhaps 2 great truths brought out in connection with the Lord Jesus giving himself the need and the motive. The need is like we read in Galatians one we were sinners.
I hope there's no one here who would have the audacity if they had opportunity to stand up and declare that they're not sinners.
And yet, you know, a friend of mine was telling me he had a man knocked at his door one morning as he and his wife sat down to breakfast.
And this man looked like a beggar, looked like a transient. And so they invited him in and gave him something to eat.
And gave him the gospel.
But you know, as this man sat at this brother's breakfast table, he said to my friend, he said, you know, I'm not a Sinner.
I've only made mistakes, but I'm not a Sinner.
But you know, the longer he sat at the table, the more my friend realized there was a problem.
Because everything he touched he wiped with his napkin and he was very, very careful about what he touched and what he wiped. My friend got a little suspicious and he slipped out of the room and called the police and found out that this man was wanted for several criminal offenses.
He'd made more than mistakes and he was indeed a Sinner. But you say, oh, I've never gone against society, I've never fled from the police, I've never been wanted for some crime.
By one man's disobedience, sin entered, and death by sin so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Do you realize that the first sin recorded in the word of God was the sin of disobedience, since, perhaps a little aside, but the first recorded sin in the Church of God in the Acts is a lie.
Two things we think little about.
Young people, when was the last time you were disobedient?
When was the last time you told a lie, Just a little lie, Because you know, you had to get through this, and if you didn't just fudge it a little bit, you're going to get into trouble. You really spared yourself something because you just changed the truth a little bit.
Serious in the sight of God.
One man's disobedience. How many acts of disobedience? One act by one man brought sin down on the whole human race. So serious Was it the sight of God. Don't think just because you're not a criminal.
You're not a Sinner tonight.
You are a Sinner. God says there is no difference. For all of sinned come short of the glory of God. Solomon the wisest man, whoever lived probably apart from the Lord. Jesus said there's not a man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. That's what God says.
But the Lord Jesus gave himself for our sins.
But there was more than just a need. There was a motive. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, You know, I might see a need, and I might meet that need because I feel some obligation towards somebody or to my fellow man in general. But I might meet that need, not particularly out of love, but all the Lord Jesus.
00:30:10
He not only saw the need, but there was a motive, a motive of love. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Was a young man came to the Lord Jesus one time in the pathway of the Lord Jesus, And we never read that this young man received the blessing. But I love these words, it says. And Jesus beholding him, loved him. Do you realize as the Lord Jesus looks down in this room tonight, he loves you?
He loves you. And could you stand by the apostle Paul and say, the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me?
If you can't say that tonight, then I question whether you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior or not.
He gave himself.
You know, it's one thing for a person to give up their substance, but to give of themselves is quite another matter, isn't it?
You know, I might see my neighbor in need and I might be able to reach into my pocket and give him something to help him in that need, But isn't it quite another matter? If I go over to my neighbors and I say I see you have a need. And not only do I have the means to help you in this need, but I will walk you through it. I will be with you through this until this matter is settled and over. It's quite another thing, isn't it?
The Lord Jesus gave himself.
With a young man here in the United States went off to college.
It's a Christian knew the Lord Jesus as his savior, loved the Lord Jesus.
And as his first college year unfolded, he felt pressed in his soul.
To give himself on the foreign mission field.
He felt the call of God in a very direct way and finally.
He wrote to his widowed mother.
To ask for her blessing.
In answering the call that he felt so strongly from God.
The weeks passed and he didn't get a reply for some time.
But eventually the reply came.
And it was a reply that indeed gave his mother's blessing.
To go to the foreign mission field.
As he read it, he realized that the paper and the ink were stained were stained with tears.
And at the bottom she made this comment. I never knew until now what it must have meant to God to give his Son the Lord Jesus. And I never knew until now what it must have meant to the Lord Jesus to give himself as a sacrifice on Calvary's cross.
Does love like that touch your heart tonight? If love like that doesn't touch your heart tonight, I wonder what goes on within your heart.
Is your heart that heart that tonight we as we speak of these precious things, that throw the hearts of so many of us, yet you remain indifferent.
I'm going to repeat a story that I told some time ago, but I think it illustrates a point.
Many years ago there was a evangelist by the name of Walston in England.
And he was holding some evangelical meetings in Sheffield.
And Sheffield, as we know, is noted for its steel production of fine steel.
And the first night he was there, as he prepared to retire to his room, he said to his host and his Hostess. How do you sleep in this place?
Because there was 24 hours a day, the constant noise of the hammers and the machinery.
That were used in the production of Sheffield Steel.
They said to him, you stay here long enough and you'll get used to it.
And I'm afraid there are people.
In North America, who have heard the gospel so many, many times that they're like the residents of Sheffield, England, so many years ago, they got use to those hammers.
00:35:06
Going day and night.
But you know, there was a sequel to that story.
Because one night.
The equipment failed and the hammer stopped. The whole town woke up.
You know there's a day coming when the hammer of God's Word will no longer sound.
In this world, as to the gospel of the grace of God, there'll be a lot of waking up.
There'll be young people who sat in gospel meetings like this who will realize what has happened.
And we read of it in one of the portions in Titus, The Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Is a very real event scheduled for this world and scheduled very soon.
It's real, you know, Men's schedule things. People schedule things. We schedule all the time. We're bound by schedules. We've all got our Blackberries and our laptops and our calendars, and we're bound by schedules.
But you know, our schedules get frustrated, don't they? But God's timetable, God's schedule always happens right on time.
4:00 On Thursday afternoon I boarded a United flight.
At the Ottawa airport.
I had every intention of flying to Chicago and catching a flight to Des Moines and getting into Des Moines about 9:45 on Thursday evening, and they told us when we checked in at the counter that we were on time.
And when we handed in our boarding passes to the agent as we got on the plane, there it was flight on time.
435 departure.
We got on the plane.
And 4 1/2 hours later they canceled the flight.
They kept telling us it will just be another 20 minutes, another half hour. Weather's bad in Chicago. They're not letting anybody in or out. Then they told us they opened one runway, but we were going to wait another while.
Then we heard the jet engine start up and everybody was encouraged. They told us to put our tray tables in the full upright position, restore our cabin baggage, turn our cell phones and our laptops off.
We got all positioned and the captain came on and said the company has decided to cancel this flight. We're shutting the engines down.
Frustrating.
We got off that plane, I went up back up to the United ticket counter and I rescheduled for the next day.
And the next day, Brother Ryan picked me up at 11:15 here in Des Moines.
I made it a few hours late, but I made it.
But you know, I thought of those who missed the Lord's coming, those who are not ready when the Lord Jesus comes. Is there going to be a second opportunity? No. You know, when I went back up to that ticket counter, the agent said I can get you to Chicago, no problem. But I can't guarantee you a seat from Chicago to Des Moines tomorrow. I said, Get Me Out of here. On the first flight. I knew there was an 8:00 flight to Chicago. I fly it more times than I care to remember.
I said you get me to Chicago and I said give me a print out of all the flights from Chicago to Des Moines tomorrow and I'll handle it from there.
He did that. There were, I believe, seven flights from Chicago to Des Moines.
I got into Chicago at 9:05, and at 10:05 I stepped on a flight for Des Moines. It was an empty seat.
But again, there will be no second chance.
If you miss the Lord's coming, there will be no rebooking. There will be no rescheduling.
When once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door, then they come and knock, and they say, Lord, Lord, open unto us.
The door of grace and mercy ever reopened. Never depart from me. I never knew you.
Comes from the other side of that closed door to ring in their ears for all eternity.
00:40:07
But the Lord Jesus gave himself.
He shared his precious blood. We have tonight to offer you a ticket and a passport to glory.
We're planning to take some young people.
Down to a conference in a third world country in a few months and we're making arrangements.
And I am trying to impress upon those young people that not only do we need to get tickets early, but if they do not have a valid passport, they need to lose no time in getting a valid passport.
It's too late to show up at the ticket counter the day of the flight.
And try to obtain a passport.
Do you have your passport to heaven secured tonight?
Are you trusting in the work of Christ?
Are you trusting in the blood of the Lord Jesus because it's the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, that cleanses from all sin?
You've heard me say this before, but when I travel, I have what I call a BTP checklist.
And the last thing I do before I leave my home is I check that list. Bible ticket, passport. Everything else I can do without or replace on the other end of the journey. But I feel I can't do without those three things. My Bible. My ticket, my passport. Tonight we have the word of God that tells us the way of salvation. This book, the Bible, it shows us, Timothy was told that the word of God, the Holy Scriptures are able to make the wise unto salvation.
Through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
The Lord Jesus, if I can speak reverently, is our passport to heaven.
He died on the cross to make the way possible. The blood of Christ, if again I can speak reverently, is our ticket to glory.
No good to show up at an Air Canada or United or any other ticket counter in any airport.
And not have a ticket for that flight.
You must secure a ticket, usually before check in time.
At the airport.
We plan things so well, don't we? We make sure we have everything in order. We make sure our travel documents are in order if we're going to travel to certain places or corners of the world, and we check and recheck things.
And sometimes, if they change my itinerary a few hours before I fly, I will even call the 800 number and make sure I've got the right itinerary in front of me so I don't get to the airport and find that I was booked on a flight that left three hours ago. We planned so well. We're so careful about preparations and activities in this life. But what about eternity? That's what we're talking about tonight. The Lord Jesus in giving himself.
Has made it possible that we can secure a happy and blessed eternity.
Are you on your way to heaven tonight? Do you know the Lord Jesus?
As your savior, can you say that he died for you? For me?
Can you put your name in that verse in Galatians? The Son of God who loved. I'll put my name in that verse. The Son of God who loved Jim and gave himself for Jim. I can say that with confidence.
Not being presumptuous, but basing it on the word of God.
He loved me. He gave himself for me. Can you put your name in that verse tonight?
I remember some years ago we were holding some gospel tent meetings in Truro, NS.
And it was a little girl who came to those tent meetings. I think she was five or six years of age.
Pretty young, and she knew the Lord Jesus as her savior.
And one morning to the morning Children's Bible hour, she brought a little friend, same age, 5-6 years of age.
00:45:02
That friend did not know the Lord Jesus as her savior, but she listened very attentively to the message that morning.
Which was presented by a brother very simply and clearly.
And when the Bible hour was over, she and her friend remained behind.
While all the other boys and girls filed out of the tent and went home.
They remain behind because this little girl who had come for the first time, wanted to make sure that she was saved and that her sins were taken care of.
And I believe in simple childlike faith. That morning she came to know the Lord Jesus as her savior.
But what really impressed me, and what really thrilled my soul, was as those two little girls, hand in hand, left the tent that morning.
And I was standing nearby. I heard the one who brought her friend say to the friend who had just been saved. Now you can say that Jesus belongs to you.
I thought that was very precious 25 year old girls able to grasp that precious truth. Can you say that Jesus belongs to you? Can you say tonight that you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
I want to tell a little story and I prayed much about this, I trust.
And I don't want to tell this story to be funny tonight.
But I want to tell a story that some of you have heard me tell of light. A story to encourage.
Parents or grandparents?
Or any here tonight who are praying for a loved one.
Maybe there's a parent here. You're praying for that young person on the back row. You're in earnest tonight for their soul. And you say, why doesn't the Lord come in and save them? I just don't understand. He promised thou in my house, but He just doesn't come in and save them.
I want to tell you a little story and I trust that it will encourage your heart in view of a verse in the book of Peter that says he's long-suffering to us, Word not willing that any should perish. You know, it doesn't say there he's long-suffering to the lost, although that is certainly true. He is long-suffering to the loss, but he's long-suffering to us word those of us who have family members that he's praying for. You know, I have a wife at home. She's praying for a father who's not saved.
One reason the Lord hasn't come is because he's long-suffering to my wife.
Knowing that she'd like to see her father saved before the door is closed.
But here's my story. I was coming out of Saint Vincent the last time, and I had a flight on Caribbean Star Airlines to Barbados.
And then when you get to Barbados, you have to recheck with Air Canada to fly up to Toronto and then a short hop to Ottawa.
I had a big old suitcase and it was my last trip for the season and so I took some things I'd left down there on some previous trips and I put them in this big suitcase and I checked it at the airport with Caribbean Star as far as Barbados.
I've learned long ago that when you get on those prop planes, if you see the crew running around with these ominous looking calculators before they shut the door, the plane is overweight and something or someone is going to have to get off. Everything goes by weight, especially on those short runways and those mountainous islands.
My problem was I was almost the 1St to check in for the flight, so my suitcase went on the bottom of the cart which meant it was last into the plane which meant it was the 1St off.
And so I got to Barbados, and sure enough, my bag didn't come.
I went to the Caribbean Star Service counter and explained the situation. I filled out a claim form and they told me that they would contact Air Canada who had never had or tagged the bag. And when I got to Ottawa to my final destination to hand in a copy of this claim form and explain the situation to them, I did with very little hope that I would ever see that bag again.
The bag, as I say, was checked on Caribbean Star. It was to come from Barbados on Air Canada.
00:50:02
A few days later, British W Indies Airways called me to say that they had a bag belonging to a James Highland and what should they do with it? How they got it, I have no idea. To this day I explained the situation and I said to the agent, give me your name and number and I too will call Air Canada, which I did.
I left for the Bahamas, and the night I got to the Bahamas, my wife called me to say that Air France had called that morning saying they had a vague belonging to a James Highland. What was the story?
I called Air Canada back and explained the situation. The man said, look, we'll follow this up, but I would suggest that because it's been 2 weeks now, you file a claim with Air Canada and start a process in case you don't ever see the bag again. I called Faye. She downloaded a claim form and emailed it to my laptop. That night we went over the claim form and she mailed it in. I said at that point I said, you know, Faye, I'm not going to make any more calls.
If the Lord wants me to have that bag back, he'll send it back, but I'm not going to worry about it now.
The morning I was leaving for Bermuda, I got out of the shower and Fay said You will never guess who called me this morning.
Northwest Airlines called to say they have your bag in Ottawa and they'll deliver it to Smith Falls, which is an hour from the airport by 3:00 this afternoon. And they did never flown northwest before.
The end of the story is that some weeks later I got a very apologetic letter from Air Canada saying after an extensive search for your bag, we are unable to find it and here is a check for $308 to reimburse you. And we smile. We laugh at a story like that. We think of the bureaucracy in the airlines and the confusion that there was, and I have no idea where that bag went. It could have ended up in Paris on Air France for all I know.
But I tell that story tonight to encourage parents.
Maybe you see circumstances in the lives of your children and young people that just seem hopeless. I gave up getting that bag back. It seemed hopeless. That bag seemed to be wandering the world and going here and there. But the Lord had his eye on that bag, and when the right moment came, he brought the bag back. And not only did he bring the bag back, but he brought some reimbursement as well.
You know, parents, the Lord has his eye on your young people. He has his eye on your children, and maybe he doesn't work as fast as you would like. You'd like to see that young person saved. And if that young person is here tonight, we want to impress upon you not to wait. The time is short and behold, now is the day of salvation. But I say to parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles who are praying for loved ones, don't give up on your loved ones.
Pray for them. The Lord has his eye on them, and he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
I have young people. Sometimes I give up. But the Lord doesn't give up on our young people. He doesn't give up on our loved ones. His eye is on them.
We've come to the end, really, of this gospel meeting. We've read the word of God.
We have quoted scriptures and now all we can do is pray for blessing.
I'm thankful that blessing doesn't depend on our ability to present the Word tonight. But I am thankful too. That blessing depends on the heart of God and his desire, and the heart of the Lord Jesus and his desire, and the Word of God and the Spirit of God in all its power.
What can I say at the end of a Gospel meeting like this but to plead with you?
I'm going to pray in a moment or two.
And here is how simple it is to be saved tonight.
Right where you're seated and without uttering one word aloud, because God hears what you express in your heart.
You can be saved. You can speak to God tonight in your heart. You can speak to the Lord Jesus. And it doesn't take some special language or some special ability to express things, but simply from your heart to address the Lord Jesus tonight and to receive the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
00:55:12
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm just going to quote the lines of a hymn we often sing. Behold the Savior at the door.
He gently knocks, has knocked before.
Has waited long, is waiting. Still, you use no other friend, so I'll open the door and let him in, and he'll enter in and Sup with you and you with him. Perhaps we could sing a hymn in closing.
Thinking of that hymn #21, decide for Christ today.
And God's salvation, see, yields soul and body, heart and will to him who died for thee #21 if someone will please start it.
Our garden.
Gospel 8
Gospel—R. Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Our meeting tonight with #8 on our hymn sheets.
Shall we gather at His coming when the dead in Christ arise? Shall we hear the Savior call us to His home beyond the skies?
We who are believers can say yes, will gather at His coming, His glorious, His glorious coming. Gather with his Saints that is coming. If cleansed by the Savior's blood, maybe we can stand and sing #8.
Shall we?
Let's pray.
My desire tonight to speak on the Lord's coming.
But before we do, I'd like to go to 1St Corinthians chapter 15 because.
Before we speak of the Lord's Second Coming, which is still future.
It is important that we understand the purpose of His first coming. Christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's passed.
Jesus is coming again. That's future. We're in between.
And it's very important that we understand the purpose why he came the first time. Turned to 1St Corinthians chapter 15.
We're going to read these verses.
Last week.
I read them at a funeral in Miami of a young man.
Who was killed in a car accident? 20 years old. The day before I had been in their home. Embraced him. Had a good visit for about two hours. Picture of hell.
Next day, 5:00 in the morning one week ago.
Gone from this world, life is very uncertain. That's why it is so important that you and I have those issues clearly settled in our souls.
00:05:15
And here the apostle Paul says, notice what he says, moreover.
Brethren, I declare unto you the gospel.
Isn't that wonderful?
He declared it to the brethren.
Why was that important? Because.
Because in this chapter there was a question as to one of the fundamental truths of the gospel that was in question, the truth of resurrection. So he went back to declare the basic matters of the gospel. And that's what I'm going to do this evening before we get into the question of His second coming. What is the Gospel then?
That Paul declared notice I'll read further which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have.
Ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that.
Which also I received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And that he was buried.
And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the 12 And that after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remaineth unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. Well, I just want to call attention to those.
Three major points of the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
To he was buried three. He rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.
God takes sin serious.
It cost him terribly to put away sin.
It cost him his own beloved Son, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Sometimes I put it this way, I have two boys of my own.
And if one day I'm looking out the front window of my house and I see somebody beating on one of my boys.
Do you think I'm going to just sit there in my easy chair and watch it happen?
No way you're going to run out there.
Say beat on me, but don't you beat on my boy.
When God was witnessing, when they mistreated the Lord Jesus like they did.
They put their fists in his face. They come up and spit square in his face. They crowned him with thorns. They took sticks to beat him over the head.
Did God come to defend him, to deliver him? No. Why not?
Didn't he love his son? Yes, he did love him. Why didn't he defend him then? You know why.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But have everlasting life. He loved you that much, friend. He loved you so much that he let his own son go into death for you.
Jesus died on that cross, but Scripture tells us here very clearly that Christ died for our sins. No sin is ever going to enter God's holy presence in heaven. It won't happen.
00:10:14
If you want to get into heaven, you've got to resolve the question of your sins.
Jesus came into the world sent by the Father for that very purpose. And when Jesus was hung on that cross of Calvary, not only did he suffer those terrible insults from.
His creature man.
But the scripture tells us that after three hours of hanging on that cross, we can't even imagine the terrible physical suffering it was. But something happened. Everything got dark. From 12 noon to three in the afternoon, everything was dark. Nobody could see what was taking place.
But it was in those three hours that God was dealing about the question of sin.
The prophet Isaiah puts it the best He says he that's the Lord Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord God lay on him Jesus, the iniquity of us all. God doesn't treat sin lightly.
Every sin that has ever been committed on planet earth will receive from God's hands. It's just punishment, like it or not. Believe it or not, that is the case. The scripture tells us God takes sin serious, and you best take your sins seriously too. So when Jesus was hanging there on top of those terrible physical sufferings.
In those hours of darkness, God laid on Jesus all my sins, Every single one of them. And then God picked up his judgment rod and he punished Jesus for my sins.
He didn't want to send me to hell forever.
He preferred to send his son to take my place on the cross, and there the storm of God's judgment in all his fury broke on that man that was hanging on that center cross.
Complete silence for three whole hours as Jesus hung there.
In those awful, awful sufferings that will never be able to understand.
And then at the end of those three hours of darkness, he cries. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
God forsook us, Son on the cross. Why? Because He was the sin bearer. God made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's what took place after Jesus cried. It is finished.
The whole question of our soul salvation, the question of the punishment of sin, was resolved once and for all on the cross.
Jesus, a divine person.
Pronounced that the work was done.
All the judgment that was against me, and rightly so, that judgment that would have sunk me to hell forever, it's gone, it's finished. There is no more to be done for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how important that is to understand.
Again, I repeat, every single sin that has ever been committed on planet earth will receive from the hand of God. It's just punishment, no sin accepted. If I could suggest that God some kinds of sin just kind of sweeps under the rug and and forgets about him, it would call in question his holy character. It can't happen, it won't happen.
00:15:27
Now the question of your sins has to be resolved, and has to be resolved according to the standards of God's justice. Not your idea of what's acceptable, but what God's standard of justice is. And Jesus died. He gave up his life on that cross. After he died, a soldier came up, and with a spear he pierced his side, and out flowed blood in water.
The scripture says it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
It also says the blood of Jesus Christ Godson cleanses us from all sin.
Nothing else can take away the guilt of your sins, friend, except the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God. How do we know that God was satisfied with that work of redemption that Jesus paid with His precious blood?
It is in this statement that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Jesus is not dead. Jesus lives.
A real man of flesh and bones rose from the dead.
God is satisfied. And where is that man? God has placed him at the pinnacle of all power and glory, at his own right hand in heaven. Today there is a man. One of our race is sitting in the glory of God.
A real man of flesh and bones is sitting there in the glory of God. That's how I know.
That God accepted what he paid for my sins on the cross.
Oh, how important that is to understand. Oh, what comfort for that Cuban family down in Miami.
And we were able to say, because that boy that went to be with the Lord, because he was a real believer, there I was standing right beside his casket. What a handsome young man he was. Couldn't believe it. Just the day before I had embraced him, there he was dead.
Is that the end?
Death is not the end. Death, physical death, is only temporary. You say for Christians, I say for everybody.
It's only temporary.
Every single person that has ever been buried on planet Earth is going to vacate their graves. I've walked through graveyards in the Andes of South America where the town is completely abandoned. You walk through that graveyard, there's the bones laying out on the top of the ground. I don't know what happened. Animals got in there or what happened there are their bones.
Human bones laying out there. You know those human bones, they're going to come back to life one day.
If they are believers, if they were believers in the Lord Jesus, when the Lord comes again to rapture his people out of this world.
They're going to be collected at that time. People that have died at sea, where are their bodies now? The fish have eaten their bodies. Where are they? God knows where they are. They're all going to come out when he gives that shout of acclamation.
And the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and then all the dead in Christ are going to be raised.
And we shall be changed, and together we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Oh, today that's going to be what a wonderful day. But my, I'm really concerned tonight. You know, Scripture says here there's another reason why we preach the gospel to the brethren. It's this Scripture says, unless you have believed in vain. What does that mean?
00:20:10
Believing in vain. Is that possible?
Scripture says so.
What does it mean to believe in vain? Is there somebody here that's believed in vain?
You know of Jesus 12 disciples.
One was false.
If we'd apply that ratio here, I don't know how many people are here.
But that would mean that quite a few people, a few people here could be.
That are not real. I don't know where you are. You know, if you're just playing around with God. If you say for so your parents keep off your back. Yeah, I'm a Christian, I believe.
I don't know where you are.
But I want to speak to you.
This is far, far too serious to be messing around with.
There was a man in the book of the Acts that believed in vain.
He was a sorcerer before he made a profession of faith in Christ. You know what that is Something that deal with Satanism and the occult, but of greater power came to Samaria. It was the power of God and the Gospel.
And Simon the sorcerer kind of felt displaced. He kind of got put on the background, so he figured I'd better get on the bandwagon. And it says he believed and he was baptized.
Oh, have you heard the news? Simon the Sorcerer got saved. Isn't that wonderful?
Seemed wonderful, didn't it?
Peter and John came down from Jerusalem.
And Simon the sorcerer came up to him, to Peter, and says.
Here, here's some money. Give me the power to give the Holy Spirit.
And Peter discerned.
Your heart is not right before God. Repentance.
And if there's somebody here that knows they're not right before God, I ask you tonight, repent. You know what repent means? Means a change in your thinking. It means to think things God's way.
Not your own thoughts. Change your thinking to how God looks at you.
Give serious It's not a matter merely of the head of believing in the head. Scripture says very clearly, If thou shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Oh, how important it is to be real with God. And I plead with you. I look around this room. I'm glad to see that there's.
Fairly good attention, but you know I can only look on the outside.
And the fact that you're giving me your attention is good, but I can't look at your heart. How do you stand before God?
One day, sooner or later, you are going to have to meet up with Jesus. There is no escape to it. You will meet Him either as your Savior if you accept Him in this day of opportunity. Today is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Or if you say no to Jesus.
Then you will meet him when he sits on a great white throne of judgment.
And cast you into the lake of fire forever.
God loves you far too much to allow you to go to such an end. That's why God is roadblocked the road to hell with the cross of Christ saying don't go a step further, stop, turn around. There's a way of salvation through faith in Jesus and his shed blood.
But I want to talk tonight about the Lords second coming, because to me.
It is astounding what we're seeing in the world around us today.
00:25:00
Things that are happening.
That clearly show that we are getting close to the Lord's coming, you know, for his coming to take his own people out of this world as we have in the Scriptures what we sometimes call the rapture, when Jesus is going to come to the clouds and give a shout and the the trumpet is going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to rise.
That can happen at any moment. There is no sign.
To show that that moment is close. That will happen at any moment now. Are you ready?
If you have understood the gospel message and have said no.
Or maybe you said, yeah, I understand, but later and the Lord comes.
The door of opportunity will be shut forever.
Oh, you say there's going to be a gospel of the Kingdom preached later. Maybe I'll get in under that. No, you won't. Scripture says God will send strong delusion, that you will believe a lie because you receive not the love of the truth. I plead with you to not fool around with God, to get serious with God. Now I'd like to go to Matthew chapter 24, what we have in this chapter.
Is not the Lord's coming for us, the believers in the Rapture?
It is the Lord's coming.
After, in what is called, there is a time of great tribulation.
And at the end of that time of great tribulation, we understand it to be seven years.
Then he's going to come.
And his feet are going to touchdown.
On planet Earth, again, from the very same spot where he went up the Mount of Olives, he's going to come back to that very same spot. But he's not coming to save, He's coming to judge in righteousness. God commands all men everywhere to repent because he has a point of the day.
In the which He will judge this world in righteousness, by that man whom he has ordained, whereof He has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
It's going to happen because Jesus was raised from the dead.
You know, it's interesting. I find it very interesting that even.
Apart from the testimony of Holy Scripture.
Secular human history. One of the most well established historical facts is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Friend, that is something you must face. It's something that scientists cannot explain.
But it is well established human history and also what is attested to in this book. Jesus is coming again. It is certain when I look around to see what is taking place in this world as we're on our way here to these conference meetings. We heard about an earthquake over in Indonesia, 3000, more souls.
Hurled into eternity at a moment's notice.
These things are spoken of in Scripture and these things are going to increase.
In their frequency, somebody has said coming events cast their shadows.
You know what really burdens me is that this world is almost totally asleep as to where we're going.
Even so-called Christians, the majority have no clue where we are standing, right on the edge of the worst judgment this world has ever seen or ever will see.
00:30:05
Let's read about it here.
Very interesting what He has to say, and I think you'll see as we read chapter 24 of Matthew from verse three on some of the things that relate to what we are seeing in the world today. These are things that Jesus is Speaking of that is going to take place after the believers are gone, but they're starting to happen today.
Verse three. As he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, Tell us.
When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? That word should be the end of the age.
End of this.
Particular civilization that we are part of, This civilization is coming to an end. It's not going to last a whole lot longer.
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.
I don't know if you've ever heard of anybody that says that.
In Bolivia there was a man that appeared that professed to be Christ.
His name was Julio. Starts with AJ.
And they mark their buildings with a great big circle, and in the middle of that circle is J. You think that stands for Jesus?
Doesn't stand for Jesus. It stands for Julio.
And he actually has taken worship hymns.
That are written for worshipping Jesus.
And he puts his own name in there, and he stands up and he lets people worship him.
I met a young man came into our bookstore in Montero, Bolivia.
University student.
Couldn't believe kid that was supposed to be using his head a little bit. I said hey man, aren't you getting letting yourself be deceived?
Scripture tells us that when the true Jesus comes, every eye shall see him.
I haven't laid eyes on this man you're talking about.
He listened to me for a little while and then he just shook his head.
Said, you know, just like when Jesus came the first time.
But the more you speak against him, the more I worship him. He turned and walked out.
It's a spirit of deception that is working in the world today.
Now if you may have heard that when some of you remember the incident of David Koresh down in down in Waco, TX.
Who said he was Christ as well?
Number one radio commentator in that area who was giving the news.
Said it wasn't so surprising to him that David Koresh would say he was Christ. What was so surprising to him?
Is how many phone calls they got from other parts of the country from people who say he can't be Christ because I'm Christ. I'm talking about the United States of America.
If you don't open and believe the message of this book, you're going to be deceived. It's strong deception that is working already in this world.
Verse 6 and you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Sound familiar?
See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Nation shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there shall be famines.
And pestilences.
The bird flu that they're talking about has tremendous proportions for killing large portions of population around the world.
And earthquakes, that's what we were talking about in diverse places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows.
You know the great Tribulation period. We understand from scripture that it is a seven-year period. We're talking this afternoon about Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks was divided into 3 sections, 7 weeks or 49 years because they were weeks of years and 62 weeks.
00:35:07
And then one final week and that one final week has not taken place yet. And that's why we know that this tribulation period will be seven years. And that seven-year period, according to Daniel, is divided into two parts. And the first part is called, according to this verse 8, the beginning of sorrows.
The second part is what is called later on in the chapter Great Tribulation. Let's continue to read here. Verse 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted? He's talking to the Jewish people.
There, and they shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall be betray one another, and shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. That certainly is the case in our world today.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And we're talking about the great tribulation period.
Verse 14 And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the income. Let me explain briefly what is the gospel of the Kingdom? It is the gospel that the Lord Jesus.
And John the Baptist began to preach at the beginning of the Lord's ministry. Down here was a simple message.
Repent, Straighten out your ways, because the King is coming.
And he's not going to allow you to fool around with him. The axe is going to be laid at the root of the trees.
He's going to burn the chaff of his threshing floor with unquenchable fire. When God begins his work of judgment. It's going to be awful. I mean awful.
Believe me, God takes sin seriously. He's waited 2000 years in His mercy for people to repent, but when he begins his judgment, it's going to be awful. So this gospel of the Kingdom is the message that will be preached during the Great Tribulation period. There are people in this world that have not heard the message of the gospel that you are hearing tonight, that there is salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus.
You have heard it.
If you have heard it and have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, there will be no more chance. You may hear this message being preached, but you will be deceived because you receive not the love of the truth that you might be saved.
Then it says verse 15. Now we come to the part where we are at the middle of this seven-year period.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. Notice verse 21 carefully. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no.
Nor ever shall be, I say, friend, on the basis of what we just read in that verse.
That the worst judgment this world has ever seen or ever will see is close at hand. And you sit there and are not concerned about your soul. You sit there fooling around with the things of God. You don't get serious.
Think about it seriously, this is not a time to be fooling around with God.
Except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, that's the elect of Israel, those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there believe it not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets.
00:40:22
And shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. Oh yes, they show signs and wonders.
But what is the purpose? That's why I don't have a whole lot of confidence in Signs and Wonders.
Because they're going to be used.
To deceive, if it were possible, even the very elect. Behold, I've told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, Go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chamber. Believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth even into the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Whenever the Lord Jesus uses that title, the Son of Man, it's his coming in judgment. Yes, Jesus is coming again, and His purpose is to straighten out this mess we're living in.
I just marvel at the awfulness of the mess that we live in.
There seems to be nobody that can straighten it out. People enjoy killing.
Their fellow human beings.
And they have that mindset and it seems impossible to even tame it.
Friend.
Jesus is coming back and He is going to set it straight once and for all with awful, awful judgments. You need to be warned that if you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are going to be here to face those awful judgments. Verse 28. Wheresoever the carcass is there, will the Eagles be gathered together?
The Lord Jesus sometimes use figures of speech. A carcass is a dead body.
What's the dead body he's talking about?
All the believing Jews of that day are going to escape to the mountains.
What's going to be left in Jerusalem is a carcass.
And all the Eagles are going to be gathered together. It's amazing how.
All the nations of the earth are interested in that little piece of real estate. Isn't there other parts of the world that are worth thinking about? No, it's that piece of real estate that they're interested in. The Eagles are going to be gathered together where the carcass is.
Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.
And the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.
And they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The Lord Jesus is coming again, and his coming in judgment will mean that all the tribes of the earth shall mourn when they see him coming with power and great glory. Oh, what a day of glory it's going to be when Jesus comes again. But for this poor world, it's going to mean one thing only. Awful, awful judgment. I say again, friends, and this to me.
Astounded to think about even we are coming to the end of the of the civilization that we are part of now.
I really believe that the skyscrapers of the big cities are going to be left as monuments to a bygone civilization, just like we look at the pyramids of Egypt.
Everything's coming to an end. Jesus is coming again, and he's going to reign supreme in this world. Are you ready?
Verse 31 And he shall send his angels with a sound, great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. This is not talking about the rapture because of the rapture.
00:45:05
The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
And here it's not the Lord who comes.
In to gather the elect from the four winds. It's the angels that are sent out who are the elect. Then This is the elect of the nation of Israel. Those tribes that have we call sometimes the lost tribes of Israel. He's going to bring them back again as well.
Verse 32. Now learn a parable of the fig tree, when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves.
You know that summer is nigh, so like you as ye when you see all these things.
Know that it is near, even at the doors. The fig tree is a national symbol for the nation of Israel.
Became a nation.
This month they celebrated their independence. I think it's the 15th of this month. I'm not totally positive. In 1948, a nation that had not existed almost two Millennium.
Again reappeared with their national language. Again something unheard of in human history. But it is what the Lord has told us in His word. The fig tree has blossomed. Again it put, it's put forth its leaves.
Verse 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
My friends, what we have here in this book is more solid, more enduring than that ground I step on every day. Heaven and earth are going to pass away. This book, God's precious, everlasting word, will never pass away. Every jot, every title, every letter of it is going to come to pass.
Jesus is coming again. Verse 36 of that day and hour N no man.
No, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
For as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days when that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away.
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field?
The one shall be taken on the other left.
Two women shall be grinding at the mill. The one shall be taken in, the other left.
Again, I say this is not the rapture.
This is.
The judgment by which the Lord Jesus is going to cleanse the earth.
When he establishes his Kingdom very clear in Old Testament scripture, the one that's taken is cut off from the earth, and the one that's left is left to go into the millennial Kingdom on this earth. We can show scriptures from the Old Testament and make that very clear. One that's taken is taken away in judgment. The one that's left is left to inherit.
The Kingdom in this world during the millennial day. We're not talking about the church now, we're talking about those who have believed the gospel of the Kingdom.
Verse 2042 Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come, but know this, that if the good man of the house had known, and what watched the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.
He's coming as a thief.
Says in another scripture, the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night.
But ask some believer here, are you waiting for the Lord to come? I know they'd say yes, I am. Are you expecting him to come? Yes, I am.
00:50:11
But if I ask you, would you like a thief to come to your house, you would say no. And are you waiting for a thief to come to your house? You say no.
Then who is he coming for as a thief? It's this world.
That is not waiting for him and that does not want him to come for them.
He will come as a thief at a moment you least expect there will be, and you'll have to face him. There will be no escape.
Again, I say God takes sin seriously. You might try to put it out of your mind.
That you need to think seriously about these questions of your soul's salvation.
Like to just say briefly from verse 45 where we left off reading through.
Through chapter 25 verse 30 is a parentheses, so I'm going to skip over to chapter 25 verse 31.
You notice chapter 2444 says.
Be also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. Now jump over to chapter 25, verse 31.
When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. So when Jesus comes first, he's going to Vanquish all the armies that come up against him, because when he comes out of heaven, he's coming out of heaven to do war.
Says his garments were dipped in blood.
He's going to tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God if you refuse to repent of your sins, if you refuse to come in saving faith to Jesus.
You're going to have to face Jesus in judgment in that day. There are no other options.
Think about it. Seriously.
And then after he's put those armies down, he's going to sit on the throne of his glory, according to verse 31.
All the holy angels are going to be with him, verse 32 and before him shall be gathered all nations.
And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
You know he can see if you're real with God.
And as those nations come before him, he divides.
The goats on the sheep on the right and the goats on the left.
This is not applicable to people that understand the gospel as we're explaining it tonight. You won't have a chance to be one of the sheep in that day. You may be one of the goats. The goats are those nations that did not accept the message.
Either the message of the gospel and the gospel of the grace of God, and if you didn't accept it there, you won't accept the gospel of the Kingdom either.
And you will be perhaps one of the goats.
Notice what he says to the sheep, verse 33. He shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them, on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I wasn't hungered and he gave me meat, et cetera.
Here were those who had had mercy on the messengers of the Kingdom during this tribulation period, and they go into the Millennial Kingdom on the earth.
But what about the goats? Notice verse 41.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand.
Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
00:55:08
I.
Jesus is calling tonight. Come unto me, all ye that labor in our heavy laden. What are you saying to him? Wait later on or no?
He's not going to always be calling. Come. The day will come when he will say, depart from me. I called you and I called you and I called you and you did not come. The day of his grace will be over. It's the day of his judgment, and he will say, depart from me. Ye cursed into everlasting fire.
Prepared for the devil and his angels. You know what's very interesting? Somebody mentioned to me recently God never prepared a place for people who would not accept Jesus as Savior.
He wants all to be saved.
If you reject the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you will be put in a place that was prepared not for men.
But for the devil and his angels, that rebellious creature, the devil and his servants, the angels of the devil.
You reject Jesus as your Savior, and I plead with you.
To think seriously about it. Don't go that way. I ask you with all my heart and those who are real believers here, join with me to say to you, there's anything we can do to clarify matters for you. Come to us tonight to talk some more about these matters.
It is way too important to leave till even later on tonight.
Daniel Torres down in Miami.
Didn't have a clue a week ago yesterday.
That he was going to be lying in a casket last week. Didn't have a clue. He would have probably laughed if I'd have said something to him about that, but it happened.
You don't know when your time may come. With all my heart I plead with you.
You cannot escape Jesus. You must face the question of your sins. If you accept Jesus as your Savior now you can have full and free salvation. You can have eternal life. You can have the forgiveness of your sins. You can have a home in heaven.
But if you reject him, you must meet with Jesus.
Either when He is on the throne of His glory, because this is called the judgment of the living.
Or if for some reason you're killed without accepting Jesus as your savior, you will be raised again. Yes.
Every single human being that is lived on planet Earth will be raised from the dead.
And if you haven't accepted Jesus, you will stand before the great white throne in that final day to be judged. And it says there, whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Friends, we must speak clearly about these things. I would be no friend if I stood here and Justice kind of talked in a way that everybody liked. Maybe you don't like to hear about judgment.
But it is the reality of the world we're living in. You know, what scares me is how young people.
They get presented either on programming and TV or the Internet with that which is.
False and right alongside that which is true. And kids are not learning to distinguish between what's true and what's false. So when you talk about the judgment of the world, I think you're telling a big joke.
This is real. This is not a big joke.
01:00:00
You must face God. God's infallible, unchanging word is right here. You've heard it tonight. You've read it. I ask you with all my heart to don't wait one moment more.
Open your heart, accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior. By faith in Him, you will be saved and have a home in heaven forever.
Let's pray.
Y.P. Address 6
YP Address—B. Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Could we sing together #191?
#191.
Probably most of you know by now that I have always had a great deal of interest in who wrote hymns.
And this is supposed to be a young people's meeting.
And I want you to know that this hymn was written by someone who was fairly young.
I don't know how old she was when she wrote it. Her name was Mary Boley. Her married name was Peters.
But it is a great encouragement and I suggest it that way to every young sister here because.
Probably, and I haven't counted them up, but she wrote. She is one of the most prolific hymn writers in our Little Flock hymn book.
And during her lifetime, she also managed while raising a family to.
Write a 7 volume history of the world in the light of Holy Scripture.
And she went to be with the Lord when she was only 43.
So I just say that.
As an encouragement to the young people here.
You don't have to live to be old in order to do something for the Lord. You don't have to be an old woman or an old man in order to walk with the Lord and to have his mind and to be able to serve Him. And in her case, she didn't step out of her proper place that the Lord had given her as a sister.
191.
Thrilled my heart this morning at the end of the meeting when Ryan asked the young people to stand up and made the comments he did.
I suppose some of you were wondering just what was coming when he asked you to do that, but it was a compliment, and we are very, very thankful for the testimony of our young people.
00:05:12
In a day when we see so much going on in this world that is contrary to the ways of God, I want you to know, and I speak for many of the older ones here, if not all.
That to see young people having a desire to please the Lord and go on against the tide that is against them.
Is a tremendous encouragement to us.
You know, the devil goes after people in my age bracket and there are people sitting here this afternoon who are old enough to be.
My parents, not too many, but there are some, and there are those who are younger than I but who are no longer in the class of young people.
And the devil attacks all of us.
But he doesn't pay as much attention to people in my generation as he does to you young people, because He knows that if the Lord leaves us here, sooner or later some of us are going to pass off the scene or at least not be able to be as active.
But he knows that if there is going to be any continued blessing in this world, any continued testimony for Christ.
It's going to be with those that are younger and if he can discourage, if he can turn aside the young people, he's gained his object, even if he allows some of us older ones to stay where we are. I'd like to read a verse in starting out in the Book of Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one, a verse that has been much before me in the last week or two.
Revelation chapter one.
Verse 9.
I, John.
Who also am your brother and companion in Tribulation?
And in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Let me read it. I trust closely.
Or at least quote it as it appears in the Darby translation.
I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in Tribulation Kingdom and patience in Jesus was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.
Pardon me if I missed a word or two, but that gives the sense of it.
Here was a man who had been exiled to an island where, as far as we know, he had no Christian fellowship.
And also where, as far as we know, he did not suffer what we would conventionally call active persecution.
But he identifies himself with all of the other believers who were at that time, in many cases, suffering grievously under the Roman Empire.
And he says I am your companion and fellow partaker in three things.
Tribulation.
Kingdom.
And patience, The word patience there has the thought of endurance.
And all three of those words are tied together.
I'm kind of dating myself with this comment.
But I can well remember.
Our late brother Clifford Brown ministering on this chapter.
At least 45 years ago.
Or rather ministering on this verse.
And I remember to this day how he emphasized those 3 words. Tribulation.
Kingdom Patience.
And he pointed out that the name attached to our Lord Jesus Christ there does not include.
His personal titles Lord and Christ, as it is in our King James it says Jesus Christ and so on.
00:10:03
He pointed out that more accurately, it should say simply Jesus. Why is that? Does that mean that He does not? We speak with all reverence. Have those titles yet? No, indeed He does. I believe the thought is here that what is called for in this verse is an intimate relationship with Jesus as a person.
Forgetting for the moment his character is Christ or Messiah. Forgetting for the moment his Lordship, although that is most important.
It is an intimate relationship with Him as Jesus and may I suggest to each one here and maybe I can be forgiven seeing this as a young people's meeting for laying stress on this for the young people.
All of these three things.
Are very important, very necessary.
And an integral part of the Christian life.
We can't escape the tribulation.
We can't escape the Kingdom character. What does that mean?
I believe it was Mr. Wigram that made the remark and I agree with him. He said much of the downfall of the Church.
Has been because in some cases they paid a lot of attention.
To the heavenly calling of the church, as Paul gave it, and forgot the character.
Of being in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. What does the Kingdom mean? The Kingdom brings before us practical walk, and we had that in the Reading meeting yesterday. It brings before us a walk through this world that is in keeping with the moral character of the one who is the rightful king.
And finally, there is endurance. Patience, endurance. That's what it takes. Endurance. It's not like a 100 meter dash. It's like running a marathon.
With the Lord's help this afternoon I'd like to turn back to the Old Testament for an example. I believe of some of this in a man of God in the Old Testament.
His life covers an extensive period of time and we're going to be able only to hit some highlights.
But I'm referring to Samuel.
Let's turn back to First Samuel.
I.
May I say something else?
Some of us were sitting at the lunch table today.
And I suppose perhaps we didn't give enough credit where credit was due.
But some of us were remarking at the lunch table how pleasantly surprised we were at how well some children and young people obviously were listening in the meetings yesterday and how they could, with accuracy, recall.
What? Brother Heinz said, even if they couldn't remember his name.
How they could remember what Brother Jim said in the gospel and other remarks that were made.
I'm thankful for that.
And I'm going to assume.
That that level of interest reflects itself.
In a basic understanding of Samuel's life. A basic knowledge of Samuel and his life, because we don't have time to go through it all in detail.
But just to give a little background, we know that Samuel was born at a very difficult time in Israel's history.
It was in the days of the judges, and if you read the book of Judges, it's one of the saddest books in the whole Bible.
Very, very sad book. The only one that I think rivals it are books like maybe Jeremiah, possibly even Ecclesiastes. But it's a sad book because it details the awfulness of man's sinful heart even in the presence of all the blessing that God had given.
Samuel was born at a difficult time.
He was born, though, to a very godly mother who badly, badly wanted children and who prayed and let's see what happened.
Samuel, Chapter one.
00:15:01
Verse 24.
And when she, that is, Hannah, his mother, had weaned him, she took him up with her, and three Bullock with three bullocks and one Eva of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him under the House of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young.
And they slew a Bullock, and brought the child to Eli. And she said, Oh my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying under the Lord for this child. I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, petition which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord.
And he worshipped the Lord there.
Isn't it remarkable?
That out of all the failure in the book of Judges, God had a godly woman here.
Who in the midst of much difficulty?
Was prepared to say, Lord, I will dedicate, I will lend this child unto the Lord.
As long as he lives.
Can we speak first of all to some young parents here? You're still young people. At least you feel like it. I know you do.
It's a difficult day in which to bear and bring up children, but I encourage each one of you, no matter how dark the day, to take courage because the Lord is the same.
And God answered this woman's faith in a remarkable way.
But there was a cost. There was a cost to her, as we heard yesterday about that woman whose son went to college and then felt the call to go to the foreign mission field. There was a cost to her and there was a cost to him. There was a cost to Hannah here, and there was a cost to Samuel. And every parent here can identify with the anguish perhaps that must have been in that mother's heart as she took that little boy.
Up to the temple, and she knew very well what went on there. It was number secret what kind of sons Eli had. It was no secret the wickedness with which they went on, and they were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the nation. It was no secret that Eli couldn't deal with the situation, although he was their father.
What was her faith in the Lord? Who was there?
And may I encourage each young family here today. I have heard young parents say I cannot, I will not raise my children in that environment.
Boy, tremble when I hear words like that. Yes, we all want a nice environment for our children, a happy assembly Christians let go on well for the Lord. A place where your children are nurtured and encouraged. It's much to be desired and to be thankful for.
But God doesn't always provide that. And he didn't hear. And yet here was a mother who brought this young boy up and said to Eli, I prayed for this child and now here he is. I am giving him to the Lord.
You know, we as parents always want to see our children do well. We want to see our children get along in this world. And I have to confess to you that I have been very thankful.
For the way the Lord out of nothing but his grace.
Has come in blessing.
To our children, and I know many parents hear what identify with that.
But all I say to each one of us, what really counts is what is for the Lord. What really counts is what is for the Lord. Yes, it's not a good testimony for a Christian not to do his work well and all the rest of it, Of course not. But what really counts is what is for the Lord.
Well, our time is going. Let's go on here, Chapter 2.
Again, we're going to have to skip over some of the history here.
Chapter 2, Verse 18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child.
Girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
00:20:05
We're not going to enter into detail here as to what the ephod meant.
But I suggest the thought in these verses is this, that God recognizes and distinguishes between the spiritual and the natural.
On the one hand, Samuel was in an environment where he, and I don't think it's a wrong word to use, He was compelled to serve in the House of God. There was nothing else to do. He was there. He was under Elis direction and no doubt he did what Eli told him. He would obey Eli, no doubt as a father.
And he was girded with a linen ephod.
Brother Jim last night made reference to meetings and sometimes how slow the clock goes.
I know the feeling. Even after 55 years or so, I still remember the feeling. I do.
And I remember because in our day.
In the reading meetings that I went to when I was a little boy, they didn't watch the clock. I did, but they didn't. And it was nothing for the reading meeting to go five, 1015 minutes overtime and oh.
Maybe some children here can identify with that.
And I'm sure that Samuel felt it sometimes when he was compelled to be in the company of an older man most of his life. And there were perhaps not the playmates and the people that he could have enjoyed a ball game with. He probably didn't get to throw the Super Bowl or blow bubbles or things like that, at least not very much. But.
His mother brought him a little coat every year. You know, that's significant.
The coat, the garments in Scripture often speak of our circumstances. And his mother remembered that that boy was growing and that every year the coat would be too small. We as parents all know what that's like. But there's a moral significance to that coat, which I hope is not overreaching the meaning of the passage. And that is that his mother recognized that there was going to be growth there, that as a natural boy he was going to grow.
And he would need a bigger coat every year.
Parents, your children and young people need a bigger coat every year. They need a bigger coat and a bigger one. What does that mean? It means simply this, and we see it in the life of Samuel that as children grow, they need to be encouraged to develop. Yes, they're natural faculties. They need to be encouraged to develop their natural minds, their abilities. In what direction, That depends.
It tells us in Proverbs train up a child in the way he should go. But if you read the more accurate translation, it says train up a child according to the tenor of his way.
I have one son and he often used to help me in the garden, and I appreciated that, and sometimes he would help me do other things that had to do with his hands. But it became very evident as time was went on that that was emphatically not the tenor of his way. It was not what he was cut out to do. And when he got old enough he pursued a different track, which was of course, quite in keeping with his abilities. And I say that to each one here because as children grow.
They need to develop their natural abilities, but.
There was always that linen ephod, There was always the spiritual side of things. And I have no doubt that Eli did not bend in that direction. No, there were certain things that were absolutely necessary and important. And I say it to you children here, if your parents insist that you come to meetings, if your parents insist that you sit for a Bible reading, if your parents insist.
That you do certain things in a spiritual way that you find very difficult and you don't understand.
Don't resent it because you know those long reading meetings that I sat through when I was a boy?
And those times when they went overtime, which was a terrible grief to somebody at my age, I can tell you today what the brothers in those meetings said. I could tell you today the things that they said because they sunk in, even though at the time I didn't know exactly what it all meant, but they sunk in.
00:25:08
And what is the result here? What is the result here? Verse 26, chapter two of first Samuel. And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men.
You know, it's a nice thing to be in favor with others, isn't it? We all want that.
If there's one thing that is most, shall we say, difficult for us to cope with, especially when we're young, it's not to be liked and it's to be misunderstood. Is that right? I think I'm right. If you're not liked, not part of the group, and you're misunderstood, there's just about no greater cross to bear when you're young than to have that happen to you.
But you notice the order here.
Samuel grew.
And it says he was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. Oh, the Lord came first in his life, and he honored the Lord first. Because sometimes we have to honor the Lord in spite of the fact that we will not be in everybody else's good books as a result.
But you know, the Lord made a way that Samuel was in favor also with men. And I say to you young people, yes, there may be a certain set, if you go on for the Lord, with which whom you with whom you will not be in favor.
But those that are worth having as friends, Those that are worth knowing.
Are going to look at you and seek out your company. It may not be as large a company. And I know the tug at heartstrings sometimes when you see those with whom you would like to be friends deliberately go off and say no, we won't invite him or we don't particularly want her.
But remember, those that really count will be watching.
Well, time goes on here.
And I want to come to what I really have on my heart to say this afternoon.
Because here is Samuel growing up in the House of the Lord. No doubt he was a very small boy when he was first taken up there. I'm not sure how old he might have been, three or four, but he was not very old. And here is that tender little boy growing up.
And the wickedness of Eli's house goes on. And if we had finished that second chapter, we would find out that there was a man of God, whose name we are not told, who was sent to Eli to give him a warning. Eli, I am going to bring judgment on you and your house for the way you are acting as the priests of the Lord.
And there is no evidence of any response one way or the other for me like.
And we find here in this next chapter that Samuel comes in.
Very, very difficult.
We all know the story, but we'll read part of it.
Chapter 3 And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli in the word of the Lord was precious in those days.
There was number open vision or a vision wasn't very frequent as the thought, and it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. And there the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. And Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou callest me.
And he said I called not lie down again.
And he went and lay down. And the Lord called yet again Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me.
Excuse me?
And he answered. I called not my son. Lie down again.
Excuse me?
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I.
For thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down.
00:30:02
And it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy servant here. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
And the Lord came and stood, and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak for thy servant here.
Every child here I think knows that story, knows how that the Lord called Samuel and Samuel thought it was Elis voice and how even Eli didn't understand that the first what was going on.
But finally, Eli understands that it's the Lord.
And the Lord is about to speak to Samuel.
I want to bring several things out of this passage. First of all.
There are times in the history of the people of God.
When those who are older have failed and the Lord has had to use someone younger.
Now, I want to be careful how I say that because it's never right for a younger person to presume to think that all of his older or her older brothers and sisters are so far out of it that he or she has to take over and do the job right. Yes, we see that attitude and the Word of God would condemn that in the strongest terms. But here it was not Samuel that took the place of leadership. It was the Lord who said, Samuel, I have a message for you.
And, you know, I believe the Lord can use young people today in that way. And if you're walking with the Lord, even if you are young, the Lord can speak directly to you. It says Samuel did not yet know the Lord. He hadn't yet been introduced to a direct revelation from God. But the Lord is going to show him. And sometimes maybe you and I in our lives may be surprised at what the Lord has to tell us.
But the Lord can speak just as directly to you, even though it is not in an audible voice as He spoke to Samuel.
But the message is significant.
What kind of a message was he given?
A very negative message he was given, A message that would go straight to Eli. A message that told again what the Lord had already said to Eli through a prophet.
About the awful judgment that God was going to bring on Eli's house. And Samuel obviously was afraid.
What does it say?
At the end of verse 15, and Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.
Well, he might, but he I made him tell it.
And I say to you young people here, you have been born into difficult days in the history of the church. You are living in difficult days. Most, shall we say, blessed days.
I don't like to use the word unadvisedly, but I think it's the right word to use in some cases. Most exciting days.
Days of tremendous opportunity.
But very difficult days, and very often, I know some of you can identify, maybe all of you can, with what I'm going to say, you feel compelled to grapple with issues and with difficulties and problems.
Maybe in the world, but more explicitly even among the people of God. And your attitude may well be, and I understand it. What did I do to deserve this? I had nothing to do with creating this problem. I had nothing to do with engineering this kind of a scenario. And yet here I am, caught in the world pool.
Caught in the crossfire and I have to try and deal with it. I have to make difficult choices. I have to cope with things that I had nothing to do with causing. What kind of a life is this? This is not fair.
Young people, in one sense, I agree with you.
But on the other hand, if you and I recognize the truth of Revelation 1:00 and 9:00.
That we are companions and fellow partakers in the Tribulation and Kingdom and patience of Jesus. We are not going to escape.
The difficulties and problems in the Christian pathway, yes, we can run away from them and some have done that. We can deliberately choose an easier path that involves compromise. And the devil says yes, come, I'll, I'll smooth things out for you. There's a bit of a cost involved, but.
00:35:16
I'll make life easier, I'll make life run smoothly, and you won't have to grapple with these things anymore.
All you have to do is give up a few things, he'll tell you that.
And for Samuel, as a very young boy, has to receive this revelation of judgment against Eli's house and be the mouthpiece to tell Eli.
What was going to happen?
But even though he feared to tell Eli the vision, he told him.
What is the result? Notice verse 19 and Samuel grew. Second time it says that and notice this which it does not say before, and the Lord was with him.
Oh young people, if I could only get this across to you. There is no greater joy in your life.
Than to feel that the Lord is with you, to have a sense in your soul that the Lord is with you.
It doesn't mean there won't be a difficulty or a problem, but you'll have a sense in your soul that the Lord is behind you, that his strength is there, that His wisdom is with you, and that there's not a cloud between you as you go to Him with the difficulties and the problems. And more than that, it says He let none of his words fall to the ground.
Oh, you know, as young people we all like to think, and others to think that we're worth something, that we're a bit important, that we've got something to offer.
I have to confess to you that I knew that feeling too. And it doesn't go away when we cease to be young people, because everybody in this world, deep down inside.
Has the desire to have some recognition to be somebody, but you know, to set out to do that will cause failure because pride in every form is wrong and God will not allow it. But when Samuel walked with the Lord and the Lord was with him, and he grew.
God saw to it that none of His words fell to the ground. There was a moral power in a life lived for the Lord, and there will be in your life today.
Verse 20 and all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
I am not suggesting that that is going to happen to every young person here, but I do suggest that if the Lord has something for you to do for Him and He does.
Not only will he make it clear to you, it will be clear to those that know you well.
It will be clear to them. You won't have to force the issue.
In fact, most of the time you'll probably get more responsibility than you would like.
And in verse 21 it says, And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel and Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
Eli, for the moment, is out of the picture. The man of God who spoke to Eli initially.
Is not mentioned again.
The Lord is revealing His mind by Samuel, a relatively young man.
And I say to the young people here today, what God is looking for in the world today are young people who are prepared to say yes.
Excuse me?
By God's grace, I will swim against the tide. By God's grace, I want to walk in an intimate relationship with the Lord. By God's grace, I want the Lord to be with me.
And by his grace, I'm not going to run away from the difficult situation into which He may have put me.
Because I want to live.
And serve him, live for and serve him.
But now something happens that we have to be prepared for.
In chapter 4 it says.
The first clause and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
But then it's significant that you do not hear Samuel mentioned for several chapters.
He isn't mentioned again as far as I can see until you get down to Chapter 7 and verse 3.
00:40:00
And Samuel speak unto all the House of Israel.
What happens in these intervening chapters?
Has Israel taken to heart what Samuel said?
Have they paid attention to His word? After all, it says all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. They knew everyone knew right from one end of the country to the other. And it says clearly that the Lord appeared or revealed himself to Samuel and Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And it says here in chapter 4 and verse one, the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
They didn't pay attention.
We all know the sad story how that Israel went out to battle against the Philistines and when they were losing the sons of Eli said, well, we'll soon fix the situation. We'll go get the Ark of God and bring it into the camp and that'll be our.
Help in getting victory. When we bring the ark of God into the camp, we can't lose. The Lord will fight for us.
And you remember how that they went and brought that Ark of the Covenant into the camp, and they shouted with a shout, so that the earth rang, and the Philistines were afraid and said, Oh.
Remember those mighty gods of the Israelites that brought them out of the land of Egypt and so on.
And the Philistines more or less said, well, let's give it our best shot. We're probably going to lose, but let's, let's.
Do the best we can. And you know what happened. There was a terrible defeat for Israel and the Ark of God was taken by the Philistines. And you know the story how it was taken and put into the House of Dagan, the Philistines, God and how the Lord caused all kinds of trouble for the Philistines. And eventually they sent it back to Israel on that cart pulled by 2 Cows that were compelled to leave their calves behind and so on. All of this was going on.
And Samuel wasn't consulted, evidently, whatever he may have had to say, just as we say, went by the board and no one paid attention.
I say to you young people, and I say to my own heart and to everyone here.
Don't be surprised even if someone recognizes, even if many people recognize.
That you are walking with the Lord and seeking to please Him. Don't be surprised if things don't immediately turn around and go in the right way. We would love to see that happen. And I can only imagine the, shall we say, the anguish of heart in Samuel as he saw all this take place. Oh, he could have so easily have given them instruction directly from the Lord if they would have listened. He could so easily have helped them to see what the real problem was.
But it wasn't the time and young people, you may have to bide your time.
You may have to bind your time.
It's happened down through the ages.
Where people who realized that they wanted to get somewhere had to wait until they opportunity opened up properly. And you have to wait for God's time. And sometimes that may mean going on with a situation, maybe among the people of God, maybe in your local assembly, maybe in your life, that you say this is not right, this ought not to be going on. It is so wrong. I can remember a sister telling me that I knew her well right from the time we were teenagers and.
I can remember sitting in her home a few years ago when we were talking about a difficulty. But Bill, it's so wrong. It's so wrong, Bill. And I had to say to her, yes, I know it's wrong, but you and I are not going to straighten it out with the natural energy of our old sinful self.
And then we when we come along to Chapter 7, we find.
At the end of verse two it says And all the House of Israel lamented after the Lord.
And Samuel is there ready to speak for the Lord.
Oh, this is wonderful.
And that's what is needed today, those who have the mind of the Lord and who are ready with the right word at the right time in the right place, That's what prophecy really is. Now I know some of you sisters will say, well, just a minute, though I am not in a position to do that.
00:45:01
Maybe not in the same way that a brother can, but you can have a tremendous impact.
Just by walking with the Lord and having a quiet word at the right time and in the right place and I suggest that God can use you in that capacity just as much as a brother and here all Israel finally laments after the Lord how long who it says well, the our Kabul encourages Jerome that the time was long for it was 20 years, 20 years.
Long time to wait for something to happen, isn't it?
But Samuel was there.
And what does he say? Verse three? And Samuel spake unto all the House of Israel, saying, If ye do, return unto the Lord with all your hearts.
Then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtaroth and serve the Lord only.
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to mispay, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.
I don't think we recognize.
How important our prayer life is.
I don't think we realize how much our prayer life effects first of all ourselves and then others.
Oh, we don't want to get the wrong thought about prayer.
Some people have the idea that if you can only get enough people praying for something, that the crescendo of prayer ascending up to heaven will be so loud and insistent that God will have to pay attention just because so many people are calling for it.
Don't see that in the Word of God it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Others go to the opposite tack and say, well, why do we need to bother praying? Because after all, God has his purposes all worked out and He's going to accomplish them anyway.
And what I say in prayer is not going to make God change his mind one way or the other. So why be so insistent on prayer?
And that's wrong too.
Because prayer is, someone elses said is a privilege that you and I have. Because we have common interests with God.
And I remember a man one time.
Who was accosted? Who spent much time in prayer? And he said, do you really think that when you get on your knees and pray that you change God's mind? Oh, he said, you're holding the stick by the wrong end. He said prayer doesn't change God, but it does change me.
That was the right answer. Prayer does not change God in that sense. It changes me. It brings me into the current of God's socks, though, that when I pray, hopefully I pray in keeping with his mind. And when I pray in keeping with his mind, oh, what a wonderful thing that is. And so here we find that Samuel, no doubt, all that time when they had lost the ark of God, when they had lost the victory.
To the Philistines, when all of this had been going on in the ark of God, was encouraged Jerem.
He had been praying. He had been praying, and it was a day when prayer was not the privilege of everyone the way it is today. It was a privilege that was not known widely in the Old Testament. Where had Samuel learned how to pray? From his mother. From his mother. He'd learn from his mother. How did his mother know how to pray? We don't know. But she had prayed, and because it was not a common thing, she was mistaken for it. Eli thought she was drunk.
But she was praying.
Son picked up on that, no doubt, and he prayed, and when the time came, he was there to say something to help. We don't have time to read the whole story here, but he offers a lamb, a sucking lamb, and there's a great victory for Israel.
All because of the faithfulness of one man who was where God would have him, when God would have him, and with the word from the Lord.
00:50:06
Verse 15.
And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Rama, for there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord.
Well, there came a time when Samuel had to take a place of responsibility. He was called upon to be a judge. And we don't have time to go into a lot of detail here, but the place names are significant.
Rhema means high places.
What does that mean? It means that Samuel morally and spiritually lived above.
The failure and the difficulty that was going on around in young people, you can do the same. You don't have to be overcome by it. The word of God tells us in.
Romans chapter 12 and the last verse. It says be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. You don't have to be overcome of the evil, you can live above it.
His home was in Rhema.
But he went from place to place to Bethel. Bethel means the House of God. I believe that would speak of the coming together. He didn't neglect the fellowship of others.
Gilgal That was the place of self judgment, the most necessary thing which must continually go on in your life and mine.
Mizpah. We could spend a whole day talking about Mizpah.
Sometime look up the number of times it's mentioned in the word of God. It goes all the way back to Jacob and Laban.
When they said to one another.
The Lord watched between me and thee, while we are absent one from another.
It brings in the lordship, the accountability to God.
And Samuel walked always before the Lord.
We have only a few minutes left.
Samuel's life all rosy, No.
There were some sad things in his life and look on to the next chapter, Chapter 8.
And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his first born was Joel, and the name of his second abaya. They were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Israel, to Rhema, and came unto Samuel, to Raymond, said unto him.
Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, give us a king to judge us, and Samuel prayed under the Lord.
Oh, poor Samuel.
He ran into the same problems as Eli had.
Eli was not able to train his sons in the right way, and as a result, they were a failure. And here we find Samuel sons. Oh, it doesn't say they failed in quite the same serious way as Eli's sons did, but they perverted the judgment that was committed to them, and they took bribes in order to decide how to judge a case. Terrible thing for a judge to do.
And as a result, they bring Samuel into disrepute.
And they want a king.
They want a king.
And you know every parent here that has had young people grow up.
Perhaps can identify with some failure in our children and our hearts feel it.
And Samuel doesn't say that he consulted the Lord when he made his sons judges, because God doesn't deal generally in dynasties. No, God would have raised up someone to replace Samuel, but he didn't tell Samuel to make his sons judges. And we need to be careful about that in our Christian life because God raises up who he will. Oh, he delights to bless in families. Yes, he does. But if God is going to raise up someone specially to take leadership, he doesn't necessarily do it from father to son to grandson and so on.
But it's nice to see what Samuel did here in the middle of a difficulty like that. He prayed unto the Lord. He didn't say, get out of here, my sons are going to run the show, and I don't want to hear anymore about this for a king. No, he prayed to the Lord.
00:55:18
And as a result, we find that Samuel.
Was able to tell them first of all what his own record was about his own life.
He could point to himself and say, I want you to listen because.
I think I have your ear and he had it.
And we'll just summarize the rest of the history in this way.
Samuel had to endure.
The anointing of King Saul.
And all of the sad difficulties that came as a result of that.
Samuel had to go along.
With an ungodly king because Israel wanted him.
But then there came a time when the Lord said to Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?
And he sends him out to Bethlehem, there to anoint God's rightful king.
And there isn't too much said about what happened subsequently, and we don't have time to turn to it. But, you know, if you turn to the book of First Chronicles, you find little snatches there a couple of times that indicate that during all those years when David was in exile, when David was running from Saul, when he was being chased, as he says, like a Partridge in the mountains.
He met up from time to time with Samuel, and together they talked about the coming Kingdom. They talked about the day when David would be the rightful king on the throne. They even arranged the affairs of the temple, the singers, and so on, and the priesthood and the courses of the priesthood. They arranged a number of things, and I love to think of the enjoyment that Samuel must have had.
In having communion and having those happy times, no doubt not very frequent.
But those enjoyable times with David while an ungodly king was still on the throne?
But Samuel, who had had the privilege of anointing God's rightful king, and now is admitted into his counsels, and the two of them together, the aged Samuel and the young David, talking together about that coming Kingdom, and together making the arrangements that David later remembered.
All beloved young people.
I can't tell you that things are going to get easier.
Can I take 2 minutes and reminisce again?
I remember quite a few years ago now.
Speaking with my late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoff.
In less than two weeks.
It will be 25 years since the Lord took him home.
And it's hard to believe.
It's hard to believe that there is a generation of young people sitting here that don't remember them.
But I remember one time sitting in our living room.
And he said something like this, he said Bill.
I have no doubt in my soul.
That I am gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he said, I sometimes tremble as I think of what lies ahead for those gathered to the Lord's name. Because he said, as the coming of the Lord draws near, is the Lord going to allow us to be taken up as quote, the testimony? Is he going to allow us to be taken up with the satisfaction of having been the testimony?
I have to say, there's a young man. I trembled as I heard those words.
And then he went on to say, when I go to a Bible conference.
He said if I only saw the faces, it would be worth the trip.
And he said, To sit in the presence of my dear brethren and hear the word of God ministered. It's a privilege that I count most dear.
He said. I wonder.
If I would have the moral courage.
To have to walk away from much of it.
01:00:03
If faithfulness to the Lord demanded it as time went on.
It was almost prophetic.
And I say to you, dear young people.
The days are not going to get easier.
As in Samuel's day, you may have to endure much trouble and difficulty that you had nothing to do with starting.
But God calls you to cope with it, to walk with him.
As in Samuel's day, you may have to endure an ungodly king who made all kinds of mistakes.
And on whom Samuel expended all kinds of energy to try and get him to go straight and all.
Glory of God
Address—D. Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We'll start our time together this afternoon by singing together #135 We joy in our God, and we sing of that love so sovereign and free, which did his heart move when lost our condition all ruined, undone, He saw with compassion, and spared not his Son. 135.
Great.
First Timothy, chapter 5.
First Timothy chapter 5 and the end of verse 14.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto which no man has seen, has seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. Chapter 6.
Excuse me, what did I say? Five. Sorry. That was chapter 6, beginning with verse 14.
And I'll just since I misquoted the location, just reread.
Verse 16. Who only hath immortality, dwelling, and light, which no man can approach, unto whom no man has seen, nor can see? To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.
This before my soul this afternoon to take up with you the subject of the glory of God.
We read.
And John 17.
Whom to know is life eternal, and God's purpose for us is that we might know Him.
And that we might enjoy Him. And this afternoon we're going to introduce really a vast subject, and I say introduce it to our souls for our continued meditation. Individually, we have here something about the glory of God that is important to recognize in the very beginning of such a subject, and that is God himself.
Is so majestic.
So supreme, so absolute.
00:05:02
That there are those things connected with himself.
That the creature cannot approach to, cannot see, we'll never know.
No one in this room is a creature of God will ever be able to, can I say, approach to the absolute glory that is in Himself. We are, and we always will be creatures, but God Himself is so great, so vast, so beyond us.
That.
We never compare with Him, and all that He is in Himself remains in Himself and in His Son and in the Holy Spirit.
With a majestic character that is too bright for us, the creature, to ever approach unto.
However, God has chosen.
To create things.
For his own will and for his glory. And so we who sit in this room are creatures of God, created as he says in Isaiah, that we are created for his glory.
It's a tremendous thing.
To have a little sense in our souls of the greatness of our God.
If we were, which we will not collectively, but if we turn to Psalm 19.
In that Psalm we find that the heavens declare the glory of God.
Everything that God does, he does to his own glory.
And he has chosen, according to the purposes of his own will, to bring into existence things.
Material things, things of time, things of space, to glorify himself in them. And one of them is the heavens. When you and I, the creature, look out upon the heavens, we find them, if we have any interest in such things, to be magnificent.
To our eyes and what we are told about them.
I personally find it rather fascinating that in about the year 1900.
It was thought by those who observe the heavens that the Milky Way was the universe.
Mag huge thing and now man has discovered that there are billions.
Milky Way sized things in God's creation.
We live on a planet Earth then. Just going to use some round numbers but it's around 8000 miles in diameter.
And since the Earth goes around the sun in an elliptical manner, there's no exact, but the nominal distance from the Earth to the sun is about 93,000,000 miles.
Pretty big distance compared to the size of the earth as a few 1000.
But man has been able to discover that there is a son out there.
That is 400.
And 50 million miles in diameter.
Five times the distance from the earth to the sun. Inside that one heavenly body you could put millions of little tiny earths.
We have no idea.
The extent of the glory of God manifested in the universe, except to know that it's finite.
There may be billions or trillions more than man has discovered.
At this point in his existence.
The glory of God.
That he would choose to do such a thing but.
Between a morning meeting.
And we're at prayer meeting in the morning meeting. I was standing outside the room and I noticed a little girl, I don't know who she is, but she was a little child, maybe two or three years of age, and a little blonde girl. And I looked at her and she was so happy there. And I looked at that child and I looked at her and my heart went out to her and said.
00:10:03
That's an expression, that child of the glory of God.
God has honored himself. He has glorified himself in that little child.
To me, more wonderful, more majestic really, than the whole of the universe.
Is expressed in one human being.
It tells us in.
First Corinthians, Chapter 11.
That we were made in the image and glory.
Of God.
Every single person in this room, although in that particular verse it's Speaking of the man, but in the whole of Scripture, every single person in this room is an expression or a display of God's glory.
Adam was placed upon the earth.
And put his head over it.
As the one that represented God in his image and His glory over his creation.
But what is the testimony to our souls of Romans chapter 3 and verse 23?
For all have sinned and come short.
Of the glory of God.
A very solemn statement about man.
And so as I look in this room and in my own self, I recognize it is a room of those who has born into this world.
Have by your own actions and by what you are. Come short.
Of the glory of God.
Nothing. Nothing that is short of the glory of God.
Is going to remain.
Nothing, absolutely everything, that God does must be ultimately that which is according to His own Excellency.
Glory is not a word. It can be easily defined, but I'll just say it's the display of excellence. And man in sin is not a display of the Excellency of God. He comes short of it.
Just looking on toward the future in Revelation.
When man stands before God at the great white throne.
It says From whose face the heavens and the earth fled away.
Their God is in his judicial glory, in the person of the Son, and when He, as you will, put on his robes of judicial glory.
Not even creation itself can stand the brightness of it.
The majesty of it, and they flee away.
And woe if there's a soul in this room that has to stand before God in his judicial glory.
And have Him pronounce upon you, because you have come short, because you cannot stand eternally in His presence, in the condition in which you will be at that moment of time, the end of time.
You will be cast.
Forever.
Into outer darkness.
Turn with me now to.
Exodus chapter 33.
Exodus chapter 33 and verse 18.
And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Then I will show mercy, to whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place for me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by.
00:15:15
That I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away thine hand, and thou shall see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen.
Here's an individual man that wanted to see the glory of God face to face.
And he was told no.
He could not do so.
I said we would simply in the time we have introduced the subject to you. And so I want to make a couple of general remarks that as you read the Word of God, well, bring a preciousness to your soul as you think about them in the light of Scripture. And that is that the glory of God is associated with light.
Now we understand well, man doesn't really understand very well light, but we can have serve light and we can see it by it and everything connected with this universe with respect to physical light, but God uses that which is physical light.
To express to us something that is not physical, having to do with Himself, that is His glory.
And consequently of everything that is in this universe.
That is close to us or that we can be exposed to. If we went outside and it was what we call a sunny day, none of us could look up into the sun without harm to our eyes.
It's necessary for us to, if you will, hide our face from the glory of I created thing, the sun, and it is a physical expression.
To us, of something that Scripture brings before us, of the majesty, the greatness of God is beyond us to see directly.
As a man direct with his God.
The other thing that you'll notice, or another thing you'll notice if you go through the Word of God, is that the one thing that prevents us from seeing light is blindness.
And in the Word of God, blindness is connected with unbelief.
And consequently the glory of God, even in the creation itself, is blinded in man's eyes if there's unbelief.
A man does not see the Lord Jesus Christ as an expression of God's glory if he has unbelief. And if you sit as an unbeliever in this room this afternoon, you will not see, you will not enjoy the glory of God.
But in contrast to that, in your blindness, you will not see.
But you will remain in darkness, and in fact, when God says that the ultimate end of man is the blackness of darkness forever.
It's an expression that man is put in a place where the glory of God is not.
And cannot be seen.
And he remains in that place.
Totally removed from the display of the glory of God for eternity.
Because of his unbelief.
Solemn sad thing.
But we also find that glory is connected with the thought of face to face.
Face to face.
I suppose for my own soul.
The greatest anticipation.
I have.
Is the anticipation of seeing my Lord Jesus for the first time.
Face to face.
Face to face, I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky.
To look upon the Lord Jesus.
And see him.
And when we look upon the Lord Jesus, yes.
We are going to see evidence of his suffering.
00:20:00
The marks are going to be in his hands, the spear print is going to be in his side, and so on.
But, brethren.
We're going to see a display of glory.
Can't be physically described and I'm not trying to say it's a glow or anything physical.
Don't believe it is.
But we're going to look upon the face of the Lord Jesus.
The crown jewel of God's glory. Every other glory is only as an association with that one person, and that glory is going to be seen to our physical eyes, in His face.
And our hearts are going to be raptured in a way that we cannot now comprehend.
And they will be filled with a worship and a praise for himself that will never end.
As we have the immense privilege of looking upon him face to face.
Uninterrupted forever.
Tremendous privilege that is ours.
I want to make a few comments here before we pass on with respect to Moses.
Moses was the one that was used of God as a vessel to introduce to the people of God.
The Israelites.
Their Jehovah.
And Moses?
When he went into the presence of God and received the testimony from God.
And he came, and he presented himself to God's people as he came down off the mountain.
He was a reflection of the presence of glory into which he had been.
And yes, there was a physical thing. His face shined from having been in the presence of the glory of God in such a way that the people said, Moses, please, we can't look on you. Will you put a veil, a covering over your face? Because we can't look at you in this condition.
If you went to heaven.
And you spent some time in the glory of God. You couldn't come back to earth, really.
Without the same difficulty, people say please put a veil on your face.
To be in the presence of God is the display of a wonder to the soul that I believe is indescribable. The apostle Paul who was taken into the third heavens because he was a minister of the message of the glory.
And so he got to experience it in such a way that he could be fitted, suited.
Enabled to minister that message of the Gospel of the Glory to mankind as no other apostle did or was suited to do.
And so, but he had to say, well, I, I can't describe it.
It's indescribable. There are no words for me in human language to tell you.
But the Apollo, but Moses.
Was to laid the people of God for God to a land of.
Their earthly blessing and just a few comments about it and on the subject of the glory of God, the glory of God was to be in the midst of that people. And so God came and said, yes, Moses, I will go with you in spite of the people, in spite of, because God tells him in the next chapter said no, so I can't go with you.
These people are stiff necked.
Well, Moses says, well, as a wonderful servant of God, he says, well, Lord, if you're not going to go, I'm not going to take the people anywhere.
And the Lord says, OK, I'll go with you. And so he he comes into their midst in the the glory associated with himself in the Tabernacle, although none of them could go in directly to see it. The way was not made manifest to come into the presence of God in his glory and man's condition, but yet the Lord went with them. And when they got to the land of promise in the day of Solomon.
They got to erect a more permanent place for God in His glory to be in their midst. And there he came in the Shekinah of glory came upon the the presence, and it was so majestic, it was so great that the priests, the Levites at that time couldn't go in to minister because of the brightness of it.
00:25:18
But that glory in the midst of the people of God at that time was.
Can I say dependent to be seen was dependent upon their faithfulness to God. His glory of His presence with them would be seen according to their faithfulness to Him. And as you go on to the book of Ezekiel in the early chapters, the 8789, somewhere in there of Ezekiel you see reluctantly the Spirit of God in his glory are leaving the presence.
Of the temple.
And they have never returned.
Ever. They will return later on in Ezekiel 404123. Somewhere in there you get to see the the glory of the Lord return to the presence of His earthly people.
In Millennial day.
As a redeemed people.
And founded on the work of Christ and the New Covenant, then that the glory, the Shekinah glory, will return.
I want to make a very solemn remark or two consecutive with the glory.
Of God in connection with the assembly.
And I trust that those who would take the reposition of responsibility or wise and responsibility among the people of God today would note well.
These comments.
In John chapter 17.
There are three unities.
And connected with them is a glory.
The first unity has to do with the apostles, and according to the prayer of the Lord Jesus, that unity was fulfilled.
A unity of oneness of purpose with God the Father and the Son and the ministry that was entrusted to them and in their walk on earth with the Lord and after His death.
The second one.
Says.
Connected with oneness.
It says that the world may believe.
The oneness.
That was the responsibility of the Church of God, to display to God's glory their oneness so that the world might believe.
And there was a display of glory connected with that. That was fulfilled according to the prayer of the Lord Jesus and the Day of Pentecost. In a short time that followed, the world did see.
The manifested oneness of the Church of God, and it was displayed.
And in that sense, the prayer of the Lord Jesus was fulfilled.
But just like Israel, of all the responsibility that was connected to that glory being in display.
Was in man's hands.
The world today.
Does not see.
That oneness.
It wasn't a oneness that one group of Christians were supposed to display to another. That was never the purpose of God, never a right view of it.
And consequently, brethren, I want to make this comment in connection with this morning's reading meeting.
As Jim commented.
There was not a second revelation when there was failure.
By the grace of God, there has been a restoration of the enjoyment of truth.
And privilege.
But this is the important comment. There has not been and there will not be a restoration of the glory that is connected with it.
00:30:00
The church is a testimony for God as to its oneness stands in ruin, and the glory connected with it will not be returned to it.
And consequently, if the truth is to be maintained according to the heart of God, it has to be maintained in fellowship with God as to His mind and His will at the present time, and any effort to display.
A glory which God does not Himself.
Recognize.
Is against his purpose and will.
Turn with me to Daniel Chapter 2.
I.
I'm sorry, Daniel.
Chapter 4.
Just our times going and I want to just make a quick comment here.
Daniel chapter 4 and verse.
30 The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the House of the Kingdom by the might of my power and the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the King's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, to thee is it spoken, The Kingdom is departed from thee.
Verse 37 And I Nebuchadnezzar praised and extol and honor the king of heaven. All these works are truth in his ways, judgment.
And those that walk in pride, he is able to obey.
Another glory connected with God is the glory that he displays among the nations of men. He entrusted that glory to Nebuchadnezzar when he put aside Israel for its unfaithfulness and set aside the glory of Israel. And so God put in the hands of the Gentile His glory in connection with His government of the earth. But in the man Nebuchadnezzar, the first one, He shows us the root problem.
Are connected with the glory of God when entrusted to man to maintain His honor and its pride.
It's bright, and it was Nebuchadnezzar, and the worst sin perhaps in the life of anyone of us in this room is pride.
Because pride is that which seeks to rob God of His honor, His glory.
Satan's fall was connected with seeking to rob God of a glory, and God says in Isaiah, I will not give my glory to another.
And ultimately, everything has to be brought back into harmony according to the glory of God.
May the Lord help us in that way. Now let's turn over to Hebrews chapter 2, chapter one.
Hebrews chapter one verse One God, who at sundry times, and in divers manner spake and time passed under the Father's by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us in Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds, Who is Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his Person.
This is something we could spend hours on.
It's a glorious thing, the brightness of his glory or the effulgence of his glory.
All the ways of God connected with His glory find their fulfillment.
In the sun and all other glories are seen in relationship to the sun. The Son of God is the perfect expression of the glory of God to man.
And God has adapted, if you will, the expression of His glory to us as creatures, by having the Lord Jesus come down into this world as a man and to be the out.
Shining.
Of His glory to us.
The worlds were created by Him. The Church which will be in the glory is to be there at His side as an expression of His glory.
00:35:01
The earth is real, He is the King of glory, and He will reign over the whole earth in his person.
The greatest expression of the glory of God is that work of redemption on the cross.
All that God is in the Excellency of His love is perfectly expressed in the person of the Lord Jesus at the cross. All that God is in His Holiness and His Majesty and His character is seen in a perfect display.
At the cross.
And so after the Lord Jesus could say, when he was on earth and people came and they said to him, what did he say? He said I came not.
For my own glory.
But for the glory of him who sent me, when the Lord Jesus could look as a divine person, the Son, as having completed the work of the cross in John 17 in his prayer he says, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And so as a result of that it tells us in Romans chapter 8, He was raised by the glory of the Father.
He says in John 17, Glorify thou, and glorify thou me, with the glory I had with thee.
That is, he had so expressed and honored the glory of God, that God's own glory demanded of God, that he raised him from the dead.
So he's raised by the glory of the Father.
He has so expressed and honored the glory of God that in Philippians chapter 2 it says of Him.
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
For His glory.
To the glory of God the Father.
Because God himself is ultimately the one in which all glory resides.
And is from whom all glory is to be displayed. And so man, whether he bows or doesn't bow, he will own the glory that belongs to that person. One more verse connected with the Lord Jesus in Philippians chapter 2.
Verse seven. He made him verse six, Who, being the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and put took upon him the form of a servant. For Mr. Darby translates, that, who's subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of repine to be on an equality of God with God, but emptied himself.
I dare not go beyond my measure in explaining that verse, but I suggest to you for your meditation that.
Expression He emptied Himself is directly connected with His glory.
At least the outward manifestation of that glory.
The Lord Jesus.
Blessed be His person, in order to accomplish the work that was given him to do, empties himself of that display of His own glory, that he might enter this world among us and be looked upon as the carpenter's son.
I'll be a perfect in the display of every perfection of his life, nothing of himself and his glories that are personally and officially his.
They were all put aside because He loves you and He loves me, and He wanted to fulfill the glory of God in the world of sin.
And he has perfectly done so. What a blessed person he is.
In every respect.
Now, from the little time that remains, turn with me over to 1St Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
I want to apply what we've had before us at least introduce to be to us, to our souls in First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20. You are bought with a price.
00:40:07
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are gods. And over to chapter 10.
And verse 31.
Whatever therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.
You were at one time in your life lost, having come short of the glory of God.
And in order not to banish you from His presence for eternity, God has chosen to do a work of redemption to bring you back into relationship with Himself that you might be.
Not short.
But that you might be forever to his glory.
He has redeemed you.
At a great cost to himself.
Maintaining His glory in doing so, but in love to your soul.
Brought you into a relationship.
You're redeemed.
To the glory of God.
And having redeemed you.
It is now your responsibility.
In every action of your life.
To be an expression of the glory of God in everything.
That you and I do.
We heard in prayer meeting this morning about a boy in Bhutan.
A boy that yes, he's in a tremendous affliction and we should pray for him as such.
But I say to you, on the other hand, God has chosen to glorify himself.
In Bhutan, in that boy.
He stands before the government of Bhutan.
To the glory of God.
Everything that everyone of us in this room does.
Reflects upon God and we are as a redeemed people, responsible to live every breath of our life to the glory of God.
Some are going to have the privilege in a few minutes of going out to a park for a picnic.
And every action of every person at that picnic.
Is to be that which is proper.
In honor to the glory of God, some of us are going to get on in our cars and start down the road.
And the manner in which we drive is going to be a proper expression of God's glory in this world.
That's our responsibility.
It says Pharaoh.
I want to take the other side, not the believers side, if you will for a moment, but the other side.
The Lord said to Moses, Moses, I'm going to glorify myself in Pharaoh.
Pharaoh was an ungodly, proud, stubborn man.
Opposed in himself to all that was of God for his people.
And God says to Moses, Moses, I'm going to glorify myself in that man.
And he did.
For all the generations of Israelites which followed, and for us who go back and look at it, we can see how God honored himself in the signs and wonders He did and in the deliverance of His people in the face of that man. And so God works all things according to the counsel of His will, whether it's in an unbeliever, He will glorify himself.
In his ways, or far more wonderful for us.
His choice is that we in our lives now may glorify Him.
And look forward to that moment when the one, as I said before, the crown jewel of all His glory, His Son.
00:45:06
We are associated with Him in that glory.
And it says of us since John 17.
Now it was that the world may believe, but in the Millennium.
It doesn't say that the world may believe, it says that the world may know because have a **** tells us that the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. The whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God and.
As such, the world will know. They won't have to have a preacher to tell them. They'll know.
And they'll look, and they'll say God loves them as he loves his Son.
God's glory extends to the fact that the whole world is going to look at you and me as part of the bride and body of Christ, and he's going to the world is going to say God loves them as he loves his Son.
Oh brethren, time is up, but one last verse. We won't turn to it, but just coat it. We all Second Corinthians chapter 3, we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Put your eye on the Lord Jesus every day of your life and keep your gaze upon Himself and God will, as your eye is upon the Lord Jesus, reveal to your redeemed eyes, not blinded by unbelief, but your redeemed eyes of faith. As you look upon His person, you will see His glory, and as you see His glory, the Spirit of God is going to change you.
So that your daily more and more like himself.
That's right.
Facing Death Safe in the Arms of Jesus
Children—S. Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Who has a number, a song that you'd like to sing? And we're going to.
There are three things I didn't like when I gave out songs when I was the age of some of you and even.
I didn't like it when they talked and talked and talked about the songs because I wanted to make sure I got my song in. So I'm going to give as many of you a.
Second thing I didn't like is when they said you have to.
Backpage because there's so many.
Sometimes they said well, this thing, the 1St and the last verse, but if there's lots of verses, that's what they would do. But I'm going to do that maybe so that more people have a chance to sing. That's why we do it, so that other people have the chance to give out a song that they really enjoy.
I think a lot of you enjoy the songs from here, So what if I think about the first one?
OK. What number would you like?
#41 he said. So somebody could start these for us.
We'll start with that one. We'll sing all of that one of them.
I tried her saying in glory.
Glory.
Glory.
To God.
We must start to say your extract is 1 to one.
And I want to sin that much.
To be called and why and being singing glory.
Glory.
Glory to God.
Who else has a song you'd like to sing this morning? OK, we'll give you a chance. Which one would you like #9 OK, everyone heard that.
#9.
We'll sing the first and last verses of #9.
00:05:14
He will stay here now.
Let's get several more. Who else? What has one that you'd like to sink? OK, can you tell me the one?
You're that number 12.
#12.
We'll sing the first verse and do you want to sing verse 2-3 or four?
Set two first 2 verses, then of #12.
Who else has one you'd like to sing? Lots of choices. OK, we'll try to get as many as we can. You give me the suck #25 Thank you #25.
We'll sing the first verse.
And what's your next favorite verse after the first one with the last one? OK, we'll sing the first verse and the last verse of #25.
That is very crazy like the.
Two.
Living days are going to.
Be and I'm going to bend you on 18353.
I'm your eyes nice to play millions on.
00:10:03
Two more.
OK, this is hard. There's lots more than two hands. 44 Anyone who didn't hear it, it's #44.
And the first verse and what's your next favorite verse?
Verse three. OK, so the first and last verses of #44.
So.
And one more.
OK, I'm very sorry for those that I can't call on, but maybe you'll get a chance. OK, Forty. OK, thank you #40.
And the first verse? And which other verse would you like to sing?
Number two OK the 1St 2 verses of #40.
He will go away myself.
I have some wonderful things to share with you this morning, and we have about 1/2 an hour left to share them together. We're not going to get through all of them. Some of them, the most important ones, I want to share from this book. But to show you the difference between and the other things I have to share, I brought along things that aren't nearly as nice.
I'll share a few of them here. First, while you say your verses, some of you at least get a chance to see a verse, and I'll just ask for the starters, at least if you had a chance to give out a song.
Don't be the first one to say your verse this morning. Somebody that didn't get a chance to sing out, say this song. I'm sorry. Give out a song. Then they could say their verse first. OK, Thank you.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world first. John 414. Good. That's the verse I learned too. You can come up if you'd like and pick something from the plastic bag that's in here. There's a few other things I need. Anything from in there you can have. Who else would like to say it? Okay.
00:15:03
Vara Sentosa and the Bishari of the world.
First, John.
414 Good. Thank you. Who else? OK.
Five years since the sun dived the savior of the world first. John 4/14, Thank you.
The Father sent his son to be the savior of the the Son.
World savior of the world first John 4/14. Thank you very much. You 2 girls can take something from that plastic bag in there if you'd like. Who else? OK.
Brandon the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world. First John 414 Good. OK anybody that would like to say something?
All right, too, we'll get a few more.
Say it. The Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world first. John 414 Good. You can take something if you'd like.
Like you. You OK? Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world first. John 414. The Father sent a son to be the Savior first. John 414. OK, now I have plenty for everyone.
So those of you who didn't get a chance to say your verse yet, you can say it to me later if you'd like.
I want to talk about.
Okay.
All right, thank you. Now there's some things that are nice. My little boy on the way here this morning, he said he had a book in his hands. And he said, I love this book. I'm going to keep it forever and forever. I think he said that because that's what I say about him sometimes. And so he said that about the book. You know where the book is, It's in the car. He didn't even remember it when we got out of the car to come in. It's in the car. You know, that's how we are with some things I used to really like.
Superpowers. Does anybody like them?
No.
Well, what happens with a Super Bowl after you play with it for a little while? What's something that can happen to your Super Bowl?
Anybody tell me what could happen to it? What might happen to it?
It could get lost. You know, if I took this Super Bowl and I was playing and having a really good time and I was bouncing the ball around and I was a little bit careless, it might just kind of vanish somewhere and I'm not quite sure where and it's gone, right? The other thing that could happen is, you know, sometimes when you're playing with a super ball and you're not supposed to and you're bouncing it and you're having a good time with that super ball and you're not supposed to be playing with it, what's another thing that happens besides it getting lost?
Maybe you don't have a mom and dad like this.
What might happen to it? Can you help me out? Let's see somebody that I haven't had a chance to hear from. Most of you I have, Okay? Can you tell me what might happen to it? If you're playing with it when you're not supposed to, What might happen to the Super Bowl?
It might break. It might break. Yes, I've had some that got broken.
Your parents might make you throw it away. Oh, you might throw it away. OK, maybe they might take it away. If I were playing this when I weren't supposed to and Mr. Highland were my dad, he might take that and put away in his pocket. So you can't play with it. Now, that's one thing that could happen. What's another thing? Anyone like Bubbles?
I've seen some people that are lot older than you on the front rows having a lot of fun with bubbles.
People can get this off if you take a bubble and.
Can I blow bubbles? Is that allowed in here you think?
Bubbles are nice.
But.
OK, can I blow a bubble?
And blowing toward you.
Aren't they beautiful? Can you see the colors shining from them? How long do you think they'll last?
Of God, 60 seconds. OK, you use your stopwatch a lot. Good, that's good. And they're gone. You know, somebody play with them that sometimes. You know, what's another thing that happens if you're playing with bubbles? What happens when you're playing with bubbles? Having a really good time? You start to run around, you're blowing them outside the winds, blowing them along. And what's something that happens besides bursting and disappearing? What's something else that happens to those bubbles and they're gone?
Yeah, you spill the bubbles, you're running along, you're not looking where you're going, and you kick it over and most of it just comes pouring right down and it's gone. I want to share with you some things about the Lord Jesus Christ that are going to me. The most beautiful thing about that verse is not just that a savior came to the world, but who it was that came.
00:20:11
Remember the verse that they all said the Father sent the Son?
To be the savior of the world, right? He sent the Son, He just didn't send anybody.
He said the Son, the Lord Jesus, we're going to talk about him a little bit, but I want to see first who was listening in gospel last night. So I was already thinking about the verse. And Mr. Highland, when he talked in gospel last night, he gave 2 examples from the Old Testament that he said were pictures of this verse and he told the story. Can anybody tell me? I've got a couple more of those super balls if you like them. In fact, I've got three. That would be about right.
Who can tell me what pictures from the Old Testament? You're listening last night and that was important. Who can tell me what pictures from the Old Testament he talked about? Not just when you think of, but that he talked about? Just tell me one. Don't tell me more than one.
He said that like Joseph with, he got sent into Israel. OK, that's pretty close. That's pretty good. He talked about Jacob sending Joseph, didn't he? And he talked about another one. Maybe that helps some of you get your memory started.
He talked about another one. OK, there's three. Maybe you'll get a chance.
He said he lost his bag. He said he lost his bag. That's good, that's true. That wasn't related to this first, though.
Jesse sent David to the camp of the Israelites. Good. Jesse sent David to the camp of the Israelites. There you go. And there was another story. You remember the thing he said about a letter?
No, OK, it's good. You know what? What did he say about a letter?
Name. Well, he ran away from his master.
OK, he was No.
I don't remember that one going with this. We'll go with one more here.
What was it?
He said when he lost his fact that they sent him a letter and gave him 300 something. 300 something. Yeah, I think some people remember what those 300 somethings were and they. Okay, I'm going to give you something with that. That's not the story I was thinking. Would you like a horse? Okay.
Not a big one. All right, He's what he talked about a letter. Well, if maybe you can ask your mom or dad later, we won't take the time to go through that story again. I want to talk about some wonderful things about the Lord Jesus. And it's not just how many of you have gotten a letter from the president. I've gotten a letter from the president.
Most of you have. Have any of you gotten a letter from the president that said something of that about a Presidential Fitness Award?
They still give them out. I know because at least as of a year ago they were still giving him out. Maybe it's the people that are older. I do you think he signed that letter and he came to give it to me personally, I think I got to meet him.
I didn't get to meet him. I think there were. He signed one and then they made several million photocopies of it, or copies of it, or printed them, probably with several million of them, and they mailed it all out of everywhere. Would it be fun to meet the president?
A year and a half ago, I had the president's daughter. She was in my class. Would it be nice to be with the president's daughter in your class? My president never came, never said hi to me. I don't think he has any idea who I am. But there's something that's wonderful, that's beautiful. The Lord Jesus came.
Himself, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world so that you could know Him personally. I want to tell you a story about the name of the Lord Jesus and then we'll look at some things in His word. In fact, maybe we should look at the first one in His Word. This one was referred to last night. If one of you could read it for me in your Bible, it's in Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians, chapter 2.
And verse 20, the last part of the verse.
By the way, there's something for everybody. This is the first part of a puzzle. You know, Samson, the Bible, he liked riddles and puzzles. So I'm giving all of you a puzzle. I'm not going to tell you what the puzzle is, but this verse is the first part of the puzzle. So you'll have to think and listen. And if you think you know what the puzzle is, then raise your hand. But you won't know after one verse. Who could read Galatians 220 for all of us? OK, thank you.
00:25:01
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. OK, thank you very much. The Lord Jesus Christ loves you the most wonderful thing. Last night we heard that verse 2. The Lord Jesus Christ loves each and every person in here. How many have heard that before?
So anyway, that's the first time you've heard that.
You know soap bubbles, they're fun the first few times, but if you had to play with if your mom and dad said you have to play with soap bubbles for the next 5 hours.
Would you enjoy that? If they sit here, would you like to play and you played for 10 minutes then maybe. But if they said you have to play with them for the next 5 hours, what would you say?
What would you say?
I'm not going to.
OK, I was afraid after I asked the question before I put the mic here. Yeah. So I'm. I think you know what? That's what some of us would do. Some of us would be disobedient. I should have said, what would you feel like? And that some of us would say, oh, no.
I don't want to do that. Maybe inside, hopefully we would be obedient. But you know what? The Lord Jesus Christ loves us and it's good to hear about it over and over and over again. That's the first part of our puzzle. I want to tell you about somebody who had never heard, I don't think had ever heard a gospel verse before, who called to the Lord Jesus. It's very simple to talk to the Lord Jesus. This lady lived in a country called China and over in China where she lived back when she lived.
I just have a tiny little one here to show you.
There were a lot of maybe not this kind, but there are a lot of these. What's this?
Who can tell me what this is? All right, what is it? It's a tiger, all right. I am sure that it was a bigger than this one. It was a great big tiger. And you know what she did for a living, something that none of your moms and dads do, I don't think. She went out and they had a lot of cemeteries up on the hillside where she lived. And so she would go out and they didn't have a lot of trees, but there are lots of long grass. And I guess the tigers lived in the long grass. So she would go out up near the cemetery, through the cemetery to where there was long grass up on the top of a hill. And she would take with her something called a sickle. Now, you read about sickles in the Bible, so you probably know what it is. Who can tell me what a sickle is? This was a small one, I take it. It was maybe not much more than about a foot, foot and a half tall.
Who can tell me what a sickle is? Just one?
How many of you have studied the Book of Ruth in your Sunday School class? How many of you have heard about Ruth?
They talked about Ruth. Did they talk about a sickle in your Sunday school class? Maybe not. Maybe if somebody could tell me what a sickle is.
It wasn't you. I'm sorry. Can you tell me? It's a Crescent shaped blade with a handle that used for cutting grass. Good. It's a Crescent shaped blade. He said. It's abounding curve that means and it's got a blade on it, a little small thing and you take it and you grab some grass and you cut underneath it. I've seen people using a sickle and they cut it to grass. So she was walking up on her back, she had a baby tight on and she had another little small child by the hand. She was walking up the hill or sickle in one hand and you know what she meant coming the other way in the tall grass.
Oh, you can guess, right? What did she mean coming the other way in the tall grass?
OK.
A lion? Well, in this case it was a tiger, a great big tiger and two little tigers. What do you think the mom tiger thought the lady was going to do?
Uh, do you think she thought?
I heard one of her babies. Yeah. She thought I was going to hurt one of her babies. So what do you think? That the tiger came and she jumped at the lady and the lady took her sickle. And you know what she did when she swung the little sickle at the tiger?
She had never met the Lord Jesus, but one day, maybe some weeks before, she'd been walking through the marketplace. And as she walked through that marketplace, she heard a lady talking to some other Chinese ladies, telling them that Jesus was somebody who could help them.
And as she walked through, she said, Jesus, as somebody who could help you. What came to her mind? That moment when the tiger jumped at her and she grabbed her little sickles in her hand. She took her sickle in the hand. She said, what do you think?
All she heard was walking through a market. Jesus can help people. And so she said, oh, Jesus, help me. And she swung her sickle and she had to do it over and over again. And then all of a sudden the tiger, I don't think it was hurt at all, got up and walked the other way or ran away. And she was hurt and she was bleeding. She couldn't even walk. But she dragged herself to a town. And you know what kind of hospital she went to.
00:30:14
It was a hospital where there were Christians that told her about the Lord Jesus and she came to know the Lord as her Savior. Isn't that nice? Who was her Savior before she heard the word of God? Even before she heard more of the word of God? Who saved her life? Who did she call to to save her life?
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, she called out to him and he saved her body. But then far more important, she came to know this person who loved her, who came to be her Savior to save her soul. Let's look at another spot. It's in the Bible and Lukes Gospel chapter 15.
This is the second part of your puzzle.
And I will read for you.
All but one of these verses.
I'd like one of you to help me read that last verse. This is Luke 15.
And verse.
4.
What man of you having 100 sheep, if you lose one of them, doth not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it. And when he has found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. So I'm going to read for me verse 7.
OK.
Read first seven for everybody. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one Sinner that repented more than over 90, and nine just persons which need no repentance.
Thank you. That's the second part of your puzzle talked about the Lord Jesus. Remember, I should go back and say clearly we want to know who this person is, who the Lord Jesus is the Son of God that came and we found out that he loves you. Here's someone who rejoices, bringing his lost sheep home. And there's one part of the story I want to think about with you. Does anyone want to get on my shoulders?
You're willing to. OK, put down your two. Oh, that's going to lose one of those. Roll away. No, OK, that's fine. Now you're going to come on my shoulders. How would you like to be up on my shoulders? Any way I want?
Is that OK? You ready? All right. Come on up. Like this. How's that? Is that good enough? Could I carry you this way? Am I strong enough to carry him like this?
Yeah, well, we've got him here because you'll remember the verse. You'll never forget this part of the verse. I want you to turn to Isaiah and I want you to look at part of Isaiah. He'll remember the verse two, I'm sure, if we turn to Isaiah.
And I think it's chapter 6.
Isaiah sorry, it's taking me a while to turn there, but sure, I'm sure comfortable Isaiah chapter 6, he's on my shoulder.
And I'm going to read something. I'm sorry. I always, I think 69 and it should be 96. Let's turn to a chapter Isaiah Chapter 9 and verse 6.
For unto us a child is born. That's the Lord Jesus right unto us. A son is given, and the government shall be upon his. What's it say? The government shall be upon his shoulder. Did you see the difference there?
Were you listening carefully? What was the difference between that verse and the one we read in Luke? Just a little bit different to that little part of it, right? The government shall be upon his. What was it again?
Shoulder, it said, Right. He's on my shoulder, isn't he? Can I carry him on my shoulder? Yeah. And the government shall be up on his shoulder talking about the Lord Jesus. He can take the government of the whole world and put it on one shoulder. Shoulders are strong, right? I wouldn't want to carry him at arm's length. I couldn't do it.
But on his shoulder, that's for strong as on one shoulder. Right now I'm going to do something else. Let's go back and read and look. You ready again? You still want to help me? Thank you. All right. Now, this is the way. This is the way I carry my boy when we're out walking. This is more comfortable for me. But I like it better. And I think he probably likes it better too. And it says that. How did that sheep get carried home? Can you go back to Luke?
00:35:08
Can you go back to Luke's gospel? Maybe you don't need to.
Laid it on his shoulders.
Oh, he did what?
What did it say back there?
Played on its shoulder. He carried it home on its shoulders. Yeah, he did. He carried it home on his shoulders. What's different about this?
I can carry him around on my shoulder, can I? But isn't it nicer to be on both shoulders? Yeah, it's a lot nicer to be on both shoulders, right, If it's in the wrong world.
The government, the whole world. One shoulder is good enough for the Lord Jesus, but if it's taking you home to be with Him in glory and keeping you safe the whole way, what does he use?
He uses both shoulders, right? All the power of God to take you all the way home to where he is. That's what he is, and he goes home rejoicing.
Now let's look at another verse in John chapter 14. This is the third part of your puzzle.
Just raise your hand. This includes adults because this ones for you too. How many of you know what the puzzle is or think you do? I won't call on you, so you can just say you think you know you think you know you think you know. Good.
Let's turn to this first. This verse I think will give it away for lots of the adults and some will still be confused. It's in John chapter 14 and we're going to look at a verse. If someone could read it for me.
John 14 and verse 27. Someone would read that. Someone that hasn't had a chance to read yet could read John 1427 for me. OK, thank you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be Topper need to let it be afraid. Not a wonderful verse, the Lord Jesus.
Man of peace, he's the Prince of peace. He's a person who was perfectly peaceful in his life and we don't have time to go into the whole verse, but here it says peace. I leave with you. Let me tell you just another illustration. Some of you have heard it before of what the peace that the Lord Jesus all kinds of things that talks.
About in the scriptures about peace, but I'll just tell you one story about what it's like to have peace. Yesterday somebody else mentioned, I want to see if you were listening not just in the gospel meetings, wonderful to listen. Then one of the other meetings somebody talked about, well, they didn't talk about, but they mentioned World War 2.
Anybody remember that you were listening carefully enough to hear that?
OK, I'm going to tell you a story from that part.
What? Who was it? Do you remember?
If you don't know who it was, can you point to where they're sitting? OK, that's right. Mr. Brinkman mentioned something about World War Two. That sounds like a long time ago, but some people here were born during World War Two, and some people were old enough to remember World War Two, and some people are even older than that, and they were old enough to be worried all the way through it.
And they were worried. But we want to talk about people that had peace during World War Two. These people lived in well, they were from the so it was called the Soviet Union, then they were from.
What's Russia now? And they invaded a place called Finland. And when they invaded Finland, there was a battle back and forth and a bunch of the Russian soldiers were captured. And they were put inside the basement of a town hall. And for some reason, seven of those soldiers were going to be killed the next morning.
They were. I don't know what they did because not all the soldiers were going to be killed, but seven of them were going to be shot the next morning. Do you think they were enjoying the peace that it talks about in this verse?
Would you be really comfortable if you were seated? The only escape from the town hall was up to us in the basement. I take it it didn't have any windows. The only escape, the only way out, was up through 1/4, and in that quarter there were lines of finished soldiers and their commander who told this story.
Would you be enjoying that night, do you think?
Maybe you're not sure. You can't picture yourself there. How many of you enjoy being trapped where you can't get out?
How many of you have been wrestling with your uncle and they've pinned you down and you're wiggling around and you can't get out? How many of you are like that? Only one boy, Only a few of you. How many of you have been wiggling around, not being very good, and your dad or your mom have hung on tight and not let you wiggle?
00:40:15
A few more. All right. Sometimes when you're these people were completely trapped and they were worried and they were angry. You know, they grew up in a country at the time that was atheist. They didn't hear about the Lord Jesus at school. But their moms, some of them had heard about the Lord Jesus from their moms when they were young. And some of them were cursing and swearing and punching the walls until their hands were bloody. And one of them was seated there and he was just sitting.
His head in his hands and he looked very sad but very thoughtful.
And then after a little while, he set up.
And he started to sing.
What do you suppose he's saying?
I would never have guessed.
That would be a good guess. His song was a little bit different. He sang safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his.
I can't quite go to right help me save on this gentle breast, tender breast.
I'm going to look it up. I have the song right here in my Bible, and I thought I had it remembered, but just at the moment I can't seem to remember it. So it says right here, safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his gentle breast, there by his love, or shaded sweetly my soul shall rest. And he sang it over and over. And every time he sang it, he got a little bit happier, a little bit more content. And he sang it again and again and again. And I'll shorten the story to tell you. By the time that night was over, all 7.
Of the people there that they were going to be killed the next morning, except that the Lord Jesus as their savior.
They were going to be killed the next morning. And the soldier, by the way, the commander of the Finnish troops, he got saved too, because they started to quote verses they remembered from when they were children. They started to sing songs that they remembered when they were children and at all the Lord Jesus brought it by the Spirit, brought it all back into their minds that night.
And every single one of those seven were going to be killed. Instead of cursing and swearing, they were let out and they said, can we sing one more time? And all seven of those men.
Lifted up their hands to heaven, and they sang one more time That song that ends with Sweetly my soul shall rest. They had peace. They asked to have their eyes uncovered. And then everyone in those seven was sent into eternity by the bullets from those Finnish soldiers. But they all went straight with peace to the presence of God himself. Isn't that a wonderful thing? They went straight with peace.
To the God of peace, because they trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ to wash their sins away in his blood, and they got to know a little bit that night about a God of peace.
Now I'm going to skip over the next.
Four. So those of you who are going through the puzzle, I'm going to skip over the next four and I want to talk about one more. We only have one minute left. This is a very important one. Let's turn to Matthew, chapter 27.
Matthew, Chapter 27.
And we're going to look at one other three member. We're talking about the Son of God and what he's like. We talked about how He loves you. We talked about how He takes you safely rejoicing home to heaven if you've trusted in him. We've talked about the peace that He gives. And then I said I was going to skip over. I think it's four more and maybe I counted wrong there.
Sand down to Matthews Gospel chapter 27. Let's read just a couple verses. I'll read them quickly.
Verse 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plotted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his hand, and a Reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the Reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him.
They took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
If somebody comes over on purpose.
00:45:02
Can I borrow you one more time? No. I mean, yes, OK, I comes over and buy you and on purpose, I'm not going to do it hard, but just for the illustration, on purpose, they stomp on your foot.
And you respond nicely to them. What's that called?
What's that called?
OK, it's called.
OK, that's right. It's called overcoming evil. I wasn't thinking of that word, but that's absolutely right. You can overcome evil with good by responding with good for evil. I was thinking of the word meekness. That's responding in meekness when somebody treats you badly and that respond by not fighting them back, that's responding in meekness. Now we're going to finish quickly. Who can tell me what the puzzle was? Some adult maybe?
Oh, you think you know Bruce? Can you tell me what it is?
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering. We were going well. I didn't expect we'd get to it, but if you want to look it up, there's lots of examples in the Bible. I'll just give you the verses so you can enjoy them later. So I have to go through it quickly. I won't remember them and I did write them down.
The long-suffering, I was going to mention the Lord with each of his disciples and how with Philip he said how long a time he'd been with him and he didn't understand in John 14 and then long-suffering, gentleness.
There's lots of examples of gentleness, but one is the Lord Jesus taking the children up in his arms and showing them love, gentleness of joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. There's many examples you can look at all over in Mark chapter 3 you'll find some about goodness faith. There's lots of examples. One we're going to look at was in Luke chapter 22, meekness we just did and self-control, temperance. The last one, lots of examples, but in Luke chapter 4 you can read an example of the Lord showing perfect self-control.
That's the Son of God who came for each one of us. Let's turn to him in prayer.
I'd Rather Have Jesus
YP Sing Address—K. Harman
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
You know when I see all these.
Sorry young people, it really does something to me.
I remember not too many years ago, believe it or not, that I was in the same place that you were.
And.
I often think you know of all those ones that I sat with in those things.
Where are they today?
This is a group of young people that will never be the same again. You won't be the same group today as you or again as you work are today. And so every one of you has the same privilege, the same opportunity to live for the Lord Jesus as the other one does. And I think of this when I think back on my past.
And, umm.
How we rub shoulders with so many of these young people of my age and.
I I don't I've lost contact with many of them I know have turned away from the truth that was made precious to my soul.
We've had much in these last meetings about this, but I think before we go any further, we're going to ask the Lord's help, OK?
I was thinking of that song and I need a song book so that I can.
When we're singing #155 I think it was.
No, not 155.
I'd rather have Jesus. Which number is that? Is there an index in this 107? Thank you.
I suppose you heard the story behind that one, and if you haven't, if you have, I'll tell it to you again. And I'm not sure I'm clear on all the details, but I I know that it was written by a 20 year old girl who was the daughter of a very wealthy man. I believe it was in California.
And she came to know the Lord Jesus as her Savior. And her father was incensed at this. And he, he vowed, he tried and tried to dissuade her from what she had chosen to do because she was in line for a very wealthy, very big inheritance. And he tried to persuade her to give it all up, and she refused. And he.
Finally said that he would remove her from his will and she lost that inheritance because she would rather have Jesus than anything. And so she wrote this song and she said I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold.
I'd rather be his and have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus in houses or lands. I'd rather be LED by his nail pierced hand than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sins. Dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.
How? How much? How it must have?
How difficult it must have been for her to turn away from her father and from those riches. And yet she found something in in what she had found in the Lord Jesus that was better than any of it. She was willing to give it all up. And there was a man in the 1800s who also was a very wealthy man. He was the son of a nobleman.
And he was saved as a young man and he gave also, he also gave up the inheritance that was his. And he was the heir to a castle. He was heir to lands. He was heir to money that was untold. His name was Lord Cecil.
That's what he was referred to, that's what he was called.
And the brethren even continued to call him Lord Cecil, just out of respect. I believe it was because that's what he was. He gave that title up, but they gave it to him, and he went forth to preach the gospel and to preach also the truth of being gathered to the Lords name.
He and a man by the name Mr. Dunlop used to travel together and preach the gospel and they went in it's it was in eastern Ontario mainly and they preached the gospel together. They went even went into the city of Toronto and they put up there was banners put up to come in here. Lord Cecil and Captain Dunlop preached the gospel and they would come and listen to these men preach the gospel and then.
00:05:22
They learned the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name, and they.
Turned around and they went through the whole circuit again and preached the rest of Paul's doctrine.
About the truth of the one body and so they remain firm right to the end and.
I'm sad to say Lord Cecil died fairly young. He drowned in a in a boating accident or actually he fell out of a sailboat and he was drowned at the age of 42. But the life that he had lived up to that time was a fruitful life and he had given up the truth, or had given up rather all the wealth that was his.
Right down here. But did he lose out in it? We heard that about a man who was who was very rich, but he was poor. We heard about a man who was poor but was rich.
And that was certainly Lord Cecil. He was. He became a poor man, but he had far more than he would have gotten had he.
Obeyed his parents.
But you know, what I had before me was a few thoughts in connection with the heart being opened. And you know, there's not one of us in this room. There's not one soul that can ever come to the Lord Jesus by deciding to do it.
I know sometimes we sing. We sang that song. I have decided to follow Jesus in a way that's right. In a way. In some ways it's not quite right because I have.
I cannot as a as a lost Sinner, I cannot decide that I'm going to open my heart to the Lord Jesus. I'm dead and every one of us in this room as a Sinner is dead. In trespasses and sin. You can't make one movement towards God.
It's as though you were a dead corpse on that floor and I was to kneel down there and shout in your ear the way of salvation.
You wouldn't be able to respond, would you? You're dead. Absolutely no movement towards God. And that's the way we are as lost sinners.
So where does the work begin?
Does it begin with me? Does it begin with you?
You know, there's, it's quite common in some preachings today in the, in the religious world that we have something to do about it, that we have to decide to do it.
There is a point where we do decide to follow Jesus, I admit, but it's after salvation, but not before.
And so it's only as the Spirit of God comes in and makes a movement in your soul and in mind, in my heart, and he quickens my, my soul and he makes me a living soul.
It's just like in the when God first created the world, it says in the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And.
And he said, let there be light and there was light. And that's the way it is with a, with a, a Sinner. It's the way it is with you. It has been with you and me.
If you're saved and that is that we had nothing to do with it, we cannot take any credit. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's by grace that we're saved through faith. And so you and I are dead until God puts life into us. So that corpse on the floor there, if I were to get down and be able to put some life into that soul, into that course, and if prior to that I put a 400 LB weight on top of it, he wouldn't feel.
That he wouldn't have any sense of the weight of his sins, of that weight rather on his, on him. But the moment I could put life into him, he would say, who will deliver me from this weight? Now he has weight, he has life in order that he can respond to what's being said.
And if there was someone saved in that room tonight, it would be because God had first begun a work in that soul and made him a quickened soul. These things are, you might think are maybe, you know, while maybe you're drawing, you're, you're, you're drawing at straws or something. It's not. It is a very vital thing to understand, I believe, because it begins with God and it ends with God.
00:10:18
We have nothing to do with it. And so if you sit here tonight as a young person saved by the grace of God, you have nothing to do with it.
Except listen to hear the word and believe it.
But you couldn't believe it as a lost person. You had to believe it as a quickened soul. You got that.
That might sound kind of strange, but sounded strange to me until I first.
Before I understood that. But it is the truth of God and it's something to get a hold of. It gives us an understanding of where a soul is in His path, in in His, shall we say in His.
Stature as far as his position before God.
And so, as someone said, it takes a lot of stress out of preaching the gospel.
Because I it's not up to me. It's not up to me to to quicken that soul. I don't preach the word of God in order for a soul to be born again. I preach the word of God for a soul to be saved.
It's God that puts that quickens his soul. The same thing as being born again. Except that well, I never found. I was looking today and just to check on this before I said this and that was that. And maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't find any place for Paul ever preached about being born again. You know that now if you can find find something where Paul says that you must be born again or anything to do with being born again. I'm using those words now. Tell me please, because if I'm wrong, I want to be corrected. He talks about being quickened. Now you say, but that's you said, that's the same thing it is.
But being born again is more in connection with the Jews, and quickened is more in connection with the Gentile. So we get with Paul's doctrine, he speaks about being quickened. And so the Jew was born again, because in the Old Testament the Jews were born again. Any believers who were born again, but they were not saved.
In the true sense of the word. In the New Testament sense of the word.
The New Testament sense of the word says, in whom after that ye believed.
After that, you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Old Testament Saints were never sealed with the Spirit of God. That's a New Testament doctrine that has to do with the church only. And that is a position, the peculiar position that you and I, as as Saints of God, as children of God, as being members of the body of Christ have.
I didn't mean to get into this really, but.
I hope you don't mind understanding that in a little way. It's, it's very, to me, it's very important because it, it, it gives us a differentiating between that which was Israel and that which is the church.
What I wanted to really talk about was, and I'm going to skip a few a few things here because our time is going. I'm going to read a few verses in Acts.
Acts chapter 16 I think it is.
Before we get to that stop at Chapter 10.
And there we read of a man.
And you're all familiar with this, and you'll see what I mean when we talk about this. This man was the name. His name was Cornelius, and it says of him, he was a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God. All we he saw in a vision, evidently about the 9th hour of the day, an Angel coming to him, into him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine arms are come up from memorial before God.
And now send men to Joplin. Call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter. We all know the story there. Now we're going to go to the end of that chapter.
And he says.
Verse 44 While Peter yet spake these words, I'm going to go back a little further yet.
00:15:15
Well, that's good enough for time. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify. God Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized. You see, there was a man, and he was a Gentile.
And and yet he prayed to God, and he was a very upright man, honest man. God heard him. His prayers were answered, and God answered his prayers. Was he dead?
Was he a dead man or was he a quickened man? He was, he had life. He had life so that he was, he was conscious of his, of himself before God, but he didn't know how to, he didn't know what to do about it. So he prayed to God, but he was ignorant of what was going on, what had gone on. He didn't know anything about Christ dying for his sins. So he prayed to God, just like a Jew would have.
And God answered his prayer. And what did he do? He sent Peter, and what did Peter do?
Peter spake the words.
Whereby they would be saved saved.
And so after he was saved, he was sealed with the Holy Ghost.
That's one picture of it.
But there was a work that had gone begun in Peters in Cornelius heart sometime before this. And you know you and I don't know what says in the Lord said to to Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listed, and now here's the sound thereof. And now we know it, but we don't know where it goes and when it comes from. So, so is everyone that is born of the spirit born of the spirit born again. How does it happen? I don't know.
I know a man. I've told a story before. I know a man who.
Was cursing God. He's using God's name in vain and he's driving down the road to some friends and and he was saying God this and God that and all of a sudden just like that, he stopped. What are you saying? And he he said, sorry God.
You never said that before, but what happened? All of a sudden he became conscious.
That he was violating something before God. That he was taking God's name in vain.
And from that moment on, he began to seek for God.
Romans tells us that there is none that seeketh after God. No, not one. That's because they're dead.
But when God puts life into a person, he begins to seek God.
And this man?
Continued to seek.
For God, and God heard him, and God answered his prayer.
And that brother now is gathered to the Lord's name, and he's ministering the word of God.
These things are wonderful things to see, but God opened His heart and that's the point that I want to make, is that there comes a time in the life of every individual that God gives the opportunity for you and me to respond to His Word. Now I'm talking to those now who are whose heart, who who belong, who are quickened, shall we say, who fear God.
But you may not be going on with him.
There comes, I know, I know what that's all about. I was a young person once too, and I was going on with associations that were not that I shouldn't have been going on with. I know that. And I look back at my wife and my life and I say wasted time.
But nevertheless, there came a point in my life and it will come. He will come in your life too, if you're really interested.
Are you interested to follow Jesus? We were singing about that. I have decided to follow Jesus.
Did you mean it? Did we mean it? Each one of us did I mean it?
00:20:01
You know when we sing something like that.
There should be.
A question going on in the back of my mind. Do you really mean that? Do we really have the consciousness that we want to please Jesus?
That we want to live for him.
And as a young person, I could say, yeah, I did.
Subconsciously, but not really out and out. But the time came in my life and I say it'll come in your life too if you're interested. And that is when God opened my heart.
Not for the gospel, but to hear his voice and to do his will.
I've failed it many times but I still remember the day.
I remember the place I was when that happened, because God.
Did the work and there's a woman here in the 16th chapter of Acts where it speaks of this very thing. And you know probably who I'm talking about.
It says in verse 13 and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city by a Riverside where prayer was won't to be made and we sat down.
And spake unto the woman, women which resorted thither, and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us. And it says whose heart the Lord opened. Isn't that wonderful to think that the Lord opened her heart? But she was there at, at, at that, at the prayer meeting. She was praying, but she knew nothing about this.
It wasn't the preaching of Paul that that that quickened her, but the Lord opened her heart to the truth and she received it and we find her now at the end of the chapter while in between there we know all about the Philippian jailer and what happened to him. Well, he was the one that was that was had put thrown Paul in prison and he didn't have any desire for that at all. But when Paul and Silas were praying, God opened his heart.
And he fell down at Paul and Silas's knees and said, What must I do to be saved?
And they were able to give him the word that saved his soul. Now at the end of that chapter.
Says, And they came down, verse 39 and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to be part of the city. And they went out of the prison, and entered into the House of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed. Not interesting. They went to the House of Lydia, and he strengthened the brethren. How long ago was it that Lydia was saved?
How old was that little assembly? How many brethren were there there? Was it a big number? But it was a brother. It was brethren in the Lord now. And who was that? It was Lydia, the, the, the jailer and his family. Just a few, not just a little number. Sometimes we forget these details that, you know, they're just a few people there. But they were the brethren that Paul and Silas went and they strengthened them.
Now we can do that. You know, when God opens our hearts, He gives us something to do.
And we can encourage and strengthen one another, the most important thing in this world. And I and and this was made clear to me once as a young person and I've never forgotten that he said this brother said the most important thing in this world to God.
Is the assembly.
You say, but I there's only two or three where I come from, but God's eyes on it. And if it's going on according to the word of God, and if it's assembly gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus on the ground of the truth, God's eye is upon it and the most important place in that in the world to him. Now believe it or not, I do.
And unless we get ahold of that and value that we're going to be there, God is going to allow circumstances in your life and mine that's going to test us. And we're either going to stay because our hearts have been opened by God for to follow that in obedience to Him, or we're going to flounder and we're going to we're going to lose the pathway. We're going to miss it. How much do we value the truth that we've been brought up in?
Is it the truth of God or is it not the truth of God?
It is or it isn't.
I'd like to.
I'd like to suggest it's the truth of God with all my heart.
00:25:07
I went through the I'll say again, I went through the same circumstances that many of you guys and young people go through, and I had to search it for myself.
I had to give up.
Friends.
That were Christians.
But they were dragging me in the wrong direction.
I think I mentioned this once here before.
Some of us.
Had formed associations.
Involving.
Car clubs You guys interested in cars?
You like cars, Fast cars, Nice cars. I did used to work on them all time. I used to make fix them all up.
It meant a lot to me, but.
We formed clubs in order to go out and help people.
We were affiliated with some place down in California. We thought we were doing great things.
I'm not saying this to be proud of it, but I say this is what this is what happens when we form associations outside of the truth of the assembly.
And the time came, I say again, the time came when the Lord opened my heart about that and He showed me the error of it all, and I thank God for it and I've never regretted it.
As I say, I failed him many times, but he's kept me there with the with the realization that there is only a place that he approves of in this world.
And it's the work of God that does it. So I want to encourage you young men and you young sisters.
To.
To think about these things real seriously and allow God, you know, Hebrews says.
Let remember it has the word in Hebrews. Let, let, let, let the word of God dwell in you and let this and let that. I even quote them all. But Hebrews it's, it's a, it's used quite often in Hebrews. And I think the idea of letting is just to sit back and let God do it.
And justice, let the Spirit of God come in and.
Bring the truth home to my soul, and if if you let the world let the truth of God affect you, you won't be the same.
If you let the word of God come in and you get in the presence of God about it.
Getting in the presence of God about these things is not the same as just saying yes.
But it's getting there in the presence of God and thinking about these things because meditation, the truth comes into the into the into our hearts by meditation and it's through the conscience. That's how the truth of God comes in and we.
It comes in through the ears and through the eyes.
And it gets down into our hearts and into our soul by a heart.
Heart.
It's a.
Kind of a circuitous road and a lot of times we hear the truth of God and someone has said it's like the truth goes around through the avenues of our ears and our eyes and it goes around and around, never gets down into our soul.
But as we meditate on these things, it drops down and gets down a little deeper down into our souls.
And justice, a little bit of that really makes a difference. And I want to say it's like God opening our hearts.
Well, I was going to go further, but our time is running out. I'm just going to refer to a verse in first in the Ephesians right now.
We read.
Today sometime Ephesians one and 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints. I was thinking of that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened as God opening our hearts.
00:30:07
Well, I'm not going to keep you any longer.
I think I've.
I've said what I wanted to say, maybe not as much, but I would plead with my young believers to to give much thought to the truth that you have heard and value though.
Because Satan wants to take them away from us and you know, we can let him very easily.
Evil communications, corrupt good manners. Our associations and our affiliations are going to either, they're going to either drag us further from God or they're going to bring us closer to him. And so watch your associations, watch your affiliations, watch your friends be like these Paul and Silas when they went to Lydia's house and encouraged the brethren there just.
Just a little word of encouragement to one another. You have your friends, encourage them to go on the path. Help them out and they'll help you out.
Let's ask God's help. Our God, our Father, we thank thee.
The Key - Sancitify the Lord God in Your Heart
YP Sing Address—P. Jennings
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Well, I guess I can start off by saying I have good news and I have bad news. I'm very used to talking to young people. That's the good news. The bad news is it's never more than two or three at a time.
And so this is an experience that I'll have to get used to.
First of all I might ask, is there anybody here with a stopwatch?
OK, set it for 15 minutes. Does it have a snooze?
OK, well I thought tonight I'd share a little bit.
Something that I just recently enjoyed and if I have time, something that I enjoyed a long time ago. You know, I was reminded today, yesterday, of what it was like when I was your age. I saw Darren walking around the motel or, you know, in the morning. We were, we got here on Friday night and and on Saturday morning I saw Darren walking around the motel. He didn't look like he had anything to do but read his Bible.
And I remember those days.
And those days have changed for me.
To where I've got four kids and.
All kinds of demands on my time. And so if it wasn't for the fact that I go to the assembly meetings on Wednesday night and I go to the assembly meetings on Lord's Day, and I try not to miss an assembly meeting, I'm not real faithful with digging.
The wells in my personal life anymore.
And I have to confess that, and I'm willing to confess that to you. I don't want to be anything more than I am in front of you all. I wish I read the word more, but with four kids, a job, a house to remodel.
A dog to chase. Sometimes you just, you're just tired at the end of the day. Well, thankfully.
There's one thing we do as a family. We go to the assembly meetings and I can't tell you how many hundreds of times I have gone to meeting worn out, both physically.
Both emotionally, sometimes pretty low spiritually, and almost every single time the Spirit of God revives my soul.
That's what the assembly is worth if you want to grow and develop in your Christian lives.
Make it to the assembly meetings. You guys have the privilege in most of your homes with him having family readings and that's great. Of course, that's wonderful. And many of you have grown in your soul to the point where you really want to read the word of God and the Lord is going to feed your soul. There was a time in my life where I had a lot of time. I had time to read the Word and I had time to read ministry. And so if I don't give this introduction too long, maybe.
I'll be able to give you something that I got when I was your age, something that really encouraged my heart. I'm afraid we're going to have to hit the snooze here.
I'm going to turn to First Peter Chapter 3 and give you something that we got as we were going through our assembly meeting on last Wednesday night.
Verse Peter 3 and verse 15.
This this, this, this verse. I guess this chapter has some significance for me because as we've been going through this chapter, the last few months of my my work life have been rather stressful. I've been going through some real, real testing in my soul and and had some difficulty maybe.
Accepting the place that my boss is taking and maybe a place that I used to occupy at one time. And so it's been some things happening and it's been very difficult to go through. And I think that my, my boy here, Clayton, he could, he could vouch for the fact that there's been some sometimes when dad hasn't been very happy. And you know what the word is, the word of God is always the solution. The word. Our solutions for our problems are always found in the word and and the Lord was faithful again to me.
But I just wanted to share this verse 2 verses 15 and 16 but sanctify.
00:05:01
The Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evil doers, they may by be ashamed that falsely accuse you for your good conversation in Christ.
Well, this first struck me as we were going through it in our assembly meetings last Wednesday night. And I'll have to apologize for some who are sitting here who've already heard this, because as the Lord ministered it to me, I ministered it to them along with other things that were being ministered at that meeting. And I, I came to realize that this is the whole key to our happiness, whole key to our a faithful walk. It's the whole key.
To our testimony before the world, sanctify the Lord God or the Lord Christ in your hearts. I realize this might have somewhat of a technical significance. The Lord Christ, I'm not going to go into that side of it. Maybe that has to do with his coming glory and and just being occupied with the place that he's going to occupy in this world to have that in the enjoyment of our souls daily.
And that truly will help us. But I want to ask you, young people, as I will ask myself and try to continue to ask myself.
What's in your heart? What's in my heart? What what? What am I filling it with?
Is it Christ? Is it the Lord? Do I have a heart that's filled with the Lord? Is he special to me? And we throw around these words heart, and maybe we don't really realize the significance of it.
The hardest, the place where we we we keep those things that we dearly that we dearly love. It's the part of our being where maybe our affections are drawn.
Said Does the Lord occupy that place in my heart does when I go to work and I know that my work may be very stressful that day, but if I go to the Lord to work with the Lord set apart.
In my heart, I've got a special place for him.
Is that going to make a difference when I come across situations that just plain don't suit me? Is it going to help me to have the Lord so near that I realize, you know what, Whatever was bothering me really doesn't have that much significance?
It's so wonderful to know that I have him.
Let's just go on and read.
Well, I'll just be ready to give an answer to every man.
The reason to every man that asketh you, the reason of the hope that it is within you, with meekness and fear or reverence.
The Lord Jesus is in my affections if I am drawing from Him.
My strength, my joy and my happiness. Is it going to be hard if I'm in the enjoyment of the Lord? Is it going to be hard to tell others about Him?
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. These things are not hard to understand. Have we found it difficult to witness to the world those we come in daily contact with? Have we found it at times when we've been presented with an opportunity to share the Lord, that we just didn't have the right words? I have many, many times. But you know what? When the Lord is set apart.
In my heart.
My heart speaks.
There's been a few times when that has happened by the grace of God, and I know it's true.
Let me tell you also another thing that I believe is true about having the Lords set apart in our hearts, having a special place for him that nothing else occupies. What about the world? You know, I could stand up here and read verses from scriptures which tells you how far you're supposed to stay away from the world. And I could, I could mention the different pitfalls that the world has to.
00:10:13
To hinder.
Your Christian life and your Christian development. I could sit here and name those things.
But you know what?
I came to realize that this verse has another significance, and it has power. If Christ is in my heart, there's not room for anything else. Do you want to live?
Really, above this world you want to be like the Eagles who rises above everything that this earth has to offer. Sometimes that's what happens in our Christian life, and it happens when we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts.
Having the Lord there, just kind of.
There's not room for what this world has to offer. I gave this illustration and meeting the other night. I have AI have a lawn that is very bad. It's the soil is bad. We just moved there a couple years ago and the grass doesn't grow very good. There's a lot of bare spots and I I want to keep sowing grass.
I could spend my money on weed killer and try to kill the weeds, but I know the real answer is to keep sowing grass because as the grass thickens.
It strengthens and the weeds die off. The grass will crowd out the weeds. And dear friends, that's what I want to convey to you this afternoon. This evening you want to walk with the Lord. And do you want to have you want to walk?
In Christian liberty not being.
Sucked into all of the pitfalls the world has to offer, Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Plant the grass in your mind, the Word of God. Keep reading the Word of God and you will find that the world.
Can very well lose its attraction when the heart's filled with something else.
The end of verse 16 is the result.
This sanctifying the Lord God produces one thing.
How many young people here want to have a good conscience?
How many, how many of you want to have a good conscience? I do. Adam and Eve in the garden were a mess when they had a bad conscience before the Lord. If we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, it will produce a holy walk, and it will produce a conscience that's at liberty before the Lord.
Do you want to have liberty in the Lord's presence? Do you want to be able to come to Him?
And not have to worry about what the influences of the world has done to your, to you and to your life.
Continue to sanctify the Lord God in your heart.
And there's another thing that this this wonderful instruction will do.
It will produce a good conversation.
A good manner of life. You know what? If you have Christ in your heart, there is absolutely no way you can hide it. There is no way if you have sanctified the Lord in your heart that others are not going to know it. You know, we can talk about being a good testimonial all we want.
But if I'm trying to be a good testimony, if I know all the rules, if I if I know what's pleasing to the Lord and what's not pleasing to the Lord, but I have no relationship with the Lord and I don't read his word and I don't stay close to Him and he's not in my heart.
What we're producing is really.
Not Christ.
But if Christ is in my heart.
Is the fruit of the Spirit.
His and Christ is going to let me just read this because I don't want to mess it up.
00:15:05
Is that they falsely accuse your conversation in Christ.
Anything that is seen in your life and in my life before this world as a testimony, if it's not Christ.
It's not worth anything.
Do you want to live Christ?
Sometimes we in our assembly, we talk a lot about living Christ and talk a lot about the new life and and I sometimes I get it all confused and I think man, how can I live Christ until I came to this verse and it became very simple.
Is Christ in my heart? Am I walking with the Lord? Is He precious to me?
If he is, we don't have to worry about the results. They will be automatic. The life of Christ will be lived in you and in me, and it can't happen any other way. You know, we can live under legalistic principles. We can. We can know what's right, We can know what's wrong.
And we can try to do them, but that's not living Christ.
Christ can only be produced as we are in the enjoyment of Him.
Good. Now I have something else to share and it's kind of connected and it's kind of not. This is something I got from CHM when I was your age. Take it for what it's worth. It's not mine, but I enjoyed it. We're going through Ephesians chapter 4 and I'm going to start walking over on this. I'm wearing a path over there. We, we, we've been going through Ephesians chapter 4 and we're, we're going to get, if the brethren move along, we're going to get to the, the gifts.
And we're going to, we're going to read about the different gifts that Christ as it were, dispersed. And this room is full of the gifts that he has dispersed.
And I enjoyed something that CHM wrote and I've enjoyed it now for a long time. And that is if we turn back to the Old Testament, and this is unrelated to, I'm sure, to what the breastplate is all about. So it's an application, not an interpretation. But if we looked back into Exodus and we, we, we turned to the, to the place where the breastplate was the priest.
Where this breastplate something on his heart and it covered him and it had 12 Stones.
And each one of those 12 Stones were all alike, right? They were all the same.
Is that correct?
Where all those 12 Stones the same on that breastplate?
No, they weren't. They were all different. And you know, I don't know anything about gems. Probably Timothy could probably help us out. So I'm not going to go into any technical stuff, but each one of those gems was of great value.
And so when God designed the breastplate, he put some he put individual gems, 12 on the breastplate, on the on the breast of the priest place of affection, and they all shown in a different brilliance.
They all had the capacity to shine in a different brilliance. Not one of them was alike. Not one of them had.
A. Not one of them is more beautiful than the others. If you I don't know of anything about gems that I'm sure that if you put them under the light and you looked at each one, you would find that each one had a different quality that you could value and appreciate.
And I'm sure that's the reason why God put him on there.
Some of them were.
Maybe they were more prominent. Maybe it was if there was a deep red color or a deep green color, it would be more prominent than a, you know, somewhat clear colored gem.
But they were all of value. And this again, this is not something that I came up with and I trust that it's OK if I share something that I enjoyed, but it's we're just going to apply it to the to the the gifts that are found in the body of Christ.
00:20:00
Each gift has a special beauty.
And I like to think that each gift is a reflection of Christ. It's a beauty.
That Christ has given for us to shine for Him. You know, there may be gifts that are more, one more prominent than the other. We've seen them this weekend. We've seen brothers whom God has called to be a tremendous blessing to the Lord's people. And we are so thankful for them. You know what I wouldn't want?
To leave my family.
And to go traveling about.
So that I could encourage the Lord's people. Oh, yeah, there's a side of me that would enjoy that I have. I, I think I have a little heart for the Lord's people. I wouldn't want to leave my family to do that.
No, God has called some to do that. He has placed some in the body that are that are more prominent than others. They have a role to play for your blessing and for mine. Some of the some of those gems.
They didn't have a whole lot of eye-catching brilliance.
And there's one last point that I want to make.
What happens when you take that breastplate and you put it in the dark?
What happens when you put the breastplate in the dark?
Do you lose?
The value do you lose the glory of those of those gems? It takes light to bring out the the beauties of those gems. And when those priests came into the holiest of all, or into the holy place and the candle, the candlesticks were lit, and the gold all around the temple.
Around the Tabernacle. What happened to the gems? They they erupted, you might say, in brilliance. Because of the light.
And that's the way it is, young people, with the gift that God has given you.
If it's not in the light.
You're going to lose. Your brethren are going to lose. It's not going to shine for the blessing and for the glory of God.
The Lord is sanctified in your heart if he has, if he's set apart there, if you have a place for him, what you say, I'm not going to let anything else occupy that that place.
Of affection and appreciation belongs to Christ.
Well, if you do that, there's going to be light.
In your life.
And God is going to use what He has given you to reflect the glories of Christ in ways that you may never have realized or possible. But let me remind you.
Those that breastplate didn't reflect anything in the dark. And if we make the choice to live our lives for the pleasures of this world.
Which unfortunately, I have been in many groups of young people like this before, and many of them are in that condition. They've decided that they're not going to avail themselves of the light of God's Word.
They're not going to avail of themselves of the presence of the Lord Jesus on a daily basis in fellowship with Him on a personal level. They're not going to take their youth and spend the time that they have when they're young, when they don't have when they're older.
It's going to affect the way that that little treasure God has given you for his glory and for the blessing of the body of Christ. It's going to be a it's going to affect the way it's, it's going to affect your usefulness. It's going to affect the way that that beauty shines. It's all for Christ. We're not here in in this world to make anything of ourselves. We're here.
For the glory of the Lord Jesus.
And so may I just ask?
That you can seriously consider continuing because I think I'm in a group of young people that really do have a desire to please the Lord. But I just want to continue. I want to continue to encourage you to sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Let's pray.
Eph. 4:7-
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
What raised the wondrous thought, or who did it suggest that we, the Church to glory brought, should with the Son be blessed to 330?
Ephesians Chapter 4, verse 8, perhaps?
All right.
Ephesians 4 and verse 7. But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he said, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
Descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine but a slight of men.
And cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things which is the head. Even Christ, from whom all the whole, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplier, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body onto the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be, that ye have heard of Him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
That you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil, but him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, a thing which is good, that he may have to give to him the Needham.
00:10:02
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace under the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed under the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
In verse 7 to everyone of us has given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. I'll read a couple verses in Matthew 25.
For the verse 14 for the Kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered to them his goods. Under one he gave 5 talents. The talent represents a gift I believe, and he gives to 15 talents to another two.
And to another one. I just refer to this because it says each one is given according to his several ability, and each one has a different gift. Some has five talents, another two, another one. In Luke, each one receives a pound and.
They're there to travel to, to use it, but here in Matthew.
It varies and that's what we have in this verse, isn't it? Everyone has a gift.
But some have more ability to use that gift and than others. So both are true. The one is man's responsibility to to use the gift that he's been given and the other is God's sovereignty and giving it. But everyone has a gift, but some get have a greater gift than others.
You say that there is difference in the abilities given to us naturally, but here it's given for the good of the church, for the assembly, for the building up of the Saints. My ability as an athlete has nothing to do with building up the the the Saints and helping in on the the work of the Lord, but it is an ability that has been given me. But it may be something that I have to lay down for the Lord. But God does like to link up ability with gift as well.
If a man is called to be an evangelist, the Lord is going to give him ability as well, and so it's good to be exercised As to both things, I agree with what Brother Ken said that we do have natural abilities and maybe they aren't really used for the edification of the Saints of God at large.
But if a man, if a man, is called to be an evangelist, God's going to give him a good voice. If he's called to the foreign mission field, God's going to give him an iron stomach, not saying he's going to have a problem from time to time. But God does link ability and gift together in Scripture like the pounds and the talents and so on. And I believe it's good for every one of us to be exercised as to what ability God has given us and what gift He has given us, and to seek by the grace of God to use both so often, our focus especially.
In the Western world where everything is me centered and I'm #1 and I use what I have for myself, first, it's good to be exercised. Has God-given us ability? Young people, you have ability. You have energy while you're young. Be exercised to use that for more than just something that's going to last for time. Be exercised to use that ability for an energy, for God's glory and in His service.
For the blessing of others be exercised as to what gift He has given you in relationship to that ability as well, and be exercised to use it for His glory.
Said the word that's given in John 2IN connection with the the the wine Mary says to the servants whatsoever he saith to you, do it, and you might say, I don't know what ability I have whatsoever he saith to you, do it. He won't give you something you're incapable of doing. They'll give you a he'll tell you what he wants you to do, and you do it, and then in doing it you're exercising the gift.
To try to search yourself with what gift do I have? Just follow the leading of the Spirit of God and you'll you'll find out what gift you have.
The natural ability, you know, the evangelist, those who have that gift are usually people who have no trouble contacting people and speaking with people. They have a very outgoing personality. That's what we have come to see, I believe when you meet a person that is an evangelist and has that gift, you know, But then we do have, as we already pointed out.
00:15:29
No longer apostles and prophets. We still have prophesying. According to First Corinthians 14. Let the prophet speak two or three. But here the prophets are those, like the apostles that were used to complete the word of God. That kind of prophecy we don't have any longer. We don't look for new revelations. It has been given. All the word of God is complete.
By the mystery committed to Paul. But we still have prophesying that is expounding previously given revelations. That's prophesying, you know, And it's very important not to be presumptuous and claim that we have new revelations. The Lord gives me to see things that others don't see. Statement that has been uttered by one that used to be with us. You're not presumption, you know.
We have all the revelations of God in the word of God, and we better familiarize ourselves with it. And then the Spirit can use it, bring it to our mind in individual contact or in the assembly. You know we are not in the day of Revelation. We have to have the Word of God hidden in our hearts and then the Spirit can use it. You know, in days of revelation when the word of God was not complete.
He spoke by revelation and but we don't have that today anymore and we don't need it because the word of God is complete. Familiarize yourself with the Word of God and then the Spirit of God can bring it to your mind in personal contact and in the assembly, and then how wonderful.
Pastors.
I believe we all are ready. At least we should be ready to admit what we need more than anything in the assemblies is pastors.
You know, pastors that really have on their heart the Saints and be concerned about their spiritual well-being pastors, overseers and elders, these are three things that go together. You know, those who have the oversight, they should also have a pastor's heart and and then teachers, you know, those who expound the scriptures, these are things that continue with us. Thank the Lord.
Evangelists, shepherds and teachers.
After verse I'll read from verse 19. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God. Now notice and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And that's what we have here. The foundation is.
The apostles and prophets. You get that in verse 11 of chapter four he gave some apostles and some prophets. Now those operated in the 1St century and I believe the Bible was complete in the 1St century. We don't have the apostles and prophets spoken of here any longer. W yes we do. We have it in the word of God. We have what they've given to us. And for that I want to read first John.
Chapter 4.
Very helpful to see this in first John chapter 4.
Verse 4.
John says Ye are of God little children.
And have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Notice ye are of God, little children. That's the family of God. They, verse five, are of the world. That's the that's the the those that are enemies of the truth. They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. So that's the ye which is all the Saints in verse four that they in verse 5.
00:20:04
Which are the enemies? The false prophets in that. And then we are of God. Who's that? That's the apostles and prophets that have laid the foundation in the 1St century. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Now if the US refers to what the apostles and prophets in the 1St century gave us, we have it in the complete word of God.
We don't have apostles and prophets living now, but we have their word and so that's the standard. And we can we can compare the they of verse five, those that are Antichrist and false prophets. We can compare that by what the we are of God has given us.
Complete put of the complete Bible. So our standard today we have we are living in a day when we have the greatest advantage among the Christian community, the greatest advantage that Christians have ever had in the 1St century. They didn't have a complete Bible yet.
Some was given at one time and then another and another and so on. But the the Bible, it's so important if someone rises today up and says he's an apostle or a prophet, the the Mormons they have, they are so, so many apostles. That's all false. That's all false.
And it's so good to know that we test everything by this book. Now we don't have to look for new fresh revelations. Those that say they have a fresh revelation from God, be careful, be very careful of that. It has to be tested by the we of verse six. We are of God. That's the apostles and prophets. That is the very foundation of Christianity. It's a principle with God that he never gives fresh revelation at the end of a dispensation.
At the beginning of a dispensation he reveals his mind, gives responsibility connected with the light that has been given, and at the end of the age then he brings in judgment when man fails. And we see this all through the word of God in his dealings with man. And so it just confirms what you say, Brother Chuck the God doesn't give fresh revelation at the end of this dispensation. It is true that during a dispensation or an age there may be recovered light. We find that in connection with the dispensation of law.
There were times when.
A copy of the law was found in the trash of the temple, or read in the King's ears, or something like that, And they went back, and they acted on that which had been given us to the revealed mind of God at the beginning of the dispensation. It wasn't fresh light, it was recovered light. And we see that in the dispensation of the grace of God, what we enjoy by the grace of God as gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, was not fresh light given in the 1800s. It was recovered light. There were men who went back to the word of God.
And in the power of the Spirit it was made good to their souls, and they began to act on that which was established in the beginning of the dispensation of the grace of God at the beginning of Christianity. But I just want to say this about these five gifts that are listed here. Couple of things. And that is an encouragement to us, and that is that they are gifts given until the Lord comes, not in the sense has been said that we have apostles and prophets living today.
In the context of what we have here, but we have their writings, as Brother Chuck has brought out, and they're going to be preserved to us until the Lord comes. We have them the preserved word of God, the foundation that has been laid, that Brother Chuck read to us in the second chapter. But then evangelists, pastors and teachers, you know, I'm to the point in my life, I'm not as old as some here, but I'm to the point in my life where I look back and I remember those who ministered to us when I was growing up and when I was younger.
They were giants in the word of God. They were stalwarts when it came to the truth, and they had tremendous ability in presenting the truth of God, both his evangelists and his teachers, and shepherding as pastors as well. But isn't it a comfort to us, brethren, to realize that while we look back, and we're thankful for that which we remember from those who have gone on before and what they have taught us in their example, and whose faith follow and so on?
It isn't it wonderful to realize that as we sit here today, God is preserving these things. These things are till we all come in the in full maturity, the Lords coming, He's going to preserve these gifts to us. But I want to say this and again for our encouragement because many of us are going to go back to very small and weak assemblies from which we came. These gifts here are not given to the local assembly, they're given to the body at large.
00:25:22
We go back and we say, well, you know, there's no real manifested gift in our assembly. There's no real evangelists, no teachers. There's maybe not even we feel pastors, those who have a heart for the people of God. Like there should be, you say, how can we go on?
These gifts are given to the body at large and I just want to say this that the daily function of the local assembly does not necessarily depend upon gift. Thank God if there's local gift in the assembly and those who exercise local gift in the assembly.
But there are many little assemblies who go on in the power of the Spirit of God with the Lord in the midst, and they enjoy the truth of being gathered to the Lords name. They break bread from week to week. They meet for assembly, prayer. They meet with their bibles open to read and meditate on the word of God.
They say, well, there's no real exposition of the chapter and we come and it just we fumble and we we we we flounder around. But the Lord is there, the Spirit of God is there. The Word of God is living and powerful. And so go on, be encouraged. Even if you don't feel there's any great gift in your assembly or anything that fits into the category of evangelist pastors and teachers, we can go on by the strength in the strength of the Lord.
As I say, with he in the midst, with the power in the power of the Spirit of God, and with the living word before us, we can go on locally, in spite of the fact that there may not be any of these gifts present.
As an assembly where there is no gift, that is unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Like you say, it may not be real manifest, but brother and I have been impressed.
With the assemblies down in Bolivia, for example.
Rather than that don't have any formal education but they come together and in simplicity they look up to the Lord Jesus head and the blessing that comes out of some of those meetings where there's no focus on any brother particularly, but a real focus on the Lord Jesus. God is not limited brother and he can give us food and I fear that so often we.
Are limited in our in the blessing. That seems to be evident by because we're focusing on brethren. It doesn't come from brethren, brethren. It comes from the head in glory, the blessing. And when there is a sense of our weakness and our need and are looking up to Him, I have never seen it fail that the Lord just opens the windows of heaven.
It was mentioned, I think Saturday or was it yesterday about the Lord Jesus? When it came to feeding, the 5012 apostles didn't know what to do. They didn't have any clues to the answer, except Andrew said there's a boy here that has five loaves and two fishes. The Lord used that, and so the Lord often uses something insignificant. Our danger is to think that we're important.
And that I can expose. I can expound the word here, brother. And you just give me a little moment I'll I'll expand the word here. That's dangerous because it comes from above brethren. Notice in the verses we kind of skipped over 8-9 and ten. It shows that the gifts are given consequent on the Lord's going into death and his resurrection.
And ascension to God's right hand, and I think that's important in connection with the truth of the body of Christ. We are united to Christ in resurrection and in glory. There is a man in the glory of God. It is a very real thing. Our union, our present union with a man in the glory of God. And the blessing that there will be in these meetings in Pella does not depend on those who are sitting in the front rows here taking part.
00:30:01
Depends on how much we're looking up to that man in the glory. The Lord help us, brethren. I really feel we hinder the Spirit of God sometimes by our focus on brethren.
I'd like to add, were you done? You know, OK. In Revelation 2 and three, we have a prophetic history of the church. The first three have come and gone. Then starting at Thyatira, Roman Catholicism, Sardis, the Protestant Reformation, Philadelphia. Now get this.
I'm not claiming anything for ourselves, but God did have a recovered truth, Apostolic kind of thing in Mr. Darby. He was not an apostle like Paul and the others, but he was a recovered truth of in that way and then and then Laodicea is the final nauseous condition of things that have rejected those recovered truths of the Reformation and also.
In the 1800s, I don't think you're going to really understand the scriptures correctly as far in the church period. If you don't see that in the 1800s God raised up men that were that were very, very gifted.
And they recovered the truth. I remember when I was in Texas, Brother, I think it was you. He took me down to the Dallas Theological Seminary, and there was a, I don't know if it's still this way. There was a room there that had all church truth in it. And over the door it said we owe the truth of the church to Jay and Darby. I don't know if they still have it there, but I saw it there, and they admitted that.
And they valued that now he's being spoken against. And because because they've gone back to Sardis and some of them have gone back even to Thyatira which is Romanism and but we don't have to look for fresh truth. It's been recovered that's the way of first John four and and we have their writings read them. The truth has been recovered. We don't look for fresh revelations.
It's been given to us by the secondary apostles and prophets, if I can put it that way. They were special instruments and vessels raised up of God to be used in the recovery of the truth, and we need to recognize that and esteem them for that. And as you say, value and read their writings. I'd like to just say a word about gift too in connection with what Bob said. And that is that. The other side of it is that we need to allow room for gift to be exercised.
If the body is going to be built up and edified in the way that he presents it here, in other words, and I agree whole, I don't want to take away from what Bob has said in any way, because it's certainly right that it depends. The edification and blessing of the Saints of God depends on the Lord and the work of the Spirit of God, and He can use whomsoever He will. But I do believe we need to be exercised to allow gift to operate amongst us. If I can put it very plainly like this, I want to say this as carefully as possible.
But don't put a man on the platform to preach the gospel if there's an who's not an evangelist. If there's an evangelist sitting in the audience, don't put someone on the platform to give a lecture if there's a teacher who's not a teacher if there's a teacher sitting there in the audience.
I want to say that very carefully. But I do believe, as I quoted earlier, a man's gift maketh room for him. And we need to be exercised to recognize not that the man himself is going to boast of his gift or go around saying he's an evangelist or a pastor or a teacher. He may feel that in his own soul so that he can exercise that gift before the Lord. But it is good for the as the Saints of God that we recognize those that God has given special ability and gift to, and allow it to operate for the edification and building up of the Saints. I just say that as a little balance to what you said, Bob. I hope you don't mind.
Should stress that pastors and teachers are linked together.
And I believe that's very important. If you want to be exercising the gift of pastor, you better have some teaching to present. How are you going to be of help to anybody? By bringing the truth of God before them, you know, No, I'm not saying that you always have to have these two gifts together, but they're mentioned here together because if you want to.
00:35:12
Benefit be a benefit.
To your brethren. And you have to have more than have them on your heart. You have to have something to give to them. And it is with the truth of God presented that you can shepherd them. You know you feed the flock of God. That's what we are admonished in the word of God. Feed the flock of God that is among you. You know by bringing the scriptures before them, so you better know the scriptures.
Not only know them, but go on in communion with the Lord because we might have everything up here, you know, we need to have it in our hearts and have to live it. You know what harm is done many times is that our life don't back up what we're saying. You know that's harmful. You know we have to live the truth of God, but how important too that.
We need more than just having the Saints on our heart. We better have something to give them to feed them. And so the pastor and teacher here, I believe, are linked together.
That the word pastor really is a shepherd, isn't it? And the shepherd deals with souls. The teacher deals with the word. Souls need the word, so they need. That's why they're put together shepherds and teachers.
Some are more gifted.
You know, shepherding way others. I know that one teacher he might make a circuit and he he wants he wants to to set before them the the truth of the church, say. And he does this at every assembly he goes to. And I didn't like it when I went out east some years back.
Every place I went, the same brother was there and he could have said, you know, he preaches the same thing wherever I go. Well, maybe I did. I don't remember.
Uh, sometimes the teacher, especially if one is a teacher, he's he's exercised that the Saints are taught the truth of God. But then there's those that visit more in the homes and that, and that's a shepherd, isn't it? So, But as you point out, shepherds and teachers go together. One deals with the person and the other deals with the word only in the assembly meetings. You know, shepherds don't just exercise their gift in the assembly.
In personal contact and how much have we learned? In contact with brethren? one-on-one, you know. And when we visit in the homes beloved Saints of God, do we talk about the scriptures? Do we read the Scriptures? You know, that's very important to stress that we ought to. Not that we only open the Bible and always go into the Scriptures, but.
Have a big part in our visiting with one another. The scriptures ought to be before us, because the Lord is the subject of it, you know, and He is the one that we become better familiar with if we look into the word of God and expounded.
Always spoken up in There's never such a thing in Scripture. Presented, I don't believe as a pastor of a church. It is as Jim was mentioning before, it's a gift given by the Ascended Christ to the Body of Christ at large. And so a pastor who is a pastor in one place is a pastor wherever the Lord gives according to the measure.
That he gives that person to circulate in. He is responsible to use it. And each one of these gifts, evangelists, pastors, and teachers that we have in person today, are for the whole Church of God.
And there is not such a thing as was mentioning a pastor of a church. So we need to be exercised wherever we meet God's dear people.
What he has given us to help that dear brother, sister. Maybe he's not someone that meets together with us. Maybe we meet him at work.
00:40:00
Be exercised in whatever way. The Lord has given you something to be a help to that brother as well. He's a member of the body of Christ just as much as the brethren we meet with, so we need to be exercised in that way. It's the universal sense here in this chapter.
There can take that fast, because the name of the season that are there in the 16th chapter of Romans could say. I command unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the Church, which is at Saint Crea, that you receive her in the Lord has becometh Saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you. For she hath been a sucker of many, and of myself also. So a sister can take that capacity too, in a quiet way. And many times the sisters have been more of a help than many brothers. I can attest to that. I want to read.
This passage in Mr. Darby's translation and I'll point the difference out the difference. Verse 11 he has given some apostles comma not after some, but not he has given some like the King James apostles. He has given some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some shepherds and teachers. And that's where the two are put together. Now for what reason the the primary reason you don't get this into King James.
Notice the difference for the perfecting of the Saints. Now the king, James says. For the work of ministers soar. And it's different for the perfecting of the Saints. That's the basic foundation, you might say, and then it says.
With a view to the work of the ministry.
With a view to the edifying of the body of Christ, the prepositions are different.
The main the main thing that has to be done is that the Saints need to be perfected. They need to be established in foundation truth. Then they can be useful with a view to that perfecting once they're perfected. If, for instance, if someones in the meeting and he's not sure about eternal security, he needs to be instructed in the very basic truth of the gospel.
You need how can he be doing ministry?
And edify the body of Christ if he's not even sound on foundation truth. So for the perfecting of the Saints is #1, then that's with a view to secondarily a view to the work of the ministry being used in whatever way the Lord would have you as a shepherd or a teacher for deeper truths.
And then the edifying of the body of Christ, the whole body of Christ with a view to that. But you don't get that in the King James.
But the main thing?
I've been in a brothers meeting where a person wanted to break bread and they they they weren't sound on on foundation truth they they weren't sound on you know can you be saved and lost again Well I don't see I don't think a person can can worship at all if he if he's not sure if he hasn't been established.
He's not perfect in the understanding, full, full, grown, mature, and the understanding of where the gospel puts you. How can you, how can you worship God if you're doubting? Well, I did this wrong and so on, and maybe I'm not saved anymore.
So that the the the main reason for these gifts, the number one reason is the perfecting of the Saints. And once that's established, then that's for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and that's secondary. But to to try to encourage 1 to do the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ when they're not even perfect in the truth of the gospel is a mistake.
Both to bring them into full growth. That's what is meant by the perfecting of the Saints, Not to bring them into sinless perfection, but to bring them into the enjoyment of their Christian position and their standing that they have in Christ before God. That's what it means, what is meant by the perfecting of the Saints. And you can get into that enjoyment.
00:45:01
And that's the object of Christian ministry, to bring people to grow and come to a full understanding and enjoyment. Not that there aren't things that we still need to know and need to learn, but there is such a thing as being mature, a mature Christian in Christ.
And then Heinz, until I got to Darby again, until we all these things are given, until we all arrive at the unity of the faith.
And of the knowledge of the Son of God at the full grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ, in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, and unprincipled cunning, with a view to systematized error. But holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, from whom? And so on.
It's beautiful to follow the train of thought. Sometimes we but it's it's an injurious thing. If someone has just come into the into the the place of blessing, they got to be established. They got to have a they got to be perfected in the truth and then they can be used in the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ. I'd like to interpret myself what Chuck said. First of all I'll say that important word Amen.
But I'll add another word that's but.
You can't put perfection upon someone that's going to ask for their place at the Lords table, because there's very few of us when we first asked would have ever been received. So perfection is something now in connection with the 7th of Romans in connection with salvation. I can agree, but we need to be very careful. There are young people here that may be anticipating asking to.
And they say, oh, no, you know, I'm not any close to perfection. I don't think there's any of us here that would say that we were. So I'm interpreting what you said to include what I've just said.
That we we cannot put a standard of perfection upon a young person or a middle-aged person or an older person as a criteria for being at the Lords table. I came across something recently. A brother gave me a tract that was anticipating the the Lord's coming back 15 years ago and it made this statement and this is heresy Jesus and becoming man.
Divested himself of deity.
Now that is heresy. Now if a person believes that and doesn't understand about salvation, those are important issues that hinder someone being received. But I repeat again, maybe for the third time, perfection is not looked for in cash with being received at the Lord's table. It's what by the grace of God, each of us developed by His grace.
Either. I know he did. That's why I said I interpreted what you said. It's like it's like you're going to build a house, but you you need a good foundation on which the house is built. And if that's not there, you're you're wasting your time to build a house if it's if it's on a shaky foundation.
While I have an opportunity in in the in the the thin line between paragraphs of our brethren in the reading meeting, let me say this second Timothy, the first chapter says to stir up the gift of God. There are dear Saints of God here from their local assembly that have withdrawn their contribution from a reading meeting because they say they don't have gift.
Well, now if you visit a rest home and a person just longs to be able to walk, and we think nothing of it, but if you don't walk, your legs are going to be incapable of walking. And so if we don't take part, it should be like Moses. He wished not that his face shone.
And if you take part, you're not taking part because you think you have a gift. You may well have, but you're certainly not going to develop that gift or stir it up by sitting there and waiting for someone else that you presuppose has more knowledge or more gifts than yourself. We need to be exercised and devotedness.
00:50:03
Rather stand that there is a lot of gift that is laying dormant.
In our local assemblies, I just like to encourage young people don't be occupied so much as to what gift the Lord may have given you. Be occupied more with what Chuck was bringing out earlier. Whatsoever he says to you, do it.
My right hand is the gifted member to pick up a knife and the fork and the spoon to eat. It doesn't stop and say now, do I have the gift to do this or not. It simply obeys the head. And if the Lord lays something on your heart, dear young person, do it.
Stir up that gift that's in you. Do whatever the Lord puts on your heart, and in doing it, you may make mistakes. You may have to be helped to do it properly. But do it because there's going to be blessing if you'll just simply obey him.
As older, brothers ought not to be content to have an audience.
You know, I'm repeating, we ought not to be content to have an audience. We ought to have the desire to see people develop learning to fit in, learning to contribute, and be patient with them. They might make a statement that isn't just perfectly correct. Don't jump on them, you know, Just pray that they might develop and mature and show that they will be able to be an encouragement and a help.
In the assembly, let me repeat, don't be content in having an audience. You know the assembly is a body, and so we are ought to function as a body. And there is such a thing as development, you know, and growth, even learning to use whatever the Lord has given an individual. It might not be very clear at the beginning to a person what one has, but.
That will become evident, and it will also become evident if I attempt to do something that I have not been given of the law that will become evident. And we're willing then, and ought to be willing to accept correction, you know, and then learn to function in the place that he has given us. And, brethren, we have to be willing to accept correction, you know, and when we make a statement.
And try to do something that isn't given to us except correction. You know the fool despises correction, so we are hopefully able to encourage others to learn to fit in and develop and mature.
The Spirit and we can quench the Spirit in two ways, brethren, when the Lord tells us to say something and we don't say it.
But there's another way we can quench. The Spirit is talking too much, and that's what you're saying. Talk so much that we don't leave place for anybody else, and we need to be exercised about that too. I have to plead guilty there, brethren, because I suppose I do that too much.
Go back to stands remarks and then what Brother Heinz has just said, and I'll direct this question at rather Stan since he brought it up, but I'll be glad to hear what anyone has to say. Do any of us then ever reach full maturity, or, in the language here, perfection in that sense, this side of glory?
Last point we don't. In part the point I was trying to make. And so none of us, no matter how far along we are in the path of faith and service or in the ministry that the Lord has given us to fulfill amongst the Lords people, none of us are above. Correction, direction, instruction, help from our brethren. Doesn't matter where we are, whether we're just starting out and what we feel the Lord has for us.
Or whether we've been in the past for many years, would you say that's right, Bob, Yes, we need, we need help. And I made a sort of an outline of it which I published. But besides, that's beside the point. In later years someone said, well now brother, you've changed your views of what scripture is and so on. And he said, I reviewed the synopsis and I said, he said I have found that I have not changed my view.
00:55:09
In fact, I've been greatly refreshed by rereading and enjoying what the Spirit of God gave me in the synopsis here. He was close to the 1882 That he passed away, that he was enjoying what the Spirit of God had given him in times past. And was he mature? Well, you know, just to think of what maturity means. It means a closeness to the Lord.
And.
With not that his face shown, if we can think of ourselves as having arrived, we probably haven't.
13 That was already mentioned till we all come. God is as in the picture, not those merely that are gathered to the Lords name, but to every single member of the body of Christ. And we should have the whole body of Christ before our souls as well, and a love and a desire for their prosperity, and doing anything we can to bring this about.
But it's till we all come and you were mentioning Jim and I think this is the verse that shows it, that this is something that's going to be with us until the Lord comes. When are we going to arrive at this perfection? It's the coming of the Lord. But we're going towards that now and that should be the exercise of gift is in view of that towards that point, I think many.
Raised, Armstead Berry said it is not.
Looked at so much as present or future, but as purpose.
And none of us are going to be tossed to and fro in heaven.
Nor will we.
You know what, are we going to be growing there in this sense?
You know there's going to be the sight of Jesus. An instant, glorious change.
Wonderful, the wine.
Would you say this and feel free to correct me or anyone else? Is this the closest we get to the Lords coming in Ephesians?
Yes, by that Mister Darby has it. Yes, that's when we get home. We will arrive at it.
We're already seeing a seated there heavenly places and so you don't get the Lord's coming as such brought out in Ephesians. But there is the practical as we have in this these chapters. And so it's in view of that, isn't it? We're told to occupy till he comes and so each one of us is responsible to build our to be built up on our most holy faith. And sometimes the young people might say, well what can I do in an assembly for to help.
I I say, first of all, you enjoy the Lord and your own soul, and then you share that with your brethren, and that will help build them up. And you may not be a teacher or anything like that, but you can be an encourager. And so every one of us has that capacity. We can enjoy the Lord and have as much as we want and are, as someone who said our lives show how much we want, but if we are.
Timothy was told to to.
To continue in those things that he had heard and and also to give him tenants to reading, and that his profiting might appear to all. So if I'm not, if, if, if I have no profit showing, I'm not evidently not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. That is encouraging myself in the Lord. You know, the Old Testament, the Israelites before they were to teach these things to their children. They first of all had to teach them to themselves and they had to go on in the Lord themselves.
Then they could teach them to their children. And so it begins with myself. It begins with my own heart.
And and if we want to do something to incur to up build and build up the Saints, let's build ourselves up first in our most holy faith and then share that with our brother.
Thing out which is not necessarily directly connected with Ephesians here, but there is such a thing as leadership in the assembly.
The spirit of Laodicea is democracy.
01:00:05
And people's rights. There are those who lead and those who are left. All you have to do is read Talonians, those who take the lead among you also in Hebrews 13. You know Hebrews 13 speaks of remember them which have to rule over you, or those who take the lead among you who have spoken unto you the word of God.
Whose faith follow? You know, we think of Gordon Hale and others that Armstead Barry, they have fit. The scripture fits them here, right? And we have to remember what they have taught us. And then whose faith follow. But then you have in verse 17 of Hebrews, obey them that have to lead over that take the lead among you, and submit yourselves. We are not a democratic system, brethren.
Exercise of gift.
Is different than leadership in the assembly. Hopefully, those who take the lead also have the gift of a shepherd and a teacher. But we are not all leaders. They are those who lead and those who follow don't allow the democratic principle to be introduced amongst the Saints of God. And there are those who lead locally and those who lead beyond the local assembly, as we.
Have already mentioned those that have gone before that have been a real help to the Saints in the past and we can remember what they have taught us and so but there is leadership local and there is leadership beyond that. But when it comes to priesthood, every believer is a priest and to pray and to worship.
It's not the exercise of gift, it's exercising the privilege of priesthood. And every believer is a priest, and I like to encourage the young brothers especially.
What is the best or what is the best way in which you can start participating in the assembly, Pray and give thanks? That's the best way to start out. And then the Lord might in time show you that you have more to offer than just giving thanks to the Lord, and the Lord might lead you on.
Maybe as an evangelist?
Or as a teacher and shepherd. And so the point is whatever we do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. That means do it for him as directed by him through the Spirit you know. And if you really want to please the Lord and not seek ourselves, that's the danger that we seek ourselves and that the flesh even comes in.
When it comes to participating in the assembly, am I trying to impress my brethren in prayer how wonderfully I can express myself? I'm not saying that we shouldn't express ourselves clearly, but we are not trying to impress anybody with our way of speaking, I hope, and that when we do pray.
Or give thanks that it is really coming from the heart expressing debt which we are in the enjoyment of and express that and then remember.
When we pray in the assembly, when we give thanks in the breaking of bread meeting.
We don't do it as individuals.
You know, and that at that time we are the mouthpiece of the assembly.
And so hopefully what we're expressing is.
Something that the others also enjoy and hopefully the spirit can lead and guide so that we don't go beyond what is.
Of the Lord.
The exercise of gifts at all. It's the exercise of priesthood.
Yeah, and we're all priests. And that's not exercising a gift, though we're talking about gift here in Ephesians 4. But.
01:05:08
Praise and prayer and worship, that's the exercise of priesthood and that's wonderful. We can do that at age time. I'd like to say this, our time is slipping away and I'd like to say this, that in regard to everything that we have spoken of in this meeting and in the previous reading meetings that we have taken up in a practical way.
From this chapter, sound doctrine or sound teaching must be the basis of it. And that's why when he lists these five gifts here, he begins with the apostles and prophets. Because as you said earlier, Chuck, they laid the foundation and it says of the early believers in the Acts, they continued steadfastly and then there's a list of things they continued in and what is the first thing the apostles doctrine sound teaching. And it was the basis for everything else.
It was the basis for breaking bread. It was the basis for fellowship. It was the basis for prayer and everything we do, whether it's in the assembly, whether it's our service for Christ, our exercise of gift, or whatever it might be, brethren, it must be done on the basis of sound teaching or doctrine or otherwise. It simply becomes activity. It's a lot of activity done in Christian circles today, but it's not done on the basis of sound teaching.
And Brethren, if we don't have a basis, sound doctrine as a basis, we're going to be like those that he speaks of here that are carried to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And maybe you say, well, we come to the local assembly reading meetings, and there doesn't seem to be anybody with an ability to present the doctrines of doctrine of the portion of the book that we're taking up. But what is our responsibility if that is true? Go to some of those writings. God has raised up men to put these things down in volumes.
And I know it takes energy and exercise to pick up those volumes from the shelf and to read them. But familiarize yourself with the word of God, and then those helps that God has allowed men to to write, and you'll find that then and only then will you be established in the practical side of things. You want to exercise your gift for the edification of the body of Christ. You want to serve the Lord in an acceptable way to him so that you can hear his well done at the judgment seat of Christ.
Brother, and I can't stress this enough, the need for sound doctrine. And in Timothy, in both epistles he stresses it over and over again, but particularly in the second epistle, where there was a giving up of sound teaching and the breakdown of everything over and over again he exhorts Timothy. Thou hast fully known my doctrine and manner of life. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And what's the first thing it's profitable for? For doctrine. It's vital, brethren, that we have a clear understanding in our souls.
Of the fundamental doctrines and teachings of the Word of God, if our practice in Christianity is going to be acceptable to Him.
The perfecting of the Saints. That's it. That's what it's meant by the perfecting of the Saints. You got that stand? Thank you. Thank you.
Recovery ratings without a blessing.
Just as a conclusion and have other other comments to be made. I'm not trying to say that I have the last word, but I want to read the 16th verse of this chapter. It is so beautiful. And Christ in the 15th verse, Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplier.
According to the effectual working.
In the measure of every part make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Finished. There are pastors and teachers, not just amongst the gathered Saints.
Thank the Lord. There are those among God's people who are true shepherds and true teachers. Rejoice when you meet somebody like that. And be thankful that the Lord does take care and wants to take care of all of his people. And He has given men like that that are not aware or don't know how to practice the truth of the Church as he and His grace has given us to.
01:10:04
Understand it and hopefully.
We will try to prayerfully stand behind such people that are truly shepherding God's people and teach you know, you can be thankful that there are those beyond the gathered things.
But I also recognize before we end, verses 20 and 21 very quickly. But you have not so learned Christ. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. And I just thought that that would be a good thing to end with. Because all that we have, whether it be doctrine or practice, it's all embodied in a person. God has given us an object to set before us.
And it is He that gives us that that unity that the Spirit would have us to have. Amen.
Christ - the Heart of Paul's Doctrine